Japan Update: July 2012

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!)