Portions of the article can be read here

To learn more about CBI Japan visit: cbijapan.org/jointheteam

CBI Japan includes:

Christ Bible Seminary – www.shingakkou.net
Heart&Soul – www.heartandsouljapan.org
All Nations Fellowship – www.allnationsfellowship.net

To learn more about Joseph Kim: http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/josephkim

Thank you for your prayers and support for our new campus! After months of repairs and earthquake reinforcement and weeks of cleaning, scrubbing, waxing and moving, we’re finally basically done! The CBI team and CBS students worked super hard. We’re just waiting on delivery of chairs, desks, and library bookshelves. The 200 chairs were graciously paid for by a donor and friend of our ministry. These all will be delivered on Thursday. More than 300 furniture pieces! Pray for us as our team will be doing a bulk of the delivery and unpacking to save money!

We’re thankful for more than $30,000 donated for our earthquake reinforcement campaign. We’re still about $100,000 short, so if you are willing please do spread the word to others who can help. And please do continue to pray! The reinforcement beams went up and look great. The $100,000 shortage was covered graciously by loans from Japanese Christians. We hope to be able to pay them back quickly.

Saturday Sept 10 and Sept 17 we will have two dedication services. The first will be more focused on the CBI family, CBS, and friends of the ministry. The second will be for Japanese pastors. Please remember these gatherings in prayer!

On behalf of the CBI team,

Michael

PS – here are some pictures!

2nd floor earthquake reinforcement beam

1st floor - future home of the Heart & Soul Cafe!

CBI sign is up!

In front of one of the two 1st floor earthquake reinforcement beams

Almost exactly one year ago we were ending a 90-day period of prayer during which God amazingly provided $1.3 million which was used in March to purchase a wonderful new ministry center for CBI Japan in downtown Nagoya.

We would like to ask you to again join us for a critical period of prayer between today (May 31st) and July 31st.

Would you pray for us as much as the Lord brings us to your minds and hearts over the next 60 days?

The needs we’d ask for you to bring before the Father include:

1) prayer for the repairs and renovations that begin on our new ministry center on June 6th! It’s been a very complicated and difficult process and the prices have escalated because of a scarcity of construction materials due to the earthquake in Sendai. We need wisdom in what repairs and renovations to do with limited funding.

2) prayer for wisdom about the naming of the center. It’s a lot more complicated than you would think.

3) prayer for funding for earthquake reinforcement of the 1st and 2nd floors. We are praying to the Lord to provide the $130,000 needed for this critical reinforcement work to ensure safety against the Great Tokai Earthquake that is expected to hit our region within the next 30 years and be perhaps the most devastating earthquake Japan has ever experienced. Read more on our earthquake reinforcement needs by clicking HERE.

4) prayer for final approval by the Aichi Prefecture official for the religious non-profit use of our land/building. This should come around the end of July Lord willing.

5) prayer for the ministries that will occupy the new ministry center which will open in September. Future planned ministries include the Heart & Soul Cafe, a new All Nations Fellowship church plant, and various other outreaches and training.

Besides prayer and fasting would you please consider three other ways to help?

a) TWEET! You can follow my twitter account (ohfamily) and please re-tweet to your friends about our appeal for 60 days of prayer! Or you can post on facebook or any other social media. (Of course you can also print out this info and post it on your church or school bulletin board as well!)

b) DONATE! Click here to learn about how to make a donation!

c) ADVOCATE! Share with your church, Bible study, and friends about our prayer campaign and ministry. Our ministry site is cbijapan.org/jointheteam

THANK YOU FRIENDS! God is moving in Japan! We’re excited and honored to play a part with God and with you!

On behalf of the CBI Team,

Michael Oh

May the Lord truly allow eternal fruit that increases to your account as you invest all that you are for His glory….

[17] Not that I seek the gift, but I seek the fruit that increases to your credit.
(Philippians 4:17 ESV)

Thank you again for your prayers and generosity for our new ministry campus. In a few hours our team will be visiting for our last inside look at the building before giving full payment on the 28th of February. Very exciting!

There is one last prayer request which will take us well into July unfortunately. While we will receive the ownership documents and the keys for the building in 6 days, we have asked the company to not finalize the sale officially until about July. The reason is that the Aichi government official who needs to sign off on the religious non-profit use of the building has stated that he will give approval only after seeing all of the repairs and renovations sometime in July. He needs to be convinced that the building will truly be used for religious purposes. In Japan the common idea of a religious building is a Buddhist temple or Shinto shrine. It is difficult for some to imagine using a building for religious purposes that was previously occupied by a business.

We just need to be patient. We ask for your prayers for a “really final” end to this drama! If you could persevere in prayer with us for the next 5 months or so we’d really appreciate it!

We’ve signed a contract with the company to protect us in the event of anything disastrous occurring to their business (like bankruptcy), etc. They are a well respected and publicly traded company in Japan which helps our situation.

So we’re continuing to raise funds for repairs and renovations. We ask for your prayers for that effort. Those will start as early as next month and will continue until possibly July. Lord willing we will have our Christ Bible Seminary graduation ceremony in the unfinished building on March 26th Saturday! It will be a joyful occasion!

Thank you for your partnership with us in this Gospel work for God’s glory in Japan!

9 months ago this blog was started announcing the amazing opportunity that the Lord provided to purchase a building 3 stops from Nagoya station valued during the real estate bubble at close to $8 million for $1.3 million. God’s people around the world responded to our call for 90 days of prayer and the Lord provided $1.3 million by around day 80. Then the property was *gone* with the business going bankrupt and the property seized by the court. Then the Lord brought an even MORE amazing property just 3-4 minutes WALK from Nagoya station with a land value during the bubble at $15 million (plus the building as well!) And now, after a dramatic journey over the past 6-7 months the Lord has amazingly allowed us to buy this even better property for around the same price.

The journey has in many ways just begun. We have additional financial needs ($200,000) for repairs and renovations needed on the building (funds that were lost because of the devaluation of the US dollar since May). We have legal procedures to deal with (for non-profit use of the building, registrations, meeting legal requirements in our repairs, etc.) We have the arduous task of packing and moving. And most importantly we have the challenge and excitement of preparing the ministries that will find a new home in the new campus including preparing to launch the Heart & Soul Cafe youth outreach ministry, All Nations Fellowship Downtown, a new church plant, and the relocation of Christ Bible Seminary and Christ Bible Institute.

But we, the CBI Japan team, want to express to you all, especially those of you who have stood by us for the past year in prayer and sacrifice, our heartfelt THANK YOU!!!

THANK YOU to the missionaries and national leaders from China, Japan, Latin America, Afghanistan, India, and other places who put in your two mites for the Lord for this campus purchase! $50,000 was raised through you!!!

THANK YOU to the CHURCHES that labored in prayer for us and for Japan through this project!!!

THANK YOU to the MANY of you whom we have never met who for the cause of Christ embraced our ministry and vision from sheer Biblical conviction!!!

THANK YOU to the missionaries in Japan (some of whom we’ve never met) who encouraged us and prayed for us and cheered us on in this common love for Christ and the Japanese!

and most of all THANK YOU LORD!!! You did what you alone could do!!! You were, are and continue to be our only TREASURE and HOPE!!! This story is YOUR story and the GLORY is ALL YOURS!!!

[1] May God be gracious to us and bless us
and make his face to shine upon us, Selah
[2] that your way may be known on earth,
your saving power among all nations.
[3] Let the peoples praise you, O God;
let all the peoples praise you!

(Psalm 67:1-3 ESV)

We will update after the FINAL signing!!!

Just to let you know the process from here onward:

1) we have requested up to 3 months to give final payment – that is because we need that time to apply for our non-profit no-sales tax on this purchase. This will save us a LOT of money.
2) the company has requested final payment no later than Feb 28th. That should work out fine for us. If our non-profit process goes quicker than expected we will pay sooner. After that we get the keys!
3) we need wisdom and God’s favor as we do various paperwork/filings with the government including explaining our religious activities in the building including church, training, outreach, etc.
4) we need wisdom on when to bring funds from the US over to Japan into yen – will the exchange rate improve? Get worse? Only God knows – and we need His wisdom.
5) and like we mentioned in the last post – please pray for God’s favor and intervention in the exchange rate to strengthen the dollar versus the yen; and also for God to intervene in the hearts of His people to respond again in generosity and sacrifice towards raising the needed funds for repairs and renovations.

Thank you for standing with us in prayer and generosity! To God be the GLORY!!!

Our team is thankful and relieved. We’ll exhale completely after the contract is signed – but we’ll remember this day for a long time.

So where can you focus prayer?

1) of course for final signing of the contract without problems
2) for the US Dollar to rebound against the Japanese Yen – yesterday there was a slight uptick which was encouraging. Hopeful for increased strengthening. Even at 82 yen we’re down nearly $200,000 since May on currency exchange alone
3) for God to raise up His people to contribute towards renovations for the building. Please spread the word to family and friends who might be willing to help invest towards the repairs and renovations on the new CBI ministry campus that the Lord has provided! (Click above on “How to Give”)

THANK YOU for faithfully standing with us in prayer!!! God is amazing!!! It’s hard to believe that we’re coming to the end of a one year journey!

on behalf of the CBI Japan team,

Michael

[6] Then he said to me, “This is the word of the LORD to Zerubbabel: Not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit, says the LORD of hosts. [7] Who are you, O great mountain? Before Zerubbabel you shall become a plain. And he shall bring forward the top stone amid shouts of ‘Grace, grace to it!’”
[8] Then the word of the LORD came to me, saying, [9] “The hands of Zerubbabel have laid the foundation of this house; his hands shall also complete it. Then you will know that the LORD of hosts has sent me to you. [10] For whoever has despised the day of small things shall rejoice…”
(Zechariah 4:6-10 ESV)

They came into the meeting and let us know that the central air-conditioning system, the boiler, and the water pipes are quite old and may need some repairs. They wanted to disclose this information which we appreciate. We’re contacting our building inspection company to get estimates on possible repairs. Then they said that they agree on our price and conditions! We were a bit concerned that they would raise the price on us which could have prevented us from purchasing the property.

Normally there would be no problems at all with board approval for decisions that the administrative committee has negotiated and proposed. The only x-factor is that the company recently merged with another company so there are some new board members. Though there will very likely be no problems at all we’re encouraging people to pray until the very very end. The company is also eager for us to finalize our payment to them by March 1st because of their need to add some value to their financial books before they close their fiscal year. This timing works out fine for us as it will first of all allow us the 2 months or so that we need to get government exemption from tax on this purchase and it gives us some flexibility on timing of exchanging our funds into yen.

THANK YOU for your prayers! It’s not over till it’s over – but today’s meeting was a great victory and hopefully the beginning of the end of this amazing drama that we’ve lived through by God’s grace!!!

The higher price is actually the same exact price we had negotiated and signed with the previous real estate development company that dropped out. Unfortunately that price is now $200,000 higher because of the rapid drop of the US dollar value versus the yen.

We hope to hear from them within 7-10 days. They are a medium-sized Japanese company which means that decisions take time. However there is a November 11th board meeting which will motivate some urgency Lord willing. Basically x number of days before the board meeting we have to negotiate the terms of the sale (Lord willing). After that is agreed upon they will submit their proposal to their board for a straight up yes/no vote on the deal.

We’ve had challenges with them not moving quickly on decisions. Please pray that they will address this all and that it will be in time for the Nov 11th board meeting.

We’ve done a lot of research on the offer on the property. We’ve also come up to the limits of our ability to afford the property. We’ve been in vigilant prayer. We’ve turned to the Lord with no hope but in Him. Our hope isn’t in this property – we know that if the Lord has other purposes He will make that clear and it will reflect His faithfulness and mercies.

But this continues to seem to us to be an exceptionally unique and amazingly strategic opportunity. We’ll update as anything new comes up. Thank you for standing with us in prayer!!!