Greetings

Welcome to the Official Website of Oroku Baptist Church!

     Oroku Baptist Church is a small church located on a hill of Oroku Region and just 10 minutes drive from Naha International Airport. It is a church where all the generations from small children to the elderly joyfully get together as their own home.

     We are quite an international church with brothers and sisters from several Asian countries and the USA. "Glocal Church" is our motto.

     Recently, people in Japan are pressured from their families, schools as well as workplaces carrying heavy burdens every moment. They need the real "truth" which provides slavation and rest to their souls. There is the answer in the Bible which you can learn from our church.

     Although our worship services and fellowships are practiced primarily in Japanese, the pastor always tries to help translate Japanese message into English. So, non-Japanese-speaking people are equally welcomed to our church!

     Please be with us and joyfully worship and praise God in Jesus' name!

Rev. Iwao Kochihira
Senior Pastor of Oroku Baptist Church

Profile of Senior Pastor
Rev. Iwao KOCHIHIRA: Born in 1967 in Tokyo. As the third generation of a Christian family, he got baptized when he was 9th Grade. During his majoring in Physics at Ryukyu University, he took a leave of absence and went to Zambia as a member of Japan Overseas Cooperation Volunteer, and spent there for two and a half years to teach students science and math. After graduation, while working in Japan International Cooperation Agency(JICA), he received God's call to work as a missionary in Asia. Having married Michiko Arasaki, quit his work in JICA, he went to the USA to pursue his theological study in Eastern Baptist Theological Seminary in Philadelphia, PA and received Master of Divinity. After two years of pastoral experience in Ishimine Baptist Church, Naha-City, he was assigned to to go to Nepal as the first missionary from Okinawa Baptist Convention in 2003. He served in Nepal for 8 and a half years, during which time he started a new social mission program called EDEN Project, which especially focused on Environmental Preservation in the urban area. After returning from Nepal, he became the pastor of Oroku Baptist Church, the present church in April 2012. He has 2 sons and a daughter, liking singing with guitar and piano.