Noto Reflections

Hey Team!

As we work here in Japan we are so thankful that you are all partnering with us in prayer and other kinds of support the whole time!

Riding around the Noto peninsular though there were moments where I wished that it was you rather than me, not necessarily on the hard uphills because I often felt like it was hard but there was an end in sight, a tangible achievement. The times when it was the hardest and I couldn't help but wonder if anyone else would do better than me were in the times when I was tired and then had to try and communicate across language barriers, and eat food that I am so unaccustomed to.

However it is these times that I think God is reminding me most richly about His ongoing grace. It is only by His grace that I am able to play the role of missionary, to be a part of a family business that I have no right to enjoy the priviledges of, and to be strengthened in my relationship with Him and His people in the process.

During cycling we were taken care of by two wonderful OM (Operation Mobilisation) missionaries - Stephan and Simon. Stephan is Dutch South African and Simon is Korean Australian. Both guys are here with their wives and kids, living in one of the more remote parts of Japan (atleast compared to Tokyo) and attempting the learn the language and the culture in order to be able to serve God in this land. Please join us in thanking God for these men, and praying for them and their families as they form friendships, learn many things through easy and hard lessons, and as they attempt to share their lives and the gospel with the people around them!

see you all soon :)

In Him

Kat

J's shady vlog

Sorry i'm so quiet - tired and hard to find a place for me to speak to a camera (lol)

Fi's experience tracting on Noto Peninsula

So while we've been cycling during the week we had been trying to give tracts to people we met and talked with... However Noto peninsula is like a farming area. A lot lot lot of the houses are abandoned and overgrown, or summer houses that people aren't living in just at the moment. So as far as meeting people *while* we're cycling, that can be a bit of a challenge. Usually we were riding past them or they were working in the rice fields. On Saturday we spent the whole day tracting the coast east of Nanao (the church we were at on Sunday).

Tracting houses in Japan is totally different to Australia! First, you have to find the front door of the house. In some of the seaside villages I was walking through, the houses were all clumped together like a maze, with little streams in between them and crazy terraces all curving around. The front dear can be on any side of the house! sometimes near the street, sometimes in a little nook or cranny, sometimes not where you were expecting it at all.　Then you have to find the letterbox - which is somewhere near the door. Good luck! it is usually small and inconspicuous. Other times it is red (hooray!). Sometimes, it is inside the genkan/entrance or gate and you feel like you're walking into someone's house.
Also because we were tracting on a Saturday, a lot of people were home! I 'talked' to maybe 20 people or so! I think it would be very rare in Australia to actually see the people you are leaving tracts for, but Japanese houses often have a sitting area near the front door - like a metre or so away! somtimes there were people working in the fields in front of the house, but it wasn't their house! Most of the people are old. I saw maybe 2 families or groups under 50!
Finally, they are interested to read what you give them. I didn't meet anyone who looked at the front page or heard me say I came from a church and reject the tract because of that.

Please pray:
- thank God for the willingness of the people to receive the tract and read it.
- pray that as God has promised, his word will not return to Him empty (Isaiah 55:11), that not only would people read the tracts and understand them, but by the Holy Spirit they would come to know Jesus as their Lord and Saviour.

"Masaki" says a bit about homestays...

There's so much you can learn about a culture by experiencing a little of family life. During our Ishikawa-ken leg of our trip, we had two homestays on each end of the mission (so one at Wajima and one at Nanao). The homestay the girls had at Wajima were a lacquerware... people who attend the English classes run by the Wajima church. They not only allowed us into their homes but they also let us have a go at lacquerware, which I must say was mighty fun. The second family the girls homestayed with were an elderly couple who used to own a ryokan. We stayed in said ryokan (+onsen!!!!) but dined with the couple at their home. I was very amazed by this couple as they are very busy on Sundays but still go to the Sunday service even though they're always late (and by late I mean they arrive later than halfway through the sermon). Truthfully, I also greatly appreciated the homecooked Japanese meals... reminded me of home (both in Japan and Australia).
Things I thought to pray for from this experience are:
- Thank God for the open hearts of the homestays who were excited for us to come even though we're a bunch of strangers from down under.
- The non-Christian family who are still keen to interact with the Wajima church. Pray that they will continue to be in contact and they will eventually be compelled to love the Lord as their own personal Saviour.

The time in Ishikawa

So apart from biking around ishikawa-ken till my thighs went on vacation after finishing up I'd like to mention what I learned about Japanese shrines as we traveled around. First of all there are alot of em, like every 2-3kms theres roughly the same kind of shrine for the local area. The actual shrines are often in the middle of a small forest so the best way to spot them out is the gate that is visible on the outskirts of the forest. Most shrines are very well maintained with one exception I found while I was tracting in the eastern section of the Noto region. I have some photos but for lack of time I didn't actually make it to the shrine the footing was treacherous and I don't like spiders. That unkept shrine really intrigued me because it was an oddity I really want to find out the story behind why it was left un-maintained.

Alen :)

J's ramble about Uchinada

Biking was......fun. My inner groin muscles hurt. I think I need to get out more.

On Wednesday this week we went to Uchinada Bible Church for their prayer meetings and kids program. It was tres cool - the people were really honest in sharing their prayer points and praying with strangers like us. The kids program was pretty fun too - I think they liked the skit and the game (jan ken poh?). OH! And we met a guy called Tomo a.k.a. Joel (coz apparently he's funny/annoying like Joel and is similar in other ways...?) a.k.a. Joey (coz someone else misheard it but it stuck because it sounded cool, plus it got confusing when we wanted to talk about Joel). Please pray for Tomo - he's studying in a bible college in Canada to become a youth pastor, which isn't common at all in Japan, so it'd be good to see that focus - pray that he'd be able to understand the bible well, especially since his teaching is all in English in Canada which can be pretty hard.

J's ninja vlog no.3 from Ushitsu

Sorry, had no internet there for a week so couldn't upload this, but enjoy!

A crazy couple of days!

Harry Lam here reporting in for my first proper blog on the mission trip! I haven't been able to join the team very much, but i was asked to do this blog now because the team is busy "cycling, tracting and interacting" up in Ishikawa-Ken right now! So it looks like they'll be doing several kilometres of cycling for a couple of days (on the itinerary it said about 30km of riding each day!! imagine that in this super humid and hot weather :( )!

Anyways, here's a bit of a recount of 24/6 - 27/6. I am writing this a few days after all these events so i apologise if i miss anything! There's a whole lot to blog about, so forgive me if this post is very long! If you find that it is too long, please at least scroll down to the bottom for the prayer points!

Australia Night 24/6

After many days of stress and frustration in lead up to Australia night, the night finally came! Jay started us off with a short explanation of Australian culture in comparison to Japanese culture, and Yoshiki was there to translate everything (that guy's a legend!). Then we decided to break into dance with an all Aussie bush dance! Everyone had a whole heap of fun learning the dance and sharing each other's sweat in the heat while dancing :) then we had a short break, in which the Japanese students had a taste of Australia: Anzac biscuits, fairy bread, vegemite and some other stuff :) I think they loved it! Although, i do think that some of the students, being Japanese, could not truthfully say that they didn't like the vegemite :P One of them said it tastes somewhat like soy sauce! I think they were kinda right, except it's a little stranger than soy sauce... Anyways, so the night continued with a skit about the prodigal son, and Masaki doing her talk in English (with Yoshiki as translator). I think the students thoroughly enjoyed it all :) They decided to give us all presents, but they had only prepared 6 of them, because well, they didn't account for me since i wasn't there most the time. But Kat told me to go up and grab the gift in her place, and she somehow convinced me to hold onto it...

Anyways, all in all it was an enjoyable night of good fellowship between Christians from two different cultures! :D (i'm not sure if there were any non-Christians there...)

Friday 25/6: Nagoya!

So the next morning we got up early to check out, and we then caught the train to Tokyo station, from which we caught the bullet train to Nagoya. I think it was about a 2 - 3 hour long ride. One awesome thing about bullet trains is the amount of leg room they have :D

Anyways, upon arriving at Nagoya, we met Azu, who helped us a heap with luggage (legendary!!). She also introduced us to one of her friends, Dai, who was also quite helpful :) So when we got to Nagoya, we had no idea who we were meant to meet exactly, and we were a bit late so we thought they'd left already. But we got in contact with him and met him at Mister Donut. So there we met Mr Joseph Kim - a Korean who grew up in America, co-missionary with Michael Oh, the founder of the Nagoya Bible Seminary - another legendary dude :) He drove us over to the Seminary, where he gave us a short tour and filled us in on the many different initiatives that have been taking place there. Sounds like there are heaps of different things going on there, and it seems that although missionary work in Japan is really hard work, there is a ray of hope. Joseph told us that he was sure that God was using globalisation to make the new generation of Japanese more open to western culture and religion, and he showed us an interesting youtube video to show us why he thought so. Can you guess what he showed us? For all the Big Bang fans out there reading this blog, he showed us the clip for "Gara gara go" by Big Bang :) Basically, he was surprised that a bunch of Koreans would be singing in Japanese and English. Several decades back that would have been absolutely unheard of! But now, huge korean bands like Big bang are becoming very very popular even in Japan, which has a huge fan base. Could God be using these things to bring the Japanese back to Him?

So we're all praying for the work to continue, and for the Gospel to be spread more and more there (see below for prayer points). Allthough it was a shame that we couldn't meet Mr Michael Oh himself, it was an awesome privilege to meet Joseph, who is a very knowledgeable and faithful man indeed!

After our meeting we went out to eat some awesome Nagoya specialty flat udon :D The price was awesome for the amount that we ate :) And we had a really awesome time chatting away about random things and enjoying each other's fellowship. Praise God!

We then trekked to our one-night accommodation in Nagoya. I really wish we could've stayed longer though, coz it was seriously such an awesome place! It has its own onsen, and it was quite big and comfortable to live in unlike the other accommodation we had. On top of all that, it was very cheap! Anyways, once we got to our accommodation it was officially our day off :) So the options we were given by Azu were to go out for Karaoke or to go and watch a baseball game. Everyone was too tired to even want to do anything, so we decided on plan C: to spend the night inside. Azu kindly offered to take some of us shopping to bring food back for everyone :D So a few of us drove down to the shops to get some food. We arrived at a huge shopping mall, where we shopped at a huge supermarket :) So when we got back, we ate, and then had dessert, at which point we discovered Jay's "maccha face" :P Jay's the biggest face of maccha, and upon finishing his maccha ice cream his face showed his absolute appreciation of maccha. So we called it the "maccha face" :) Oh yeah, so Jay also has been nicknamed "Nagaremizu" which means "running water"... you can go and figure that out yourself :P (he was also previously nicknamed "diabetes boy", does that help?)

Saturday 26/6: Sakae, Nagoya castle and Kanazawa

So we had a day off to explore the area a little. Azu took us to Sakae, which is one of Nagoya's big city areas with heaps of good shopping. So we stopped by the hundred yen shop and UniQlo to shop a bit :) We then met up with Joel (who soon got the nickname "Jama-Joel" which means "Joel, who always gets in the way" or "Obstacle Joel") :D The ten of us then went out to look for food, and we found this rather expensive but super awesome and satisfying restaurant where we got huge plates of amazing food :) After an awesome meal, we trekked up to Nagoya castle and explored the area a bit. May need to wait for mission photos to go up, and that might take a while! (The team is quite busy after all...) We then said goodbye to our legendary guide Azu, and made our way up to Kanazawa from Nagoya. Upon reaching Kanazawa, we met up with the accommodation dude, who led us through some rather dodgy streets to bring us to the accommodation, which looked pretty dodgy on the outside too...but the inside was quite nice and i think some of us had a pretty good rest :) Some of us stayed up a bit to prepare for the next day though.

Sunday 27/6: Wajima Bible Church

Sunday was yet another early start. We made our way back up to Kanazawa station, and met up with Mr Stephan (pronounced "Steven") and Simon (a Korean dude who spent about 11 years living in Brisbane!), our missionary guides for the next week. The drove us (apart from Joel and Alen who caught the bus up) to Wajima. We properly introduced ourselves and talked a whole lot about various things like where we were from and all. The journey up was amazing! I mean the scenery up there is seriously so amazing, it made me wanna live there, honestly! It's a shame i couldn't get out of the car to take a couple of photos though...but i think the image will remain in my head forever :D Mental snapshots are awesome...but they only seem to serve one's own purposes...they should so develop a "mental snap" camera :) One blink and voila! Perfect snapshot :D Anyways, on the way up, we stopped by a convenience store to pick up some food, and our driver got attacked by a rogue falcon :0 I think it was going for his food... it dove at him twice! It was quite awesome but also quite scary haha...

So, we arrived at the church at about 9:30am, giving us about an hour to prepare for the church service. So at 10:30 we were all ready to go! We performed "My heart is filled with thankfulness" for them, then i did my testimony. The pastor Arakawa sensei (a really really jolly man :) another legend!) gave a short talk on Psalm 139:14 (LOVE Psalm 139!), then we had a break and played some awesome games organised by him. He showed us the Japanese version of rock scissors paper: "Jan-ken-poi! Acchi mite HOI!" I think Alen has a new favourite game :P He absolutely blitzed it!

We then had a really awesome lunch, and some really nice cakes and waffles for dessert (which were leftover for afternoon tea as well :D). So we re-charged a little and prepared for the next segment, which was an English service (evangelistic) at which Jay gave his talk completely in English. While it was a good talk, i don't think many of them understood much of it! Still, it was a great opportunity for us to bring the word to them anyways! Afterwards we enjoyed some time together playing very similar games to the ones we played in the morning. Alenface was heaps excited about jankenpoi again, and this time he managed to beat about 5 people in a row! What a beast!

The following bits aren't exactly part of the team activities, but i thought they'd be encouraging for you guys to hear so i decided to blog about it too:

So Joel and I had to leave early, and we caught the last bus from Wajima station at 6:10pm (yeah...that's HEAPS early i know!) with a non-Christian girl called Miku. The bus ride was about 2 hours long, so it was an excellent opportunity to talk to Miku about her thoughts on religion (and a great opportunity to spend some time man-chatting with Jama-Joel!). Miku, like many Japanese, grew up in a Buddhist family, but did not hold onto that belief herself. So she was actually very open to hearing a little about the Gospel and gladly accepted a two ways to live tract from us (by the way, this was my first time ever explaining Christianity and the Gospel in Japanese, so praise God that He gave me the words to say!)

So after our two hour bus ride, we reached Kanazawa station, where i said bye to Joel (who caught the last train to Kyoto) and Miku. My bus was an overnight bus - an 8 hour trip to Shibuya, Tokyo. So i had to wait almost 3 hours for that bus, with nothing much to do. So i bought some food for the trip (and for breakfast next morning) and sat down to do a bit of journalling. Whilst journalling, a man with a cute little daughter in a pram came up to me and asked "are you travelling?" Immediately i thought "oh wow, this guy must be a missionary or something!" (Japanese people don't tend to talk to random strangers unless asking for directions or something). So it turns out this guy is a missionary from South Korea (another one!!!) who has been in Japan doing ministry for about 10 years. It was an awesome coincidence and i told him how happy i was to see him doing that kinda work there. We told each other about what we were doing there, and i talked to him about Credo and the mission and stuff. KGK also came up, and so we talked a bit about that too. He then told me about an event coming up called "KOSTA". This was a South Korean initiative that started in America about 24 years back for Korean exchange students. It is now a camp that takes place in about 12 different countries, Japan being the 12th, this year being the first for Japan! Well...he didn't actually tell me all that info...he just told me the name "KOSTA" and we left it at that. But when i got back to my place in Yamanashi, my Chinese friend (the only other Christian living here in these dorms) who goes to a local korean church gave me a pamphlet for KOSTA-Japan 2010. I get the feeling God wants me to go :P

So that wraps up those four days! Please take some time to pray!

Praise God for:

- a smooth running Australia night - quite a lot of students came, though i'm not exactly sure if there were any non-Christians there...

- the awesomely encouraging and faithful KGK students

- the initiatives taking place in Nagoya Bible Seminary, and the way He has been using missionaries like Joseph Kim and Michael Oh here

- using globalisation as a tool to make the Japanese more open-minded about foreign cultures (and thus foreign religions like Christianity as well)

- Stephan, the missionary from OM that the team is now working with

- Miku, a non-Christian girl who has been going to the English classes once a month at Wajima Bible church. Praise God that she heard a bit about the Gospel for the first time, and that she has now received a "Two ways to live" pamphlet in Japanese.

- sending so many faithful missionaries from other countries, especially South Korea

Please pray:

- That God will continue to be at work amongst the KGK students all over Japan

- That God will use Michael Oh, Joseph Kim and the others at the Nagoya Bible Seminary to further the work being done here in Japan. In particular, pray that as they seek to eventually open up a church

- That God will open up more paths for missionary work here in Japan

- That God will raise up the next generation of pastors and Bible teachers here in Japan, using native Japanese people to preach to the Japanese (apparently there is now not a single Bible college that has proper accreditation from the government).

- For the church in Wajima - that God will use Arakawa sensei's English classes and the other events there to bring more people to Himself

- For Miku (see above in the praise points), that God may open up her heart to the Gospel and that she may pursue Him

- That the team will have enough energy to cycle around and that their work may be effective

- For good teamwork, as it is very easy to get frustrated when working with a team for so long, even within Christian circles

Thanks so much for keeping up to date and for being patient with the super long post! :D

J's tuesday night update

Don't forget to check out Alen dancing in the post below =)

Alen dances too

Yes, we got Alen on camera too! =P

Videos

The videos are coming out really bad and posting them on youtube doesn't help either..... if you want to see them in better quality try facebook. My friends which includes the team, and the friends of my friends can all see them so that might be a better option.

The Proof - Episode III

ALL IN - except me I was quite content with videotaping



I just noticed watching it again, the staff in the background must have been thinking "What the heck?!" - Classic Japanese no-comment pose :D

Sorry about the video quality there isn't much I can do Blogger does its own editing and that really stuffs it up :(

The Proof - Episode II

So basically a slow song came up and everyone ran away except for Harry and another Japanese patron whose hands the lady was holding.....so funny



Sorry about the video quality there isn't much I can do Blogger does its own editing and that really stuffs it up :(

The Proof - Episode I

So here is the first video of our Jazz night to celebrate Fiona's officially older than me day aka Birthday. Happy Birthday Fi!



If at the end you pay attention to who Harry is holding onto Episode II makes so much more sense lol

Sorry about the video quality there isn't much I can do Blogger does its own editing and that really stuffs it up :(

J's vlog on Fi's birthday with Kev and Harry-chan

This is Alen editing - the song was 'Louis Armstrong - When The Saints Go Marching In'
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wyLjbMBpGDA

[J edit] - =O can't believe you would edit my post! =P

Awesomeness

Hello supporters and ppl interested in our mission. Kevin here, updating the blog at 2-3 in the morning. This is our latest night so far, but anyway.

We've been having an awesome time meeting Christian students at many different universities, joining in their bible studies and 'block' (group of uni's that Staffworkers look after) prayer meetings. It's really encouraging to hear and see the faith of the uni Christian students here, especially the leaders and staffworkers who do a lot for the students they look after.

I'll try and continue on from where Fi left off - keep in mind that we've been visiting more than 1 uni group or block at any one time in small teams.
Thursday morning Kat, Fi and I left for the KGK office in Ochanomizu (water of the tea :p) to help with making testimony booklets which contained testimonies as a result of the national conference held earlier in the year - Alen joined us later at the office. The pages were already laid out around the table folded in 2 sets, so we just needed to keep on adding outer layers to the inside ones till we put on the cover, which was a very efficient way of doing it (sorry, was too busy doing it to take a photo!). Then helped a bit with stapling them, though it seemed like they did most of the work and we only helped out a bit. We started pretty late so I got plenty of sleep, but still fell asleep at the office waiting to leave (Fi and Alen left earlier because they had to travel a lot further).

Kat and I went with Makiko (the staffworker mainly looking after us and organising our schedule who speaks really good english and translates really well) to Risshou university, which looks awesome as the building is really new. We learnt that this was the 2nd time a KGK meeting was held there (I think), and it is actually a buddhist university (with funding from temples and a seminary), so like the other university's we've visited KGK isn't an official group at the uni, though thanks to God they are all able to meet and even sing songs! It ended up being an all girls bible study, which was a first for me, but ended up being the bible study I enjoyed the most. We looked at the story of the Samaritan woman at the well, and opened up with a question about how we deal with the loss after a breakup (I gave a hypothetical answer). We looked at the story from the perspective of the woman then Jesus, especially discussing their feelings, which is not normally something we look at in bible studies in Australia. I found it really insightful hearing the perspective of the girls, even the non-Christian one. She even called Jesus Iesu-san because that's how her philosophy teacher talks about Jesus. The girls were from different universities but the leader keeps up with them and is training them up to run bible studies on their own campuses, which I find pretty amazing. Ended up eating Sizzeriya (cheap Italian food) for the 3rd time, but had interesting conversations about Christianity in Australia and Japan, especially with the lack of guys in the church, which is especially hard for the Christian girls in Japan since there's so few Christians their age. So people in Australia, perhaps we shouldn't be so picky! Another late night but also had a sleep in the next day.

Friday
We had most of the day off, so slept in and had a meeting, sharing about our different experiences and praying for one another. Lisa had a headache so she went back to bed. We then looked at Luke ... using Kat's method - thinking about the original audience, what particular things they would've noticed and what twist there is in the parable. Was quite difficult, but ended up with the idea that as disciples of Jesus we need to examine ourselves and make sure that we keep ourselves spiritually strong and acting more like Jesus before we help others do so.

Kat, Fi, J and I headed out for lunch - ended up eating at KFC since my church friends wanted me to see if there were no bones in the chicken here. The spicy chicken is not spicy but better than in Australia but there ARE still bones in the chicken here. I'm not sure if they were joking... anyway, it was good chicken. We then headed to the markets, and ate some interesting food like green tea icecream and chestnut cake (bit like moon cake texture). Wasn't fun for me since my raincoat got condensation on the inside so I felt wet. Quickly bought some onigiri and melon-pan (melon shaped bread) for Lisa, before going back to hostel then heading out to the station.

We rode the trains for nearly an hour to Tobe, next to Yokohama for the Bay block prayer meeting. It was awesome to see so many Christian students there (though they were from a lot of universities). One student (a quite eccentric and cool girl) shared how tough it is being the only Christian at her university. We shared a bit about AFES and Credo, with Alen translating for me, then heard a message about the dispersion and Barnabas, which was very encouraging about God working through ordinary and individual Christians in new places far from their homes where it wouldn't be expected.

Anyway, I better not continue rambling on and get some much needed sleep. I've only just survived a day without falling asleep in the evening. Thanks so much for reading and supporting us!!

Praise points:
Thank God for the staffworkers Miyuki and Makiko who have been looking after us and translating constantly for us.
For the awesome Christian leaders here who put in so much effort to help other Christians even in different universities.
That we could get some much needed sleep-ins after late nights (not all of us)
For my kinda improving Japanese
That Lisa was able to get extra sleep and recover today

Prayer points:
That we would continue to improve our Japanese and communication
That we would be honouring and thankful to our homestay families Friday night
That God would sustain us - especially for Kat, Lisa and J who have been unwell at some point in time - I think J still has a bit of a migraine from lack of sleep.
That we can be an encouragement to the Christians here in Japan

J's ninja vlog no.2 about KFC

another ninja post, sorry about the aspect ratio! too much effort to fix....

and we didn't end up meeting aki for dinner, check out Kev's post =)

"Do you sing songs to Jesus?"

From MyChestnutSoil

Fi here! I take random photos of japan fun - sometimes rain can be enjoyable. other times you've still forgotten to buy an umbrella despite it being the 5th day here. i think.

So 2 nights ago we were at the Ochanomizu Block Welcome Party which was super fun - we gave a presentation about AFES, they told us about KGK, we prayed for each other and sang 3 songs (all bilingual, which was awesome :) because we could sing along together as the body of Christ, knowing what we were singing even when we had no idea what we were singing.

One of the girls on my table, Megumi-san was able to chat to me in english, and she was asking me what Credo was like. She asked me what kind of songs we sing at Credo... and i was almost ashamed to say that we don't! It was such a cool thing to be able to worship with our brothers and sisters in Christ that it makes sense.

I think, though, that in Australia it would be very rare for *any* Christian student group to sing very much, let alone a bible study of 6 or so people! Yet, at 3 out of 4 meetings so far, groups of all sizes have sung - and loudly! They have KGK song books, even.

We've been splitting up into pairs and threes to visit bible study groups at lots of universities around Tokyo. So far I've been to International Christian University, which is green it would put USyd to Shame!

We also went to Tokyo Language University tonight.. I sometimes feel like we slow the ordinary bible studies down, with translation both ways. My Japanese is slowly getting better, remembering things I've learnt before or finding out new phrases, but its very tiring! Sometimes its hilarious getting mixed up in multiple languages but others it just feels like really hard work (taihen ne!)

I know this isn't really in any sort of order, but its starting to get a little jumbled in my head. Here's a rundown of today, 16/6/10:

- early-ish morning, its a hot and humid day (mushi atsukai!) (there's a reason everything is soooo green. I think maybe greener than England).

- went to help at a chapel+food type thing being run by one particular church, but with volunteers from many churches in the area

- down by the river, each wednesday about 150-300 homeless people (mostly men) sit in neat rows for a short chapel service with a couple of songs and a message, followed by food/lunch

- the pastor of a church from Chiba (i think) came to give the message, about the story of the prodigal son

- then we handed out kareraisu to each of the rows. volunteers spend most of tuesday making the food (curry and rice today) and the men start cooking the rice from 5:30am on wednesday morning

- we help clean up. 2 KGK students are with us, Marina-chan and Moto-kun

-we head back to the KGK office and hang out, and meet, then head to our evening bible studies.

so much student ministry happens at night! 3 nights in a row with prayer meetings for the block (like... area/division in Tokyo because there are so many universities) and bible studies. We sleep in (a little) and stay out late. Kevin and I didn't get home (back to the hostel) til after 11:30pm! We were out having dinner with KGK students after prayer meeting and the train home took about an hour.

I need to get to sleep now, so here are some prayer points:

- pray that we would be able to get enough rest and sleep soundly when we do.

- pray that we would be focussed on being where we are and concentrating/being involved despite language barriers sometimes being overwhelming.

- that Alen would be able to finish his assignment so he can join us for as much as possible without being stressed out

- for those who are carrying most of the language burden for us - Lisa, and the KGK staffworkers who are patient and tireless in their translating both ways for us!

Praise!

- Kat is feeling better

- personally, i've been able to understand more Japanese than I expected to. praise God for clear thinking (mostly) and remembering things i used to know

- we have an awesome hostel in a mostly convenient location for a reasonable price that is sparkly clean, on a clean and safe street and pretty much is everything we never knew we wanted. praise God for his provision!

Over and out! Fi

ps. more photos coming on facebook.

KGK day two :)

Hey support team :)

Kat DC here

Today started off with the looooongest sleep in so far :D (atleast for Fi, Kev and I who were going to International Christian University and didn't have to meet Miyuki until 1:30pm :)

Then after a brief trip to the first department store we've seen (you could buy bikes and stationary and so much more! and we only go to the first level) because we'd arrived early, we met Miyuki and headed to ICU. KGK has a club room in their club building there, all of the clubs do, and in there 11 of us met for fellowship. We started with singing a song together (which they sung in English to accommodate us!), then opened 1 Corinthians 5 together and shared our thoughts. It was so great to open the Word with brothers and sisters from another culture, and, thanks to three of the members who could speak English, have fellowship bi-lingually!

After this we headed back to MushashiSakai hoping to spend our free time in the department store, buying postcards and gifts, but on the way there I got more and more sick to the point where I had to say to Fi that we needed to find a place to sit like nowwww

that was a challenge

there aren't really places to sit in Japan it seems

so we perched on a wall like the Gaijin (foreigners) we are

at this point, i was not loving Japan I'll tell you

We split ways, which meant I missed out on the prayer meeting tonight :(

And I was not looking forward to catching the train for almost an hour home while feeling so so sick

But then, in Asakusa station (when i finally made it there, took me longer than an hour with all of the stops to sit down and try to stop being nauseous) it all hit me and was going to uh come up (to be lovely) so i just knelt beside a wall where there was a drain, feeling terrible and like I was the most horrible Gaijin ever! Then this lovely lady came to see if I was ok. It was obvious that neither of us spoke the other person's language, so she just rubbed my back until I was done being sick, and could get up.

THEN the dude in the uniform at the station came over and offered me a sick bay sort of thing to lay down in

AND another tourist came over to offer to buy me water or something

I was wondering as I walked away feeling very loved, whether this would happen in Sydney, or whether someone would assume that I was just homeless, or drunk, or not worth their time.

Anyways, there's my day for you!

I did make it back to the hostel, and after sleeping away the afternoon I think I feel much better. Hopefully I won't have to miss out on tomorrow!! (serving at a chapel and lunch for the less fortunate then splitting up into two teams again to visit two KGK groups! YAY!)

In Him

Kat

J's update for the day

Hullo!

edit: okay so I ended up posting the vid from the airport...check it out somewhere in this blog.

Arrivals and Welcomes

We've arrived! Sorry for not blogging sooner. Other photos and videos will be up later but I really want to record for y'all the main points before I forget, everything is so hectic.

So I met up with the team late on saturday night at an Italian restaurant in Asakusa pretty much a stones throw from the temple's Thunder gate. Aki and Azusa had welcomed and taken them around already including buying groceries. Everyone looked fine, they hadn't slept much on the plane though. Harry was also there he was to leave on Sunday night. Speaking of nights, after returning to the hostel we had a team meeting where the basic flow was explained but alot of things were yet to be specifically decided. As a side note I find it worthy to mention that Harry broke a chair that both me we sitting on. It was fine with me just sitting on it but after about 30 minutes with his 25% extra weight it broke into pieces.

The next morning, the lack of sleep on the plane and abrupt change in weather had taken it's tall. The team set off with Azusa to Musashi-somewhere and met up with Aki to attend the church service where Aki was giving his testimony. Prior to that we had a chance to meet the pastor, Aki was explaining to the pastor about how they had just from Australia yesterday. The remark I caught was "ah, so that's why they have these faces", whatever the intonation I think it actually looked more in our favour that we came to church so early in the morning despite our fatigue. The pastor was indeed very happy to meet us, as well many members of the congregation who before or after came by to greet us, give us a bookmark, shake our hands, make small conversation. All of these things were just great examples of a serious commitment to welcoming despite language barrier.
After church we had lunch at Matsuya, which is basically fast Japanese food with the whole vending machine ticket buying system. Next up was Studio Ghibli Museum in Mitaka! We still had everyone with us as we entered Studio Ghibli Museum (Studio Ghibli makes high quality animated Japanese movies, such popular titles as Spirited Away and Howl's Moving Castle, most recently Ponyo). Throughout the Museum you get the feel of what kind of work is needed to produce animated films from the many animated and interactive things throughout the place. I think the most interesting for me was a machine that spun figures around in a circle super fast, in the dark and using stroke lights at a precise moments to illuminate the figures in such away creating the illusion of movement. When stopped it basically looks like a whole set of copies of the same figurine but in gradually different poses. Unfortunately, photos weren't allowed so I couldn't record this awesomeness. We also got to as part of our entry fee, watch a short animated film about mice sumo. Even though it was short seeing the attention to detail and quality of animation and just humour present in the film was really cool. After Studio Ghibli we went to buy some more groceries and also hit up a sushi train joint. What is cool about sushi train restaurants here is that the chefs are in the middle of the train and you can actually order from them if what you want is not on the train.
That night after bidding Aki and Azusa and Harry goodbye the team retired and they may have had a brief meeting but I went via home to the hostel to pickup some more stuff.

Finally, I come to what we did on Monday. First, slept in a precious hour more, I overindulged but still after breakfast we did some prep for the KGK meeting we were having tonight. Some people worked on powerpoints, some on counting money, others still on skits and brochures. We did this up until late lunch time and then set out for our meeting in Ochanomizu, which meants the water from tea. Firstly, we met up with Makiko-san, the KGK staffworker who was in charge of co-operating with us and organising what events and uniersity visits we would do with KGK. We first introduced ourselves and tried to give Makiko-san a better idea of how AFES rolls, how we worked with Credo in Australia and then Makiko-san explained the schedule in more detail to us. I have to say it's pretty rough we pretty much only have early mornings for breakfast, prep and meetings afternoon to late night is being somewhere and doing something. We spent the last and majority component brainstorming and planning out how we would conduct Australia night which is an event we'll be holding as an outreach. So far it looks like we'll be doing some bush dancing, eating damper and anzac biscuits, a skit on the prodigal son and a short message. After this meeting that went on for a fair few hours we had a bigger meeting with the Ochanomizu block. KGK is nationwide, divided in 9 areas and each area is made of any number of blocks of universities. On average you are looking at 1 staffworker for each area, the bigger areas around Tokyo and Osaka have 2. A far cry from Credo's 11 just for UTS. After a short program involving worship, introducing AFES and KGK to each other and some prayer for both the team was individually split up among 6 eating tables. It was here we got to really fellowship with our Christian siblings, the team's first real student interaction. Most Japanese around this age would have gone through 6 years of English study in school so they are really good, but on the other very self-conscious of the fact that they aren't perfect. On my table at least there seemed a few more shy ones, one obvious extravert and two that at least can at the very least sympathise enough to care for me by asking things to make me feel welcome. The genuine expression of interest and asking me things about myself despite my Japanese not being so great, I felt very welcome and reflected on how insensitive I was towards International students in Australia. I knew it might be difficult for them, but damn hard is the only truthful way to put it, studying abroad that is.

After meeting and fellowship over dinner the team headed home and nothing more than sleep was on the Agenda.

Praise points:
- KGK made such a great effort to receive us and will continue to do so while co-operating with us
- It seems that a mission team from SIngapore is also coming here in one or two days in fact, and they have quite similar schedule to us so we will definitely get a chance to meet them, it's so encouraging to see Christian's from other countries missioning to the same country we are. A huge blessing to also able to meet said Christians and hear their story.
- Everyone has adjusted reasonably well to the change in climate, culturally too.
- For those student families that are taking us in to their homes and churches for a few days

Prayer points
- Please pray for rest and health, our sched is so packed we won't be cooking much and to keep us working diligently we really need to pace ourselves especially before we starting our biking/tracting later on.
- Pray that Harry would be able to join for as much important stuff as he can and that he would be encouraged by being able to see God's work being done here in Japan.
- Pray for spiritualy strength for the team, that we would continue to preach the Gospel to ourselves and continually be amazed by aspects of God's character and the salvation we have received. So that we may share this great news.
- Pray for great fellowship with KGK students and great outreach to those who are lost.

Chestnut Soil sends you greetings from Japan, thanking you for supporting us,

ybic - Alen

J's ninja vlog from the airport

Horhorhor how sneaky am I, posting a vlog from before BUT ON THE DATE WE RECORDED IT! Sorry it's late....=)

Less than 5 hours till fly off!

Hi everyone,

It's almost time to go!! Things have been a little hectic, getting packing all done, finishing internship on Wednesday, and doing other preparations. Just bought some last minute gifts and decorations for our Australia Night.

Sorry if I've sent you last minute emails, I really need to learn to put everything down, focus and plan ahead instead of forgetting then remembering. All of you are dearly loved! So yes, please pray that with all of our shortcomings and weaknesses, that we'll be helping one another and really relying on God for His strength. That we'll remember that we are taking part in His mission where He is at work and able to do far more than we could ever do or imagine.

Thank you all again for your support, it really reminds me that I belong to the body and family of Christ, and that on my own I cannot function properly. Please do send us emails or comments so we can keep up with you and know how we can pray for you too.

Love you all.
In Christ,
Kevin

J is almost finished for the semester!

Let me know if you prefer written posts instead.

Countdown: 4 days to go!

We leave for Japan in just four days! Between now and then we have assignments to hand in, exams to take, work to do and to-do lists to complete. Its so exciting to be so close to it.

Thank you for your support of us so far, both prayerfully and financially. We would love for you to keep praying for us over this week and for the rest of mission, so please, in the words of Paul to Timothy,

I urge, then, first of all, that requests, prayers, intercession and thanksgiving be made for everyone—

for kings and all those in authority, that we may live peaceful and quiet lives in all godliness and holiness.This is good, and pleases God our Savior, who wants all men to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth. For there is one God and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself as a ransom for all men—the testimony given in its proper time. (1 Timothy 2: 1-6)

Please pray:

• that God would be going before us, smoothing out any bumps in arrangements and logistics that have been made
• That Alen and Harry would be able to join us however they are able, and that we would trust that God is powerful enough to use kings and rulers and university authorities for his purposes
• that we would finish our semesters and working weeks here well, and not be too distracted on what is to come and be well rested and ready to start mission
• that we would continue to be prayerful, depending on God's provision and grace for all that we need, and for the salvation of all people on earth including the Japanese.
• that we would budget well and that God would meet our finances would be enough
• that the exchange rate would improve before we transfer our funds to Japanese Yen

In the homeland...

Wow, it's quite intimidating to be posting something when we've got such word smiths on the team... I'm a scientist!

Thank you all for having an interest, heart and concern for the short-term mission work we will be going on.. VERY SOON! I am humbly amazed at the body of Christ. I pray that God will continue to work in your hearts in being able to support us on this exciting venture to bring the good news of Jesus.

Well, why did I decide to join this mission trip? Well, my heritage is the biggest driver for my desire to be a part of this team. I guess by observing my family and my family friends and how even though they're in a culture that "encourages" Jesus to be proclaimed they still don't know the absolute love of the Lord.

I feel there's a reason as to why I was born and raised here in Australia. There's a reason why my parents wanted me to keep my heritage alive by knowing Japanese. I'm still not sure if that's because I'm supposed to work in Japan to bring the gospel to those in Japan. Short-term mission is one way for me to get a taste of whether such a life is what God has called me to live.

A lot of people have told me that going on mission to a country such as Japan is pointless and that God does not work there... I want to find this out for myself. I want to follow my heart that God has brought salvation to all through Christ Jesus risen and that there is no height or depth, NOTHING that can separate us from the love of God through Christ Jesus.

Prayer points:
1. I have fallen ill from all my overtime I did in order to accrue time-in-lieu for the whole duration of the trip. I am getting better thank God, however I'm still not 100%. Please pray I get better.

2. On another note, I have accrued all my time-in-lieu! Thank God that He was able to give me the energy to get through it all. And praise God that I could get this time in the first place!

3. My language is a little rusty. I haven't been using it lately because I don't see my family much :(. I hope I can be a help to the team!

4. Praise God that finances are slowly on the rise.. help us to rely on God and to provide us with funds.

5. Pray give me the energy to prepare myself mentally, literally and physically for this trip!


love, prayers and (for the girls) hugs
masaki

Reporting in... only 2 weeks to go!!

Hi, I'm Kevin.

If you're reading this blog, thanks heaps for getting behind our team and this mission. Your support really means a lot to us and I hope that we can really partner with you all in this.

There's just over 2 weeks to go, and this time has come scarily fast - it feels like it'll be no time before we're on the plane to Japan! Please be praying that we keep diligent in preparing and raising support.

Well, I'd like to share with you a bit about why I'm going. I've actually been waiting for this opportunity for a long time. I've wanted to join a short term mission trip for a long time, where I can be on full-time mission in a place people haven't had the chance to hear the gospel as much as we have in Australia. It's an opportunity to serve God, be stretched in faith and to get a better idea of whether this is the sort of thing God wants me to do later on (especially in Japan). As for Japan, most people think that it's somewhere to go on holiday rather than mission, but it's actually one of the least evangelised nations in Asia, with less than 1% of Christians. It's a land of plenty, but without the most important thing they could have - faith in the One who made them, and the only One who can give them life to the full. I've been interested in Japanese language (I found it a lot easier to learn than Chinese), manga, anime, culture (I kind of associate a bit with their politeness), food, and people. I've met many Japanese international/exchange students through FOCUS and Barney's International Service, and have been blessed to be friends with them. So when it happened that the mission was during exams and I was doing internship (so I didn't have to do any subjects), and that the mission was to Japan, it was like, thank You God!

Please pray that I'll keep humble and reliant upon God, and seeking to give my all.
Please pray that as I finish my internship I won't become lazy or lose ownership but rather to work hard as if for God to the end.
Please pray that I'll spend more time on relationships (and less on not so important things), especially as I invite people to support us.

In Christ,
Kevin

The Intro

I would first like to publicly commend those individuals, churches and others whom God has put on their hearts to support this mission team. I hope you agree with me in the thought that you're contribution is in the eyes of God and us on the team as equally important to the launch of this outreach as each 'team' member's physical presence.

Next! Why I am on the team......good question. Since the start of my Christian walk (which for happened at a definite point in 2005) I have been praying (although inconsistently) and asking for God to lead me to the next step. Becoming a Christian in the second last year of High school I hope His answer to my prayer back then was to continue my studies at university. My results in High school had gotten worse year by year but somehow I had just enough UAI to get into my current course Mathematics, Computing and International Studies (I chose Japan of course). So being a 4th year student of a 5 year course I am nearing the pinnacle life-altering moment once again and thus I am desperately asking once again where to go next. I come from a non-Christian home but my parents have over the years of my life been the most influential and loving people I have been blessed to have care for me. However, I do not want to wait idly for an answer to be transmitted to me from either God or parents. My participation in this team has personal significance because this is where I will be evaluating if I am suited to this calling. I intend to take the initiative in faith on this mission.

Why Japan? Since birth the country that I have been most interested in besides the country where I was born (Croatia) and the country in which I was raised (Australia), is Japan. As a child I was interested in Origami and Ninjas, which developed into an interest in Bushido, martial arts, written script and spoken language, anime, TV dramas, film. What drew to me Japan was being an Oriental country it was completely opposite to the western countries of my birth and upbringing. My superficial interest has over the years deepened into something I cannot put into words, but it has led me to study here in Tokyo for a year and to participate in this cross-cultural mission team.

I wanted to keep this brief, I hope it is. There is more to this story and I pray you would continue to read and support the team as we venture in God's name.

ybiC,

Alen

J and Fi's update

Many thanks to Mark, Claire and our own Kevin for hosting and organising a great night, and many thanks to YOU for supporting us =D.

Smooth sailing!

So it's been about a month and a half since i arrived here in Japan already, and praise God that i have been able to settle in and get used to life on my own here in Yamanashi. It's an amazing privilege and a great opportunity for me to grow and do ministry here :) He has given me so many rich experiences here already (if you want to know more about those experiences, my personal blog http://happytobealamb.blogspot.com/ has some pretty long posts about that :D ), and i look forward to whatever else He has in store for me here in Japan, and on the upcoming mission trip!

I was also able to meet up with some of the people we will be working with on the mission trip, and they're really awesome people. Makiko, one of the staffworkers in KGK, is really really good at English and her accent is amazing! Sousei (whose name means "Genesis") is another staffworker - a really cheery and talkative guy. His English isn't quite as good as Makiko's but it seems he has a heart for God :) It's been really encouraging meeting up with such awesome Christians here in a land where i thought Christianity was dead. I initially thought that the Christians here wouldn't be so strong, but it appears that the fact that they are a minority makes their faith so much more worth holding onto.

Just yesterday i checked out the local baptist church, which just received a new pastor, who did mission in America and in Japan. He told me about his experiences as a missionary in Japan, and told me of one method of street evangelism that really worked in tokyo. The team consisted of 10 people - 5 americans and 5 Japanese. two from this team paired off - one Japanese, one American. The american stood up front to do the streetside preaching whilst the Japanese guy translated. The people were very interested because it's rare to see someone speaking on the streets in English. In a short period of time, using that method of evangelism, 7 people turned to Christ (which i think is awesome!). So it appears that perhaps us English speakers can use that English speaking skill to our advantage!

Praise points:

- For the amazing privilege it is to be here to learn more about Him and serve Him and His people

- For the great opportunities that He's given me so far to build relationships with other exchange students and local Japanese people

- For allowing me to settle in so well

- For growing my language skills

- For the great love He has shown me through the churches and Christian groups here

- For the encouraging faith of the Christians here - their humility, kindness and hospitality

- For keeping me healthy for the past one and a half months

Prayer points:

- That i will stay healthy

- That i will use my time well, as i also have a pretty big assignment (worth 35%, but that's 35% of a 24 credit point subject!). Please pray that i will do my work diligently!

- That my language ability and cultural understanding will continue to improve

- For the churches here to grow in their knowledge and love of Christ

Thanks guys :D

Harry Lam

Fi's First F(P)ost

Well, it was almost there with the alliteration.

So I'm here on our Japan team blog to let you know why I'm on the team, how I'm finding things and what you can be praying for me in the leadup to our trip.

I guess I'll start with the first one - why I'm on the trip. I went to Japan in summer of 04/05, when it was winter there - a cold, snowy, fascinating winter. Japan is one of the few places I've been overseas where I've felt isolated. Language and being able to communicate for me is a big thing, and when I can't say what I mean, I struggle.

Thinking back to the two weeks I was there, I remember what Jesus said when he sees the masses of people who are harassed and helpless, in need of a shepherd, and a saviour. I saw so many people in Japan, and knowing the statistics, I know that hardly any of them have ever heard Jesus' name, let alone responded to his claim on their lives.

But why me? Someone told me while I was in Japan that I had a gift for language. I'd never thought of it that way, as a gift, that was given for a purpose, only as a talent that I had worked hard to earn. Paul tells us that our gifts are meant to be used for building up the church. I've been studying Japanese for about 2 years all up now, and its very hard! But not as hard as others find it.

I also have been blessed with resources: time, (some) money, and the support of my church. Why not go? As I prayed and waited for opposition and reasons not to go, none came. I'm not sure for what future-looking reason I'm on the team, but I trust that God has a plan for my life, one that will bring him glory and give me great joy in being able to serve him.

Well that's enough for now. I figure more of that will work itself out as the trip goes on.

How I'm finding preparation and prayer points go hand in hand. They kindof explain themselves.

Please pray for:

• energy and building fitness, so that I will be able to cope with the stress of a new situation when we get to Japan
• wisdom until we leave, to know what is important and what can be left for later. I struggle to make decisions about priorities and say 'no' to doing things. pray that I would work on not piling more responsibilities and tasks on my to-do list, which is already considerable
• pray for good rest, health and sleep until we leave. particularly pray for my hands, that I might be able to see a physio and have some exercises to do in Japan to prevent pain that will stop me from being 100%.
• motivation to keep up with uni and work and finish the semester well, both with credo and my church youth group
• for our financial support as a team, that God would provide through his people the exact amount of money we need to do his work
• for patience and love for my family and friends, that I wouldn't be consumed by worry and preparation for the trip but that I would be able to love and serve them in the time left before I go.

I think that's just about enough to be getting on with.

Hope you'll keep reading and praying for us, and that this blog will help you to be seeing God at work in Japan just as we will.

The calm before the storm?

Well, if I was expecting any sort of calm I was fooling myself.
Two assignments, two exams and a whole lot of credo stufs to happen before June 11th makes for a very busy Katty.

I can't wait to be in Japan! I know that God will be at work in us, and that He is big enough to move mountains (in fact to create those mountains from nothing in the first place) and therefore He is the one who is mighty to save all of the lost in Japan. I only ask that He would give us the privilege of being some small part in that.

Prayer Points in the lead up?
*For my assignments and exams that go right up to the morning we leave! Pray that God would give me the concentration and determination to know Him more through my subjects at bible college, and also just to get through this assignment season
*For my health. After burning the candle at too many ends I have landed in bed sick for (hopefully only) a few days. I am thankful to God that this happened here and not in Japan, and pray that this cold would run its course and leave me completely before then
*For our in country contacts as they plan our arrival. Thank God for the Holy Spirit that makes our one-ness so much bigger than all of the things that separate us! Pray for them as they try to arrange programmes that will stretch us and encourage the local believers as well as giving us chances to speak the truth about Jesus to some who don't yet believe
*For our finances. There have been some great encouraging signs here, but there is still some ways to go. Pray that God will raise up more partners for us in this mission, both prayer partners and financial.


Thanks for partnering with us!!

In Him
Kat

J's starting thoughts

....coz myspace style videos are much more interesting than a whole bunch of text =]

Feel free to leave comments and questions below! =)

-j

It all starts here....

Hello! Thanks for visiting our blog. It's been hugely encouraging that you're keen to support and pray for us, so we're really thankful for you!

The purpose of this blog is to inform you about what's happening while we're in Japan and how you can be supporting us, as well as reflecting on our experiences of God there. We hope you'll find it not too long and boring, but that you'll partner with us in this mission to ultimately glorify God. And if you have any questions, feel free to post a comment!