Gary and Naoko in Japan

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...

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 m...

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 ...

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 sm...

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 ...

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 suitc...

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 ...