A Sunday Apart: Kanagi and Itayanagi/Harvest Chapels

The concert at the hall in Kanagi

Some of the people at the concert

Sunday was a very eventful day for all of the team. For the first time since we have been here, we separated into two worship teams. In order to lead worship for Itayanagi Chapel and Harvest Chapel, Nick, Aimee, Rebecca, Kaitlyn and Job stayed behind while Colin, Soo Jin, Kelsey and Adam left at 9:30 to go and lead worship for the morning service at Kanagi Chapel thirty minutes north. They were very blessed to see that twelve people came to the service. The Messers, the missionary couple and their three young children who have been in Kanagi for five years, were very encouraged by the turn out as there have been only one or two church members coming for the past while.

For the afternoon concert, the team performed an acoustic set at the town hall centre. Once again, the Messers and another missionary there named Angela were very encouraged by the fact that around twenty-five people came. Half of these were church members while the others were either new faces or those who have some sort of affiliation with the church. It is exciting not only that the missionaries could be encouraged to keep persevering, but even more so that more people were reached through this event. During the event, the atmosphere was really warm and the people got really into the music. They all clapped and had big smiles on their faces. Everything went on smoothly as the team played music and also performed a puppet show. After the concert, the team had the chance to eat and talk with some people. It was a great time of fellowship. We hope that those who attended will remember the event favourably and that God will bring them back to the Kanagi Chapel.

Back at Itayanagi, Nick and Rebecca lead the worship service with all Japanese songs. This was the first time that Nick has lead worship in Japanese and, according to the Ghents, his Japanese was quite good. Nick also lead the children’s share time during service. He used an orange in a pitcher of water as an illustration for how we are able to stay afloat when we have on the whole armour of God, but sink when we allow it to be stripped from us. The kids and adults were all so attentive and seemed to really take in the short message. We had the great opportunity of sharing communion with the church and eating lunch with them after service.

Job spending some quality time with Amie after service

At Harvest Chapel, there were fewer people than usual as one of the families just welcomed their third baby into the world on Saturday. We have been in so much anticipation of this baby because we knew that he would come before our flight home. He and his mom are both healthy and the whole church is just surrounding them in prayer.

New baby Enju (his parents wanted it to sound like angel :)

At the service, Rebecca, Nick and Aimee all lead the Japanese songs together while Job played the djembi. Nick once again gave the short talk time from the morning service and the congregation was quite intrigued. When the adults went into the room opposite the sanctuary to hear Martin's message, our team got to hang out with the one little boy that was there. He is truly a remarkable child. He is only seven years old and can play piano better than Adam (according to Adam). We had so much fun just pouring all of our attention onto him by playing games with him, playing copy cat on the djembi and just being silly. His mom sat in the entire time and after the service we found that she was very happy that we had such a great time with her son because he has experienced some bullying by teachers and students at his school and is not always readily accepted. His mother is not a Christian and we are just so thankful that she is finding the church to be a safe haven for herself and her little boy to come and just be accepted and loved. Please pray that she and her family will continue to come out to service and will come to know Jesus personally.

We were all reunited for the evening service at Grace Fellowship. We did not realize how much we missed each other until we saw each other again. Thank God for unity!! Anyways, it was so encouraging to see the hall full of people. There were the most people we have seen yet and even then some people were absent. The worship time was truly powerful. The most powerful part of the worship time was when Colin lead the song "God of This City". This song states that God is the God of this city and of this people, that there is no one like our God and that he promises that greater things are yet to come. Looking around at the group in that place knowing that many in attendance do not yet know Christ, but are seeking Him so much was a powerful reminder of all that God has been doing in Japan and the fact that we need to be in so much anticipation and have faith that He is going to do much greater things yet.