April, May and June updates

Hello all!

It's been a long time since I've updated everyone, I'm sorry I couldn't get the chance to do so earlier, the last few months have been busier then usual, getting back into Campus ministry, preparing for retreats and especially this past June having another team from the US here for month and getting other events ready. It's hard to find time to relax these days so when I do get those times, I totally get lazy in writing my updates to catch up on sleep or read, or walk around Osaka to get refreshed. But I shall try and be more consist on a monthly basis with my updates, Hope no ones angry or nothing! anyway, on to business!

Campus Ministry

Campus ministry has been very very interesting to say the least since we started up again in April. We have seen God working in many of the hearts of students that we thought were unreachable at the time. And though it's a struggle everyday at times (keeping our energy and hopes up), I and the rest of the J-soldiers want to just continue to be faithful in the work that God has given to us to do. Right now, I have been keeping up with 7 or 8 different students from 2 different campuses. Sharing and ministering to them as much as I can and hoping that God will continue to speak to their hearts and open their eyes to Jesus. One in particular has shown great interest to the point of asking me questions initially and letting me know what he's learned while reading the bible (his own I might add) on his own. And though he is a student that I speak to about the gospel,  I want to be able to also be a friend to him and go out of my way to let him know the love Christ has given, not just make him an evangelism project. So one day I went out of my way to walk him to the train station even though I wasn't leaving yet, and later on he thanked me for the kindness. I know we we're all given the task to preach the gospel everywhere we go, but I like to remind myself of 1 Corinthians 13:1 and Matthew 22:37-39 and continue to grow in love with the students that I have come in contact with and preach to. So really in the end, they aren't just students that I talk to, they're also my friends! So that's how I view them now. Past April and May we have seen many come to J-house, whether events or Sunday Worship, and we continue to pray to God that he will work in them. This past June, a mission team from CFC (Covenant Fellowship Church) has come from Chicago to help us out for a month. They have been a great help getting events and just expanding the campus ministry. It's been really busy since we changed up the schedules so that we could staying longer on campus to get to meet and talk more to students that we have met, and even meet new ones. But the last 3 months have been a real blessing and encouragement and I'm excited to see what will happen next!

Church and J-Soldier ministry

Things at J-house have also been very exciting. The past months we have seen many new comers (at least 30-40 a month), 4 people get baptized and 10 people get inducted as new members of the church. So it has been a major blessing! Also with the Mission team here our jobs have been a little bit lightened so we get to focus on a few other things right now. I and my J-soldier family have preached a couple of times to help Pastor Katsuya out. I can say though that I really don't have the knack of preaching infront of people, So only by the grace of God it was done well haha. In May, a few of the staff members of J-house and the J-soldiers went to a camp near Mount Fuji to relax and meet other churches and christians to fellowship with. J-house is apart of a network of churches called New Hope. They are from Hawaii and they have come here to plant churches in various parts of the country, most of the churches are in the Tokyo/Yokohama area. It was good to meet them and get to know that there are many just like us in Japan working for a revival in the country. I also met a former strongest man competitor/Dallas cowboy football player from Samoa named Pastor Joe Onosai. Biggest man I have ever met, won a super bowl AND the strongest man competition 2 years in a row, but has a great testimony and even greater passion for the lost.
Right now, The Chicago team is only here for another week, so they are working their hardest and doing their best to be stay faithful, and this Saturday coming up there will be a concert at J-house called Hope United, to raise money for those in the Tsunami/Earthquake disaster area. It's a Gospel choir music concert, and the members have been practicing very hard to get this underway. I will be playing bass and Guitar for a few of the songs. Pray that it will be a blessing to those that come through!
Also we have been continuing Street evangelism every Saturday. it has become a little bit more difficult to go out there and play music because we have been stopped a couple of times by the actual police this time. Though we praise God because everytime we have been stopped, it's always AFTER we're done for the night lol. But we're hoping that God will still continue to give us new ways if we're ever stopped before we can start.

Other Activities

As for my Extra activities, they remain the same for the most part. I have been continuing to study Japanese under the tutelage of one of the Church staff members. I hope to get my listening skills a lot more improved by the end of the year and start actual usage of the language for the next. But all in all I will get the language, or at least a good part of it, that is my promise ;). I have also started a new English conversational class every tuesday night. I don't really teach anything new, I just have the class so that those who want to practice their english have a chance to. So we really just talk about anything in our lives to start up the "lessons". I haven't been reading much lately, which I probably should get back into soon. If not, starting August when things die down a little bit. I haven't really had time to just relax at a coffee shop and read. But I hope that will change soon. oh yes in May I got my first visitor from Toronto. TJ came to visit me and it was really good to hang out with someone from Canada and just show him the ropes in Osaka. Even though it was a short time, I'm glad we were able to just chat and catch up with things (and be filled in with others lol). Sooooo if y'all have the time and money COME VISIT ME, is what I'm saying.

Upcoming events

For the Month of July, The Chicago team will be leaving on the 11th, but the very next day, a team from Orange County, California will be coming for the month, so we hope the transition will be a good one. We need to clean a lot of sheets in a short amount of time, so we're hoping things will be smooth and fast lol. Other then that, no real major events that I can really think of for the month of July. I'll let you know if there is later.

Prayer Requests

- for the students that I have met and befriended this semester, that God will continue to reveal Jesus to them. Pray that God will use his Spirit to lead them to Christ and Pray that God will Continue to use J-house and each member to do so.
- For Energy and strength each day, since rainy season has come around I have been experiencing a few headaches here and there, maybe because of change of weather and just constant business, also pray that I continue to keep my focus in check.
- For those members in J-house to grow spiritually, there are still a lot of baby Christians in J-house, pray for spiritual growth and maturity in the Gospel and for those to put the Gospel first over everything.
- For the mission team and their remaining time here. That God will continue to grow their hearts for the people that they minister to.
- For a revolution in Japan! for spiritual eyes to be opened in Japan and that the 0.5% of christians will increase!

Again I Apologize for the lateness of my update. I will try to update more frequently and consistently. Also Thank you for your donations in this endeavor. I know that this isn't only my ministry but given to all of us as a whole! So I thank you for those who have shown kindness through monetary support. It has been a great help especially during the past few months. Also I have heard about Pastor Brian, and I'm saddened by the loss. He was a real inspiration to me when it came to missions and I will miss him. But I also rejoice because he is with our Creator and Lord enjoying his presence and no longer suffering on this world. I also hope that the missions team for this summer will go well in the name of Jesus. As long as we continue to be faithful, no matter what happens, God will provide and work! A few pictures on the bottom on campus and within the church! enjoy!

Until next month!

March Update!

Hey all

I'm back with another update! I hope everyone still read this stuff that I'm writing, lol. But yeah, March was interesting month even though I wasn't on campus, The birthday past and got older by another year, by the way, thanks to everyone that greeted me on my birthday. really appreciate it for sure! And even though I'm 31 I still feel like I'm in my 20's (and look like it apparently, thank the Lord for the asian blood!) and still ready to do ministry without slowing down! Anyway, down to the update!

Student Ministry

As I mentioned in February, the Students are on their break until the next semester starts, so we had a lot of time on our hands, but again, still on the job so it was more difficult to come with ways to meet up with students that we already knew. But I would say this March was though challenging, very fruitful! We have had 2 (hoping to be 3) people convert to Christ and one (hoping to be 2) getting baptized on easter day! It may not seem much, but again, even when one turns to Christ, the heavens rejoice (Luke 15:7). So we praise God just the same when we get one or 2 that come to Christ, it's not about the numbers of course!
Again, the J-soldiers are always on the job and we have continued to work and challenge ourselves during the vacation time, as so not to get idle and lazy. But to be ready for the month April when classes start again, so that we will be ready to face the challenges and situations that we come across with faith and courage! I promise for next month for sure, there will be more to put in this section!

Church and J-soldier Ministry

So we have been very busy here at the church as of this March. Pastor Katsuya wants to implement new changes to the systems of doing things, so there have been a lot of changes within the leaderships like with certain ministries and cell groups. The main focus for this year is Discipleship, and I completely agree with the move he has made. A lot of the church members are still young christians, and it's important that they all start growing in knowledge and wisdom of the Gospel. Japanese people unlike western culture, were not taught to think critically and for themselves, so it takes longer for them to be catalysts in their communities and for them to even be motivated in reading and studying their bible. So we have been mobilized to start discipling members of the church so that they can become strong men and women of the gospel. I have been teaching a few here and there, and have been given the task of discipling a few members. it's been a little difficult because, with the kind of work schedules that Japanese men have with their work, they hardly have time to meet at all sometimes. The only thing I can do right now is keep praying and pushing to meet with them, and take advantage of the time I do have.
Also the J-Soldier lineup has changed a little bit somewhat. One of the J-soldiers has ended their term here. But he has decided to stay in Japan to continue to help J-house. He is Actually getting married to one of the members here also. But even though we "lost" him during campus ministry, we have gained 2 other j-soldiers this March. A Japanese man in his 40's to help out with building a kids ministry within J-house which would include afternoon programs and games for children around 4 to 10 years old, and an american girl from Tennessee! Shes here for a year to help out on campus and with the j-soldier responsibilities. So a little bit of a change in the roster, but its been interesting to say the least!
As for me I have been given more responsibilities within the church, working with the P.A./lights/Pro Presenter/Power Point for worship services and also leading church clean up teams, and though its sometimes mind numbing, it's still good work and I'm happy to do it! I have also been singing/occasionally playing guitar for the worship team and still also continue to lead worship when we go out to street evangelism every Saturday.

Other Activities:
I have been continuing to read more, finishing off another book which equals about 4 books in the past 4 months? The last book I have been reading is called Jesus + Nothing = Everything. A very nice book that helps you understand that nothing you do or obtain in this life can ever satisfy or even get you into good graces with God the father, but that Jesus is everything that we need and has already done everything for us, from taking and keeping our probation under the law to defeating sin and death on the cross. It was very enlightening and very eye opening for me to know that even if I fail, he's always there to pick me up to keep going. Also I have been learning every day that I cannot keep thinking like a westerner when it comes to Japanese people. Though I'm in an international church, I still deal with Japanese people who have different mindsets and different ways of doing things, not to mention different perspectives on their surroundings and how they perceive certain gestures and actions. So God has been humbling me and correcting me constantly during this month and though it hurt to realize those things, I'm happy to know it and to given the chance to correct myself. God has been mercifully watching over me everyday so that I may be able to effectively serve and love the Japanese people.

Upcoming events

So Easter is coming up and we will have a baptism that day (rejoice!). One of the students that I was co-discipling has decided to come to Toronto under my suggestion to studying english for 8 months. So before she goes, she has decided that she wants to get baptized so that she can show everyone that she is a follower of Christ (hallelujah!). Also again, Campus ministry has started again, and there are a lot of new freshmen to talk to and get to know! So please pray for Jesus to use us and to reveal himself to the students that we talk to!

Prayer Requests
- For the new The new semester, that God uses the J-soldiers and I to the fullest of the abilities that he has given us and to open the hearts and minds of the students on campus to who Jesus Christ is and what he has done for them.
- For the J-soldiers to adjust to certain changes that happen in J-house regarding ministry and duties and even for the new j-soldier to adjust to Japan, and even for me to just continue to under the Japanese mind and to use that understanding to love them and share more.
- For those members in J-house to grow spiritually, there are still a lot of baby Christians in J-house, pray for spiritual growth and maturity in the Gospel and for those to put the Gospel first over everything.
- For a revolution in Japan! for spiritual eyes to be opened in Japan and that the 0.5% of christians will increase!

Again I would like to thank everyone for their support, and also for the monetary support for last month! It has been very helpful especially with all the events that we need to use money with. I hope you will continue to Pray with me in this venture because it is not just me but I'm with all of you while I'm here.

Matane (see you later)

February update!

Hey everyone!

I'm back for the monthly update! I hope everyone had a good February! I certainly had a good, yet challenging time this month. Definitely things are always interesting here as I continue to minister to people and to serve at J-house, but I enjoy every moment I have good or bad, easy or difficult! Anyway, on to my updates for the month!

Student Ministry

At this moment, I Think I have mentioned in the last update that the students are on vacation until April, so that means we are not going on campuses. But though we don't go on campus, we are still working and ministering to the students that we have come to know and communicate with. The rest of the J-soldiers and I are challenged every week to try and meet up and continue to deepen the relationships we have made on campus and to share the gospel with them. we have also created many events so that we have opportunities to hang out with them. It's actually a lot more difficult then it sounds, we have many students that we talk to so it was hard to keep track of how we were doing and the progress we were making, so we created a spread sheet in order to "map" the people we were talking to that we check every week. Also the students are also looking to do other things and go other places, so getting a hold of them is a difficult but continuous task every week of emails, phone calls, text messages and facebook messages. We have had good progress so far though through Jesus. One of the students that had come to visit us has prayed the prayer of acceptance! Praise God! But of course it doesn't end there since we also want to make sure that he understands everything that he has done, and also to keep up with him to help him grow in Christ! But it's very encouraging to know that God is working in the students that He leads us to talk to, all we have to do is follow! Also one of the students that my colleague and I are discipling is looking to get baptized in the next few months! She's taking the classes to help her understand the meaning behind being baptized, and I'm very happy that she has decided to take the step of faith and to proclaim to the world that she is a follower of Christ! I'm very blessed and humbled to see how God is working even when we are not on campus.

Church and J-Soldier Ministries

February was also very busy month for the Jesus Soldiers and I. We have been asked by Pastor Katsuya to give messages this whole month so that he can also focus on writing his new disciple book for the church. as I mentioned in my last update, I was charged to speak at our Wednesday Power worship session the first wednesday of the month. It was a bit of a challenge because I had to consider timing with Japanese translations. Translation basically doubles the time of the message, so I had to think about how to make my message fit in a 20 minute time slot. But by God's grace, it went well, though I was really nervous. We also continue street evangelism every Saturday. we have been blessed to have a few teams from YWAM help us during those times we go out and proclaim the Gospel. Though I still think this month for us was the most difficult. On even one Saturday, we we're kicked out of all 3 locations we were singing at by security! It was a strange thing because we had always played in those locations, yet on that night, security chose to kick us out lol! But again we continue on as God directs us every Saturday to go out and proclaim the Gospel in Osaka, and it is still always a blessing to do so! We have met many people and by God's grace, some of those people have come to J-house to hear about the word! So we ain't gonna stop now haha! This month we were also graced with another mission team from Korea, I actually never saw them much though. Their church is called the Davidic Generation, and they were a much younger group then the last mission team that came. I didn't know much about what they did in Osaka since they only used J-house as a base of operation, but they were a nice bunch of kids and they help a lot during the times when we did collaborate and do ministry together!

Other Ministry and Daily Lifestyle

This month during my times when I'm not too busy, I'm reading and studying a lot more. I have invested in an Amazon Kindle (electronic book) because buying books here is sort of difficult....especially when I'm trying to find english titles, so having the Kindle helps me get the books I want to read. Right now, I'm trying to only read Christian literature so that I may be able to build up my knowledge of the word and get insights from other Pastors and teachers. I find that my knowledge, though I may be here, is still lacking, and I want to be able to grow so that I may be able to combat the challenges that come ahead. I'm also continuing my Japanese lessons. It still goes slow for me, but I want to get up to a point where I can actually converse to people in Japanese and get deeper into other topics. God willing, I will be able to do so by the end of my first year!

Upcoming Events

We have a few more upcoming events for March. More student get togethers such as Ice Skating, an International Party and a talent night. So please pray for those events and wisdom on how we can reach out to the students. This is the last month before school starts, and we want to be able to use this time, now that students aren't busy with studying, to hang out and minister to them. Pray that Jesus reveals himself to them and opens their hearts to the gospel.

Prayer Requests
- For the new year and the things to come. We have many things planned for this year in J-house, but we are continuing to pray that God has his way with us and our plans to give him the all the glory in everything that we do.
- For the next month we are not on campus, for us to be able to make connections and spiritual encounters with the students, and that they may open up their eyes to gospel
- For those members in J-house to grow spiritually, there are still a lot of baby Christians in J-house, pray for spiritual growth and maturity in the Gospel and for those to put the Gospel first over everything.
- For a revolution in Japan! for spiritual eyes to be opened in Japan and that the 0.5% of christians will increase!

again I want to thank you all for supporting me in this venture, I hope that you continue to support the mission that is happening here. I appreciate everything that is being done to back my up and I want to assure you that I'm praying for everyone back home too! I also saw Jerry and Jasmines baby and that everything is well, Praise God! thanks for the updates! I have no pictures of anything last months, I failed to take any,  but I'll make it up to everyone next month! till next time! I actually would probably do good to invest in a good camera! this Iphone can only take me so far lol

January update

Hello all!

Back with another update from Japan and J-house ministries! its been a very busy January so I'm a little tired these days, I forgot to put up my December update on my blog, so I'm probably gonna add it on to this update in my blog so that people can see it (minus some of the pictures of course). Hope everyone had a good January where ever you are. For those of you who responded to my last update and to give me updates of whats going on back home, I thank you for that and for the encouraging words, I hope to see you all one day whenever that will be, we'll see. or if y'all wanna visit me in Japan (and get an up close and personal look at what I do) that would be much appreciated!

Well on with my updates of January and all the stuff that happened!

Campus Ministry:

Well January marked the last month for the semester before final exams and the new year. So we had short time to make as much with what we had. January fortunately was the month that a mission team from Korea came over to help us out for a week. We all had a great time, and they were a great help in meeting new people and getting them to come to J-house for our events. The name of the church that came from Korea is called Oryun church. As of now, 3 of the J-soldiers that I am serving with come from that church, so they are a great help and resource for missionaries at j-house. They also have about 20,000 members in their congregation, when I heard that, my mind was blown. But I had to also understand how small South Korea is, so spreading out into other areas was a little difficult for them. Anyhow, this month was still difficult in terms of trying to meet up with the students we knew and trying to meet with new students because of the fact that it was just before the end of the year. So many students were just studying and applying for new jobs for the upcoming 2 month break before the new year in April. So we did the best we could, especially at the end of the month. I'll be honest to say that this month was sort of discouraging in terms of responses, but God surprised us with encouragement our last day when we were able to share the Gospel with some of the students we knew, and a few new students we got to meet. I think though, this break would be a good time for us to get to deepen the relationships that we have with students we know through just going out for food or coffee shops and bringing them to J-house, deepen relationships with church members and baby christians, and also continue to come up with new strategies for the next semester to reach out to students and others. So even though the students are on a break, we are not, still pushing forward for the Lord.

Church and Jesus-Soldier Ministry:

I think this month has been the busiest for me in terms for church ministry and J-soldier responsibilities. I have been added to the roster for taking care of the kids during one of the services.....Now, for those of you who know me, I don't do well with kids much. I mean I can take care of kids, but if I had a choice, Kids are probably the last on my list to choose. But God also has a sense of humor I suppose. So kids it is! I have also been getting more responsibilities in the P.A./technical areas of service. From controlling the lights, video recordings and sound board. This month also was the first time I have led worship in a service....well power worship wednesday service, which isn't much different from regular sunday service. So it was an experience trying to lead with english AND Japanese. But God provided a very well informed and skilled team, even though it was a little difficult to understand each other because of language, God is faithful and with our hearts in the same place, we could understand each other! I actually had to lead 2 worship sets that week, so it was a very busy week indeed. We still hold Street evangelism days on Saturday also. very difficult to do when the weather is cold enough to freeze you if you don't bundle up. And when your playing guitar for an hour with your fingers on steel strings, well, all I have to tell you is that I have numb fingers right after. But it is still a joy to proclaim who Jesus is in whatever the weather. The J-soldiers and I have also had to write our testimonies and tracts to give out to people on certain occasions, so we're hoping that people would be able read our stories and be led to Christ by them.

Other ministries

Well, this month I have decided to stop the english only bible studies that I have been doing. Reason being is that I want to focus on discipleship on some of the members of the church that really need building up and not just looking for english lessons at the same time. I mean, if anyone wants to practice english they can talk to me anytime, but I want to be able to create lessons of put time into helping baby christians grow at this time, so that is what I am doing for now. I have been show a few that desire to grow, so I am trying to put my time into meeting with and teaching them. I have also been reading a lot more lately, Christian books and trying to get deeper in my knowledge of Christ. A lot of things have been revealed to me about myself and the world around me, and I want to be ready to combat the challenges that come ahead of me. So building myself up is necessary, if anyone can recommend any good christian literature, then please let me know!

Upcoming events:

So since there won't be any campus ministry for the next 2 months, we have made up many events that we can go to with the students, whether we be going ice skating, karaoke, or just having time to hang out, we hope that we can continue to deepen the relationships that we have with the Students that we know. Also 2 other mission teams will be coming at the end of February and the around March. I think both of them are from Korean churches. Also for this month, Pastor Katsuya has decided to focus on writing lessons for his new discipleship book, so Preaching during power worship wednesdays has been charged to some of the J-Soldiers and congregation members, one of my fellow J-Soldiers and I have been charged to speak on February 1st on Genesis 20:1-17, the confrontation between Abraham and Abimelek. I preached on the faithlessness of Abraham and the Faithfulness of God, while my friend preached on the use of Abimelek in the plans of God. The other J-Soldiers also have their days to preach coming up, so please pray for them.

Prayer Requests

- For the new year and the things to come. We have many things planned for this year in J-house, but we are continuing to pray that God has his way with us and our plans to give him the all the glory in everything that we do.
- For the next 2 months we are not on campus, for us to be able to make connections and spiritual encounters with the students, and that they may open up their eyes to gospel
- For those members in J-house to grow spiritually, there are still a lot of baby Christians in J-house, pray for spiritual growth and maturity in the Gospel and for those to put the Gospel first over everything.
- For a revolution in Japan! for spiritual eyes to be opened in Japan and that the 0.5% of christians will increase!

Again I want to thank everyone for the support I received for January, it is very much appreciated! and I want to give thanks also for your prayers and again for those who have emailed me with words of encouragement. If I haven't contacted you in anyway, I apologize, and I will try to next time to do so. till next update!

An Apology and a BIG thank you!

Hey all! sorry for the lateness, I haven't been able to update in a while, but I assure you for those who still read this that I will update soon, and since I haven't put up December's update, I will put it together with January's. I apologize to those who have been reading and don't really know whats going on right now, I'm doing well into my 5th month here (WOW 5 months! its gone really fast! HAYAI NE! ) and I still continue to go strong with the continued purpose in my mind constantly pushing me forward!

I also want to thank those who have been supporting me all this time, (with prayers and financially), I'm eternally grateful and for those who have come through to email me with updates about whats going on in Canada and with words of encouragement, thanks from the bottom of my heart! I'm still thinking y'all also and praying that God continues to strengthen you. I still wanna hear whats going on back in Tdot, so lemme know whenever you can email! 

I'll probably in with the update at the end of the month, so hold to your hats folks!

-Chris Ryan

November Update!!!!

So its the end of November and God is great...all the time! It has been a tiring month, but I praise God that everything that is done is not in vain when we put our trust and on our lives in His hands.
A lot of things have happened in this month, here's a few that I can speak of and get into detail with:

Campus ministries:

It has been a really big joy to go out into the campuses and make new friends and share about the gospel. Though I still get nervous when it comes to giving out flyers (I don't know why, I just feel weird giving out flyers, especially on school campus), I'm starting to learn that rejection is part of the game...so to speak. I was taught early in the beginning of my term here that we'll probably get rejected 95% of the time that we're here, I should know this already, but experiencing it on a daily basis and also it being a part of the job, it takes some getting used to. No one likes to get rejected, but I'm quickly trying to put into my mind set that when I get rejected or in my mind, "don't get very far" in ministry, then its still a good day.
Anyway moving forward, I've met a few friends here and there and the rest of the J-soldiers and I have also brought some to Sunday worship and our other worship events! Praise God! It may sound like an easy thing to do, but it actually is very difficult to get the students here even remotely interested into coming to church or even just our normal "chill out" events. The only time we know they will actually come, is when they make a promise that they will come lol. But I praise God for the relationships that I have made on Campus, and I'm hoping that the seeds that are planted in the hearts of who I speak to, that God will water them and make them grow. Two of the schools that I go to, I have made a very loyal circle of friends who I hope will accept Christ as saviour one day. The Jesus-Soldiers and I try to always go out of our way to show God's love to them, even just by going out and hanging out on days that we don't go to campus, or even to talk to them when they're having trouble, we have faith that our efforts are never in vain!

I spoke to someone I had just met last week on Campus named Akihisa, and we had a very interesting conversation. He was a student taking Christian Studies. I asked him if he was christian and he said he wasn't. So asked him why he was taking a Christian studies course. He told me was very interested in finding out why Christians believe in what they believe in and it was a very difficult concept that, since he was interested in difficult studies lol, he wanted to take up the challenge in finding out why. within our conversation he gave me some very interesting insight about Japanese people and religion; That today's Japanese people, even though statistics say that Buddhism and Shintoism rule in Japan, don't really have a religion that they wholeheartedly believe in. They believe that there is a god, but don't know who he is. I guess this would be a little of his own personal opinion or by his own experience on religion in Japan, but I could see some truth in what he's saying, That people build shrines for unknown gods and worship beings that they THINK exist, but they just don't know what it is they worship and why they worship. It kinda reminds me of when Paul went to Athens in Acts 17 22-23, where he addressed an altar that said "to an unknown god". At the end of my conversation with Akihisa, I let him know what I did and where I lived and he was welcome to come and talk and that I or any of the other J-soldiers give him a little insight on why we believe in what we believe.....and also convince him that Jesus is the way to go!

Church and Jesus-soldier ministries:

We had a couple of events just past November. We usually hold events and invite as many people as we can (preferably non-christian). Last month was the new Missionary welcome party. This month we had American Thanksgiving. I'm happy to say that I did not miss out on Thanksgiving! I was able to celebrate the American Thanksgiving, although a bit earlier then usual lol. We had a thanksgiving party on the second week of November and I would have to say was the biggest party we've had so far. We we're only expecting about maybe 50-60 people to come, so we went to Cost-co bought 3 turkeys (only about 20 dollars! yet a little smaller then what i'm used to in Canada), a ham (a lot more expensive about 50 bucks?), mashed potatoes, gravy, and we got about 5 chickens, just encase the food we had wasn't enough. We also got 100 disposable paper plates thinking that it should be enough to handle everyone without having to wash dishes. We got more then we expected though, about 100+ people came, finished all the papers plates, ham and Turkey and nearly all the turkey. Thankfully we had enough food to accommodate everyone. if was a lot of work but It was a good event and we were able to invite some of the students we befriended and apparently people that J-house hasn't seen in a long while. 
We also had our monthly open worship event just this past Friday, we had a good turn out even though we didn't have any new people come out. This is only the second open worship event that came up and we're hopeful that as we continue, God use it to work his wonders!
I have also joined the Gospel choir playing guitar, well not officially yet, but its a start I guess. J-house members are really into Gospel music, really surprised me actually, and they are really good at singing too! The second service at J-house on Sundays incorporates the Gospel and I'm really impressed at how they lead worship using the choir!

Other ministries

I have been kept busy even during my off times (other then monday). As I have said, I teach an English Bible study session on tuesdays with one the members of the church. I have also started an english bible study on Thursdays with 4 members, but at 2 different times depending on the days and the schedules. I am also continuing my Japanese lessons on saturdays so that I am able to converse in the language. One day I will get it all....but for now I'm taking it slowly :)
I wanted to start a discipleship with some of the members that I know, but its sort of difficult because of work schedules and the lifestyle of a worker/family man in Japan. The one thing that saps spiritual growth in Japan is the work culture. Work schedules are crazy here. Some of the members of the church here that I know work 12 hours a day and don't even get paid for the overtime. The working culture in Japan is a problem that I see that takes away from families and from other activities. But its also on the person and where priorities lie, especially for the men.

Prayer Requests
- For God's protection and safety on my fellow missionaries and I, it's getting even colder these and some of us are not used to cold climates (especially those of us who come from warmer countries.
- For those members in J-house to grow spiritually, there are still a lot of baby Christians in J-house, pray for spiritual growth and maturity in the Gospel and for those to put the Gospel first over everything.
- Also for J-house's Christmas events coming up, for those working hard to not lose focus on Christ, and that those that we invite will be lead by Jesus to J-house (and even make a life decision to follow him!)
- For the students that I have befriended and even for the students I have yet to encounter, for their eyes and hearts to be opened to Christ, and for Jesus to reveal himself to them in miraculous ways!
- For a revolution in Japan! for spiritual eyes to be opened in Japan and that the 0.5% of Christians will increase!

Thank you for your Prayers, love and Support! Till next update! Here are a few pictures!

                                                                    Kangaku Friends!

                                                                 Kansai Gaidai Friends

                                                                   Open Worship event

                                                                    Street Evangelism

                                                                  Thanksgiving event

First full month!

Konnichiwa mina! (Hello Everyone!)


I'm back with another update! Its been my first full month since I've been here and I'm quite surprised how fast it went by! But since I've been here, I've learned and experienced so much that it makes me excited and a bit anxious to know whats in store for the next 2 years plus!

This month and a bit of September marked the beginning of the second college semester. As I've explained in my last post, The main bulk of the ministry that I do here is go out into the local university campuses (well not sooo local, each university takes at least 30-40mins to get to) and reach out to the students using various means depending on the university. I go to 2 out of 3 of the universities a week. The first university that I go to is called Kwansei Gakuen, "Kangaku" for short. The second university is called Kansai Gaidai. Both are international schools so its normal to see a lot of foreigners walking around and just hanging out. Both also have different policies. Kangaku being built on Christian values, is a little more relaxed on the activities that we do while we're there. Gaidai on the other hand being a Buddhist school, prohibits our activities to the point of kicking us off campus and warning students on bulletin boards about J-house activity. I have not yet experienced getting kicked off of Gaidai campus, but some of my missionary buddies have told me that it has happened to them. so we need to be a little more careful when entering the campus. It has been a big joy of mine to go on both campuses to reach out, and even with the language barrier, i'm able to do just that, thanks to the fact that a lot of the students can understand english and even like it. That still doesn't stop me from learning and trying to use Japanese from time to time.

With other activities in the church, We had a welcome party for the new J-soldiers, that would be me and 2 others from Korea. We also marked the start of Street evangelism, and it is what the names says folks! Every Saturday, unless it's raining, we pick a spot in the city and we set up shop with a guitar, mic and a speaker, play songs and evangelize to random people walking about doing their daily business. It was sort of weird for me at first, I mean just going outside and playing guitar and singing worship songs, i've never done it before, but after a time I just didn't care anymore. It was great fun just going out and proclaiming the gospel without shame. We've actually only done it once though since we started, it rained the last couple of Saturdays, but we're all raring to do it again every next Saturday that comes up.
J-house also had its first Open Worship session, held on a Friday. It's kind of a smaller version of worship service, in the J-house Chapel area instead of their sanctuary and it had more of an acoustic feel, Acoustic guitar, keyboard and Bongos. I was asked to lead the worship set and it was the very first bilingual set that I had led. I was nervous because J-house does worship a little differently from what I do, but God blessed the set with a very creative and motivated team, ready to worship, so I in turn was very blessed and humbled by the experience at the same time. and I look forward to working with them again!

I've also started a few "extra-curricular" activities on my spare time. Some of the members of my team and another church member have started a little english/bible study session on tuesdays that I teach, I've also been taking Some Japanese lessons every Saturday....little by little, i've given myself at least 8 months to a year before I start conversing in Japanese, I'm determined, yet taking my time still and re-saturating myself in the country, culture and language. I'm also still exercising! Though I have stopped doing heavy weights at the gym, I've still resorted to doing a lot of cardio workouts through cycling, running, and jump rope, plus I have my own make shift weights since weights in Japan are super expensive (50-60 bucks for a 30lbs dumb bell, crazy!). I want to be physically ready just encase anything physically demanding comes up. I've also started playing my guitar more frequently, delving back in to songs that I already know and learning more music as a I go. I realize that I need a new repertoire just encase I'm asked to present something. I'm usually used to playing in the background and adding back up vocals for someone, but now that things have changed, I'm back to soloing, so getting myself back into the groove and learning new grooves will be necessary for me.

Well that was my first month in a nutshell, I will continue to update as I go along, I realized that maybe a months update is too far apart, so I may start updating more frequently when I have the time. Again, I'm eternally grateful for everything up till now and it's only the beginning. So please continue to pray for the following:

1. That God continues to open up hearts and minds to Jesus in Japan, as The rest of the Jesus Soldiers and I continue to reach out to the lost in Japan, pray that God gives us Wisdom and leads us with his Will, and pray that those we converse with and make relationships with start see the truth about their world and how they are living. As easy as it is to make friendship and talk to people, sharing the gospel in Japan is a long process. Many here are like the Seeds planted in the weeds. There's so many worldly pleasures to offer that have the ability to choke the Word out of them. Still less then 0.5% of the population know Jesus, it's high time that Japan experienced a revolution.

2. Energy and Health. I'm busy almost everyday and again being still human, I get really tired. So pray that God continues to give my friends and I the energy to keep going. Also, the weather is starting to change where I am, its getting colder (though I'm pretty sure its a lot colder in Canada, its still in the +20s here) and some of us are getting health issues because of the change. Pray that we stay healthy and ready to continue serving, and if we do get sick, the wisdom to rest and recover.

3. Innovation, wisdom and flexibility. Pray that Jesus will continue to show us new and innovative ways to reach out to the lost. Also pray for flexibility, though my journey here so far sounds fun and exciting, it isn't without its frustrations. pray that we stay patient during those times. I know that during the years that I am here, there will be times when I just don't understand whats going on, but pray that God continues to give patience and peace that transcends all understanding.

4. Again, Continued financial support. I cannot do this without you. I need at least $400/month to sustain myself here so please continue to support. Thank you for the contributions that you have made so far, and I hope you continue to help me out here for the next couple of years. If you have any donations to give, please give it care of Mississauga Family Baptist Church (MFBC)

SOOOOO until next time! Matta ne!

Chris