Tyndale Japan Team 09

So Long Japan

2009-06-16T19:39:00.000-07:00

This will be our last update because we are back in Canada as of 4:30 in the afternoon Monday. Check back in a couple of weeks though because we will be adding a bunch of videos. After a five hour train ride, two hour wait at the airport and a thirteen hour plane ride we finally made it here. It will probably take a couple of days for all of us to overcome our jet lag as Japan is thirteen hours ahead of Canada, but hopefully it will not take too much time. I am just going to share some of our last times with the Tsugaru Church.

On Friday night, we helped out with the Young Life group for the last time. We went all out and built a huge maze in the sanctuary with all of the chairs. The object of the whole thing was to walk through blindfolded and listen to directions from your team in order to find a lego block and bring it back. The kids and parents loved it and were so much fun to watch! For our last time teaching, we showed them how to play "God of this City". It was so powerful to just watch the youth of the church playing this song which talks about the future hope for Japan and how they can be a part of what God is going to do there. After Young Life was over, the ladies of the group were invited by one of the church women to go and be dressed in kimonos. They were so beautiful! All of the girls ended up walking around in them for an hour and just soaking in one of the last tastes of Japanese culture. We found out later on that the woman who lent us the kimonos actually does that for all of the short-term workers who come because there was a couple of short-termers many years ago who greatly impacted her life. She takes great joy in doing whatever she can for those who come and we were definitely blessed by her.

The Young Life group surprised us with some special good bye cakes and chocolates that said thank you in Japanese characters. The whole time at Young Life was so amazing! We had a sleep over with a couple of the kids that night and so, after we blew out the candles on our amazing cakes, we had a little dance party to some worship songs and just celebrated together one last time. The sleep over was a great time as well. There was only one guy and one girl who came, so that was an opportunity to pour all attention on just those two. The one guy who stayed over is a grade eleven student who attends the Kanagi Chapel and just came to spend the night with the guys because he had met them the week before at the concert and really bonded with them. The girl who came has been coming to events with her seeker mother for quite some time now and is ten years old. Please continue to pray for both of these youth.

Sunday was quite an emotional day for all of us! We lead our last service at Itayanagi Chapel and we had no idea just how intense it would be. We all took turns sharing about what we have learned on this trip and most of us shared our appreciation for the church. Almost all of us could not contain our tears as we spoke of our incredible love for the people in the church and our desperation to see Japan know Jesus. As if that was not hard enough, Colin decided to play "God of this City" after we all finished sharing! That was pretty cruel! (I am just kidding obviously) Naomi Ghent and one of the young adults we had been working alongside the entire trip, Hoshi, sang it for the congregation. Almost all of us had tears dripping from our eyes at this point because it was just so hard to think of leaving and to not be a part of what is going to happen there after we leave. We have full faith though that God has planted some seeds and that so many great things are going to happen this year! Our God is the God of Japan.

After service, we were asked to help out with Sunday school. This was a very strange request as we have never helped out before and usually set the tables and help prepare for lunch. When we arrived upstairs, we were told to all stand in a line because the whole Young Life group and some parents were going to sing for us. Naomi and Hoshi sang a special good bye song for us and then after them all of the children and some parents sang. It was amazing to see that the fifteen year old that had just picked up the guitar when the team came last year was actually leading the song. They presented us each with special metal cases that have our names on them and are signed as well as Japanese wind chimes that one of the mothers bought. Once again, it was a very emotional time for all of us.

Our rice and shrimp Canadian flag :)

As if all of this was not enough, we also had a special surprise at lunch fellowship with the whole congregation. The same lady who lent us the kimonos made us a special rice dish which looked like a Canadian flag. We had to eat really quickly so we could rush off to do another concert at Harvest Chapel, but we did our best to make sure we had time to say goodbye to all of the church people.

We had a special event planned for the afternoon at Harvest Chapel. The accapella group from Hirosaki University was supposed to come and do a concert at 3:00, but they ended up postponing until 5:00. This meant that we needed to fill in the gap before the 4:00 service with our own mini concert. We also had the opportunity inbetween songs to share our testimonies of what God has taught us since being in Japan (only in less Christian sounding wording because no one would understand). We were really excited to see that even though they were going to come later on, some of the accapella group actually came at 3:00 and stayed for the whole worship service.

Not only was this really encouraging, but we also found that the two girls who came to concert at the university on Thursday night came at 3:00 as well and stayed for dinner after the entire program was over. The Ghents are really hoping to be able to maintain contact with them and invite them to future events and services. The accapella group was quite good and it was neat for our team to sit back and enjoy their concert. Another exciting part about the concert was that after the accapella group was finished, one of the ladies who I spoke about a couple of posts ago who was not able to play djembi for two years and wanted to come to church and play actually came and brought two djembis with her. She ushered Job and Adam to play djembi with her while Colin played guitar. She is not a Christian, but it was so wonderful to see the joy on her face as she played along with songs that she knew were about Jesus. All of the university students stayed for dinner after the concert and Nick and Kaitlyn tried to visit with them as much as possible (few of them know very much english). We are all really excited about the new friendships we have started with the university students and will be trying to keep in touch with some of them who we are going to add on Facebook.

The accapella group performing at Harvest

The djembi trio and...Colin :)

Later on in the evening, we had a worship concert at Grace Fellowship. Many of the people there are seekers, so it was really powerful to just be worshiping in God's presence there. There was no message this last time at Grace, but instead we each shared what we had shared earlier in the Itayanagi service about what God has taught us in our time in Japan. One really exciting thing about that night was that one of the men that comes out to English classes who is a very avid follower of Buddhism came out for the entire service. He had not come to anything else we had done those five weeks, so this was really exciting. I think that this was the hardest good bye service because it was the last one and we knew that there would not be anymore goodbyes other than the Ghents once that service was over. We were able to go to Tully's after service just like we always do and that was a great last time of fellowship.

Some of our dear friends from the church

We decided to pull an all nighter because we were trying to fight against jet lag and we had to pack. We ended up catching the sunrise at 3:30 in the morning a top the roof of the church. It was such an amazing way to end off our trip!

As I said before, after a five hour train ride, two hour wait at the airport and a thirteen hour flight, we arrived in Canada. It was a truly amazing time of ministry! Thank you all so much for all of your prayers and support! Know that God did great things during our time there and that much greater things are yet to come. Please do not forget Japan! Keep on praying for this nation in such desperate need of Him. Remember the missionaries there in all the service they put in every day.

Final Updates

2009-06-16T12:23:00.000-07:00

The principal explaining where Canada is

The grade three class made this for us

Hello everyone!!

It seems like only yesterday that we were taking part in all of the following ministry activities, but it was actually a week ago. On Wednesday morning, we traveled to an elementary school in Hirosaki to do a full program of action songs, a puppet show, some concert songs and a Canada presentation. It took the kids a couple of songs to warm up to us, but after that they were really enthusiastic and were probably the most involved of anywhere we went.

Watching the Puppet Show

This school is very blessed to have a Christian principal. He and his wife are members of the Tsugaru Church and are some of the few mature Christians there. Some of us had spoken to him about his school a couple of Sundays before we went and he was just so excited about his job. He said that the school feels like a family and that he loves them all like his children. We definitely had a great sense of the community that is in that place.

When we were finished our presentation, we had the opportunity to eat lunch with all of the students. It was so cute because they had special representative students wearing aprons who called our names and then took our hands and lead us to our seats. The elementary schools in Japan go from grade one to grade six, so we mostly had two people sitting with each grade. It was beyond fun interacting with them! Even though some of us did not have translators at our tables, we were still able to just be attentive to them and let them know that we really wanted to understand.

Lunch time at the fourth grade table
Our name tags :)

After lunch, we were given the choice of either staying inside and resting or going out to play. We jumped at the chance of going to play on the playground. We had a group of about twenty students come to the principals office and formally invite us all to go play. We all had chains of kids latched onto our arms leading us out to play. Some of us played octopus (a chasing game where you have to tag people before they get to the other side), some played baseball, some played soccer, and others played on (really more so watched) them play on the equipment. We easily could have played with them all day, but they had to go back to class. They also said that they would love for the team to come back next year!

She really wanted to come home with us :(

Later on Wednesday afternoon, we climbed Mount Iwaki. We had been eyeing this mountain, which can be seen in the entire Tsugaru region, since the day we arrived but had not been able to climb due to poor weather and other responsibilities. We were running short on time, so after driving up sixty eight curves in the road and riding the lift as far as we could go we only had thirty minutes to climb to the top. We basically had to run up the mountain because it is usually takes a person an hour, so not everyone went all the way up. Even though it was fairly cloudy, the view was absolutely spectacular. We could see all of the Tsugaru region. At the top of the mountain, there is a little Shinto shrine. The sight of this made us feel so compelled to declare Jesus' name in that place, so Nick read a passage from the Sermon on the Mount.

On Thursday morning, we had the opportunity to go to the preschool of one of the little boys in the church. We had a great time dancing around with the kids and seeing them perform a song for us as well. The teachers were very thankful for us coming and told us that they would like us to come back again next year. It is has been such an encouragment every time we have heard from the teachers that they would like us to come back because the way is being paved for the team next year and for the Ghents to get to know more people.

Thursday evening was quite busy and quite fun! Hirosaki University invited our team to go play a concert for them. Ourselves and the Ghents were so full of anticipation as short-term workers have never been invited there before. The concert took place in a fairly small class room with a few university students and some church affiliates. We had a hilarious time with the equipment and sound as the electric drums literally fell apart at the very beginning of the first set, the sound was way off for the first while, the Canada video did not work properly and we were only given ten minutes to set up all of our equipment. In the midst of all of these struggles, we came to the realization that God is way bigger than anything we can try to do. It did not matter that all these things were happening, the people present had a great time and we were able to just really worship. After the concert, some of us had the opportunity to speak with two girls from the university. They said that they loved the concert and would like to come to anything else we had scheduled for the week. I will share a little bit later about how that played out, but it was just really encouraging to know that seeds were planted that night. Another exciting part was that even though there were so many technical difficulties, the professor who organized the concert really wants the team to come back next year and he promised a much larger facility with a lot more advertising. Praise Jesus!! We also helped out with our last English classes that night and had to say goodbye to everyone. We had such an amazing time getting to know the people in those classes and will continue to pray that they come to know Christ as most of them are either seekers or just not interested in God.

On Saturday, we traveled to the American Air Force base in Misawa (two hours away). The Ghents are really good friends with a Christin family there and so they arranged for us to play a worship concert at the International Center, which is a short drive from the base. We did not know what the facilities would be like, but when we walked into the room we were amazed at how luxurious it seemed as compared to the places we had been playing for the previous five weeks. Some of us commented that it was kind of strange to go from what we had grown accustomed to in Japan back to having everything and more in a Western setting. This helped us realize even more that we really do not need all of the luxuries we have in our usual worship services. We had very minimal equipment and poor acoustics in most places we played in Japan and yet people met with God in such a powerful way. All of this said, God was really present in this worship service as well. Most of those in attendance were actually either American Christians who live on and around the base or English speaking Japanese, but a few were non-Christians. It was very different worshiping in English with mostly American people because it felt like we were back in our usual worship setting. We found after the service that people were telling us how encouraged they were with what the Ghents are doing in Japan, how much hope they have for the area of Misawa and how the churches there are reaching out to both the Japanese and Americans. It was so amazing to hear what God is working in that area and how Christians on the base have the great opportunity to witness to both their own people and the Japanese.

The International Centre

It was so nice!

There is much more to come for this blog, so check back in a couple of days!! I will be sharing about our last goodbyes in Japan.

A Sunday Apart: Kanagi and Itayanagi/Harvest Chapels

2009-06-09T07:48:00.000-07:00

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.

Prayer Requests for Week 5

2009-06-09T02:26:00.000-07:00

1. Sunday is a busy day as we are spending the afternoon with the accapella singing group from a nearby university and have a concert at Grace Fellowship later in the evening. Please pray that ourselves and the Ghents will begin to make connections with those in the singing group. Also, please pray that many new people will come out the evening concert and that those who come who already know Him will be encouraged and will have the boldness to reach out to the new people.

2. We will be heading to the American Air Force base on Saturday to give a concert and presentations. Please pray that many will attend and that they will be receptive to the gospel.

3. On Wednesday morning, we are going to a small elementary school to do a mini concert and to eat lunch with the students. We more than likely will not really be able to speak with the students very much, so please pray that our actions will somehow express the love of Jesus to them.

4. We are onto our fifth week in Japan and we really need prayer that we will not get distracted by thoughts of going home or by how much we will miss being here. Please pray for a clear focus and passion right up to the end of our time here.

Praise Reports from Week 4

2009-06-09T02:17:00.000-07:00

1. We decided not to do a barbeque on Saturday, but planned for a Young Life event instead. The planning went reallly smoothly and so did the day. There were thirty-three children many of which were new faces!

2. Those who attended the Kanagi concert appeared to have a great time and there were some new people who came out. Also, the Messers and Angela have been discouraged as of late due to lack of attendance at church meetings and found this Sunday to be very uplifting.

3. We haven't told you about this yet, but we are doing a concert and presentation at the American millitary base. We found out late last week that there was a large potential that we would be unable to get in due to schedule conflicts only to find out early this week that things have been worked out and that we will be going there on Saturday.

Updates from the second half of Week 4

2009-06-09T02:05:00.000-07:00

Hello again,

We have some exciting updates to share with you from the second half of last week. We went to another pre-school on Thursday morning. This school was different than the others we visited as it had less than forty children in total. It was an interesting change to have such a small group because it allowed us to be a lot more interactive with the kids during the actions songs. We could all dance around with them without any children being left out of the fun. One great thing about going there was that the Tyndale team had gone there last year and this year they invited us back. Even though we did not share about Jesus directly with them, we can only pray that they could sense God’s love living in us.

Everyone was dancing! :)

He took a good five minutes putting on his shoes. So cute!!

On Thursday afternoon, Rebecca, Job, Kelsey, Soo Jin and Kaitlyn had the opportunity to work on finishing up the dry wall on an upstairs room at Harvest Chapel. In a couple of months, this room will house a couple from the US who are coming to work alongside the Ghents. As I am writing this right now, some of the team is at Harvest putting the final coats of paint on the room. They have had a lot of fun being able to help out in such a tangible way and we are all excited to see the finished product on Sunday.

On Friday night we had planned to have a campfire night for Young Life, but a thunderstorm hit about an hour before. Instead of making smores over the campfire, we let the kids and youth cook their marshmallows over the gas stove in the kitchen. Several parents had come to pick up their kids when we were finishing up snack time and it was so much fun to see them just as excited as the kids. Another highlight of the night was playing sardines (a hide and go seek game in the dark where one person hides and everyone else has to find that person and hide with them until everyone has found the hiding spot). I don’t know who had more fun, the kids or us! This week, we helped the group learn how to play “God of Wonders”. They are sounding so great and are gaining so much more confidence on their instruments.

Some of the Young Life gearing up for a game

Nick teaching guitar

On Saturday afternoon, Itayanagi Chapel hosted a Young Life special event. We had distributed the flyers directly to the students on Friday morning as they entered their public schools. Here in Itayanagi, most children are free to do whatever they would like on Saturday’s while their parents are at work so it is the best time to have special events at the chapel. We were so excited to see that thirty-three children came out. A few parents also came and participated in some of the activities. This was a great turn out for a children’s event and there were many new faces. They appeared to have a lot of fun and were very enthusiastic about all of the games and songs. About half of the kids actually stayed an extra half an hour after the event was over just so that they could play more games. There were four other little girls who stayed for an extra two hours at the end of the event. Please pray for these little girls as some of them come from broken homes and use events such as this one as a safe refuge from their difficult home lives.

Even the parents got really into the actions for "Deep and Wide"

One other exciting happening here is that we are working on recording a Japanese worship cd to leave with the congregation. This cd will hopefully not only be an encouragement to the Christians and seekers here, but also be helpful to the Young Life group in continuing to learn new songs when we leave.

I would just like to share some exciting testimonies that Colin brought to light on Sunday. Last year, the Tyndale team purchased a djembi drum and they left it as a gift for the Tsugaru Church (Itayanagi Chapel, Harvest Chapel, Kanagi Chapel and Grace Fellowship). They had brought it around to all of the many preschools they went to and let the kids play with it. This year, we brought it with us to play along with the kids songs and yet again the kids and the teachers were drawn in to playing. Colin estimates that about 2,000 people in the Tsugaru have played that drum. On Thursday when we went to Harvest, we brought the djembi in so that we could play a couple of songs for the two moms and their daughters that were there for parenting class. When we brought in the drum, the one mother’s face lit up. She told us that she had played the djembi for years but since she had her daughter two years ago that she has not had a single opportunity to play. She did not ask us to play, but when we offered the drum to her she excitedly took it from us. We played the worship song “Everyone” and she drummed along. She is quite talented, but it brought us more joy just to see how joyous she was about having the opportunity to play. When she was finished playing, she asked us what the song we were singing was about and said that she would like to come to Harvest Chapel for a Sunday service so that she can drum along with the worship music. This woman has been coming out to parenting classes for a while now, but has not expressed an interest in coming out to a service. This was a very exciting breakthrough for the Ghents. There is another neat testimony about how God has used the drum. At the Kanagi concert on Sunday, the team had the opportunity to meet a man who was baptized into the church last year and is a member of the Kanagi Chapel. He used to be an avid drummer and played guitar as well. A certain illness struck him and he lost his short term memory. Since that time, he has been unable to play. During the concert, he was trying to tap along with the beat and so afterwards Adam brought the drum over to him. It was the first time he had played in years and it was apparently quite a sight. He was so joyous and excited about playing again. This piece of wood and raw hide helped usher him into worshiping the Lord through music. Both of these testimonies are such a great reminder that God will use whatever is available and whatever He knows will touch a person’s heart. Music is God’s creation and He uses it in ways that we cannot fathom or anticipate.

Prayer Requests for Week 4

2009-06-02T21:51:00.000-07:00

1. We are going to another pre-school in Itayanagi this Thursday. Please pray that the teachers will and students will be impacted and become curious about the Jesus.

2. We are hoping to have a Canada themed barbeque and concert event this Saturday outside of the church's coffee shop. Please pray that the planning and implementation of this event will go smoothly and that new people will have the boldness to stop in.

3. We have another outreach concert on Sunday night in Kanagi. Please pray that people wil be curious and will stop in and that the missionaries in that town will be able to establish relationships with those in attendance.

Praise Reports from Week 3

2009-06-02T21:43:00.000-07:00

1. The pizza and concert night brought many seekers. We had a great time of fellowship and God's presence was so evident!

2. We were able to personally distribute flyers at the local grocery store in Nakasato and some new faces attended the concert that night. We are so thankful for the oppenness of the managers and the opportunity to be so open with our faith.

3. We have been invited by some Christians and non-Christians in the church to spend time with them outside of our ministry events. We are so thankful that God has been blessing our relationships with people here and anticipate how He is going to continue working.

Concerts!!

2009-06-02T19:27:00.000-07:00

This past Saturday night, we had our second Itayanagi Chapel concert. The night was a pizza and concert event where those attending could show up at 7:00 and enjoy some home made pizza and then stick around for the concert, puppet show and Canada presentation afterwards. We did not know if anyone from outside church connections would come, but we were very hopeful that seekers affiliated with the church would come. It turned out that one new person came while the chapel was mostly filled with non-Christians who have been coming out to events and a few Christians. The Ghents and ourselves were able to spend a lot more one-on-one time with those in attendance because there were so few. We had decided for this concert to try and get people more involved and God just ran with the rest. We sang a couple of jumping songs and did not know how people would respond, but found that the whole building was jumping and dancing. Whether they knew it or not, God's presence was so powerful in that place.

On Sunday morning, we lead worship at Itayanagi Chapel. This service was different than usual as it was a testimony and praise service. This meant that Martin did not preach a message. Colin, Rebecca and Aimee lead the singing with seven Japanese songs, which was a big accomplishment. Also, Job and Rebecca had the great opportunity of sharing their testimonies. The Young Life group played the special song that we taught them on Friday night. They did a great job and it was just so amazing to see the future worship team stepping out in confidence with their gifts. Another very exciting part about this Sunday was that a new family came. This woman's two children attend the Young Life group and her daughter plays the piano. She was a part of the band for the special song performed at church on Sunday. The little girl told her mom that she had to come to church because she had to play her part on the piano. She was hesitant because she has never been to church before, but did not want to disappoint her daughter. The mother coming out to church was a very big next step for her on her way to making a committment to Christ. We are praying that she and her children will continue to come out to church and the whole family will come to know Him.

On Sunday afternoon and evening, we helped with a concert and free barbeque event at Harvest Chapel. The church just had its cross and sign put up last week so now people know about the church and, through events like this one, will know that they are welcome to come out. We did not know how many people would come due to the fact that it was a little bit rainy and that there was a county wide children's sports day all day. The Ghents and ourselves were so enthralled to find that a little over one hundred people came. There were many new faces. The Ghents did not even know how some of the people found out about the concert. The weather had absolutely no effect on God's plans! Due to the fact that many of them were children, we did some kids songs and a puppet show along with the actual concert material. The parents and the grandparents danced and jumped along with the children and did all of the actions. There was so much joy in the chapel! We also had the opportunity to sing "As the Deer" in Japanese as well as English. The people were very receptive to this song because they were so surprised by the fact that we ended with a song in their own language. Martin gave a short message later on in the concert and the crowd was very attentive. Martin said that this was a really new thing for him because the other times he has given messages at these outreach events the people have been uninterested. Many people had the opportunity to hear about Jesus that day and we must keep praying that they will continue to be curious and that they will come out to more events.

The Harvest Chapel concert

Monday is usually our mandatory day off, but this week we had a special event planned for the evening. One of the Christian ladies from the Itayanagi Chapel invited us to go out with her for the day so she could show us some local museums and take us out for lunch. At the first museum we went to, we sat in on a small concert with two national shamisen champions. After they were finished, we had the opportunity to talk with one of them. We found out that three years prior he had played at the coffee house adjacent to Itayanagi Chapel and that he knew the woman who was showing us around. None of us believe this was a coincedence. God wanted us to meet him. He asked us to sing for him there and so we all sang "God of Wonders" together. When we were finished, he asked us when our next concert was and so we invited him to come and play at the coffee house that night. He told us that he would come and it turns out that he did! He came at the beginning and stayed for the entire time. He brought his shamisen and did a mini concert. Afterward, we had the chance to talk with him some more and invited him to come and play basketball with us mid-week and he said yes to that as well. Please remember him in prayer as he claims to be a firm believer in Shintoism.

Nick rocking out on the shamisen

Kaitlyn and Soo Jin got to try the battle drums at the museum

The coffee house was overall a very exciting time! This was the launching of the coffee house being open on Mondays and was a kind of celebration event. The place was completely packed! Other than the team, the Ghents and a couple of employees, the rest of those in attendance are not professing Christians. Our team had the opportunity to share before each worship song we played and were able to tell them what God means to us. The Ghents were able to make some new connections as there were some people there whom they had never met before. The place was filled with so much joy and everyone had a great time. We are really praying that this is only the beginning and that future coffee houses will draw out the same people and more.

Job playing some Switchfoot covers at the coffee house

One of our favourite babies (Coco) :)

The Iris cafe and book store on the night of the coffee house

The rest of Week 3 and....a bit of Week 4

2009-06-02T18:34:00.000-07:00

There have been some pretty exciting things happening here in Itayanagi and we are so blessed to be allowed the opportunity to be a part of what God has been working here. We went to the train station on Friday afternoon and handed out flyers to the high school students for the Saturday night pizza and concert event. We were able to meet up with two high school girls we had met the week before who had come over to talk with Ruth. They said that they love music and often sing in front of the train station. Some of us taught them how to play "Mighty to Save" on the guitar and sang along as they played. These girls did not know what was being sung, but we can only pray that they can understand a little bit of Christ's love from our lives. The train station concerts have been a great branching point for getting the word out on events as there are no restrictions for us playing there and we can reach so many people.

On Friday, we lead the Young Life group. We had a talk time where we all went around and answered the question of what we would like to have accomplished in ten years. One of the youth said that the one thing he would like to do is be baptized. This was such an incredible moment! In this country it takes so much for a person to become committed to Christ and this young man is choosing early on in his life to follow Him. We taught the youth how to play a new song. Just watching and listening to them play brought tears to our eyes because we realized that these kids are the future leaders of the church in Itayanagi.

Another really exciting thing about Young Life is that there are two non-Christian kids who have come all three weeks we have been here. At first, their mother was very hesitant about them coming but continued to let them come after the first week because she saw how they were welcomed into the group and just loved on so much.

On Saturday morning, we went to Harvest Chapel and went out tracting to advertise for Sunday's concert. It had started to rain when we first set out, but it cleared up into a beautiful sunny day. The weather brought many people outside to their gardens, so we had the chance to speak with them and personally invite them to the concert. We helped Martin and Ruth finish up a lot of the cleaning at Harvest so that it would be ready for the concert. A praise report for Harvest is that Martin and one of his friends were able to finish the wiring and so, for the first time, there is electricity in the sanctuary.

Skipping ahead to Tuesday...we went to a pre-school in Itayanagi called "Little Lambs." This was the first time any missionaries have had access to the school. Martin was very excited about this opportunity because the school was actually named after a Christian pre-school in Tokyo and it seems that there may be more oppenness to talk about God because of its roots. The teachers really enjoyed us being there and so we are praying that God will open up doors for the Ghents to continue going there and doing programs with the kids.

Kanagi and Nakasato

2009-05-28T02:39:00.000-07:00

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!

2009-05-26T09:26:00.000-07:00

Crazy Dogs

2009-05-26T08:54:00.000-07:00

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

2009-05-26T07:36:00.000-07:00

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

2009-05-26T07:14:00.000-07:00

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

2009-05-19T18:12:00.000-07:00

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

2009-05-19T17:25:00.000-07:00

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!!

2009-05-18T18:40:00.000-07:00

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!

2009-05-15T12:57:00.000-07:00

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!

2009-05-13T10:21:00.000-07:00

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!

Why Japan?

2009-04-01T05:55:00.000-07:00

I have no clue.

For a long while I had been praying about going on a mission trip. In fact, a couple opportunities came about but I never really felt led to go on them, until Japan. From the moment the words left the speaker's mouth I knew that God was calling me to go and the more the speaker spoke to more I knew that this trip was for me.

Japan? You can go to Japan on a mission?

For some reason I'd convinced myself that the only places you could go on a missions trip were Cuba, Dominican Republic, and different places in Africa.

One of the things that really drew me to Japan is the necessity of the gospel to the people there. Growing up in a church gave me a good reputation among the older church ladies; I never really got in trouble and I did a decent job of knowing the bible but Christ wasn't Lord of my Life. I looked fine on the surface. Japan does a great job of making it look like everything is great and they've got everything under control. Sadly, the comforts and securities of Japan seem to cloud how important the Gospel is. After all, if life is going great, why try to fix something that's not broken? The truth is: Comfortable or not we all need to know Christ. Whether we think we've got it all together or not we all need to know Christ.

So, Why Japan?

'cause God call me to it.

.nick

Awaiting Japan

2009-03-25T14:10:00.000-07:00

So I finally figured out how to use this thing, although it took many hours of helplessly starring at my computer screen! But I'm here now and very excited to be sharing with you about this trip to Japan.

What a mystery the nation of Japan is! It still blows my mind when I think of how advanced they are in technology, fashion, transportation and so many other things! Yet, under that facade of wealth and prosperity is a nation that is broken and desperately needs the love of God.
In our meeting today Colin spoke about the harsh realities that we will be facing as we step into the Japanese culture in less than 2 months! (49 days to be exact).
We were informed about the staggering suicide rates among the Japanese people with a record 2, 645 suicides committed in the month of January alone. This statistic completely broke my heart and made me aware of the pain, anger and hopelessness that plague Japanese society. My prayer is that God would replace each of those things with His love and peace and in the midst of the desperation there would be an inexplicable hope!

On a brighter note, the first copies of the Japan Missions Team CDs were sold this week. I think I'll make a shamless plug and say they are truly amazing. They are 10$ each and include original tracks from Perry, Colin and Adam, as well as short testimonials from each member of the team. If you would like to purchase a copy come find one of us! We'd be more than happy to get you one, or two, or twenty even!
Keep praying for our team as we continue to raise support for this trip. Raising such large amounts of money can be a daunting task, but I believe that each member of our team has been called of God to be a part of this trip, and because of that I have a tremendous amount of faith that He will provide!

God is good and I am completely in awe of His provision up until this point. I'm so looking forward to seeing the wonderful things He has in store for our team from here on!
Thanks so much for all your the support and prayer!!!
May God bless you,
Rebecca

Prayer

2009-03-24T16:11:00.000-07:00

If we are to make an impact in Japan, we must pray. If we are to make an impact in our own homes, never mind a different country, we must pray. I think that I have underestimated the power of prayer. As a team, we need to be seeking out the Lord to determine what His will is, but more importantly, that we will be willing and ready to submit to His will. On our own, we must be seeking out what God wants of us on the trip. We pray into the preparation of our hearts and minds. With all this said, here are some prayer requests:

1. Pray for the People we will come in contact with, that they will be like the good soil by which the seeds will fall on

2. Pray for our group, that the Lord would continue to unify us in Spirit as well as friendship

3. Pray for our safety, as the devil will have many attacks for the work of which we have been given

4. Pray for our ministries, that they would come together, and be ready to serve

5. Pray for our finances, that the Lord would provide the necessary funds to send us overseas

6. Pray for our health.

Thats all for now, Go in Peace

2009-03-15T16:22:00.001-07:00

So, the time has come everyone, I finally began my support raising stint, and I think I will be successful in raising the amount of money. Of course there is a great deal of faith that goes into that statement alone, but HE has carried me thus far, and HE will lead me home right?!

If you are reading this blog, please pray. On the weekend our teams were bombarded with so much information (at Missions Team Training), about how the world desperately needs the gospel of Christ. This is sad fact, and a fact that should bring every participant of this Japan trip, as well as their supporters to their knees, asking of the LORD to guide us in every way possible. Pray that we would have wisdom and discernment, and that we would go in power and love.

God Bless you all.

Addy

10 Weeks to go...

2009-03-04T20:41:00.000-08:00

It's hard to believe that we will be in Japan in less than 3 months!

While the memories and lessons from last year's trip are still fresh in my mind, I am so excited for the team God has called to return to the Itayanagi Chapel in 2009.

Last year, God called 6 of us from Tyndale to serve in Japan, a nation that is only 1% Christian and starving for the hope of Jesus Christ. In the short two weeks we were in the Tsugaru Peninsula, we had the opportunity to visit a number of preschools, elementary schools, and highschools, sharing songs of hope and promise. Through these visits, we were able to encourage students and their parents to come to one of the many evangelistic concerts we held at the Itayanagi Chapel and various community centres. We saw God move in so many ways and witnessed an abundance of miracles.

When we first arrived in Tokyo, one of the first things we learnt at our orientation was the intense difficulties involved in a Japanese person deciding to live for Christ. Many of the Christians we met had been abandoned by their families when they made the decision to be a Christian. Our training cautioned us to not be discouraged if attendance at our concerts was low. It is a great thing if there are even 1 or 2 new people coming to an evangelistic event.

Our first concert saw 12 new people come......by our last concert, there were close to 70 new people at our outdoor concert in a park right beside a new church plant.

When we left, the missionaries we were with, Martin and Ruth Ghent, along with various members of the Itayanagi Chapel told us to come back next year and bring as many people back with us as possible!

The team this year has increased to 10 members and we are SO excited for what God has in store for us.

Our team has been meeting on a weekly basis since January and have begun to prepare and organize music, puppet shows, and different presentations that will be used during our time in Japan.

It would mean a great deal if you could pray for us as we continue to prepare and seek financial support!

~Colin<><