Gary's Blog

March 2013 Update

2013-04-01T15:09:00.004+09:00

Hello to all of my friends, family, supporters, prayer warriors! Another month has come and gone. A cold spring has begun! Though I'm sure it'll get warm soon. Sakura flowers are blooming in the trees here in Tokyo and it's beautiful. Hope you have had a blessed March! Anyway, here's what's been going on here this past month.

Outreach Team & DTS Team
At YWAM Tokyo, this month has been a month of preparation in the lead up to the start of DTS. The school starts in a couple of days! So the DTS staff (the majority of YWAM Tokyo) have been getting ready and also, after much prayer and searching, they have moved into two new locations where some staff and the DTS students will live. They have now settled into their houses as the students start to arrive. There are also a number of staff that have been here for over 2 years, including myself. We are now part of the outreach-focused team that will focus more on building ministries in Tokyo. This is great! Usually when DTS time comes, it requires so much work and time that ongoing ministries have taken a back-seat. But this year, because of the number of staff, YWAM is able to continue to focus on reaching the Japanese people. We have been working some more on planning to open an English conversation cafe, some people will go into a high school and teach English (and also share about God with the blessing of the school staff!), doing research into orphanages, and doing worship and evangelism in the streets. We will be partnering with the DTS to get the students involved in what we're doing!

Communications
I have been passing on the communications work to one of the other missionaries this past month, so that someone else is able to maintain the work I've been doing the last couple of years! A big task for sure. I am also working on various new pages for the website, including a page where people we meet on the streets can go to find out more about God and also be linked to churches in Tokyo.

Cornerstone
Cornerstone is still growing! We have started a second service on a Saturday now. The two service times are 4pm and 6pm. The earlier service is aimed at families, is more casual, and has more bible teaching. It is ran by a couple of the YWAM staff. This Easter weekend we had a baptism where two young Japanse women that have been coming for a while decided to give their lives to God and live for Him! So amazing!! We also had an Easter dessert party after the 6pm service which was fun (and yummy!).

Wedding Prep
We have been making progress this past month as Naoko and I prepare to be married next month! (Can't believe it will be next month..) We have been asking people at Cornerstone and YWAM to help us and we feel so blessed to be surrounded by so many amazing people! Just a few more details to go now, as well as official documents that need to be filled in, a tuxedo for me, and then we need to plan our stay in Japan after we're married, as well as our time in England. Exciting! But lots to do! Also in March, Naoko graduated from university! I got to see her in a Hakama and she looked beautiful.

Thank you for reading this update! And thank you so much much for your prayers. I cannot be here without it! Also, a huge thankyou to all my financial supporters. You make me feel so loved and I am humbled by your generousity. I pray that God pours His blessings on you and I look forward to seeing you all again this summer! Naoko sends her love. Have a really good April.

Gary

October 2012 Update

2012-11-02T15:32:00.005+09:00

Cool

With Autumn well under way it's starting to get cooler now! Although while everyone in Japan seems to wear coats and scarves, I think I need to move from t-shirt to t-shirt with jacket finally! 18 degrees isn't really cold when you're from England when that is summer temperature! haha. But compared to 35 degrees, this is like heaven. Thank you Jesus!

Communication

I've had time to work on communication within the base this month and it's been good! Phase One was to set everyone up with Google Calendar and create shared calendars for all the ministries. Then I did a session after staff meeting and showed people how to use it. All seems to be going smoothly! Phase Two was to set up shared file storage! I just set that up so hopefully it'll go well! Next month will hopefully see Phase Three and Four and maybe even Five! Probably not Five though. Maybe December.

Campus

I just noticed the titles all have 'C'! Anyway, this month saw the base get more involved with campus ministry! We'll all be going to a university called Rikkyo in Ikebukuro at least twice a week to prayer walk and to make relationship with Christians on campus to encourage and prayer for them. It's really cool, the university was founded on Christian principles by a missionary and it still has a little church in the center! Please check out the latest YWAM Tokyo blog penned by one of our leaders. A great read! http://www.ywamtokyo.org/2012/10/27/why-rikkyo/

Closeness

This title was a forced 'C'. But it fits! Everything we do here in Tokyo needs to move from intimacy with God. If we don't know Him, how can we share Him with the Japanese? We spend time everyday together worshipping God and spending time praying, studying the Bible and listening to His voice. This is a real priority for us and it has been good for me to keep my focus on the reason why I'm here! Why we're alive! And that is Jesus.

Cornerstone

The church this month had a picnic organised by some of the wonderful ladies which was a really fun time! The head pastor from Cornerstone Seattle also came to visit and gave a really good sermon during a service and also shared a powerful message about identity during a mid-week prayer time. There is a real focus recently on discipleship and encouraging people to have an active role in church. Anyone and everyone can play a role in the church. So it's been good to see people get more involved!

Japan Update: August 2012

2012-09-02T11:13:00.001+09:00

It's that time again already! I hope you are well as you read this and that you have had a good August! Thank you so much for taking the time to read this update and for supporting me in what I'm doing over here in Tokyo. You are a part of this work! Please ask me questions at any time to know more. Here is what happened this past month.

DTS

At the beginning of August, the DTS students went away to Tohoku (the location of the tsunami last year) to do clean up and rebuild work. This was their last outreach for the DTS and it went really well! They all enjoyed coming along side the local people and hearing their stories and helping them in practical ways to show God's love.

When they got back from outreach, we had a two more lecture weeks. The first was given by a Messianic Jewish Rabbi and he spoke about Times and Seasons and gave a lot of cultural insight into a lot of well known Old and New Testament passages. I found it to be one of the best lecture weeks this year! Was so amazing to read things from a Jewish perspective. I am now even more hungry to study the Bible, particularly the Old Testament! The second lecture week was all about returning home. This was to help the students go back home to friends and family after spending this much time in a Christian community. They have all grown so much so it will be hard for them! But that final week gave the students some practical things they can do and also gave them a lot of time to process everything and what their next steps are.

On 20 August, the DTS students graduated from this year's YWAM Tokyo DTS! It was a fun night! But it was a bit weird to say goodbye to everyone after spending so much time with them. They all did a great job this summer and I wish them all well in their next steps with God!

We have all been on a break for a week, and we have another week of break before starting back for a new season without the DTS students! I've been having a really good time of rest and I'm looking forward to what is coming next!

Moving House

After the students left YWAM accommodation, I was able to move into the guys house and unpack my case after 5 months of living in various people's homes! It feels so good to finally have my own space and be reunited with all of my belongings. I live in a part of Tokyo called Edogawabashi and I'm right near the metro rail station which has convenient access to all of Tokyo. I currently share the house with 8 other guys, and share a bedroom with 2 of them. And we have air conditioning/heating in our rooms! Such a huge blessing!!

Cornerstone

This past week, Cornerstone moved location from near Ikebukuro station, to near Yoyogi station. This is a 10 minute walk from Shinjuku station, which is the busiest station in Japan. The building that we meet at now is less expensive, a little larger, and a little brighter! We rent a room in a music studio so it is a good place to worship with music! Other than that, Cornerstone has been continuing to grow! I am hoping to become more involved at the church now that DTS is ended.

PRAYER POINTS

Thank God for all of the DTS graduates and that He will guide their next steps
That God will guide the YWAM Tokyo base as we move into the next season
Thank God for providing me with places to live up to this point, and for this house!
Thank God for the new location for Cornerstone
Thank God for the financial and prayer support that allows me to be here in Japan!!
That God will continue to speak to me about the future

Thank for again for taking the time to read this update!! Please get in touch if you'd like to say hello! Take care and enjoy the start to Autumn!!

Japan Update: July 2012

2012-07-30T15:27:00.004+09:00

It's hot! Summer is well underway here in sticky Tokyo! Mushiatsui is what we call the yucky humid hotness here in Japan. But anyway, it's the end of July. Time for another update!

DTS

This month has been a really amazing outreach month for the DTS! The students had a great time in the Philippines reaching out with the YWAM base over there to the young ladies working in bars and also to young street kids. The YWAM base at that location is made up of women who came out of bar work and now work towards setting people free that are like how they used to be. They have a safe-house where girls can come to stay and also receive education and training so that they can work and earn a living without working in bars or as prostitutes. The students learnt a lot from these women and at the very end of the outreach, one of the girls working in the bar decided to leave the bar and live in the YWAM house. She is now being discipled with the lovely ladies there! Praise God! She has a small child and was working in the bar to earn money to provide for them, though she hated it. Now, with the help of Jesus, she can work towards a hopeful future!

After they got back from the Philippines, it was time for me to lead a week of local outreach in a busy area of Tokyo called Ikebukuro. We started by meeting each afternoon to pray and sing some worship songs among the masses of people and under the burning hot sun. Then we'd split up into smaller groups and go out into the city to meet people, have conversation, pray for people, and invite people to know about Jesus. Then during the evening time, we either split into small groups again, or we would stay together and worship and talk to people who came near as well as hand out tracts. It was a great but difficult week! The students did a great job talking to people they didn't know, even with the difference in language. The most amazing thing, and what made the whole week worth it, is that four Japanese people who didn't know who Jesus was before, accepted Jesus into their lives and prayed to Him for the first time!! Thank you Jesus! We made sure to swap contact details so they can be discipled in Christian community. Also during the week, a few people who fell away from the church were re-invited to come to church and they seemed really interested! At the end of the week, early Saturday morning, we all went to a homeless church! It meets outdoors every week and the congregation is made up of homeless people. I was given the opportunity to sing in Japanese at the front which was cool! Then some of the students played some worship songs and another student gave a testimony. Then we handed out bread, muffins and drinks to everyone. It was lots of fun and I found it really amazing that there is a church like that here in Tokyo!

Following from my outreach week, there was a creative-focused local outreach where the students put their creative skills to use in order to reach people for Jesus! So people created art, played music, handed out things to people as well as lots of other things. At the end of that week, another person gave their life to Jesus! This coming week the students will be going to Tohoku to do relief work. After that will be a couple of lecture weeks and then end of DTS!

Cornerstone

This month Cornerstone got involved in our local outreach weeks which was great! Cornerstone supported me and my outreach with YWAM greatly and gave me lots of advice and provided worship equipment and talent and joy and prayer. I have also been working on the Cornerstone Japan social network at cornerstone.jp this month! I simplified it lots, added Japanese translation, gave it a clean makeover and focused it on prayer and devotionals. Please check it out! The aim of the site is to help members of the church keep in contact with each other throughout the week. The next task is to get people to actually use it! I'll let you know how it goes! It has potential to be a major part of praying for each other on a daily basis. Please pray that God will use it to equip his church here in Tokyo! Naoko got back safely from Africa and had a really amazing time! She shared in front of the church this past Saturday night and her experience really helped everyone see a deeper part of God's amazing heart. If you want to better understand about Jesus helping people forgive and love their enemies, search online about the reconciliation happening in Rwanda since the 1994 genocide. If you want to learn more about Naoko's experience, find her on Facebook or let me know and I'll put you in touch!

Here's a recent video showing a little more about Cornerstone Tokyo:

PRAYER POINTS

Thank God for the five people who accepted Jesus during the last couple of weeks!
That God will protect these people from falling away from Him
Thank God for Naoko's amazing trip to Kenya and Rwanda!
Thank God for the continued growth at Cornerstone
That God will use the website to help people to better pray for each other
Thank God for the financial and prayer support that allows me to be here in Japan!!
That God will continue to speak to Naoko and me about the future

Thank you for reading this update! And thank you to all of you who support me! You are a part of what God is doing here. A very real part! Thank you! I hope you're having a good summer. Enjoy the Olympics!! Mata ne! (Until next time!)

Japan Update: June 2012

2012-07-01T14:15:00.004+09:00

Hello everyone! It's July already! I really don't know where time is flying to. I hope you have had a good June! I've heard that some parts of the UK were flooded recently, I hope that has not affected you in a bad way. Almost time for the olympics! Looking forward to seeing bits and pieces of it when I can! Will any of you be going to London? Anyway, not much has happened this month news wise so I'll probably keep this short! Thank you for thinking of me, praying for me and supporting me!

DTS
The DTS lecture phase is now complete and outreach phase has begun! The final lecture week was all about evangelism and how to reach the Japanese people, along with cultural insights and pop culture. This got the students ready for the coming months focused a lot on evangelism. For around two weeks in June, the students went away to different places in Japan with a Christian youth organisation and they were focused on reaching out to Japanese high school students and inviting them to rallys. These events were all about having fun and a clear gospel message was preached. I heard that multiple high schooler's gave their lives to Christ during this time! They have been linked into Christian communities for discipleship. I did not go on this outreach, but everyone said it was a really great time of seeing God touch people's hearts, and everyone came back so tired! But with smiles on their faces. After a couple of days rest, the students and a few of the staff went to the Philippines, were they are currently! They'll be there for two weeks reaching out mostly to prostitutes working at bars, as well as lots of other opportunities. I'll have more details next month! When they get back, I will be leading an outreach week here in Tokyo with half of the students, while the other half will be going to a summer camp!

Cornerstone
Even more new people have been coming to Cornerstone this month! Last night, a guy just walking past saw that a friend and I were foreign and he came over to have a random chat. So we invited him in to join the service! He couldn't stay for long but it was just really nice to see that God is bringing in people and making them feel welcome! Also this month Naoko and a friend organised the first girl's night for all the girl's at the church. A majority of the girls went along and had a meal together and had fun and also had a surprise celebration for the pastor's wife! Most of the mid-week events at the church are mostly attended by guys, and the leadership is made up of all guys (not on purpose!) so we really want to see more done for the women of the church in terms of discipleship - very very important! More events will be planned in the coming months!

Language Study
While the students are away on outreaches that I'm not a part of, I have had time to get things done like work on the website again, read books and study the language! I haven't been able to do any of that for the past few months so it has been good. This month I have learnt a couple hundred more vocab as well as new grammer structures. I'm studying by myself so it requires a lot of self discipline, but I've been doing it! My listening is getting better steadily, as is my reading. As always, speaking is the most challenging for me! But I was invited to a friend from church's house last night, his name is Akira, and his parents cooked really delicious Japanese food for me! So good! And I practised my Japanese speaking with them and I feel that I'm getting better! Slowly!

PRAYER POINTS

Thank God for the opportunity for the students to put into practise what they learnt during DTS
Thank God for the continued growth of Cornerstone and for the girl's night!
That God will bring many people to know him during these outreach weeks
That God will speak to Naoko and me about the future!
Thank God for all of the prayer and financial support that lets me be here!
That God will protect Naoko as she is going to Africa for two weeks this coming month!

Thank you as always for taking time to read this update! Please feel free to ask any questions via email, Google+ or Facebook, or just say hi! Take care and I will be in touch again soon!

Japan Update: May 2012

2012-06-01T10:58:00.003+09:00

Hello again to my friends and family! It's starting to get hot over here. Summer is coming... dun dun duuuuun. Anyway, here is what happened this month.

DTS
The DTS is going along smoothly and strongly! This month we have had teaching on the Father Heart of God, the Holy Spirit, Spiritual Warfare and the Lordship of Christ. The students are learning a lot, and so am I! Also, we have been going to Tokyo University a couple of times a week and have been prayer walking and also doing research on the history of the university and finding out any Christian groups that are there so we can pray for them and maybe even partner in some way. We have found out about a few, but we haven't made relationship yet. Next month will be the start of outreach phase so we are preparing for that now. I will be helping lead a local Tokyo outreach like I did last year, so that will be fun!

Accommodation
Here I am again, writing another update without a place to call home, living out of a suitcase. We have come to the conclusion that there isn't much point in continuing our search for another place. The DTS students will be leaving at the end of August, so the staff with no current home will move into their houses. So until then, we will continue to live in temporary places. I will stay in this house until tomorrow then I'll move again into someone else's house, before moving again at the end of August! Thank you so much for all of the support and prayers!

Cornerstone
Cornerstone has been growing lots more and we are almost too big for the room we rent! More Japanese people are coming now and getting involved, and also a lot more people from YWAM have made it their church too and they are also getting stuck in! Naoko and I have started a welcome team at the church which involves helping people to feel comfortable and welcome as they enter the building. We are going to get more people involved in this team too. Last weekend we had our first baptism event! It was a lovely sunny day and I got a bit sunburnt! But it was so much fun! Most of the church came along to it (was at lunchtime on Saturday, instead of the normal service time) which was great! I gave a talk on what baptism is in the bible, then 3 people were baptised in a small stream. Then we all ate lunch together. Lots of fun and I could feel the joy of God too!

PRAYER POINTS

Thank God for all that he is doing with the DTS students and for all the teachers this month
Thank God for what he is doing at Tokyo University
That God will help build relationship between us and students at the university
Thank God for the people willing to house us until the end of DTS
Thank God for the baptisms at Cornerstone and for the growth of the church
That God will speak to Naoko and I about the future!
Thank God for all of the prayer and financial support that lets me be here!

Thank you as always for taking time to read this update! Sorry it's a little bit short this month! Most of the time is filled with DTS right now. Almost outreach phase! Please feel free to ask any questions via email, Google+ or Facebook, or just say hi! Take care and I will be in touch again soon!

Japan Update: April 2012

2012-04-27T16:48:00.001+09:00

Hello again to all of my friends and family that are far away from me! I must start by saying that I am really sorry I did not update you last month!! There really is no excuse, though my reason is that I have been extremely busy this past month, especially around the time I write my newsletter. I hope you will forgive me. I hope you have been well and you are enjoying a good Spring-time! Here is a brief summary of what has happened over the past couple of months.

DTS
The YWAM Tokyo Discipleship Training School started at the beginning of this month after many months of preparation! This is what I have been spending the majority of my time doing this month. This year we have seven girls (Megan, Hannah, Rebecca, Rebecca, Kasey, Pam and Angela) and seven guys (Kenneth, Tyler, Chris, Eems, Daniel, Larry and Jonathan). Sadly there were non from the UK once again, with all being from North America! It has been really good to get to know the students and it's exciting to be a part of their journeys with God. The first week after they arrived was orientation week where we spent time getting to know them, and them to know us. We played games together, prayed together, worshipped together and explored the city together. Week two was the start of the lecture phase which was all about the Kingdom of God. Week three was the Identity of God. And week three is Intimacy with God. Really powerful teachings that have really challenged me as well as the new students! As well as the lectures, we also have small group discussions, Bible studies, worship times, prayer times and Bible meditation. We also involve the students in local ministries which are high school ministry, university ministry, homeless ministry and kid's English lessons. This year I am part of the university ministry at Tokyo University (or Todai for short). I am also part of the cooking team which means I get to prepare and cook meals for everyone a couple of times a week! It's been a learning experience for me. I am sure I'll be a professional chef once the DTS is over...

Accommodation
These past two months have been crazy. We all moved out of our houses at the end of March. We had one small house to put a couple of guys with the guy DTS students (who all arrived on the same day we moved) and no other places at the time. So we had to divide everyone else, including the DTS girls who arrived, into various YWAMer's family homes. After a couple of weeks, we acquired two small apartments, we we moved the majority of the girls into them. For the moves, I helped load and unload stuff and was also the navigator. So I have now navigated a van/truck across Tokyo many times and know the roads quite well! Right now, we are waiting to hear back from the agent about one more house! So we will then move the girls from the apartments into the house, and the guys and I will move into an apartment, and the remaining girl staff will move into the other apartment. This sounds really complicated, I know. But it'll be sorted soon enough! Hopefully by the next update, I'll be settled into a place I can make home! Thank God for the people willing to house us temporarily!

YWAM Japan Conference
During March we had the YWAM Japan conference which was really amazing!! We had it at a conference centre right near Mount Fuji. Was such a beautiful place. It was so encouraging to see all of the YWAM missionaries from all over Japan come together and worship God together and share testimonies of what God is doing! It was a great unifying time because most of the time we don't know what is going on at the different bases around Japan. By the end of the week, we all felt closer together and it was like a big family! Everyone was really encouraged!

Cornerstone
Again, Cornerstone church has been growing even more! This month, Naoko and I made the decision to make Cornerstone our church. I was divided between two churches, and Naoko only occasionally visited Cornerstone. So I couldn't really call either one my church home, though both were in a way. Naoko and I also felt that we would be best going to a bilingual church so that we could grow together and share what we learnt each week. This is something we struggled with at the Japanese church. We explained to Yurigaoka church how we felt and though it was very sad, everyone understood and they prayed for us and gave us their blessing. They also gave me an opportunity to share what I have been doing in Japan this past year and a half. We will keep in touch with the amazing people there and will also visit occasionally. From now on, we will both get stuck into Cornerstone church fully! Naoko has already started to translate regularly during the services and we're both part of the welcome team at the church. I'm excited to see how God will use us both there!

PRAYER POINTS

Thank God for all of the DTS students
That he will use this season to grow and guide each of the DTS students while they are here
Thank God for all the accommodation he's provided up to now
That he will provide one more house and will provide all of the finances to pay for all of the growing monthly rent costs
Thank God for the YWAM Japan Conference last month
Thank God for Yurigaoka Baptist church and the support they have been over the past year
Thank God for guiding Naoko and I to become more fully a part of Cornerstone
That God will speak to Naoko and I about the future!
Thank God for all of the prayer and financial support that lets me be here!

Thank you as always for taking time to read this update! Please feel free to ask any questions via email, Google+ or Facebook, or just say hi! Take care and I will be in touch again soon!

YWAM Japan Conference 2012

2012-03-20T21:31:00.000+09:00

Last week we held the YWAM Japan Conference 2012! We were at a beautiful location called Gotemba, right near the awesome Mt. Fuji!

It was so encouraging to meet missionaries from all around Japan and hear the stories of what God is doing! We shared stories, worshipped together, prayed together, played games, ate, shared sleeping quarters and even done early morning stretches together!

It was also a powerful example of the church coming together in unity and praying in one spirit! So amazing!!

Here is a video that was made during the conference:

Japan Update: February 2012

2012-03-03T12:29:00.003+09:00

A huge hello to all of my supporters, my friends and family! Time for another monthly update! I hope all is well with you. It is now finally becoming warmer here which is nice! Though it snowed a few days ago which was weird. Also been a lot more earthquakes lately! But nothing big. Anyway... here's a summary of things of note from February:

Cornerstone
Things at Cornerstone Church have been going well this month! Larger numbers of people have been joining us at the Saturday, Monday and Wednesday meetings which has been really encouraging! Some of the regular people are taking more of an active role within the church meetings and becoming more vocal with what's on their hearts. It has also shifted from being half English, half Japanese speaking people, to a majority Japanese speakers which is awesome! And great practice for my Japanese!

Internet & Communication
Again I have been working on the Internet projects this past month and making good progress. I better integrated the YWAM Tokyo website to social networks (Twitter, Google+ and Facebook) and have been researching how best to use the Internet to reach out to non-Christians, as well as connect Christians together.

This month I have also been given the role of "Communications Officer" within YWAM Tokyo. This means I will focus a lot more on internal communication in order to enable efficient and effective communication within the group so we can all work better together and be more effective in our ministries here in Tokyo. Currently communication isn't the best and things change last minute and people generally don't know what's going on all of the time! So I will be in constant communication with the leadership and will communicate what's going on to everyone. I am also working on an intranet and shared calendar and shared documents. I'm happy that I get to use my skills in this way in order to make a long term impact in the running of the misson here!

DTS
It's less than a month until the start of the next DTS, so we have been preparing things this past month. I have been working as part of a small group putting together handbooks for all of the staff and students that everyone will have during the DTS. We'll be doing a lot more preparation and planning this coming month. By the way, if anyone would like to join this year's DTS, applications close on March 10! Go to ywamtokyo.org/dts for more info.

Accommodation
Still no news really! Though the estate agents we're working with have been very helpful as continue to look for places on our behalf. We have found a church who is excited about partnering with us and will let us use their church as a meeting space during the week which is a huge blessing! Now we just need to find housing. We are looking to move from two houses into three. We must move out of our current houses by the end of this month (I think) so I should be writing the next update from a new house!

Outreach
We have been continuing to do outdoor worship, prayer and evangelism every Friday in Ikebukuro which includes a busy train station, shopping district, red light district and a university campus. Nothing of note comes to mind, just to say we've been doing this every week rain or shine! People seem to be very closed to having real conversation so it's difficult, but we believe God will touch people's hearts somehow regardless!

YWAM Japan Conference
During March will be the YWAM Japan conference which will be hosted by us, so we have been doing more preparation for that this month. I will let you know how that goes next month!

PRAYER POINTS

Thank God for his continued work at Cornerstone Church
Thank God for giving me the opportunity to use my technology skills
That he gives me wisdom in how best to make internal communication better
That he guides the DTS and Conference planning
Thank God for the provision of meeting space
That he will provide us with housing soon
That he will use us to touch people's hearts during street outreach
Thank God for all of the prayer and financial support that lets me be here!

Thank you as always for taking time to read this update! Please feel free to ask any questions via email, Google+ or Facebook, or just say hi! Take care and I will be in touch again soon!

Japan Update - January 2012

2012-02-05T12:30:00.001+09:00

Hello again! I hope this finds you well and you're having a good Winter! I hear that the UK is really, really cold right now. I hope you're able to stay warm enough! Sorry about the slow January update! But here it is!

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RUNNING OUT OF SPACE

We are still praying and expecting God to provide new places for us to move into real soon! This month, our leader and his family had to move out of their house and we were all praying for God to provide them with a new house to move into near the location we feel God wants us all to move to. With a couple of days to spare (literally) God provided the house and it is much nearer to our destination! Much pressure was felt, but God came through in the end! It's kind of funny how God usually waits until the last moment to answer. But, they have now moved into a lovely new house and are settling in! We, all of the staff, helped them pack, load, clean and unload all of their belongings. It was a fun time! Because of this provision, our faith was strengthened and we can look forward to Him providing again! It doesn't seem likely we will get the hotel right now because it's still not on the market for some reason, but we do feel we will one day! Right now we are praying for and looking for a large meeting space in order to have worship, meetings and DTS lectures and we are looking for staff housing and student housing. We have around 10 new staff joining us soon and then all of the DTS students in April. So it's getting desperate! So please keep praying! I will keep you up to date!

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CORNERSTONE

Cornerstone Church has been continuing to grow this month and it has been exciting to be a part of it! The core leadership team is becoming stronger and more unified and we all meet regularly outside of the Saturday service to pray and plan and share ideas. There are around 20-30 people attending the Saturday service regularly now which is great! The focus of the service is for people to become more intimate with God and we have extended worship and prayer times, with a short message. Some times we also split into small groups to get everyone involved and for them to share what's on their hearts and also for prayer. This month we also started Monday evening worship and prayer, as well as a Bible study every Wednesday and more worship and prayer on Fridays. I gave the sermon (unprepared) last night followed by a time of prayer to give people time to respond to God. One non-Christian Japanese guy said he saw God when he closed his eyes and heard God ask him to follow him three times! So he decided to become a Christian and wants to keep coming every week! God is good!

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INTERNET

This month I have been working on various Internet projects which has been exciting! I have been continuing to maintain and tweak the now-live YWAM Tokyo website (ywamtokyo.org) in order to make things better and make the DTS application process even easier. I have also been working on an Intranet system for use within YWAM Tokyo so that we can better communicate together things going on and also find important documents and other such fun things in one easy to access place. And I have been working with the YWAM Kanto Director to set up a secure, online database of all of the YWAM missionaries all over Japan that can be accessed and edited easily by whoever needs access. Right now it is a document that needs to be emailed around and updated by various locations which leads to many people having out of date copies. And I have been working with Cornerstone on multiple Internet projects: Prayer, Church website, Church social network, Devotionals and Evangelism. So it's all exciting and I'm glad God wants to use the skills I have! Please pray I find time to do it all!

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OUTDOOR WORSHIP, PRAYER & EVANGELISM

Every Friday we have continued to meet up outside in a busy area of Tokyo (Ikebukuro) to sing worship songs to God, do prayer walks and also speak to people about Jesus. This has been difficult as people seem to be too busy to stop and talk and those that do talk seem to be closed to God. But I think worshipping outside has been a good statement to the dark spiritual forces in the land, the people and also ourselves, that God is worthy of praise anywhere, not just inside a nice comfortable room. Last Friday we did get stopped by a friendly policeman while we were worshipping though because someone complained we were being too loud! Though he himself said he wished he didn't have to stop us! That's the first time that's happened to us.

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OTHER

Japanese language study is going well when I find time to do it! Try to do a couple of hours a day, but sometimes I simply don't have the time! I realise more and more that my listening skills are improving a lot though! We are also preparing for a YWAM Japan conference which will happen next month near Mount Fuji where all of the YWAM missionaries in Japan get together for a few days. And then there is DTS in April! Oh and moving house... So there's lots of preparing to do over the next couple of months!

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PRAYER POINTS

Thank God for providing a place for our leaders
Thank God for what he's doing at Cornerstone church, and the new believers there!
Thank God for using the Internet to reach people and strengthen the church
Thank God for all the prayer and financial support that enables me to be here! And for you reading this!
That God will provide new accommodation and meeting space soon!
That God will help us to prepare for all of the things coming up
That God will help me manage my time with all of the projects I'm doing

Thank for so much for taking the time to read this update! Please let me know things you would like prayer for and also if you have your own newsletter or other updates, please send them to me! Take care and stay warm! Speak to you soon! May God bless you and your families lots and lots!

Gary

November 2011 Update

2011-12-05T18:01:00.001+09:00

Hey there! I can’t believe it’s December already! It’s finally gotten cold here in Tokyo, though still not as cold as the UK! This week I’m frantically packing and getting bits and pieces done here before I come over there! So I haven’t got much time to write this! But hopefully I’ll be able to see a lot of you soon and share what’s been happening in person! Here’s what has happened in November:

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IT’S LIVE!

Finally, the website is live!

This month I focused a lot of time on the website in order to get it finished before Christmas holiday. And it’s finally done! We also switched web and domain server too which caused many small problems, but they were all overcome in the end! I also set up every YWAM missionary at the base with their own email account! Anyway, you can find the website at ywamtokyo.org. There you will find information on all that we do and also apply for the next training school or as a long term missionary online! I wish they had this set up when I was applying... We’ll be updating it with more information soon and also more videos and images. I’ve also set up YWAM Tokyo on the major social networks too so we can connect with supporters easily:

plus.google.com/102709335742928798423
twitter.com/ywamtokyo
facebook.com/ywamtokyo

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PARTY TIME!

Parties as a new style of church.

Again, this month I have been working with Cornerstone church, the new church plant, as part of the core leadership team. The church keeps on growing, with new people coming every week! Praise God! We are also seeing a good number of regular people that have been increasingly getting involved with the running of the main worship service every Saturday night. We have created an environment where everyone can feel totally comfortable getting involved in the church and people are encouraged to lead worship if they are able, or lead prayers, or share testimony, or preach. The structure is very flexible and may seem really messy at times, but God is doing amazing things! This month was the start of biweekly Friday night parties too. A time of hanging out, eating together, listening to live music and playing games! A great chance to invite not-yet-Christian friends and family just so they can have a good time around good people and hopefully feel comfortable with the people enough to come to a mid-week Bible study or the worship service. The first one was really fun and we saw a lot of people come and the next one is this Friday! Though I’ll be on a plane and will miss it! I’ll be sure to get an email about it and I’ll let you know if I see you next week.

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NEW HOME?

Moving or not to move, that is the question.

As I keep saying, we have been praying a lot about a new, bigger place to move into that is more in the centre of Tokyo. And we believe God will provide it! We really do. But still no news. Even so, we are all packing our things and getting ready to move! This week I will have to pack for the UK, and everything else I’ll need to pack so that people can move me if God provides the place during December! Madness. I’ll let you know how that goes as always!

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OTHER STUFF

Other than that, the usual has been happening! Still working on the online aspect of Cornerstone, we’ve been going on to the streets in order to pray for people and pass out Manga Messiahs and some of the team have been going into universities to hang out with students and lead Bible studies, as well as leading youth groups too. Sorry I can’t write much as I want to get this out to you ASAP and I have to leave now for a Bible study! See you soon hopefully!

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PRAYER POINTS
Thank God for blessing me with a UK trip this week!
Thank God for helping us get the website online.
Thank God for all of the people coming to the new church.
That he will give me the energy and words to share with you what God has been doing this past year over here, while I have jet-lag! (Especially at Argyle this Sunday!)
That he will do a miracle and provide us with a new building so I can come back to a bigger house at the end of the month!

Thank for so much for taking the time to read this newsletter! Please let me know things you would like prayer for and also if you have your own newsletter or other updates, please send them to me! Take care and I really do hope to see many of you soon!

Gary

October 2011 Update

2011-11-01T17:21:00.000+09:00

Hello again! It’s starting to cool down really quickly over here now! I’m really starting to feel the coldness every morning when I wake up now, as we have paper thin walls and I have a thin layer of glass between me and the outside world next to my head! But hey, I prefer this to summer-time! Yuck! Anyway, here’s what has happened this month:

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SEEKING HIS HEART

Keeping Him at the centre.

As was the case last month, the YWAM Tokyo base is going through a time of refocus and this month has been the same. As a base, we have all been spending a lot of time worshipping God and spending time getting to know him and his heart and mind so that we can live and work better as his disciples here on the front lines in Tokyo. The leadership feels that God wants us all to spend time specifically listening to God and do only what he wants us to do, as that is why we are here. It’s all to easy for us to get busy with ministry work in order to feel useful and also be able to fill our newsletters! But that’s not why we are here. We are here to do God’s will. And we believe he is about to do something amazing here. So that has been our biggest focus this month! God has been speaking to us more clearly about moving into Ikebukuro, a central area of Tokyo. But right now, it’s preparation time! The spiritual atmosphere in Ikebukuro is very dark, Yakuza have a strong presence there and there’s an area with many “love hotels” and dodgy massage places and sex stores. I’ll keep you on to date with what’s happening!

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ON THE STREETS

Outdoor worship and evangelism.

Every Friday, we travel to Ikebukuro in order to worship outdoors in a busy area because God is worthy to be worshipped there, even if it is uncomfortable for us. We then spend a good few hours on the streets having conversations with people about how they are doing and getting to know their beliefs and sharing Jesus with them and asking if they want prayer. This has been difficult for me personally as I find it hard to talk to people I don’t know, but it has been good! Lots of people have been prayed for and also have found out about Jesus for the first time! So we pray that God will use the seed planted in them and that he we grow a hunger to find out more about him in their hearts.

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ONLINE CHURCH

Invading the Internet with Jesus.

This month I have been even more involved with online projects. Firstly, we have been working to publicise the evangelism website, godlikesyou.jp more via Facebook. After the first day alone, 21 people clicked the advertisement (a bit of Japanese text that gets people to wonder whether God likes them) then 13 of those people liked the Facebook page! That is around 60% of people making an active decision to receive regular updates about God’s love. We update the page with articles everyday. I don’t know if we will carry on getting this amount of people following us, but as of writing, after around a week, we now have 190 likes! And many people are commenting and sharing! Such a huge step forward! The website itself (godlikesyou.jp) is very basic as we just wanted to get articles up there as soon as possible, so we are planning a huge redesign soon. We are also looking into more publicity such as Google Ads, Yahoo Ads and business card sized cards to hand out on the streets. I have also been involved in setting up the online side of the new church plant I’m involved in. We have set up a small social network where people can stay in touch with each other during the week and share prayer requests and praise reports and stuff like that. If anyone can’t make it to the location of the service during a Saturday night, we also stream the service live via the website, and save it so people can watch at a different time too. This can be found at cornerstone.jp. We are also planning on creating some kind of online discipleship tool that can be used by any Japanese church that will also be used to connect Christians and churches together more easily. So it’s all very exciting! I’m so glad I am able to use my skills in this way.

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OTHER STUFF

Some other things that have happened this month have included weekly outreach and Bible studies in universities, weekly youth groups and a Halloween event for children where around 30 children came and had fun and heard the gospel, along with their parents! The church plant I’m involved with every Saturday evening is going really well too with many people showing up every week with some new faces too! We are experimenting with different things every week and people seem to be really engaging and worshipping God and sharing their own thoughts and opinions on things. We also met last night (Monday) with a couple of the guys and had a good time getting to know each other and sharing what God has been doing in our lives. We hope to make this a weekly thing! The Japanese church I go to with Naoko on a Sunday morning has also been going well and last Sunday we celebrated a new baby in the church and had lunch together. It was a really fun time! I have also been studying Japanese every day for at least a couple of hours and it has been going really well!

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SHORT UK VISIT

I have decided to come visit the UK to spend time with my family this Christmas and I’m really looking forward to seeing as many people as I can while I’m over there! I arrive on 9 December and will spend a day in Aldershot on the 10th, then Reading on the 11th, then I’ll be in Liverpool for a week until the 19th, then I’ll be down with my family in Devon until the 28th when I’ll leave for Japan once again. I hope to see many of you during this time!

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PRAYER POINTS

Thank God for blessing me with a UK trip this Christmas!
Thank God for giving YWAM Tokyo a time to really focus on Him.
Thank God for giving me lots of opportunity to use my computer skills for His work.
Thank God for giving me time to study the language.
Thank God for all the people we pray for and share Jesus with.
That he will bring those people to know Him.
That he will use the Internet to share his love with many people and also connect the church in Japan together.
That he will do a miracle and provide us with a new building so I can tell you all about it next month!

Thank for so much for taking the time to read this newsletter! Please let me know things you would like prayer for and also if you have your own newsletter or other updates, please send them to me! Take care and have a good final month of Autumn before the snow comes!

Gary

End of a season

2011-08-23T12:38:00.000+09:00

Last night we had the graduation ceremony of the YWAM Tokyo DTS 2011!

It was a wonderful night of celebrating what God has been doing over the past 5 months as well as celebrating the DTS students who came from all over the world in order to follow God and grow with him. It has been a real pleasure getting to know each of them and they will all be missed dearly!

The DTS started just after the Tohoku Earthquake & Tsunami along with all the news of the radiation from Fukushima. The risks were made clear to the students before they arrived yet they still came, determined that God wanted them here no matter what!

Since they laid down their lives even before coming, God has done some amazing things through each of them during their time here! And I am sure he will continue to guide and use each of them wherever they go next. My thoughts and prayers are with them! Some of them will be coming back as staff soon which is great! Now we just need that bigger building so we can house everyone...

On to the next season! I wonder what God has planned...

Church Without Walls

2011-08-14T17:20:00.001+09:00

Less than a couple of weeks ago I was part of a church plant in Tokyo which is really an extension of a church in Seattle called Cornerstone. Last night we had a service outside in a busy public area in Ikebukuro!

It was a really fun experience and was cool to be able to worship God openly like that! Felt a little weird at first because of all the people watching us, but it was good in the end! We sang worship songs in English and Japanese and we also prayed and the pastor Phil gave a talk. The love of God was felt and he touched people's hearts!

There were around 12 of us in total all worshipping together, with 4 people I've never met before! We all went to a nice pizza place after the service to hang out and get to know each other!

Outreach on the Streets of Tokyo

2011-07-25T14:25:00.001+09:00

Last week we spent every day, Monday to Friday, going out into the streets of Tokyo with the aim of meeting people and sharing God's love with them. And I had to somehow lead this time! Scary! Well, it would have been scary if it were me actually leading. It was God. Thankfully so!

The students under my charge did an amazing job at worshipping God every morning and listening to him in order to follow him each day! We spent time every morning to thank God for who he is and what he had done then gave him all of our ideas of evangelism and all of our worries and fears. I split everyone up into small groups and each group listened to God and decided on what they felt he was saying.

We had people go to Shinjuku, Harajuku, Yoyogi Park, Shibuya, Meguro, Musashi-Kosugi, Ebisu and even Yokohama among other places I can't think of right now!

We met lots of homeless people, prayed for them and gave them food and drink. We also met random people on trains and parks and the street and even McDonalds! We simply chatted with people and listened to them and asked if they wanted any prayer for anything. We wanted to love people as Jesus did and not just go to people like we know it all with judgement in our eyes! Some people needed prayer for physical healing and they literally felt better after praying!

It was a difficult week. It's hard to put yourself out there and talk to strangers about God. The students did a great job at pushing themselves even when tired and were obedient to God.

Not For Sale: Re-abolishing slavery

2011-07-04T16:02:00.001+09:00

Last Friday, YWAM Tokyo (me included) had a lovely dinner with one of the co-founders of Not For Sale, along with the newly formed Not For Sale Japan team.

"NOT FOR SALE EQUIPS AND MOBILIZES SMART ACTIVISTS TO DEPLOY INNOVATIVE SOLUTIONS TO RE-ABOLISH SLAVERY IN THEIR OWN BACKYARDS AND ACROSS THE GLOBE. TOGETHER, WE CAN END SLAVERY IN OUR LIFETIME."

That is a quote from the About page on their website. Powerful stuff! They are a super fast growing movement all over the world that enables people to get involved in abolishing modern slavery, which includes human trafficking.

We had a really good talk with them about how we can get involved here in Tokyo. Tokyo in a hub for human trafficking and it's disturbing to realise that not many people know it's going on! But God knows. And he's going to raise up people to set the captives free!

After the dinner on Friday, Not For Sale held an event at Tokyo Baptist Church where they gave a presentation on who they are, what they do and how we can get involved. It was really exciting stuff! It's time to stop talking about it and actually do something about abolishing slavery once and for all.

On Saturday, anyone that was interested in getting involved were invited to a meeting at The Body Shop in Shinjuku. I went along and it turned out I was the only guy, not including the co-founder who is also a guy! Anyway, it was really amazing to hear the passion that The Body Shop has for ending human trafficking and also it was great to see different organisations coming together for the same cause.

I really feel that God wants me to be more involved in human trafficking and will hopefully be more involved with what Not For Sale are doing as they establish themselves in Tokyo. I will also be working with others for YWAM Tokyo as we really want to do all we can to be Jesus for those in slavery.

I'll keep you up to date with what happens!

For more information on what Not For Sale does, please visit notforsalecampaign.org.

Why Japan?

2010-06-23T19:39:00.001+09:00

Here are a few reasons why the Japanese people desperately need to know God's amazing love for them and why Japan needs more missionaries:

The population is over 127 million, but less than 1% know Jesus. The main religion is a mix of Shinto & Buddhism.

Out of 692 large cities, 86 only have 1 church, and 10 large cities have no church at all.

There is approximately one church per 16,300 people in Japan.

The average church attendance is around 35 people.

Japan has fewer baptised Christians than some Muslim countries.

Christians find it hard to find time to study the Bible and focus on God because of pressures from society to work hard, long hours with little rest.

Many Christians tend not to share their faith with friends due to a cultural pressure of not wanting to offend.

New Christians can face the risk of being disowned by family due to the pressure of ancestor worship, a tradition that has been passed down through many generations.

Though Japan is materially well off, it is very spiritually poor.

Japan has one of the highest suicide rates in the world, due to factors such as unemployment, depression and social pressures. Almost 100 people commit suicide every day.

Family breakdowns are very common with the divorce rate constantly increasing and marriage rate rapidly declining.

There is a term known as 'Hikikomori' in Japan. This is used to describe the disturbingly common phenomenon where people isolate themselves in their homes or bedrooms for over six months, sometimes for many years due to various personal and social factors in their lives. Often hikikomori starts out as school refusals which makes the young person lack hope for the future and have low self-worth.

According to a recent poll, around 11% of Japanese wish they had never been born, and 85% of young people wonder why they even exist. It's not uncommon to hear of young girls selling themselves to older men. If only they knew what God thought of them and how much He loves them.

Mission in Japan

2010-06-23T19:19:00.002+09:00

What a week!

After many months of praying about the future and waiting to hear back after applying to serve with Youth With A Mission in Tokyo, I finally heard back. Last Thursday I was informed that YWAM would like me to join them! Praise God!!

I also received my results from university on Saturday. They would like to award me with a 2:1 degree in computer studies! Now I must wait until July to be able to wear a flat hat and cape. Awesome. I will feel special indeed.

Okay, so the plan is to join YWAM Tokyo in September where I will focus on Japanese language and culture training as well as spending time reaching out to young people in order to make Christ known. I’ll be involved in the setting up and running of various events such as worship nights, a coffee shop, English lessons, art lessons, music and dance lessons and Bible studies, as well as meeting Japanese students and building links between them and the church. I will also have an opportunity to use skills I gained on my University course by working on their Internet presence, something they have been praying for! I will be looking at staying with them for a minimum of four years.

I have just applied for a Religious Workers Visa, so if all goes smoothly, I should have that towards the end of August!

YWAM have recommended that I raise around £700 per month in order to serve with them in Tokyo, one of the most expensive places to live in the world. This large sum covers accommodation, utilities, food, health insurance, phone, Internet and travel within Tokyo. I would also need money for the flight there and money for Japanese language lessons. Due to current exchange rates, this expense makes life hard for all missionaries in Japan, especially Tokyo. But money has never and will never be a barrier for God, though it does cause much stress for missionaries!

Why does Japan need missionaries? After all, Japan is an advanced country! I will make a new post with a few reasons why Japan is in serious need of Jesus' love. Maybe you will be surprised.

I would like to invite you to join with me in reaching Japan for Christ. When we pray God works! Join with me in praying for this great nation, that millions of people will become our brothers and sisters and come to know God’s amazing love. May I also be so bold as to ask that you prayerfully consider financially supporting this exciting work? With your support, we can help build and strengthen the church in Japan in ways you, nor I, could imagine! With God, anything is possible.

If you would like to partner with me in this work, please let me know! I’m looking forward to speaking with you further! :)

Countries Needing Prayer: Most Populous Least Reached Countries

2010-01-20T06:19:00.004+09:00

These countries are among the least reached nations in the world. When I say least reached, I mean that the majority of their populations do not know God and Jesus Christ who loves us and died for our evils. I have found the least reached countries that have the largest populations, so these are the countries with the most people who have never heard of Christ's love. Christ died for us all. He loves every person in the world equally. He is not a "Western" God. His love, peace and hope should be known by everyone. So many people haven't even had a chance at knowing this! Jesus told us to make disciples of all nations. Please pray that God will call and send his followers to these countries to share the good news in a bold and loving way! Ask God to reveal his love for these people to you too.

India: 90.5% of 1,161,869,000 unreached. Mainly Hindu
Pakistan: 99.1% of 177,218,000 unreached. Mainly Islam
Bangladesh: 98.4% of 153,281,000 unreached. Mainly Islam
Japan: 98.9% of 127,051,000 unreached. Mainly Buddhist/Shinto
Turkey: 99.4% of 73,679,000 unreached. Mainly Islam
Iran: 99.4% of 72,112,000 unreached. Mainly Islam
Thailand: 96.2% of 66,254,000 unreached. Mainly Buddhist
Myanmar/Burma: 81.8 of 49,670,000 unreached. Mainly Buddhist
Algeria: 99.9% of 34,852,000 unreached. Mainly Islam
Morocco: 98.4% of 31,677,000 unreached. Mainly Islam

Based on 2010 data by the Joshua Project

Countries Needing Prayer: Least Developed Countries

2010-01-20T06:02:00.004+09:00

These are the least developed countries in the world. There are many many more, but I just wanted to focus on the ten worst. This is taking into consideration life expectancy, education and standard of living of the people living in these countries. The countries below have people living without the luxuries that we have become used to and take for granted. Even necessities like clean water and food are hard to come by. These people tend to die at a very young age. Generally, they cannot read or write. They live in unhealthy or even unsafe conditions. The majority of the poorest nations in the world are located in Africa. People tend to be happy with little, which is humbling because our nations are unhappy with everything. Please pray that these nations become safer places to live, especially for young children, that people will have food, water, shelter and most importantly: love. Also pray that God reveals himself in a massive way, especially in the Islamic countries.

Niger: Mainly Islam
Afghanistan: Mainly Islam
Sierra Leone: Mainly Islam
Central African Republic: Mainly Christian
Mali: Mainly Islam
Burkina Faso: Mainly Animism
The Congo: Mainly Christian
Chad: Mainly Islam
Burundi: Mainly Christian
Guinea-Bissau: Mainly Islam

Based on the 2009 United Nation's Development Program's Human Development Report

Countries Needing Prayer: Most Persecuted Christians

2010-01-20T05:49:00.007+09:00

These are the countries where people are highly persecuted simply for believing in Jesus Christ. They are forced to worship God quietly, often alone without sharing their faith. If anyone found them out, the government would arrest them, beat them, torture them and even kill them, and their families. This is only a small list of many such countries, but these have been the worst in recent years, particularly North Korea which has been most harsh on any religion year on year. Please pray that followers of Christ in these countries will stay strong and that the church does carry on to miraculously grow, even under this pressure.

North Korea: Atheist state
Iran: Islamic state
Saudi Arabia: Islamic state
Somalia: Islamic state
Maldives: Islamic state
Afghanistan: Islamic state
Yemen: Islamic state
Mauritania: Islamic state
Laos: Buddhist state
Uzbekistan: Islamic state

Based on the 2010 Open Doors Report

A New Year

2010-01-01T03:21:00.003+09:00

Wow, it is already the end of 2009. Which means it is 2010! (Almost!) That's a whole 10 years since the millennium! Oh how time escapes us like the very breath that we breathe.

As I just turned to the exciting landmark age of 24 Earth years, I will act my age and reminisce of times gone by. Well, 2009 anyway. My memory is a bit hazy before then!

So much has happened!!! The year began with me in Reading for the second half of a year working as a computer fixerer at Clearswift (with the help of trusty Google searches). Being in Reading was a great time of making friends with some really cool people. I stumbled to a small church called Argyle Church at the end of my street and was met with so much love and hospitality that I just had to keep on going! Everyone was fantastic and I learnt more about God by just spending time with people. Their encouragement meant a lot to me during that year. I also worked with some really great people at Clearswift which made working there a complete joy. I learnt a lot about how organisations work, how to fix stupid computer problems and how to make friends with co-workers. 2009 was also the year I left Reading to come back to Liverpool. I found this time to be a really sad time and my usually dry eyes felt wetness when saying goodbye to both those I worked with and those I had fellowship with.

Once back in Liverpool, I swiftly disappeared again before people could even say hello as it was time for the annual Nefyn fest. I was tent leader yet again on the fun, Jesus-filled 9-11 year olds summer camp. Again, I experienced joy, tiredness and a hint of frustration as I looked after a small group of boys for a full week. My team came last points wise as usual, but I feel the laid-back nature of myself rubbed off on the kids and we did not care in the slightest that we lost. But we had fun, and that is what matters. Well, that and seeing lots of small kids come to know Jesus Christ for the first time! Makes every year worth it.

Straight after this exhausting week of fun and frolics, the day after in fact, I was swiftly taken away to Japan! All alone! I had little time to think about what I was actually doing, but I was doing it! After years of wanting to go and praying about it, I was off to Japan to serve God and his church for just over one month. And what a month it was! After arriving in the strange new land, I got a train by myself to Akihabara, the electric town of Tokyo. GeekParadise.com/awesome. In the flesh. And it was great! Although after a short while, it hit me that a lot of those many many geeks actually live for all that material possession. Stuff that is gone once we breathe our last. Sure, games and anime are enjoyable. But to keep consuming it your whole life... Pointless! So I prayed as I walked, for God to hit that place with his grace and love.

Anyway, I wasn't in Tokyo for long. The next day I travelled via the super fast thunder rails! Or train of bullets. Or Shinkansen. Or however else you wish to call those amazing beasts. I travelled alllll the way up north to a small town in Aomori prefecture called Itayanagi. A town of apple farmers. God guided me safely to my destination, I am pleased to announce! I must say, Japan is absolutely beautiful. People live under the awesome presence of huge mountains. And when there aren't house, there are miles and miles of rice fields. And apple trees where I was. It was a real privilege to be able to see it with my own eyes. But it wasn't just the country that is beautiful, the people are too. Well they were to me! They treated me with a respect I've never experienced before. People bow and say thank you at every opportunity. Although I must say, it made me uncomfortable at times!

I stayed with a missionary family at their church and helped with anything I could. This involved cooking, cleaning, chopping wood, mowing grass, teaching English and creating a new website. I hope I was of some use while I was there. I was unable to speak to many people and I found this to be the hardest thing. I really wanted to speak with people, but I could only stand there and listen to their cool language while looking rather out of place. I do hope to know the language one day so I can go back and see who people really are! I spent a lot of time on my own in the upstairs of the church, but it was good to be able to spend more time with God. I felt like I really grew as a person while there. During my last weekend there, a group of students from Tokyo invaded my lonely space. I didn't know what to do. Would they understand me? Anyway, I kept to myself for a bit until they started talking to me. And it was great to be able to speak with people! Cool people they are! Though our time together was short, they left a lasting impression on me and I made an unexpected friend! I then travelled back to Tokyo for a week and spent most of my time alone in that crazy busy super-city. I jumped on random trains and prayed in many busy places. I could write a million words on my experience there, but I'll stop!! I didn't even get to mention a few awesome things!! Like flying in a small plane over northern Japan! And getting naked with strange men! Haha! It's normal over there, it's okay! ;)

*phew* Anyway. The day after arriving back to Liverpool my mum got married to John Davies! I walked her down the isle and gave her away. I still had Japan on my mind, but it was a lovely wedding and my mum looked fantastic! A couple of days later I started back at University for my final year! I needed a break! Ahh well, it's not like I do any work anyway. Har-di-har. ;)

So yeah, 2009. My bestest year so far. It will be very hard to beat. Other things happened that made it even better, but I don't want to bore with more details! ;) 2010 is next. I will hopefully graduate from university but then what? I don't know. But I feel God wants me to spend my life spreading his love, hope and joy. Somehow. I have no idea why he'd want to use a weak, un-talented, quiet person like me! But God can do anything he wants!

I hope you had a great 2009 and I wish you the best for 2010! I wonder what I'll write about this time next year!! Exciting!

Japan 2

2009-09-04T08:27:00.004+09:00

I am around halfway through my time in Japan! Just three weeks to go! Time is going so quickly!!

Sorry I haven't been updating you as much as I'd like! I guess it's a good thing that I have been busy though as that's why I am here!

So what have I been up to over the past week? I guess the biggest task that the missionaries here are doing at the moment is getting a new church building ready to be opened in November. They have transformed a really old, filthy place that was full of all sorts of rubbish and animals etc as well as black walls (black with dirt), into a nice little church with kitchen area, as well as a house next door (which needs a lot of work) and an area for car parking. The past few weeks I have been helping with cutting grass and tidying up the car parking area in order to lay it all with gravel so cars can actually use it! I think it's pretty much ready for that now! I have also been cutting and moving large amounts (seriously LARGE AMOUNTS) of wood into a storage shed ready for when the snow comes in November. And yesterday we completely cleaned up a storage area that was filled with rubbish, reeeeally old Japanese farming tools, lots of dust, rat poo and rat nests. Was hard work but felt good to get it done! Overall, the place is looking a lot better than even when I came a few weeks ago! Ready for when God calls lots of people to worship him in this place! That's the hope anyway!

I have also been researching ways to create a new website for the churches that can be easily updated as well as being in English and Japanese. And have an online ordering system for the little book store that is connected with this church. Not sure how much I can do in this short time I'm here, but we'll see!

Oh and I've also been blackberry picking which was fun! So many blackberries! Taste so good too! The area looks so beautiful. Fields with blackberries, apples and rice with a huuuuuuge mountain in the background. It's like right out of a movie!

Thank you for all the prayers! Working for God in a spiritually dark place such as this is like looking for trouble in regards to Satan's ancient and powerful kingdom in this country. Without the prayers, I am certain things wouldn't be going so well, so thank you!

I am looking forward to sharing about my experience in person soon! (though I am not looking forward to going back to university, it must be said!)

PS - Squat toilet below ^_^

First Week in Japan

2009-08-22T15:03:00.004+09:00

I'm finally here! It's been a long time coming, but now I am in Japan!

I found some rare free time so thought I'd do a quick blog to let you know what I've been up to!

The flight on Sunday/Monday was nice. I didn't get any sleep on the plane which meant I was extra tired when in Japan due to Nefyn camp and the 8 hour time difference, but oh well! After arriving in Narita, I was met at the airport by an OMF worker and we travelled via train to Ichikawa (OMF Japan HQ). There I was shown the guest house and they then left me to my own devices! In Japan! All alone! Was a bit scary, but I wondered outside, to the train station, then popped off to Akihabara (Electric Town). I just had to visit this place while I was here! This is geek heaven. Hundreds of stores that hold DVDs, games, Anime, Manga, all kinds of electronics and arcades. Oh and porn mixed in there as well which I found shocking. There are even vending machines with porn scattered around Japan for easy access. But anyway, it was a fun experience!

After staying the night at the OMF guest house, I travelled by Shinkensen (bullet train) and 3 other trains to my mission destination. To my delight, Pokemon were decorated on the outside of the awesome Shinkansens! The view from the journey was fantastic. I went past many cities, towns, rice fields and mountains. When changing on to the smaller local trains, the signs were in Japanese so I didn't know exactly what trains to get, but I just jumped on the ones that came at the correct times (something that you cannot rely on in the UK). They were the right trains! *phew* I did ask a Japanese man for clarification, but he had no idea what I was on about so I guess God guided me instead!

Once I arrived at Itayanagi, Tsugaru, Aomori I was met at the station by the missionaries I was to stay with. They are the Ghent family. They have been here planting churches for over 20 years and speak Japanese like natives (they are North American and Canadian). Really nice people.

The church is set in the middle of a farming community and this part of Japan is famous for it's apples so there are many apple and rice farmers living here. The number of Christians in this town is way below 0.01% which is sad. But better than some towns in northern Japan where there is 0% Christian due to no churches or missionaries ever reaching them.

Everyone I have met up to now have been really nice!! Even if they cannot speak English, they have treated me well. There are some here who speak some English due to English lessons set up by the family here. I have already been involved in an English class which involved me sitting in a cafe with around 7 Japanese people and we asked each other questions. I was nervous to begin with, but it went well in the end.

There have been a few church events so far where we have cooked for people who then came to eat and hear a gospel talk. Many people here are open to God and are seeking him, but even people who become Christian do not share their faith as they do not want to offend people due to the culture of ancestral worship. Some people never become Christian because of this family pressure.

Today I went with the family to the north were we went to a beach which was really nice. The scenery here is truely amazing. The mountains can be seen for miles around. I wish to climb them one day!

I must go now! I will try and keep you updated! Before I go, I'd like to request a prayer. That God will show Himself to these people in a way that causes them to love and worship the one who created them, instead of hundreds of idol gods that can not save them from their broken lives. I have seen and heard of a lot of pain since being here already and it makes me sad. God is the hope of the whole world.

Mata ne! (see you!)

The Land of the Rising Son

2009-05-20T03:48:00.003+09:00

Most people who know me, know that I love Japan. I love the culture, the history, the music, the food, the technology, the introvertedness, the people. And probably much more.

When I tell people I feel God wants me to go to Japan and be used by Him over there, I get a variety of looks from people. I live in England. A "look" is where I find all my answers. Anyway, for some people I can tell that they are thinking along the lines of "Why go there? They are an advanced country. We need more people to go to Africa and the like!" Put that outlook with my interests in Japan and you could also come to the conclusion that I want an easy life! (If you could imagine such a thing!) I want to go over there for a long holiday!

Though it's true that I would love to go to Japan and have wanted to for a long time, and when I get there I am going to love it and enjoy seeing all these new wonderful things, I'm sure it will hit me all too quickly the reason why I am there...

Most people who know me will also know that I believe in God. More than that, I follow Jesus Christ. More than THAT, I want to give my life to him, just as he done for us all! I believe with my whole being that he is the rightful ruler of the Universe, and I submit to him and love him. More than ANYTHING. He will show himself to be our King in not too many years from now, and it will be truely spectacular and awesome. And scary. You will be shocked. He is calling people to serve him right now on this planet, in order that we can serve and rule the Universe with him in the ages to come.

And who deserves this? Nobody. Not me, not you, not anyone. But it's his choice to call us, because he loves us more than we can ever know. And I simply don't understand why!

Japan has a population of around 127.5 million people. People who have heard enough to believe in God make up around 1% of the population. So, around 99% of 127.5 MILLION people do not know the love of Jesus Christ.

Families are being torn apart by hopeless relationships and lack of free time. Teenagers lock themselves away in their rooms for years because they feel people don't care enough to listen to their thoughts, feelings, ideas and dreams. Japan has one of the highest rates of suicides in the world.

They are a people who love the world around them. But they do not know how to connect with it's creator. Their creator. He loves them dearly, but they don't know it! If only they did!

I feel God wants me to go there. I don't have a clue what I am good at. I don't have a clue what my gifts are. Or my passions. I am a quiet person and I am scared that people will hate me. People will ignore me. I don't even know the language! But I know God will be there with me. That's all I need.

If you are called by God to live for Him, take a few steps in the dark. Don't pay too much attention to what others are saying. Listen to Him and obey. Live everyday like it's your last in this age - it could well be! When you wake everyday, thank Him for the new day. It's a gift! Then ask Him to guide your steps. What are you living for? Who are you living for?

See you around (^_^)