We will have our first worship service at our Volunteer Center here in Yamamoto this upcoming Sunday (16th). We're looking forward to being able to have worship here once a month, on the third Sunday.
If you think of it during the week, we'd appreciate some prayers being shot Upstairs. Specifically...
- that God would lead us to invite the 'right' people over the course of the week
- for my ministry partner's message prep, receiving the insight to know how to gear the message
- for my prep to lead worship, having not done it in a long time and having never done it in Japanese (which is what I'm assuming I will be doing it in)
We're looking forward to it and trusting that He's gonna make it go!!!
September 11, 2012
September 5, 2012
No Vacation from Vacation
After a fully-packed week of vacation, I kinda hoped for a bit of a slower week to get back into the swing of things. Not the case, and it's been a blessing!
The day after I got back, we jumped into a "Chicken-on-a-Stick and Ice-in-a-Cup" event here at the volunteer center. We'd been praying for 20 people to show up for it, but ended up with a turnout of over 30!!! (really 31, but I thought 'over 30' sounded more impressive). Praise God!
We've got various other things on the schedule for this week as well...our weekly café, English classes starting, planning/preparing for craft (cartonnage *shrug*) events, showing some guests around, and connecting with a house church nearby. A real solid and busy week to welcome me back to the swing of things, and get me charged up! Here we go!!!
(once again, pics later...)
The day after I got back, we jumped into a "Chicken-on-a-Stick and Ice-in-a-Cup" event here at the volunteer center. We'd been praying for 20 people to show up for it, but ended up with a turnout of over 30!!! (really 31, but I thought 'over 30' sounded more impressive). Praise God!
We've got various other things on the schedule for this week as well...our weekly café, English classes starting, planning/preparing for craft (cartonnage *shrug*) events, showing some guests around, and connecting with a house church nearby. A real solid and busy week to welcome me back to the swing of things, and get me charged up! Here we go!!!
(once again, pics later...)
Casualties of Vacation
I went on vacation last week with some friends who came to visit from home. We had a real good time and did a lot! Once again, I think I contributed to overpacking the schedule and forgot to leave time for rest, which left me, once again, wanting a vacation from my vacation. Regardless, it was an awesome time, where we got to go to Tokyo, climb Mt. Fuji, and visit Kyoto and Hiroshima. 4 places scattered around Japan in 6 days, that's how we do it! Pictures you ask? What a perfect lead in to the title of this post...
I feel that I'm usually pretty good with electronics. They don't really break on me and I'm generally pretty good with not dropping them, generally. Well, in a matter of a few days, I found a way to 'break' that trend (hahaha, that was a play on words in English. I still got it!!!). So, the day before the trip, my laptop decides to die on me (not my fault). A couple days later, my iPhone falls to the ground (68.8% not my fault), and while climbing Mt Fuji I decided to make a generous donation to the 'people climbing Mt Fuji with no lens cap foundation (99.74% my fault. If anyone needs a 52mm Nikon lens cap, there's one sitting on a rock somewhere above the 8th Station of Mt Fuji (but get up there quick, cuz I think this is the last weekend it's open to climb). But it's ok, because the laptop is being surgerized, the phone still works, but looks like a cross between stained glass and a windshield after a Colorado winter, and a new lens cap is on its way from the wonderful world of Amazon.
Anyways...all that to say pics are gonna be slightly delayed. But maybe I can get one up here...
...nope, doesn't look like I can, sorry. We'll just have to hope surgery goes well on the laptop ;) (and hope that the person performing the surgery doesn't have butterfingers. Butterfingers that might hypothetically cause an iPhone to leap from their hands towards the ground)
I feel that I'm usually pretty good with electronics. They don't really break on me and I'm generally pretty good with not dropping them, generally. Well, in a matter of a few days, I found a way to 'break' that trend (hahaha, that was a play on words in English. I still got it!!!). So, the day before the trip, my laptop decides to die on me (not my fault). A couple days later, my iPhone falls to the ground (68.8% not my fault), and while climbing Mt Fuji I decided to make a generous donation to the 'people climbing Mt Fuji with no lens cap foundation (99.74% my fault. If anyone needs a 52mm Nikon lens cap, there's one sitting on a rock somewhere above the 8th Station of Mt Fuji (but get up there quick, cuz I think this is the last weekend it's open to climb). But it's ok, because the laptop is being surgerized, the phone still works, but looks like a cross between stained glass and a windshield after a Colorado winter, and a new lens cap is on its way from the wonderful world of Amazon.
Anyways...all that to say pics are gonna be slightly delayed. But maybe I can get one up here...
...nope, doesn't look like I can, sorry. We'll just have to hope surgery goes well on the laptop ;) (and hope that the person performing the surgery doesn't have butterfingers. Butterfingers that might hypothetically cause an iPhone to leap from their hands towards the ground)
March 26, 2012
Placement!!!
Sorry for the delay in the update but...
I arrived at the 恵泉キリスト教会仙南チャペルボランティアセンター (Keisen Christ Church Sennan Chapel Volunteer Center) in Yamamoto City, Miyagi Prefecture, last Wednesday. I'm excited to be back in Northeast Japan, and looking forward to the doors that God will open up in this area that was devastated by the earthquake and tsunami just over a year ago.
Yamamoto City is about 1 hour south of Sendai, an hour-and-a-half southwest of Ishinomaki (the city I was in over the summer), and 30 minutes north of Soma (one of the northernmost city in the Fukushima Prefecture).
The Keisen Christ Church Network's mother church in Yonezawa City, Yamagata Prefecture (2 hours west of Yamamoto City) and has numerous daughter churches scattered throughout "central" Japan. It's one of the churches in Japan that is really growing, multiplying, and has visionary leadership.
I arrived at the 恵泉キリスト教会仙南チャペルボランティアセンター (Keisen Christ Church Sennan Chapel Volunteer Center) in Yamamoto City, Miyagi Prefecture, last Wednesday. I'm excited to be back in Northeast Japan, and looking forward to the doors that God will open up in this area that was devastated by the earthquake and tsunami just over a year ago.
Yamamoto City is about 1 hour south of Sendai, an hour-and-a-half southwest of Ishinomaki (the city I was in over the summer), and 30 minutes north of Soma (one of the northernmost city in the Fukushima Prefecture).
The Keisen Christ Church Network's mother church in Yonezawa City, Yamagata Prefecture (2 hours west of Yamamoto City) and has numerous daughter churches scattered throughout "central" Japan. It's one of the churches in Japan that is really growing, multiplying, and has visionary leadership.
It's been challenging at times waiting for placement over the past 10 months, but God's had this planned all along. As I continue meeting people and hearing about how ministry is shaping in this new church plant, I keep getting more excited. The focus so far in Yamamoto has been on those living in the temporary housing units that have been setup in different spots throughout the city. Moving forward, we are developing a Kids Ministry here in Yamamoto, and are looking to use the volunteer center (a house) as a community center.
I'm in the process learning the ropes and getting things figured out, but real excited to be back in Tohoku!
Please pray for me, my ministry partner "Josh," and the leaders of the Keisen Church as we dig deeper into planting a church in Yamamoto City.
February 1, 2012
December 14, 2011
Rub a Dub Dub, Thanks for the Grub...
Recently in my Japanese class, we've learned how to say things like "before I go to sleep, I take a shower," or "before I leave the house, I put on pants," or "before I eat dinner, I pray," etc...
During the "review the chapter" time today, the teacher asked me (knowing that I'm a Christian and a missionary, and knowing full well what my answer was going to be) what I do before eating. So I went ahead and gave the answer I'd given before..."shokujino maeni, inori o shimasu" (before a meal, I pray). Nothing new...until the teacher said she wanted to hear what praying before a meal sounds like, and asked me to say something.
Neat! So, I gave thanks for the food and the hands that prepared it, and asked God to bless it to our bodies, and our bodies to His service. And then...I turned it around and did it in Japanese. Bam! Double neat! It wasn't perfect, and I couldn't get the 'blessing our bodies to His service' part, but I got most of it out. Neat!
Everyday, there's a reason to do some 'Tebowing'!!!
During the "review the chapter" time today, the teacher asked me (knowing that I'm a Christian and a missionary, and knowing full well what my answer was going to be) what I do before eating. So I went ahead and gave the answer I'd given before..."shokujino maeni, inori o shimasu" (before a meal, I pray). Nothing new...until the teacher said she wanted to hear what praying before a meal sounds like, and asked me to say something.
Neat! So, I gave thanks for the food and the hands that prepared it, and asked God to bless it to our bodies, and our bodies to His service. And then...I turned it around and did it in Japanese. Bam! Double neat! It wasn't perfect, and I couldn't get the 'blessing our bodies to His service' part, but I got most of it out. Neat!
Everyday, there's a reason to do some 'Tebowing'!!!
December 1, 2011
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