Written by Jack and Ashley Ketteman, IM missionaries to Japan
Thank you for praying for and praising with us!
Hope Alive Ikebukuro (HAI) is an IM church plant near one of the world’s busiest train stations. HAI is also the first church planting sent out by the Hope Alive Network! Led by Osam and Emily Sakamoto, the team also includes fellow IM missionaries Jack and Ashley Ketteman, Robert Newton, and Reece Rooke, as well as IM partners Matt and Courtney Lindsey. The launch team also includes a committed group of volunteers from the original Hope Alive congregation in Tokorozawa, as well as other brothers and sisters the Lord has brought our way in recent months who have quickly become an integral part of this new endeavor!
Despite evidence of spiritual warfare throughout the week, Launch Sunday was such a great day! As a community festival with religious overtones concluded in the park just outside, Hope Alive Ikebukuro Church officially “launched” with 54 people in attendance! This included some one-time guests and visiting teams, but also new faces from the community, and of course, our precious HAI launch team, which has already become a church family! Several invited friends and coworkers (some of whom showed up!) stepped up and served to make the day special and to glorify the Lord in unique ways.
The service began with Scripture read in 5 of the 7 languages spoken among our launch team members, and when the congregation began to sing, the excitement and enthusiasm were palpable! Pastor Osam preached the Word, and many stayed for small group discussions and fellowship!
God has provided a weekly rental space with room to grow, which is across the street from a park (where kids ministry is already underway), a few blocks from a college campus (where outreach has begun), and minutes from a train station where an average of nearly 2.5 million people commute every day! Ikebukuro is known as a fun place, but it also has more visible needs, like homelessness, and darkness is evident in places like the nearby red-light district. But, just as He said, the Lord is building His Church and establishing a Gospel presence in this community, where the Living Hope of Jesus Christ is being proclaimed!
“Not to us, O LORD, not to us, but to your name give glory, for the sake of your steadfast love and your faithfulness!”
Psalm 115:1 ESV
