History of Sakahogi International Grace Baptist Church (SIGBC)

We had been meeting in an old renovated building for years in Minokamo City, Gifu prefecture. In 2005 the church voted to start saving for five years to raise ¥5,000,000 for building supplies to then buy land for a new building.  It took us 6 years to raise the funds.  We then started earnestly looking for land in 2011.  We hired a realtor to find land for us to build a church on, and he was able to find a few plots of land, but for one reason or another, each plot of land fell through. We didn't know why we weren't able to get land right away, but God knew and had a special plot of land waiting for us.

After searching for a few years, the realtor introduced us to our current property and we went to see it for the first time on December 26, 2014.  It had everything we were looking for, including an already existing building and parking!  We didn’t even need to level the foundations, as it was a concreted tennis court where we could build our new building directly on top of the foundation. 

We voted to buy the land on January 18, 2015.  It took one month to renovate the current extension and start meeting there.  The renovation was all done through volunteer work by friends and church friends. We had our first dedication service in the existing building on March 8, 2015.  We then began construction on an annex, with a library on the first floor and a guest room on the second.

After about a year of already meeting in the renovated building, we began construction on the new building by first pouring the foundation on June 11, 2016.  God graciously provided volunteer work from friends, church friends, a construction group from one of our supporting churches in America, etc.  We rented a crane to put on the second floor and roof.  It took about 5 months to build the new building from the ground up.  Our first service at the new church was November 20th, 2016, and our dedication was November 27th, one week later.  The downstairs was not yet completed and we had our dedication meal in the extension. 

Since the dedication service, many wonderful services and special events have been held at the church. See our Sakahogi Church (SIGBC) Photo albums for more pictures of construction and events held at our new SIGBC building over the last 8 years!