Final Post from Japan

I can't believe it, I just can't believe it. After nearly two weeks of dramas, testimonies, songs and so many other things, we've leaving Japan. This evening we've had a debriefing with our team, hosts, and some church alumni about the things we've experienced on this trip. It was a great time, everyone shared what impacted them most on the trip, including myself. Tonight we will spend the night at the airport and then catch our flight to Detroit at 7am. I can easily say that this trip has changed my life, and it is my prayer that through our ministry Japanese people will come to know the Lord. I have been challenged to step out of my confort zone time and time again here. I love our friends here in Japan, it's such a blessing to get to know them and fellowship with them. We are sent here to help impact the Japanese for Christ, but in truth, we are impacted just as much, if not more. There's so much I've learned from the Japanese, and I can hope and pray that I'll have more opportunities to interact with them in their wonderful nation. So, this is it, the final hours of the Japan missions trip 2012. We've been blessed so much and there have had many objectives, and we have accomplished so much. It is my final prayer that all we did on this missions trip to Japan 2012, has brought glory to God. 

Final Day

Day 11: Today we went to do our final outreach at a church one hour train ride away from where we stay. We did a couple of songs, did the skit, and dad have the message. After service, we had a HUGE and awesome lunch. Then in the afternoon we went to what we call a "Super Sento" (a big public bath/ spa in one). It was beautiful, it was on a ridge on the side of a lake in the mountains. Nothing like relaxing in a hottub while looking out over mountains :). We then came home and started packing for our trip tomorrow.

Day 10

Day 10: Hallelujah! After a few days of going to bed at midnight and waking up at 6, we got to sleep in! We also split up again for today. Robert, Tyler, Breinne, my mom and I all went to Yokohama City Vision Church. Besides Kashiwa church, this one is my favorite to vist. The people there are so on fire for God, especially the youth. Their worship is awesome! So I got to share my testimony at a JR/SR High outreach there. Then we had a college outreach later that evening. During fellowship, I got to make some new friends, one of whom lead worship that night, and he's a really good guitar player.
Robert, Tyler and Breinne spent the night there and went to a "Super Sento". While  myself, mom and a friend of ours named Kohei headed back to the XA Student Center.

Day 9:

Day 9: Another early morning, had to catch our train at 7am (and we didn't get to bed till 12 last night). At 8am, we did a service at the AG headquarters of Japan. Then we went to have breakfast at a place called "Jonathan's" (it's kinda like Denny's). The food was alright, but the best part was that Ayumi and Ai came to visit us there, along with Ayumi's eight month old boy Uki! It was so nice to be able to see them (though Uki wouldn't let any of us hold him for more than five seconds). After meeting with them we went to a Shinto shrine to see some gardens they had there. Once that was over, we went to Tokyo University to help kick off the first ever IHOP there. The worship time was so anointed! Later, we hosted a big party here at the XA house. We've been inviting people to it ever since we arrived in Japan. It was pretty fun. Yukio came by and it was such a blessing to see him, he's an alumni of our church who left several years ago. We played some fun games, did a skit, testimony and then these two guys came up and did some freestyle soccer! I later found out that they had competed in the world championship tournament in Malaysia a little while back. So anyway, they were awesome! I'll post the video sometime soon. Later everyone left and the cleanup began. 

Here's a snapshot I was able to get of a freestyle player. He kicked the ball into the air and then caught it while doing a handstand! 

Day 8

Day 8: Today was a day that I look forward to during any Japan trip. The day we go to preschool! Well not literally, but we did visit a Christian preschool today. And (as always) the kids are SO adorable! For the first half hour, we get to play with them on the playground outside or do crafts etc inside. But of course, we all stay outside. Immediately we go to work, playing tag, getting dirty in the sandbox, or even settling down for a tea party in the playhouse (and yes, I did participate in one for a little while).
When time is up, we go inside and do songs with them and share a Bible story.

Finally comes the hard part...saying goodbye. We went next door to the fellowship hall of the church to meet with some of the mothers. Tyler shared his testimony and dad have a brief message. In the afternoon, our host took us to the place in Japan where they print Bibles and other Christian literature. Many of the things printed there are smuggled into China and other closed countries. Later in the evening we did a youth outreach at the church. It was fun, got to make new friends as well as catch up with old ones. I also got to play with some of the kids there too :). I'll post a picture of this one hyper and adorable 6 yr old who we all just loved. After that was the long 1 1/2 hr train ride home.

Day 7:

Day 7: Yes! A laid back day! We didn't have anything going on today, except for passing out flyers at Waseda University. One BIG change today was that the other half of our group finally came back to Tokyo this afternoon. So they were there with us. After Waseda we all went to one of the best restaurants in the world, Yakiniku. It's an all you can eat meat place where you have your own grill and  they bring you unlimited raw meat. You then grill it yourself on a little bilt in grill in the middle of the table. They also bring out vegetables and the drinks are unlimited too! Needless to say, we were all pretty full afterwards. We met with Sayaka's parents, and while the rest of the team went back to the XA Student Center, my family and I went to Japan's "capital building" in downtown Tokyo. There's an observation deck at the top, and if the weather it clear enough, you can see Mt. Fuji from there. Sadly, it was too dark. But the view was still amazing. It's just city as far as the eye can see. We could also see Sky Tree, the tallest structure in the world. After that, I had the responsibility of leading my family through the train systems of Tokyo. Thank God, we made it back alright. There was also a beautiful sunset tonight, which was quite refreshing nonetheless.

Here are some pictures from the "capital tower". The second one is of Sky Tree.

Day 6

Day 6: Started the day by having a 2 hour long prayer meeting this morning. Though there were only six of us, we could really feel the presence of God come into the room. We left immediately from there to Todai University, the "Harvard" of Japan. We did yet another Bible study there and went to lunch in the cafeteria. And I must say, the school cafeteria food here shames 99.9% of cafeteria food in the U.S. (though I guess that isn't saying much). We were going to do some prayer walking, but due to the weather, we had to pray indoors. Afterwards, we made our way home. We had to kinda hurry though, because there's a typhoon that is currently going over Japan (I read that it's supposed to equal a category  1 hurricane). But praise God, it doesn't seem to be that bad. The rest of our group (dad, mom, Josh, Jamie, Sayaka and Breinne) are supposed to come back to Tokyo tomorrow, but they might be delayed due to the typhoon. Otherwise just another laid back day, but that's probably going to change starting Thursday...

Day 5

Day 5: SOOOO glad that we got to sleep in this morning, all the way to 8am. For those of you who don't know, the sun actually comes up around 4:30 am here. And thus, it's kinda hard to sleep in past 7. So anyway, we got to have our first group meeting since Robert and Tyler got here. They both said they didn't sleep very well due to jetlag and loud neighborhood cats. Since Robert couldn't sleep, he decided to wake me and David with a loud "rise and shine sleeping beauties!" So that's how our day began. The four of us went with missionaries Joyce and Susan to the XA Bible study at Meiji University. They just started the Bible study there last spring, and it's risky having it there because the university is very strict about religious organizations. Nonetheless, it went well, and we got to do some discussion time with some students during lunch as well. It was really cool because David, Tyler and I got to answer some really tough questions that this one girl (who's a professor) had about God. It was amazing to watch how she started comprehending what we were telling her. After that we started heading back to the train station, but not without first stopping by some of the music stores. No joke, in the distance between the station and the college, there were probably 15 music stores! I went into about 6 of them and no exaggeration, there were probably more than 800 guitars in those 6 stores alone! After that, we headed back to the XA Student Center.

Day 4

Day 4: We got to stay at one of my favorite churches today, Kashiwa Gracious Songs Church. We're good friends with the pastor and her kids (who are the same age as David and myself). There are also some kids who go there who are the some of most adorable kids ever! Their family has 5 kids, which is very uncommon in Japan. We've gotten to meet with them almost every time we come here, and it's such a blessing to have seen how much each of them has grown over the years. Being with them is such a treat for us, it's a highlight for me every time we come to Japan. Their parents own one of the biggest/most well known bakeries in the city. They aren't Christians though, and only the younger 2 come to church regularly. I'm REALLY hoping/praying that their whole family gets saved.

So anyway, David gave a small message for the survice today at the church, and we had lunch there as well. The kids then took us to their parent's bakery and their mom treated us with these awesome custard filled bread. We then made our way back to the church and headed back to the XA Student Center later in the evening.

Here is a picture of me with the youngest 2 kids, Kotoha and Sota.

Japan Pictures 1

Here are some pictures of the trip so far. The first is of a building at Waseda University. The second is of downtown Takadanobaba (a suburb near where we're staying). And last is a picture of that awesome playground I was talking about. haha 

Day 3

Day 3: We had to travel to the opposite side of Tokyo (the east side) to help one of the local missionaries (Ms. Susan) with some english classes she was teaching. While the first class was taking a written test, David and I had some time to wander the surrounding area. There was a light drizzle, and we didn't have umbrellas. Susan said that there was a river nearby and pointed us in direction of it. So we made our way there and found something that is rare in Tokyo, a grassy field! Yes, I know it sounds like an exaggeration, but it was kinda "refreshing" after seeing nothing but concrete for the past few days. And may I say, Japan has the most awesome playgrounds EVER! I'll post a picture of one we played on a bit. Anyway, we saw the river and headed back to the class. Later that evening David and I lead the XHOP set (I was the only instrumentalist). Thank you so much to everyone who prayed for us! It was really anointed! After the set we traveled by train for an hour  and finally arrived at Kashiwa Gracious Songs Church around midnight.

Day 2

Day 2: Our team split up today, everyone except for David and I went to a church in the countryside and they'll be there till Wednesday (our time). Till then it's just me, David and the city of Tokyo! haha. Today we passed out flyers for a concert for a few hours. Around 4pm we did some prayer walking at Waseda University, which has about 40,000 students on a number of campuses. Later in the evening we did a Bible study with a few students. We had some pretty good discussions and one of the students asked some pretty hard questions. But it was good none the less! We then made the walk back to the train station around 10. On the way there though, we got to see a part of the Japanese life that we haven't seen before. I'll explain this some other time. Anyway, I'll hopefully post some pictures tomorrow!

Arrival

After 26+ hours of traveling we finally made it to the Chi Alpha House in Japan! Now let the jetlag begin...

Just so you all know, we're 14 hours ahead of you guys. So if it's like 6pm on a Wednesday there, it's 8am on Thursday here.

First Post

So before I begin doing "regular" posts on here, I'd like to explain why I chose the name/link for this blog. It is based off two verses that I've run into recently. One of them being 1st Corinthians 10:31 which says "Whether, then, you eat or drink or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God."

 The other verse was Isaiah 43: 6-7, which states "I will say to the north 'Give them up!' and to the south, 'Do not hold them back.' Bring my sons from afar and my daughters from the ends of the earth-everyone who is called by my name, whom I created for my glory, whom I formed and made."

 And finally, the last thing was when I was listening to the IHOP song "All is for Your Glory". It was thanks to all these factors that I was inspired to name this blog "All My Life for Your Glory". Because that's one of the highest (if not THE highest) callings on our lives. To bring our God glory.