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.