Building Foundations

As we drove to Ippo, Ippo Yamada this morning not only were we struck by the natural beauty of this gorgeous place, but by the marks that were still left by the tsunami from March last year. Although Japan has been super efficient in the clear-up of the destruction left by the disaster, it was clear that rebuilding and healing is still happening. We saw many temporary housing blocks, where families are still squeezed in tiny rooms, and the empty foundations of houses that were swept away or damaged. Iwate is still rebuilding itself in the wake of the waters that devestated it and we couldn’t help but be reminded of Jesus’ parable of the wise and foolish builders. Would the people rebuild their lives on Jesus, the sure and strong foundation, our high tower and rock, that would give them true security and safety?

We have the immense privilege of partnering with the amazing Mike and Rowena McGinty, who established the Ippo Ippo Yamada centre, which functions as a cafe/community centre where they share the love of Jesus through establishing relationships with and serving the local people. We are running a children’s programme to show that our sovereign father is the God of Hope, through teaching them songs, playing with them and crafts.

Only two children had signed up to the programme, and praise God that they both turned up today! We have the beautiful Girl H, who brought her mama and little brother with her, and Boy Y who signed himself up for the programme and paid with his own pocket money.

But our God is a lavishly gracious God. And about an hour into the programme and elderly couple entered the centre with their daughter and her 3 beautiful children, who had heard about it through the friend of a friend of a friend. Boy Z, Girl A and Girl M were initially very shy and stony but quickly warmed up and bonded well with the other children. How crazy faithful is our God! His faithfulness reaches to the Heavens!

And it gets more crazy! During our time cooling off at the beach we got into conversation with a nearby beach goer who spoke perfect English. Ms S had lived in America for 9 years and now lived in Japan with her two daughters, using her passion for art and teaching by running workshops for people in the Iwate prefecture. Throughout the day we could just see God’s providence screaming through as He in His grace brought these people to us in ways that we couldn’t have orchestrated.

Please be praying for these precious little ones and Ms S! God promised us that when His word goes out it does not return to Him empty. And as these children hear what we teach the holy Spirit will be at work in their hearts.

Please be praying for the town of Yamada. This is a very old town with deep-set traditions rooted in false religion and idolatry. pray against the work of the enemy as he seeks to lead people astray. In this time of turmoil they have clung to what they know, and that is all false. They are building their houses and lives on the sand.

Thank you for reading!

God Bless and much love

Meg 🙂

On to iwate

We have now finished the kids gospel in ichikawa and what a week it has been! We have all had such a great time with the children and the language barrier hasn’t hindered much at all. We performed the concert at the chapel of adoration yesterday at 2 o’clock and the thing went off without a hitch. And although the concert, the message and the testimonies went very well, I know that so much more has been accomplished through the kids gospel than what we can see in front of us. One thing that really meant a lot to me was the testimony of a woman that I met when we were round at a friends house for a meal. Her son participated in the kids gospel 2 years ago and he is here again this year. She has been a Christian for three months now, but initially it was the kids gospel two years ago that got the ball rolling. It was wonderful to hear her talk about the difference that Jesus has made to her life. It is so precious to see Japanese people being won for the Lord and hearing their testimonies, especially in a country where so very few know the gospel. Praise God for everyone who came to the kids gospel; children and adults alike. The seeds have definitely been planted, I pray that we will be faithful to pray for all those precious seeds that have been planted in the all too often hard and unyielding ground of Japan. It was wonderful to play and have fun with these kids, to show them
the love of Christ through our behavior. I can safely say that each one of us feels very strongly for these kids. So often I found myself singing with a yearning that they will indeed be able to put their trust in God in this life and that He in His faithfulness will fill them
with all joy and peace as they trust in Him.
• pray that these treasures will not forget the words they heard over this past week.
• pray that the Lord will provide the means for these little ones to be discipled in their faith.
• pray against the lies the enemy will try to plant in the hearts of the children and their parents.
• pray that the connections established over this week will be maintained and built upon so that we can see more souls saved.

Tomorrow we head off to Iwate. The turn out for the kids gospel in Yamada hasn’t been good. Only two kids have signed up so far. I wonder how the Lord plans to use us there? He has His purpose in everything and I will rest in that. Meanwhile we continue to pray for more kids to come along. I’ll keep you
filled in as the days go by. Please pray that we will have clarity of vision and passionate hearts to minister to whoever God puts in our path and also that we will be able to make time for prayer.

Marcus

God of the BIG and the little!

Today was the first day of the Kid’s Gospel at the Church of Adoration here in Tokyo.  After so many months of praying and preparation, it felt a bit surreal that it was finally happening!  I think we all felt a mixture of excitement and nerves about how it would go.  Would the children enjoy it?  Would they be able to learn the songs?  Could the translators understand us?!   It was so exciting and comforting to see our Heavenly Father’s hand on all of these things.

The children came in and one of the first things one of them did was to ‘high five’ some of us!   This was such a great way to break the ice.  A few minutes later, our first game, the newspaper relay, was really noisy as the children became so excited!   Each team of around 6 or 7 children tried to squeeze onto two pieces of newspaper, and then to keep moving the third sheet from the back to the front to get across the room without touching the carpet.  They took to this game straight away, and because it was so popular, we are going to do it again tomorrow!

After the newspaper relay, we began to teach the main English words of the first song, ‘Those who put their hope in the Lord’.  We used actions while walking around shouting out the words. After that we did a version of the game ‘fruit salad’ using these words as well.   The children seemed to quickly learn these words which was encouraging.  Pippa did a great job of teaching the songs, along with Marcus who played the guitar as Pippa taught.  Our first song was about how those who put their hope in the Lord will renew their strength.  Some of the words are, ‘they will soar on wings like eagles, they will run and not be weary, they will walk and not be faint’.   The children particularly enjoyed learning the word ‘faint’ where they dropped to the ground!

The second session began with Pastor Sozo giving a talk from the ‘wordless book’.  Today’s lesson was on creation.   The children seemed very engaged with his talk, and for many this would have been the first time they would have heard that they were created by God.

The second song we did after the morning tea break was ‘Nothings too big, big, big’.  We did a version of the game ‘Simon says’ to teach the English vocab for this song.  The children particularly liked the phrases, ‘iddly widdly’, ‘teeny weeny’, and ‘incy wincy’.  When Pippa asked the children later what English words they had learnt today, one of the children said, ‘teeny weeny’!   

The time seemed to fly, and before we knew it, we were having lunch (delicious chicken, rice and some salad).  After that we all went outside and played a game called ‘watermelon bash’.   The children were in teams and were blind folded and given a big stick.  With the help of the leaders and children shouting directions, they had to walk about ten meters with the blind fold on, and then try to hit the watermelon with their stick!  It was amazing how well they did, our watermelon split open after only 3 hits!  When I had my turn I realised it was very difficult (I totally missed the watermelon and hit the ground!).  We finished the day’s program by eating the watermelon!

I think the second of the songs we learnt today was so appropriate for the work with the children here.  The song says, ‘Nothings too big, big, big, for his power, nothings too little, little for his care’.   It’s so true, God was with us today in the big and the little.  He was with us in the little details of the program, he cared about each one of us and helped the program run smoothly.  It’s so important to remember he is also in the big thing of bringing people to know Jesus, and that we can trust that he will be at work through our teeny weeny efforts.  

Thanks for reading our blog, and mostly for your prayers for us, we appreciate it so much!

God bless,
Jane

Today marks the…

Today marks the first week of the trip and after a week of orientation and preparation for the kids gospel we are officially starting tomorrow.

A lot has happened this week, but i’d like to focus in on a few things that have become great realities to me during the past week. After visiting a large temple in Tokyo and a few other buddhist and shinto temples in Kamakura, I have seen the idolatry that is engrained into the japanese culture. At one of the temples we visited in Kamakura today, there was a ceremony going on where the priests gathered to chant and read sutras. It wasn’t so much the chanting that disturbed me but rather the reaction of the people. It saddened me to see people bowing and praying prayers to something that couldn’t hear them or do anything about their problems and yet for their whole lives they will come time and time again to these places offering up prayers that will go unheeded.

Something else I noticed was the number of exhausted people on the way back into Tokyo on the train. It was about 8 o’clock and many people were travelling back home after a long day of work and overtime. I was also told that a lot of those who go home at this time are the higher ups who have the privilege of leaving earlier then the rest. As for everyone else they will usually leave a lot later; to put it into prospective 10:30 is the evening rush hour. With these incredibly long hours, many fathers only see their children on sunday and even then, many are too exhausted to spend time with them. What then are the chances of getting a man to come to church on his only day off? Or trying to disciple new believers to grow in their relationship with God when their number one concern is work? Here we see a different kind of idolatry, similar to the other kind in that they are both seen as an obligation and that they both prevent japanese people from coming into a relationship with the God who died for them.

I was left today with a longing for answers to these questions. How can we see japanese people retaining their identity as japanese and yet worshipping the Lord and how can this cycle of excessive, life-consuming overtime be brought to an end? I don’t have the answers to these questions yet, but what i do know is that God is calling out to all who will hear His voice in this country; He is reaching out desperately to a people who do not know the way the truth and the life and He is asking if they will make that sacrifice, to give up their earthly desires and find their true life in Him. Please pray for these issues and that God would work in the hearts of these people so that when the seed is sown it will land on good ground and put forth roots and grow to be strong, bearing much fruit.

ill try to put some pictures up soon

marcus

Cold noodles and balloons

Hello again from Japan!

Today has been really good.  We finished our official orientation sessions this morning, thanks to the lovely Rosanne, who taught us some useful Japanese, and Sho San, who taught us about the church in Japan.  Our Japanese lesson also included a lesson in ‘slipper-etiquette’.  That was entertaining!  It reminded us of all the different times we need to be aware of what is on our feet!  You see if you go to someone’s house, you need to take off your shoes, and put on some slippers when you arrive.  If they have a tatami room, you need to step out of the slippers before entering the room, and if you go to the toilet, you need to swap from indoor slippers to toilet slippers, and not forget to change back when you leave the bathroom!!  It can all be a bit daunting!  Our session on Japanese churches was insightful.  The church in Japan is so very small, and yet they are so generous, and Japanese people who become Christians give up a lot to be there.  Christians in Japan need our prayers to be courageous in speaking about Christ to others.  We need to pray that they would be outward focused!

We also got the privilege of praying with the OMF staff in their weekly prayer meeting.  It was a joy to join together with them in this way, and also humbling.  (Also afterwards, I got cuddles with a VERY cute 2 month old baby boy named Timothy!).

This afternoon we started our preparation for the kids’ programme.  We started by having a chat through the rest of our programme for our time here.  It’s strange seeing it all written down.  It makes it so much more real.  I can’t believe that come Tuesday, we’re going to be with the kids!!  It’s exciting, but there’s still so much to be done in preparation.  We then met with Pastor Sozo, and Kana San, and got a tour around the church that we will be working with next week.  We spent the rest of the afternoon trying to familiarise ourselves with the songs we are going to be teaching the children.  We have tried really hard to pick songs that both fit with our theme of ‘hope’, and that are easy for kids to sing.

PLEASE pray that tomorrow and Saturday would be really good days.  That we would be able to work well together as a team as we try to get to know the songs, and as we try to come up with good ways of teaching them.

PLEASE pray that as a team we would sleep really well, and have lots of energy.

PLEASE pray that more kids would sign up for the programme in Yamada.  Please pray that 20 kids would sign up.  So far, 3 have signed up.

THANK God for His grace and provision for us on this trip so far.

THANK God for good team relationships so far.

THANK God for the Chapel of Adoration who have put so much effort into preparing for our arrival.

Thank you for reading, and for praying.  Keep checking the blog.

God Bless

Pippa (and the rest of Kids’ Gospel Team!)

 

PS. The Cold Noodles…This is apparently a very popular way to eat noodles in the summer in Japan.  I did not know this.  I had noodles for dinner tonight.  I didn’t expect them to be cold.  They were.

PPS. Apparently Katie has an irrational fear of balloons.  Many giggles were had over this at dinner time…resulting in some strange looks from other restaurant goers!

PPPS. Strangest thing I saw today…Someone eating chips, with chopsticks!!!

First days.

Well, we are finally here. After much travelling and one day of slight jet lag, we are now functioning normally and settling into our new and extremely foreign surroundings. A lot of people think that because Japan is quite westernised it is easy for westerners to live there, but that couldn’t be further from the truth. You have all the appearance of a western commercial society but if you take even a small look into Japanese society, you soon realise that things are very different.

After a walk around Ichikawa you notice so many differences from the way things are back home. the houses are very close together but also very beautiful and with lots of character. the cars are gleaming! I have only seen one car that isn’t shining like a polished suit of armour. Also as anyone would think, there is Japanese everywhere and it is very intimidating to look at. Something as simple as looking at a menu can turn into a very taxing activity. None the less, it is fascinating and I am very happy to be here.

At the moment we are still being orientated to what mission in Japan is like, and I anticipate that God is going to be teaching us a lot and in ways that we do not expect, as so often is the way that He works in us. Personally, Japan is nothing like how I expected it to be and I can see that God is already teaching me through this,removing my old points of view and showing me the way things really are. It is a very humbling experience.

Day one over and now half way into day 2, and we are all very excited. I’ll post again soon and try to get some photos in.