By Steve Duhrkoop, OMS Japan Field Director
From its very beginnings in Japan in 1901, where One Mission Society was founded, OMS has sought to win the nations for Christ through the sons and daughters of those countries. In the early years in Japan, OMS started a Gospel hall and for 3,000
straight evenings led evangelistic services, resulting in many Japanese people coming to Christ. Those individuals were then quickly trained at the Bible Institute to go out and share their newfound faith with others. The number of believers grew during this time.
Over the last 117 years, the church has seen seasons of strong growth, often through campaigns in which the Gospel was shared with the people of Japan. In the years after WWII, Every Community for Christ( ECC) workers came to Japan to help rebuild the churches and establish new churches, and God blessed it.
ECC has continued to be involved in Japan through the years. The focus over the last nine years has been to encour-
4 age the national church to implement a program called Train & Multiply, a church multiplication strategy of evangelism, discipleship, and leadership training.
The Japan Holiness Church has sought to create healthy churches and to see growth. They have been praying for revival. But often it takes several years for people to accept the Gospel, and the church is aging. Often the person doing the evangelism is the pastor, who is seminary trained.
The heart of Train & Multiply is that lay people are trained and mobilized to evangelize and disciple using the materials provided. But the goal is abundant sowing of the Gospel with family, friends, and colleagues from work. They seek to