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.
Tuesday, June 2, 2009
Concerts!!
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
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.
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.
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.
Thursday, May 28, 2009
Kanagi and Nakasato
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.
Tuesday, May 26, 2009
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.
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.
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.
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