Japan Update: February 2012
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
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!
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