This week was a little busyer, I guess... We've been doing a lot of worship, mostly in this youth group thing with international kids. English speaking people, Praise The Lord. Worship seems to be our main area of ministry here, and it's cool, though so far we haven't had many opportunities to play as a full band, most of the time it's just Josh and Isaac with a guitar and a djembe.
On wednesday we went to this one YWAM lady's prayer room in this really dodgy part of town to worship for a couple of hours. It was awesome, we played for three hours straight, after which the lady showed us a really cheap sushi bar nearby. I was so excited to get sushi, cos so far we hadn't had any during our time in Japan. The plates were a 100yen each, and I ate like ten of them... But to my surprise real sushi isn't that great :O Though it was cheap and Koji said it wasn't that great, it still was supposedly better than the "fake" sushi we had in Brisbane. I thought the fake stuff was better than this... Just goes to show what an amateur I am when it comes to Cuisine Japonaise... After stuffing ourselves with sushi we went to this international youth meeting and led worship, just like the previous wednesday. It was awesome and we really enjoyed to meet these kids. These meetings are organised for kids who go to a christian international school, and they call it HI.B.A., though I have no clue of what it stands for. It's basicly a non-charismatic thing, but they work closely with YWAM (at least in Tokyo) which can be very charismatic, and it was just awesome to see that it is possible for christians with different backgrounds and theology to work together and make it work! It's mostly to the credit of mr. David McDaniel, who's the leader of YWAM Tokyo and one of the most awesome people I've met. He's such a down to earth guy with a really good theology and a strong relationship with God, and he's funny as hell. God sure has a sense of humor when he puts a loud, large American to work in Japan. But I guess that's exactly what this country needs... God knows the best.
On thursday we had another Hi.B.A meeing with a little different crowd, and this time we actually had a full band (no drumkit though, and no vocals). Again it was a lot of fun. These kids are so joyful and welcoming and they seemed very encouraged by us. Working with these kids has been exactly what we came here for. It's been awesome, though I wish we could stick with them for a little longer to build real friendships with them. Meeting people once or twice and then adding them on facebook, yet never talking to them again, is kinda sad. I feel like we would have so much more to offer them but again time works against us... Maybe later, if I ever return.
On Friday we had our first and only gig in Tokyo as Fresh Out Of. We'd sent out fliers and advertised, but nowhere near enuf, as it turned out. The concert was at this tiny church, and we managed to make it look pretty cool, but in the end only a handful of people showed up, none of them actually outside our "circles". I was a little bummed in the beginning, as I'd expected at least some of the Hi.B.A kids to show up. But in the end we just played for the crowd that was there and had a good time. It wasn't that bad, yet I was still wondering what was God's point in all of this. He didn't answer, but I did get a verse the next day, proverbs 20:24; The Lord guides our steps, so why try to understand everything along the way?" (or something like that, I don't have my Bible here...). It just made me smile and really comforted me about the whole two weeks that we've been here and haven't done much. God sees the bigger picture, our job is to have a good attitude about the tiny picture that we can see.
On saturday we had a full day, beginning with homeless ministry at 7am. This time the sun was out and it wasn't that cold, so I actually enjoyed it. From there we continued to this new-ish suburb about an hour away from Shibuya, where we did some prayer walking for a sister Church of the Tokyo Baptist Church. I didn't have high expectations for it, but it was pretty nice with the sun shining. Me and Josh walked with one of the pastors of the church, and ended up praying more for the Church they're building there rather than the actual area. After lunch we did another round at a shopping mall there. Josh had his guitar and after walking around the mall for a while I just felt like we should go sit down outside the mall and jam. So we found this nice bench next to a hairsalon, right were the people coming from the train station entered the mall. We got to play for a good 30 minutes, just jamming and improvising worshipsongs, as well as singing some ready songs. I was a little worried the hairdressers in the salon would get annoyed but turned out that they actually really liked us playing there. Four of them came outside to say hello and fortunately the pastor happened to be there to translate for us. It was awesome to be able to bless the salon and even though we didn't speak a word about Jesus to them at least we were building relationships, and I think that's way more important. A lot of people passed us by and smiled and looked back and some kids even came straight up to us to just stare at us as we played. It was awesome. After about 35 minutes this guard came to tell us to stop because we were"noise pollution". It didn't really matter cos we had to go home anyway, I just felt sorry for the guy who obviously took his job way too seriously...In the evening we had our last Hi.B.A. in Yokohama. We led worship and shared a testimony and Ronnie did a little teaching that was really good though the time run out. Sad day for him, for he was really excited about it.
Our last evening in Tokyo we had a barbecue at the McDaniel's house. Real meat, it was so good. And after eating we just hung out and listned to music and talked for hours. It was so relaxed and nice, a truly awesome ending to our time in Tokyo. Now it's time to move on to Osaka, which apparently will be like going to another country. I have no idea what our schedule will look like, but I know there's gonna be less white people and more awkward moments with everything lost in translation... Anyway, keep us in your prayers etc. etc.
On wednesday we went to this one YWAM lady's prayer room in this really dodgy part of town to worship for a couple of hours. It was awesome, we played for three hours straight, after which the lady showed us a really cheap sushi bar nearby. I was so excited to get sushi, cos so far we hadn't had any during our time in Japan. The plates were a 100yen each, and I ate like ten of them... But to my surprise real sushi isn't that great :O Though it was cheap and Koji said it wasn't that great, it still was supposedly better than the "fake" sushi we had in Brisbane. I thought the fake stuff was better than this... Just goes to show what an amateur I am when it comes to Cuisine Japonaise... After stuffing ourselves with sushi we went to this international youth meeting and led worship, just like the previous wednesday. It was awesome and we really enjoyed to meet these kids. These meetings are organised for kids who go to a christian international school, and they call it HI.B.A., though I have no clue of what it stands for. It's basicly a non-charismatic thing, but they work closely with YWAM (at least in Tokyo) which can be very charismatic, and it was just awesome to see that it is possible for christians with different backgrounds and theology to work together and make it work! It's mostly to the credit of mr. David McDaniel, who's the leader of YWAM Tokyo and one of the most awesome people I've met. He's such a down to earth guy with a really good theology and a strong relationship with God, and he's funny as hell. God sure has a sense of humor when he puts a loud, large American to work in Japan. But I guess that's exactly what this country needs... God knows the best.
On thursday we had another Hi.B.A meeing with a little different crowd, and this time we actually had a full band (no drumkit though, and no vocals). Again it was a lot of fun. These kids are so joyful and welcoming and they seemed very encouraged by us. Working with these kids has been exactly what we came here for. It's been awesome, though I wish we could stick with them for a little longer to build real friendships with them. Meeting people once or twice and then adding them on facebook, yet never talking to them again, is kinda sad. I feel like we would have so much more to offer them but again time works against us... Maybe later, if I ever return.
On Friday we had our first and only gig in Tokyo as Fresh Out Of. We'd sent out fliers and advertised, but nowhere near enuf, as it turned out. The concert was at this tiny church, and we managed to make it look pretty cool, but in the end only a handful of people showed up, none of them actually outside our "circles". I was a little bummed in the beginning, as I'd expected at least some of the Hi.B.A kids to show up. But in the end we just played for the crowd that was there and had a good time. It wasn't that bad, yet I was still wondering what was God's point in all of this. He didn't answer, but I did get a verse the next day, proverbs 20:24; The Lord guides our steps, so why try to understand everything along the way?" (or something like that, I don't have my Bible here...). It just made me smile and really comforted me about the whole two weeks that we've been here and haven't done much. God sees the bigger picture, our job is to have a good attitude about the tiny picture that we can see.
On saturday we had a full day, beginning with homeless ministry at 7am. This time the sun was out and it wasn't that cold, so I actually enjoyed it. From there we continued to this new-ish suburb about an hour away from Shibuya, where we did some prayer walking for a sister Church of the Tokyo Baptist Church. I didn't have high expectations for it, but it was pretty nice with the sun shining. Me and Josh walked with one of the pastors of the church, and ended up praying more for the Church they're building there rather than the actual area. After lunch we did another round at a shopping mall there. Josh had his guitar and after walking around the mall for a while I just felt like we should go sit down outside the mall and jam. So we found this nice bench next to a hairsalon, right were the people coming from the train station entered the mall. We got to play for a good 30 minutes, just jamming and improvising worshipsongs, as well as singing some ready songs. I was a little worried the hairdressers in the salon would get annoyed but turned out that they actually really liked us playing there. Four of them came outside to say hello and fortunately the pastor happened to be there to translate for us. It was awesome to be able to bless the salon and even though we didn't speak a word about Jesus to them at least we were building relationships, and I think that's way more important. A lot of people passed us by and smiled and looked back and some kids even came straight up to us to just stare at us as we played. It was awesome. After about 35 minutes this guard came to tell us to stop because we were"noise pollution". It didn't really matter cos we had to go home anyway, I just felt sorry for the guy who obviously took his job way too seriously...In the evening we had our last Hi.B.A. in Yokohama. We led worship and shared a testimony and Ronnie did a little teaching that was really good though the time run out. Sad day for him, for he was really excited about it.
Our last evening in Tokyo we had a barbecue at the McDaniel's house. Real meat, it was so good. And after eating we just hung out and listned to music and talked for hours. It was so relaxed and nice, a truly awesome ending to our time in Tokyo. Now it's time to move on to Osaka, which apparently will be like going to another country. I have no idea what our schedule will look like, but I know there's gonna be less white people and more awkward moments with everything lost in translation... Anyway, keep us in your prayers etc. etc.
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