Back at Yotsukaido

Phew!! It’s been a long, hard day.

This morning we said goodbye to our home-stay families.  We are all very grateful to them for providing meals, beds and the opportunity to experience the Japanese lifestyle.  I hope everyone was able to take something away from it.

The morning began with a final real practice for the children and they have done very well to have learnt all the song lyrics.  Afterwards the families in Yotsukaido church had prepared curry for lunch.  We are very thankful to them for providing food while we stayed in the church building.

In the afternoon we had our “gig” at the train station and after this, the owner of a local music shop asked if we would play at the entrance so we were able to run through some of the Irish music again which was a lot of fun.  Elaine did very well with her testimony once again and we thank God that she had the strength to speak about these personal matters in public.  Louise also did so well on the tin whistle that some of the flute players from the music shop may come to church in the morning.  We are encouraged by this.

Once the music was finished Pastor Ohashi took us to a Japanese Barbecue restaurant for dinner.  おいしかた (it was delicious!)

We have had our final practice, please pray for the concert tomorrow:

• That some of the children may be interested in attending Sunday school
• That some of the parents may speak to Pastor Ohashi about the subjects raised in the songs
• That everyone will get a good night’s sleep

Best regards,

Stuart

Home Stays Part 2

I too have gained access to the net, as my laptop connected to it when I switched it on, so I thought I’d continue the updating.

As Julie mentioned we have been staying with families from Yotsukaido for the past couple of days and this has been an experience. The families have been very kind to offer us a place to stay and experience everyday life in Japan (Even though they realise that communication might be a problem). Some of the team members are with families where someone speaks English, so this made it a little easier to overcome the communication barrier.  Stuart was staying with a family whose children enjoy manga, anime and all sorts of other common interests, so his grin was a little wider than usual this morning.  Dave Farrow is staying with one of the translators, but this was a last minute thing as the original host family he was supposed to be with had to pull out due to a family illness.  Unfortunately for David though the translator often works late and this means waiting until evening to be able to chat.  Dave seems to have a very nice family as well, though again I don’t think too much English is spoken. His afternoon treat yesterday was to be taken on a museum tour (his 3rd since arrival), and for those of you who know him, you will be aware of the great joy that brought him.  I have been staying in the home of a Buddhist Monk.  They have been a very friendly family, though they speak hardly any English, so the last couple of days has effectively been one long game of charades, but generally we have managed to make ourselves understood.  In some ways I haven’t really got a feel for Japanese life as they have tried very hard to find things that they think Westerners would like.

Family life is quite different here.  The men generally work long hours, and so the mother is effectively the centre of family life.  I didn’t meet the father of the family I am staying with until 11.30 last night (although that was partly becuase we only got in from being out that evening at that time), and he had only recently stopped work (he had been writing out names on stakes that are used in Buddhist funerals – the name is called a Kaimyo, and is your posthumous name).  Tonight he was in at tea time, but was clearly feeling the effects of a long week and so fell asleep in the living room shortly after tea.

Julie has already said about where most of the girls are up to, and Elaine is also doing well, so I’ll not add more to that, other than to say that our greatest need at the moment is for some good sleep and so we would value your prayers for that, and for those who find the Japanese diet a little less palatable, you could pray that they find something a little better suited to them.

  Tomorrow (Sat) is going  to be a very busy day, as we have the final full morning of the kid’s club, followed by a quick practice before we head to the station for our open air session.  There is also now the possiblity of a further session that evening as our translator today said there is a concert that evening with fireworks etc. and the church were going to see if we could play at it. Anyway, your prayers, as always, are very much appreciated.

Peter.

Yotsukaido Update

Hi all,

It’s Julie.  my home stay family have very kindly let me use their computer so i’ll have to be quick.  There has been little comments due to the fact that the team have all been separated from 12 o’clock each day.  We have been each staying with members of the church here and this is our second night.  We have been coping ok, but please keep praying that we will be able to communicate well with the families.  Suzie and I have been very lucky as we are staying with an English teacher.  We are looking forward to being joined with lou and rach tonight as they are coming to our house for a party.

Kid’s gospel has been going great - the kids have now learnt all the songs!!  We will go through a dress rehersal tomorrow with them.  Today we had a water fight which was great fun.  Tomorrow we will be playing at the train station so please pray for that – especially because we will be playing a new song which we haven’t practised yet.  Pray also for Elaine who once again will give her testimony at the station and Rachel who will give hers on sunday at the concert.

Hope this keeps you up to date – I know you’ve been missing our blogs

Thanks for all the prayers and support it is really keeping us going!!

Lov Jul

Earthquake No.2

So its 12:40 and we’re all awake,well most of us are because we just felt another earthquake…boy are they unnerving or fun depending on your gender!! But we’re all fine and going back to bed now! It has to be said that it is one of the most surreal experiences we’ll have while we’re here! What you think is a car driving past actually turns out to be a room trembler!!

Thanks for prayers…keep them coming

The girls!!

Initial reports say it was a 6.9, but we’ll have to wait for the BBC to update its site so we can get some info we can actually read.

Two days down

Well we have managed to survive yet another day, relatively unscathed – now don’t be alarmed, we are all still intact and injury free! However we are starting to feel the effects of our energy depletion from reduced sleep and the energy required to run the morning programme.

Today went very well again and the kids are really getting the hang of the songs that we are teaching – so well that we are having to add another song to the list just to keep them engaged. There are a number of the kids who have been to Kid’s Gospel before (there have been 5 previously – oddly enough David F is the oldest team member that has ever taken part!) and some even attend an International School so their English is very good. There are about 30 kids here on average which is down on previous years and the pastor’s name is Ohashi (or something that sounds like that!) and he is really involved in the work that goes on here and the kids really like him, mostly displayed by one of them standing on his head and then jumping off him! (wouldn’t really recomend that you try this at the holiday bible club Rev., Deb’s may have a small fit )

As we said yesterday, we didn’t have an after lunch programme today so we we able to get a bit of practice in for some of the songs we will be performing at the train station on Saturday afternoon/evening. We also had to prepare what we will be doing over the next few days, because we are on homestay for the next 2 days and will be leaving with the kids when the morning finishes. Most of us got to meet our homestay families today so we at least have a face to put to them and we know some of the kids.

The only really noteworthy event of the day has to go to Mr. David Farrow! As some of you may recall his sage like advice to us before leaving about the blue slippers supplied in bathrooms??? I.e. don’t wear them anywhere other than the bathroom because it’s considered very rude and unhygienic in this culture. Well… Yup that’s right – who arrived at the table for dinner with a very fetching pair of toilet supplied slippers? – OOOOOPPPPPS! Haven’t seen him move as quickly when Stu pointed our his slight misdemeanour!

Photo’s are going to be a real hastle to arrange, so you’ll just have to kick start you imaginations and get intouch with your creative side. We will get them up before we get home – promise! Hopefully we will be able to get some access to the blog over the next few days, but with homestay that could be a slight problem, and we might have to be offline for a few days.

Prayer points

1. Thanks to God for His continued work here in Japan.
2. The next couple of days with our homestay families, language, culture (esp. David!) and rest while there.
3. Playing outside the train station on Saturday eve.

Thanks for all your comments and prayers, we will try our best to keep you updated but can’t promise anything.

Team Japan

One day down!

Hi guys we have managed to gain internet access through the pastors computer so we are having to blog late in the evenings instead, which is also adding hastle to getting photos up - but we won’t be deterred!

We arrived last night at 7pm, some by OMF car driven by Alison and the rest by railway led ably by Graham. The pastor here is very friendly and very enthusiastic towards the work that we have started. We were then shown our accomodation for the time we will be here – the girls are sleeping on the church floor and the guys are the floor of our dining room – nice and comfy so after one night there will be a bit of getting used to!

The morning started with a nice early rise at 7 for most so that those who wanted showers could before the kids arrived. Everybody however had to pack up their beds and put them away for the day as all the rooms would be used during the day. The kids started to arrive at about 9 for a programme that started at 9.30. We introduced ourselves to the kids and fortunatley for all we had name badges with english and Japanese written on them. After our introduction the pastor here chatted with the kids – couldn’t really tell you what about tho!

We started with a warm-up to get them going (it had been suggested that we could send them outside for a while – but that was voted against) Then we played some games to introduce the words that we would be using in the songs- worked well! Oddly enough we then started to teach them the song itself. We continued in this pattern for the rest of the morning with a break for icelollies and water (some of the team had to be shown how to eat the icelollies – it’s not their fault they had little sleep and deprived childhhoods!)

All the kids really enjoyed the morning and by the end of it were not shy towards the team anymore – they are also doing really well with the songs. A few words are catching them out, but to be fair they’re doing better than we are with the Japanese! (MUCH BETTER)

Today we had an afternoon of games which isn’t going to be an everyday occurance but will be repeated again on Friday - this time it will be water games! Again it went very well and the kids had a great time – the pastor was very much involved in all aspects of today and seemed to be having a great time himself!

Tonight we have finished a fantastic meal made by the church, with a minor contribution from us. It was Chinese for a change and also included some potato wedges – we would say just like home but they tasted better – long live the spud!

So now we are all tired and aching – but very enthused to this gospel team now we have a day down! Also looking forward to a good nights sleep – hopefully anyway.

Anyway we have some prayer points for you guys if you would be so kind!

1. Praise God for today going well – a true answer to prayer, both here and back home!

2. That the kids continue to enjoy coming and that they will want to talk to their friends and family about it.

3. Rest and energy for the team.

 

Will try to get photos up but as we’ve said, it’s not quite as easy as it used to be.

Team Japan!

Bye Bye

We’ve enjoyed our day off today after a hectic day at the Chapel yesterday. However Elaine insisted that we have one more practice before we transfer to Yotsukaido, once a teacher always a teacher !

We are not sure we will have access to the internet when we move to Yotsukaido, so please pray for us. We move from the comfort of the guest house at the Chapel to living in two church halls with just one shower for everybody. We leave Graham and Alison behind and all the OMF staff, so we will have to try and communicate on our own. The children arrive tomorrow and we will have to teach them 5 songs to sing at the concert on Sunday.

After nearly a week of Sushi and rice we are treating ourselves to another Japanese delicacy tonight, McDonalds.

We are leaving Ichikawa with a little apprehension!

Lachlan,

The Japanese love the English !!! They are English wannabes, just like the Scottish really !

Thank you for all your prayers so far, we have seen many answered and are greatly encouraged!

(David F)

The joy of time delay

So it occurred to us today that we were going to have a slight problem with you guys praying for us. That was that we would be 8 hours ahead of you back home, which means that by the time you are reading this it means we have already done the morning church services and Bi-lingual service.

Knowing that God doesn’t worry about time and all that, we want to thank God for the answers to your prayers that you will be offering up for us in a few hours. The whole programme went very well and was very much appreciated by the people in the Chapel. Special thanks should be given for prayers answered for Elaine’s testimony given this afternoon. It was very well presented and really spoke to Japanese and us alike. The Japanese leader for the service had a hard time to continue the programme afterwards.

Yesterday afternoon we had a practice with the musicians from the Chapel and then went out for dinner with them. During that practice, Suzi and Dave managed to get drafted into playing with the teen group that the chapel has, Suzi being of a suitable age to join, Dave – well they were stuck for a bass player (sorry George!). The only problem with this was that we (i.e. Suzi and Dave) were playing a song that was being sung in Japanese and we were going to play an interlude during it while and explaination was given – no pressure there then!

Anyway, following all that practice, it seemed to pay off and all the congregation really enjoyed it, we got clapped at both services and a “woo hoo” from some of the kids at the second service. The Bi-lingual service also went very well and we think the Chapel is happy that this, the first one, went so well. We managed to get some of it on video so we may be able to let you guys see it when we get back.

During the service Graham asked Stuart and Louise to explain about the instruments they were playing, being a tin whistle and Bodhran – the Japanese people were very interested in them and enjoyed having a go at them afterwards.

So now we are trying to relax a bit before dinner – as previously mentioned girls to the restaurant the guys were at a few days ago and the guys get to go to the Orr’s. Sushi yet again!

Have a good service and thank you for your prayers – hopefully you got this before the service!

P.S. Here’s one of the songs we sang – see if you can follow it!

Hosanna Hosanna Hosanna takaraka ni
Hosanna Hosanna Hosanna takaraka ni
Shu yo anata no mina agamemasu
Sanbi ni mitasarete hosanna takaraka ni

Hosanna Hosanna Hosanna Shu no mina o
Hosanna Hosanna Hosanna Shu no mina o
Hometatae yo kokoro mitasare
Sanbi ni michiafure Hosanna Shu no mina o

Earthquake Warning Part 2!!

Oh yes we did!!!

Suz, Arf and I where in the chapel at the time and we felt the effects of the earthquake. The room shuddered slightly but words can hardly describe it. We noticed the blinds moving as if a light breeze had caught them. I think that if it hadn’t been pointed out to us we wouldn’t have noticed either. Apparently if we had of been higher we would have felt it more.

But not to make u panic – we are all fine

Love Julie

Earthquake Warning!

Hello Everyone,

It’s now 11:50am and We have just sat through our first earthquake while in Japan! We didn’t even feel it.

Arf, Julie and Suzie are meeting with staff from Chapel to discuss plans for the young children’s club.  The rest of us are sitting in the lounge.