Japan Update: June 2012
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 them to rallys. These events were all about having fun and a clear gospel message was preached. I heard that multiple high schooler's gave their lives to Christ during this time! They have been linked into Christian communities for discipleship. I did not go on this outreach, but everyone said it was a really great time of seeing God touch people's hearts, and everyone came back so tired! But with smiles on their faces. After a couple of days rest, the students and a few of the staff went to the Philippines, were they are currently! They'll be there for two weeks reaching out mostly to prostitutes working at bars, as well as lots of other opportunities. I'll have more details next month! When they get back, I will be leading an outreach week here in Tokyo with half of the students, while the other half will be going to a summer camp!
Cornerstone
Even more new people have been coming to Cornerstone this month! Last night, a guy just walking past saw that a friend and I were foreign and he came over to have a random chat. So we invited him in to join the service! He couldn't stay for long but it was just really nice to see that God is bringing in people and making them feel welcome! Also this month Naoko and a friend organised the first girl's night for all the girl's at the church. A majority of the girls went along and had a meal together and had fun and also had a surprise celebration for the pastor's wife! Most of the mid-week events at the church are mostly attended by guys, and the leadership is made up of all guys (not on purpose!) so we really want to see more done for the women of the church in terms of discipleship - very very important! More events will be planned in the coming months!
Language Study
While the students are away on outreaches that I'm not a part of, I have had time to get things done like work on the website again, read books and study the language! I haven't been able to do any of that for the past few months so it has been good. This month I have learnt a couple hundred more vocab as well as new grammer structures. I'm studying by myself so it requires a lot of self discipline, but I've been doing it! My listening is getting better steadily, as is my reading. As always, speaking is the most challenging for me! But I was invited to a friend from church's house last night, his name is Akira, and his parents cooked really delicious Japanese food for me! So good! And I practised my Japanese speaking with them and I feel that I'm getting better! Slowly!
PRAYER POINTS
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 them to rallys. These events were all about having fun and a clear gospel message was preached. I heard that multiple high schooler's gave their lives to Christ during this time! They have been linked into Christian communities for discipleship. I did not go on this outreach, but everyone said it was a really great time of seeing God touch people's hearts, and everyone came back so tired! But with smiles on their faces. After a couple of days rest, the students and a few of the staff went to the Philippines, were they are currently! They'll be there for two weeks reaching out mostly to prostitutes working at bars, as well as lots of other opportunities. I'll have more details next month! When they get back, I will be leading an outreach week here in Tokyo with half of the students, while the other half will be going to a summer camp!
Cornerstone
Even more new people have been coming to Cornerstone this month! Last night, a guy just walking past saw that a friend and I were foreign and he came over to have a random chat. So we invited him in to join the service! He couldn't stay for long but it was just really nice to see that God is bringing in people and making them feel welcome! Also this month Naoko and a friend organised the first girl's night for all the girl's at the church. A majority of the girls went along and had a meal together and had fun and also had a surprise celebration for the pastor's wife! Most of the mid-week events at the church are mostly attended by guys, and the leadership is made up of all guys (not on purpose!) so we really want to see more done for the women of the church in terms of discipleship - very very important! More events will be planned in the coming months!
Language Study
While the students are away on outreaches that I'm not a part of, I have had time to get things done like work on the website again, read books and study the language! I haven't been able to do any of that for the past few months so it has been good. This month I have learnt a couple hundred more vocab as well as new grammer structures. I'm studying by myself so it requires a lot of self discipline, but I've been doing it! My listening is getting better steadily, as is my reading. As always, speaking is the most challenging for me! But I was invited to a friend from church's house last night, his name is Akira, and his parents cooked really delicious Japanese food for me! So good! And I practised my Japanese speaking with them and I feel that I'm getting better! Slowly!
PRAYER POINTS
- Thank God for the opportunity for the students to put into practise what they learnt during DTS
- Thank God for the continued growth of Cornerstone and for the girl's night!
- That God will bring many people to know him during these outreach weeks
- That God will speak to Naoko and me about the future!
- Thank God for all of the prayer and financial support that lets me be here!
- That God will protect Naoko as she is going to Africa for two weeks this coming month!
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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