Hironobu Horioka –
“I live in Japan. I served a local church as a pastor for 8 years. After that I became a principal at Hokurikugakuin high school established by the Presbyterian Church of the United States of America (PCUSA) in 1885. I worked there for 8 years and quit the job at the end of this March.
“One Lord’s day I attended a Sunday morning service after an absence of around 5 years. I then participated in Sunday morning services regularly, and the message of the Cross completely overwhelmed me. In the Christmas service in 1985, I was baptized to become a Christian at the age of 18. On that day my mother’s patient prayers were answered by our heavenly Father.
“My ministry dream is to serve the work of the Holy Spirit. I want to lead people to be born again, and I want to nurture all of God’s people with the bread of life. I want to accomplish this by establishing a Christian Center at Hokurikugakuin Educational Foundation. I also dream of unifying the churches in Hokurikugakuin.
“I strongly believe that now is the time when we Japanese Christians should walk with God as the light of the world, by the power of the Holy Spirit. However, our church, “the united church of Japan,” doesn’t have appropriate programs to teach people how to walk with God. I believe CLI’s programs will be helpful to strengthen Japanese Christians. At this point CLI’s programs will be integral in training Christian leaders in Japan. For this reason, I want to study CLI’s courses as many as possible by myself. After that I will recommend this program to others.”
Hironobu Horioka Gets a Scholarship
“I’m not working right now, and I’m willing to study the Bible again. I don’t seek academic gain; I press for the more profitable goal of living and walking with God in daily life. CLI’s program will be helpful for me to study Bible again from the beginning. After studying CLI’s courses, I will share my reproducible walk with God with anybody whom I encounter as a neighbor in my life.
“In the local churches of Hokurikugakuin, the average congregation size is less than 40, and few young people attend church at all. This is because of the strong Buddhist tradition in our area. Pray that the Lord will use us greatly in Hokurikugakuin, bringing many to the saving knowledge of Jesus Christ through us. Also pray for the unification of the churches in Hokurikugakuin.”