We are Bob & Gloria Gellerstedt, serving in Osaka and Kyoto, Japan.  We have lived and worked in this area since 1991, and our hope and desire is to see Japanese as a part of the “great multitude” that John writes about in Revelation.

       Over the years we have worked in different types of ministry, like church planting and church and home.  Now our work has shifted to trying to reach Japanese with the Gospel and disciple them to share our Lord, mature in their faith for ministry, so they can develop small groups of followers of Jesus in locations like their homes, places of work, or anywhere else they can meet; indeed, “a church without walls,”  for land and buildings are so expensive here.  We now primarily do the following: 1) prayer walking and witnessing in Osaka and the surrounding communities; 2) meeting Japanese in their homes and places of business for Bible study; 3) Bob works weekly in the Japan Baptist Hospital chaplain’s office in Kyoto; and 4) discipling new believers, for it is so very exciting to see Japanese read the Scriptures and share how the Holy Spirit has taught them so much about a living, dynamic relationship to God through the Lamb, our Lord Jesus Christ.

      Our story as a couple has deep roots in Japan, for even though Gloria was born in Massachusetts and was raised in Florida, and Bob was born & lived in Atlanta, we first met each other in Japan in 1979.  Following college Bob was Journeyman missionary near Tokyo, and Gloria was also here as a Journeyman.  During a missionary meeting near Mt. Fuji we first met.  God led us to be married, Bob served a church in Connecticut, where our two lovely daughters-Danielle (now in college in the US) & Hannah (who will start college in the fall of 07’)-were born, and then we returned as a family to Japan.  Please pray for our work, and our Japanese brothers and sisters of faith, that God will bring more people of Japan to Jesus!