Kita-Suzurandai RP Mission Station

Location: Kobe, Japan

Presbytery: Japan

Membership: 20 communicants; 2 baptized

Pastor (domestic missionary of the presbytery): Rev. Katsunori Endo

History

In October 1976, a Wednesday prayer meeting was launched at the home of the Matsuzonos, members of Higashi-Suma RPC who then lived in the Kita-Suzurandai area. Pastor Bill Sterrett and Pastor Nobuo Miwa were dispatched to the endeavor.

Eleven years later, Pastor and Mrs. William Sterrett and their family moved to the Kita-Suzurandai area, and the Lord’s Day worship started at their apartment.

The current church property and building were purchased by the RP mission in 1980. In 1996, the Japan Presbytery was established. The following year, the Sterretts left Japan for Cyprus. (See Mrs. Kalli Sterrett’s article in the August issue of the Witness.)

In January 2004, Mr. Katsunori Endo and his family returned from studies at the RP Seminary in Pittsburgh, Pa. and the internship at Ballyclabber (Coleraine), Northern Ireland. They lived in the church building while Mr. Endo assumed his role as the licentiate-at-residence through preaching regularly at Kita-Suzurandai Mission Station. The next year, Mr. Endo was ordained as a teaching elder and installed as the domestic missionary (pastor) to Kita-Suzurandai. A month ago, the Endos started to rent an apartment nearby as their manse (thanks to the loan from the presbytery, whose fund was initially provided by the Lynchburg Mission Church in Virginia).

Ministries

The Lord’s Day worship has been, rightly, the major ministry of Kita-Suzurandai. The pastor holds a high view of preaching even within the context of the predominantly unchurched culture of Japan. That being said, there are certain crucial things to be vitalized here: the prayer meeting, which Charles Spurgeon once described as “the generator of the church,” as well as the personal devotional life of each member.

In light of these challenges, the congregation rejoices over Mr. Rory Cerbus’ staying with the Kudos until next spring so that he can study the Japanese language and help the pastor with some outreach activities. Mr. Cerbus will also help with discipleship training for the adult members, training he had received through Pastor Dave Long at Lafayette, Ind., RPC.

Prayer Requests

• That the church building will be utilized all the more for the ministry and evangelism now that the pastor’s family is able to rent a manse outside the church building.
• That Mr. Rory Cerbus’ stay here in Kobe until next spring will be a blessed experience for him (as well as for his fiancée in the U.S.) and for the congregation.
• That Sora Sato (the Kudos’ granddaughter) would be completely healed of Kawasaki disease.