Gary and Naoko in Japan

Cape Town, South Africa Dear friends, Our first proper update in a while - sorry for the delay! We hope this finds you well. Right now it's Spring here and the weather is slowly warming up, while for you it's Autumn and getting colder - crazy! We have settled into our room here on the YWAM base in Muizenberg, Cape Town. We are living in a house with around 80 students (attending 3 different schools) which makes things a bit hectic and loud, but we are very thankful for our own room and own shower! It's been a real joy getting to know everyone here. Our school alone has 16 nations represented! Naoko is the first ever Japanese student at the base. We could write a lot about South Africa, but we'll keep this brief. Please send us an email to know more! South Africa is an interesting mix of many different cultures. Some places are very European, while others are what you would think as being African. There is also a stark divide ...

Hello again! We just wanted to send a quick note to say we're leaving England in a few days! We had such a wonderful time being encouraged and refreshed seeing friends and family! We are so thankful we got to see many of you and to catch up with what has been going on in friends' lives. If we didn't get around to seeing you, we hope to see you when we get back! God is always so faithful. After a few minor hiccups, we received our visas on time! Praise God! We will be leaving from Manchester this Friday (the 20th) and arriving in Cape Town on Saturday. We still need to start packing! Anyway, the YWAM DTS (Discipleship Training School) starts on Monday (the 23rd) and the course will finish on the 28th of February. So we'll be there for just over 5 months. So you have a better idea of what the DTS entails, it's a real mix of classroom-based learning and practical application. The first half of the DTS involves classroom lectures with topics such as who...

Hello friends! As we prepare for more training in Cape Town, South Africa, I wanted to take a step back and reflect on some of the things God did while I was in Japan. There's so much I can write, but I'll keep this short, otherwise you won't read it! Firstly, I want to recommend Japan as a destination for travel to anyone. Japan is such a beautiful country. The natural landscape is stunningly beautiful. You are never far from the shore, and you can pretty much always see mountains as most of the land is mountainous. Even the cities are works of art with huge skyscrapers, state of the art train systems, convenient stores and cheap, quick restaurants everywhere! Oh how I miss Matsuya! (my favourite fast food restaurant!) The most beautiful thing about Japan are the people. They are a people who show respect, generosity, hospitality, and they work hard too. More than any other people group I've encountered. They may take a while to get to know, but if ...

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...