Kanagi and Nakasato

We taught them "Deep and Wide"

They picked up the actions so quickly!

We shook every one of their hands :)

As soon as we left they were all in the windows and we couldn't help but go say goodbye again
(All of the above pictures are from our first pre-school)

We left the Itayanagi train station at around 7:00 in the morning on Wednesday and arrived in Nakasato around two hours later. This train experience was quite a bit different from our initial trip from Tokyo as it was very short and we had minimal luggage. We were able to send most of the music equipment ahead of us by car. We were met by Armin, a missionary out of Kanagi, and Angela, a missionary out of nearby Nakasato. We went with them to one of Nakasato’s pre-schools in the morning and spent about an hour with the kids. In our time there we taught them some interactive Sunday school songs, performed a puppet show about the good Samaritan, played for them our Canada video and just played around with them. I cannot even describe how much joy it brought us to finally be allowed the opportunity to visit a pre-school. Both the teachers and the kids were so excited about us being there, so the combination of our excitement and their excitement made for some very hyper and joy filled children!

We were originally going to go door-to-door to hand out flyers inviting people to our evening concert, but Armin and Angela decided that it would be more effective for us to play worship songs and hand out flyers outside of the local grocery store. Most people were very receptive to at least taking a flyer and many either stopped and tried to speak with us or stopped to listen. We were so thankful that those in authority at the store allowed us to stand there and play for a whole hour.

There were so many blessings in the evening concert. For the concert, we had the same program as the Itayanagi concert except that Armin gave the message instead of Martin. We were running a couple of minutes late setting up our sound equipment and we noticed that at ten after seven there were four elderly women and one younger. We were excited that those few were there, but were still hoping that more than just the one women who had received a flyer would feel inclined to come. About fifteen minutes into the concert, a woman and two men came filing in. A couple of minutes later, seven thirteen and fourteen year old boys came in as well. The boys had stopped to listen to us earlier at the grocery store, but when we gave them the flyers they laughed at us and really seemed like they were uninterested. Apparently, they were standing outside of the small hall where we were playing and were too afraid to come in but the one known of Christian lady in the town went out and convinced them to come in. After the concert, Adam and Nick approached the guys and sat down with them and chatted. There was a point where the conversation turned to Christianity and Adam was able to share his testimony with them. The one Christian woman in the town brought her non-believing daughter and Armin and Angela had the opportunity to get talking with her. There was a mother and her son who came out for the first time because we played with him at his pre-school and he wanted he promised one us, no one really knows who, that he would come. Others who came were some who had some sort of connection with the church, but who have not yet made the commitment to Christ.

On Thursday morning, we visited a pre-school/kindergarten. This time though, the local news station had a reporter there to film and report on the presentation. They did not interview any of us, but they did know that we are a group from a Christian university. We really hope that we will be portrayed as a Christian group rather than it just being some kind of fascinating cultural exchange. Hopefully, we will be able to watch it tonight and see. The eighty kids at this school were very prepared for us. They had all made little Canadian flags and sang a song for us as well. These children were so incredibly loving and we found that in the play time with them after the presentation, they latched onto us and just wanted to be near us. Once again, ourselves and the children fed off of each other’s enthusiasm and we had a great time altogether. After we were finished, the teachers had a small lunch prepared for us and we had the opportunity to chat with them a little bit. This was a great opportunity for Angela and Armin to introduce themselves.

First Concert!

Crazy Dogs

Updates from Week 2...and a little bit of Week 3

Hello!
Once again, a lot has happened since the last time we wrote. Since all of our pre-schools and the seniors home we were supposed to visit this week cancelled due to the swine flu scare, we spent most of this week preparing for our first concert and for our future visits to the pre-schools. The other part of the week was devoted to orientation and handing out concert and church flyers to the neighbourhoods in Itayanagi.

On Friday night, we had the opportunity to lead the Young Life group. We were able to meet a couple new kids this week and had a great time playing games with them, having snack time, and teaching them a new song on their instrument of choice. Two of us were also able to share mini testimonials of why we believe in God. The youth are really having a great time learning their instruments and their excitement is very encouraging. It actually looked like a music school here on Friday night because all of the instruments broke off to different rooms in the church.

We were able to have our first concert on Saturday night. We distributed flyers a couple of days this week and reached several neighbourhoods, but were still unsure of what the turn-out would be due to the fear of swine flu and the fact that it was advertised as a Canada themed night. God truly answered our prayers in that all but two chairs we set out were filled. Most of those who attended were people who have been coming to church events such as English classes, parenting classes and Bible studies, but there were also a few new faces. The night entailed both a full band and an acoustic worship concert, a puppet show, testimony, a message by Martin Ghent and a video we created about Canada. It was amazing to see how responsive the crowd was to the songs despite the fact that they could not understand the language spoken. Most everyone was clapping along and smiling and just seemed to be having a great time. One major praise report of the night is that most of those who came stuck around for a while afterward to meet with us and the Ghents. We had some great conversations and were really able to build upon some relationships and to start new ones. Another praise report is that a family that does not usually stay around after events stayed the longest of anyone. They have two young daughters who have been attending Sunday morning English classes at the church. This family has not yet come out church, but the Ghents are very hopeful for a breakthrough soon. The mother of the two little girls enjoyed the concert so much that she gave us two blank cds to record for her some of our songs.

On Sunday, we again lead worship at Itayanagi Chapel, Harvest Chapel and Grace Chapel. Colin and Aimee were very excited about having lead the Itayangi and Harvest services in all Japanese songs. Kelsey shared his testimony with the congregation and all of us together taught the children how to say “Hello my name is” in eight different languages. This week at Harvest Chapel, Martin Ghent put up the beautiful sign that was painted by one of the ladies in the congregation as well as put the cross on the roof. Now the church will be easily recognizeable. Three of us shared our testimonies with the adults while the others played some songs with the kids. At Grace Chapel, we saw many familiar faces from last week. It was a great opportunity for us to spend some time talking with those we had met the week before.


Monday was our mandatory day off and so we traveled down to the coast of the Sea of Japan and were shown many interesting new places. The pictures cannot express how beautiful it is there.

We spent Tuesday doing yard work, making a promotional video for the Ghents, updating the Ghents’ website, and played two mini concerts at the train station at the time when all of the high school kids come home from school so as to promote Saturday’s pizza and concert night.
We are leaving on the train Wednesday morning at 7:00 to go to Kanagi. We will be working alongside a missionary family there called the Messers. We will be doing a concert, puppet show and Canada presentation at a pre-school at 10:00 in the morning, will hand out flyers for the concert in the afternoon and will do another full concert like the one this past Saturday at 7:00. We will also be visiting another pre-school on Thursday morning. This will be our first venture over to the Kanagi Chapel. It will be a short trip as we are coming back to Itayanagi Thursday evening, but we will have a lot to accomplish in that little bit of time.

Prayer Requests for Week 3

1. We will be doing a concert and dessert night at the Kanagi Chapel (about an hour north of Itayanagi) on Wednesday night. Please pray that many will come out to the concert on Wednesday night and that we will have the boldness to show love to them through our conversations and presentations.
2. We have a pizza dinner and concert this Saturday night. Please pray that those who received flyers will be curious about the event and want to come out and that those who come will be impacted.
3. Pray that we will continue to be bold in forming relationships with those in the church and those we encounter who are not a part of the church.

Praise Reports

1. We safely arrived in Itayanagi without any major difficulties in transfers at the train stations.

2. We had a great time with the Young Life group on Saturday night and were able to begin forming relationships. We also had the opportunity to work one-on-one with some of the youth on the instruments they are learning and it was wonderful to see how excited they are about continuing to develop their skills.

3. We are mostly all over the initial jet-lag of last week and have been getting up early and having the energy to go through the day.

Prayer Requests for Week 2

Hello again!!

We would just like to take some time to update all of you on some prayer requests for this week.

1. All of the pre-schools and the senior's home which we were supposed to visit this week canceled due to fear of the swine flu. Please pray that those who are involved in the decision making process there will recognize that we are not a danger to the health of the children and will allow us to come in toward the end of our time here and that we will be allowed to start visiting schools next week. Also, please pray that we will have discernment to know all that God would like us to do in the time this week where we would have been doing outreach in the schools.

2. Throughout the week we will be going door-to-door handing out tracts and concert flyers in Itayanagi. Pray that those who receive these will take the time to read them over and that a sense of curiousity will rise in them.

3. A final request is for our first concert on Saturday night at Itayanagi Chapel. This concert will entail a barbeque, testimonies and a short message from Martin Ghent. This concert is an outreach event and we are all praying that God will do great things. Pray that many people in the area will be drawn to the event and that ourselves and the Ghents will begin to make connections with the new people who come.

Thank you for your prayers!!

We are Here!!

Konitiwa!

So much has happened since the last time we wrote and I am so excited to update you on all of the happenings of the past couple of days. We left Itchikawa station bright and early Saturday morning and caught 4 different trains to get to Itayanagi. Each change was quite the experience because of the equipment we had to carry in addition to our luggage! We were greeted by the Ghents at Itayangi station around 4:30pm.

Job and Nick modeling on the train

Soo Jin and Adam

Kelsey and Aimee

After our tour of Itayanagi Chapel, the Cafe Iris coffee shop and the Lighthouse Christian bookstore, which are next to the church, we spent the evening helping out with the Young Life juniour high group. We ate dinner with them, introduced ourselves, played outdoor games, and some of us shared our testimonies. Also, we had the great opportunity of listening to the group play "One Way" in Japanese. After they played, we spent some time teaching the kids some basics on their instruments.

Sunday was a full and wonderful day! The Ghents host an English Class every Sunday morning before the service. For this Sunday's class, Adam, Kaityln, Rebecca and Soo Jin helped out. The Ghents use these classes as an outreach to the non-Christians who live in the area. The rest of us lead worship for the morning service. All of the songs that we lead with were in Japanese except for one. We had the opportunity to introduce ourselves infront of the church and, after the service, were able to sit down for lunch with the congregation. Many of us had great conversations and were able to begin establishing relationships.

After lunch we drove for about a half an hour to the Ghent's church plant called Harvest Chapel. This church is still in the process of being established and is under ongoing construction. There are a few committed Christian families who attend and, this Sunday, a mother and her two children who have never come out to church before came as well. This was very encouraging for the Ghents as this woman has been affiliated with the church through outreach programs, but has never come out to a Sunday service. This service was also a very exciting one for the Ghents as it was the first service where the actual chapel area was used rather than the side room where it had previously been held. We were so blessed to have the opportunity to lead worship in this new sanctuary. While the adults heard the message in the side room, the nine of us lead Sunday school. We did some interactive songs with the five children there and found that they were incredibly enthusiastic and full of energy. At one point, the six year old little girl was actually having a drum-off with Adam and Colin. After hanging out with the children, we met with the rest of the congregation again and ate dinner together and shared some testimonies. One young man who attends the church with his wife, shared an incredibly encouraging testimony of how he grew up firmly believing in Buddhism and only recently came to faith.

We also lead worship later on Sunday night at a possible future church plant called Grace Chapel. Unlike Itayanagi and Harvest, the Ghents give this service in English. This group meets together in a rented building about an hour from Itayanagi and is considered as mostly a seeker church. About half of those who attend do not claim to be Christians, but are just interested in learning more about Jesus. We were able to enjoy a time of fellowship after the service and went to a local coffee shop to get to know the people in the group.

Laying the groove down with the kids at Harvest Chapel:

Orientation Done!

OMF Offices & Guest House in Itchikawa

Training Schedule

Learning from Steve Weemes, OMF Serve Japan Coordinator.

Hard at work!

Our classroom from May 14-15

Mini doughnut hamburgers and fries from Mister Donut

Wonderfully delicious things in the grocery store

Our last dinner in Itchikawa.
Okonomiyaki is a savoury Japanese pancake made with batter, egg, and cabbage.
We each got to pick our "filling" which was either meat, seafood, or vegetable.

Kelsey, Kaitlyn, Colin
(and Adam...)

Goodbye Itchikawa!

Prayer Requests:

1. Everyone is still fighting jet-lag....pray that we all have the energy and strength to do what God brought us here to do! Pray that we remember all that we learnt during our training.

2. We travel by Shinkansen (bullet train) to Itayanagi early this morning! Pray for our safety in travelling. We start walking (with all our luggage!) from the OMF guest house at 8am and will take 4 trains to get to Itayanagi around 4:30 in the afternoon.

3. We will be off and running once we get to Itayanagi. There is a youth overnight event at the church right when we get there! Pray that we will be able to start building key relationships.

4. Pray for the OMF workers here in and around Tokyo as they continue to minister in a difficult spiritual climate.

5. Pray for our Tyndale brothers and sisters and they continue ministering in India and the Dominican Republic. The Alaska team also leaves later today!

Praise Reports:

1. We had a fruitful time over the past couple days learning from Steve Weemes!

2. We were able to buy a new Yamaha keyboard, Fender Squire Telecaster electric guitar, and an Orange Crush 15 amp from Ochanimizou the other day! Praise the Lord for helping us find some good deals on some good instruments that will really help the church and the music ministry there! (Pictures to come!)

3. Adam and Colin were able to try the McPork and Ebi-Filet-O (shrimp filet) sandwiches from McDonalds

Thanks everyone for your continued prayers and support!
We are excited to start our ministry with the Ghents!

We've Arrived!

Hello everyone!

Japan team has arrived in Tokyo!
The flight was long and we were all quite eager to get off the plane after the 13 hour flight.

Here are some pictures from our travels today:

Team Picture in Toronto


There was a special team that boarded the plane when we
arrived. They were armed with thermal scanners and scanned
everyone on the plane to check for fever



We all passed the quarantine inspection!


We all had to wear masks in the airport


Welcome to Japan!

Pray for the team as we start our OMF Serve Japan orientation in a few hours! The flight was pretty tiring but we are all excited to get going! Pray also for the Ghents as they continue to prepare concert opportunities for our time with them in Aomori.

Tomorrow we will also go to Ochanimizou. It is an entire street in Tokyo of music store after music store! We are hoping to buy an electric guitar with amp and also a new keyboard to take with us to Aomori! Hopefully we can find some good deals!

Thanks for your prayers and support!
We will update again soon!