Gary and Naoko in Japan

Konnichiwa! We hope you are well and keeping warm! Sorry it has been a while since our last update.. but here it is finally! Christmas & New Year Firstly, we just wanted to mention we had a wonderful time celebrating Christmas and New Year here, though it's a little different than in England! Christmas in Japan doesn't really exist, besides the fact all of the shops have Christmas decorations and music - even Christian hymns! It's a bit strange, and sad, because they acknowledge the commercial side of Christmas, but don't know what it means. Not too different than England after all then! ... Anyway, Christmas Day is a usual work day in Japan so Naoko and I celebrated my birthday at home and had communion together which was nice. New Year in Japan is the big family event of the year where most people get time off work and enjoy family time at home. This starts with a rigorous cleaning of the home (and car if there is one)! Then eating lots of delicious New Y...

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 ...

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 ...

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...