Gary and Naoko in Japan

久しぶりのニュースレターです！春がやってきましたが、皆さまはお元気にお過ごしですか？いつも私たちのことを応援して下さりありがとうございます。新しいスタートの４月！感謝と期待を込めてご報告をさせていただきます＾＾ YWAMジャパン全国総会 ３月１４日から１７日にかけて、御殿場で年に一度のYWAMジャパン全国総会が行われました。私たちも初めて快を連れて家族で参加し、全国から集まったYWAMスタッフと共に礼拝し、近況を分かち合い、有意義な励ましと交流のひと時を持つことができて感謝でした。ギャリーは東北での開拓に向けてビジョンを分かち合い、私は総会で通訳の奉仕をさせていただくこともできてよかったです。今後さらにYWAMジャパンが一つとなって、それぞれの地で主に栄光を返す働きに励んでいけるようにお祈り下さい！ ２０１７年 バイリンガルDTS YWAM東京での2回目のバイリンガルDTSがいよいよい始まります！今週末、スイス、アメリカ、オーストラリア、台湾、そして全国各地から合計13名がYWAM東京に到着し、月曜日からオリエンテーションに入ります。そこから12週間に渡る講義期間を通してキリストに根ざした者としての学びを深め、その後１ヶ月のアウトリーチへと送り出されて学んだことを実践するというプログラムです。私とギャリーもDTSスタッフとして参加します。東北での開拓に向けても、このアウトリーチが良い機会として用いられることを願っているとともに、私は６月最後の２週間に講義通訳としての大きな奉仕があるので、今からドキドキです。快を大切に育てながら、しっかりと良い奉仕ができますように。何よりも、神様が一人ひとりの生徒を守り、豊かに育んで下さいますように。どうかお祈り下さい。これからの半年間、皆さまの応援が力です！卒業式は９月４日の予定です。 その他・・・ その他個人的なこととして、嬉しいご報告があります。 まず、ギャリーが神学校一年目を無事に終えられそうです！昨年８月から始まった初年度は４つの講義をとり、教会史や聖書解釈学といった難しい分野を初めてしっかり勉強しました。課題の締め切りが５月１日で、今のところ無事に提出できそうです。久しぶりのハードな勉強生活に、時にはくじけそうになりながらも、楽しみながら勉強できた様子です。ギャリーの学びを応援

Dear friends and family! Thank you so much for your continued prayers and support for our work here in Japan! We are sorry that we haven't been good at keeping you up to date. But it really does mean a lot to us to have your support! We could not be here without you. YWAM Japan Conference A recent highlight for us was the annual YWAM Japan staff conference! Every year, all of the YWAM missionaries throughout Japan come together to worship, pray, talk business and to catch up on each other's ministries. It was a really encouraging time to get to know the other missionaries and to hear what God is doing all over Japan! The above image is of all the Japan missionaries (though Naoko was watching Kai as he slept!). We stayed at a location near to mount Fuji so it was refreshing. Kai was very well behaved for the 3 nights we were there and he proved quite popular with everyone! Below are a couple more pictures! Prayer for Tohoku! One of the focuses for the conferenc

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

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

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 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

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

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 house ev

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

What a week! After many months of praying about the future and waiting to hear back after applying to serve with Youth With A Mission in Tokyo, I finally heard back. Last Thursday I was informed that YWAM would like me to join them! Praise God!! I also received my results from university on Saturday. They would like to award me with a 2:1 degree in computer studies! Now I must wait until July to be able to wear a flat hat and cape. Awesome. I will feel special indeed. Okay, so the plan is to join YWAM Tokyo in September where I will focus on Japanese language and culture training as well as spending time reaching out to young people in order to make Christ known. I’ll be involved in the setting up and running of various events such as worship nights, a coffee shop, English lessons, art lessons, music and dance lessons and Bible studies, as well as meeting Japanese students and building links between them and the church. I will also have an opportunity to use skills I gained on

Wow, it is already the end of 2009. Which means it is 2010! (Almost!) That's a whole 10 years since the millennium! Oh how time escapes us like the very breath that we breathe. As I just turned to the exciting landmark age of 24 Earth years, I will act my age and reminisce of times gone by. Well, 2009 anyway. My memory is a bit hazy before then! So much has happened!!! The year began with me in Reading for the second half of a year working as a computer fixerer at Clearswift (with the help of trusty Google searches). Being in Reading was a great time of making friends with some really cool people. I stumbled to a small church called Argyle Church at the end of my street and was met with so much love and hospitality that I just had to keep on going! Everyone was fantastic and I learnt more about God by just spending time with people. Their encouragement meant a lot to me during that year. I also worked with some really great people at Clearswift which made working there a complet

I am around halfway through my time in Japan! Just three weeks to go! Time is going so quickly!! Sorry I haven't been updating you as much as I'd like! I guess it's a good thing that I have been busy though as that's why I am here! So what have I been up to over the past week? I guess the biggest task that the missionaries here are doing at the moment is getting a new church building ready to be opened in November. They have transformed a really old, filthy place that was full of all sorts of rubbish and animals etc as well as black walls (black with dirt), into a nice little church with kitchen area, as well as a house next door (which needs a lot of work) and an area for car parking. The past few weeks I have been helping with cutting grass and tidying up the car parking area in order to lay it all with gravel so cars can actually use it! I think it's pretty much ready for that now! I have also been cutting and moving large amounts (seriously LARGE AMOUNTS) of

I'm finally here! It's been a long time coming, but now I am in Japan! I found some rare free time so thought I'd do a quick blog to let you know what I've been up to! The flight on Sunday/Monday was nice. I didn't get any sleep on the plane which meant I was extra tired when in Japan due to Nefyn camp and the 8 hour time difference, but oh well! After arriving in Narita, I was met at the airport by an OMF worker and we travelled via train to Ichikawa (OMF Japan HQ). There I was shown the guest house and they then left me to my own devices! In Japan! All alone! Was a bit scary, but I wondered outside, to the train station, then popped off to Akihabara (Electric Town). I just had to visit this place while I was here! This is geek heaven. Hundreds of stores that hold DVDs, games, Anime, Manga, all kinds of electronics and arcades. Oh and porn mixed in there as well which I found shocking. There are even vending machines with porn scattered around Japan for easy ac

I did not know what to expect. I wasn't too sure what I was doing. But I had faith that God was with us and whatever we did, we did it with Him. The long flight was an exciting one. Sure, it was uncomfortable for the most part, but I was excited. We were on our way to a different country, culture, language, people. And it was going to be summer! It was weird going shopping for sun lotion the day before. When we finally reached Entebbe in Uganda, I needed the loo badly. I just couldn't bring myself to go on the flight! ...anyway, when that was dealt with, two things - no, three things hit me. Firstly, the heat. It was the night time, but it was so warm! Around 22 degrees Celcius would be my guess. It was nice. Secondly, the smell. I simply cannot describe it, but it wasn't nice. It made me wretch a little. But I got used to it within minutes. Thirdly, the windows were covered in flies. Totally covered! I was half expecting to step outside the building to a thick atmosphe