Gary and Naoko in Japan

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: ------------ 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 appl...

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: ------------ 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 newsl...

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...

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!

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...

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, w...

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 ...