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DTS STAFF TRAINING! The next YWAM Tokyo Discipleship Training School begins April 4th of this year. I have prayerfully said yes to joining DTS staff for this bilingual (Japanese and English) school. From the 14th of February to the 17th of February was our first DTS "staff training" week. Where we as a group of 13 staff gather together everyday and prepare our hearts and talk more in depth about discipleship based on scripture. This week as well (21st through 24th) will be our second week of staff training. I have been enjoying this time so much and realize that this is where I'm meant to be. This will be my 3erd school that I will be staffing (second bilingual). I have been learning allot once again and am excited to join this amazing group of people from all over the world in raising up young people to step out and follow the Lord.
This month I joined our upcoming DTS leaders (Kyle and Lindsey) in reaching out to people in Yokohama, Japan by promoting this bilingual discipleship school. The church (New Hope, Yokohama) was so very kind to us by letting Lindsey and Kyle sing and share at both of their Sunday services, along with having a DTS booth in the lobby. I got to talk with a few people and shake hands with others.
Also, during the second service of this church three people gave their lives to Jesus!
I am now going to a church in my area called "Izumi Gospel Church". To be very open with you all right now, I have had a hard time going to church and sticking to it. I don't know fully if it has to do with the amount of church hoping done in my teen years, but the fact is it was a tough thing for me. So, mostly during my 2 years staffing I have visited many different churches and mostly considered our open worship night (The Living Room) my 'outside YWAM' church time. Our leadership here in YWAM Tokyo strongly encourage us to go to a church and support the body of Christ outside of ywam. I strongly agree and believe it is very healthy for us all to be serving in different churches throughout Japan. However, I never felt settled. But, during my visit to the states in December and January I went to The Gathering Church with my family in Fort Walton Beach Florida. I have been there times before and truly enjoyed it, and they are also a big part of the support behind me being here in Japan. But this time I feel the Lord gave me a silent revelation of sorts and almost a new found excitement for going to a church and making it part of my life in a much fuller extent. Just by being there, worshipping there, talking with individuals and seeing how their heart is for people all over the world I was touched. The people in The Gathering have set my heart on fire again for the body of Christ. I am truly happy to be able to go there when I am in the states. (Thank you Gathering Church Family!)
Izumi Kyoukai (Izumi Church) is right next door to one of our ywam houses (the place I lived in before moving to the base). One night they were having a Korean Night with a team of young collage students with Campus Crusades ministry. I went to this event with some of the ywam staff. It was allot of fun and I came to hear that around 70 people who were not Christians had came and gotten to hear about Jesus through these Korean students. I went to the church the next Sunday and then I joined the church after the service for a goodbye party for the Korean team. I was so very touched by the amount of love that overflowed from both sides. The Japanese church members and the Korean students. There were tears, hugs, laughs, food and lots of fun testimonies and goodbyes. I felt that this group of believers were someone I can truly learn from. So, to make things short, I chose to continue going.
Also, for more practical reasons, this church is close by and all in Japanese. Yay!
In March my visa for staying in Japan will expire. So, I have done the necessary government protocols for a renewal of another 3 years. I recently went with my friend to the immigration office to turn in all our paper work. We went early to arrive at the time that the office opened and got in and out in less than an hour. So, we decided to use the rest of our set aside time to worship in public. Sharayah (my friend and fellow staff) had brought her guitar. So while we waited for the bus we sang some songs. Some of the people in line were smiling at us. Then, once we made it back to Tachikawa station, we found a seat and continued our worshipping. It was cold, but we still felt to do it. Lots of people smiled and some people waved. But my favourite encounter was with a man from the states who was on a temporary business trip and was passing through the area we were at. He stopped in front of us and asked about our music. We told him we were missionaries and we were playing Christian music. He said he was raised in the church as a child and his mother was a believer, but I could tell it wasn’t all that of a good thing to him. I asked if he believed in Jesus, and he said yes. He asked to listen to one of our songs, then when we were done he wanted to play some old nostalgic gospel songs. My friend let him use her guitar and he sat in between us and played a few songs.
O victory in Jesus,
My Savior, forever.
He sought me and bought me
With His redeeming blood;
He loved me ere I knew Him
And all my love is due Him,
He plunged me to victory,
Beneath the cleansing flood.
I sang along with what little I knew. Something about the way this man sang was so gentle and almost a tone of clinging to the still hope of Jesus. He sat with us only for a little bit, then stood up and said his fingers couldn't take the strings any longer. He told us he struggled with Parkinson's disease. We asked if we could pray for him, but he said he needed to go, but "please pray for me". So we said goodbye, then the two of us asked the Lord to touch his life again and to bring healing to his body. It was a simple yet interestingly powerful encounter. I left more encouraged by the couple of songs he sang for us than the songs we were singing for the people around us.
"Sometimes, outreaches and street evangelisms aren’t full of miracles and salvations. Allot of the time its sitting with the drunk and the broken."
This was a revelation I received last Friday as I did allot of 'sitting with the drunk and the broken'. This past Friday was finally a nice and warmer evening with a high of 70degrees F.
Where as the Friday before that I was wiping snowflakes off my nose. With this warm weather comes the many people who are now willing to stand in it. There were allot more people in our usual park than has been most all winter. We have a School Of Worship team from Kona Hawaii YWAM base doing there outreach here in Tokyo and they were leading us in songs of worship. Two guys on guitar and two girls singing along. Myself and one other staff stood by and worshipped, as well as talked with different Japanese people. Not long after we started, a very drunk Japanese older man came up to us. He wasn't making to much sense, especially with my little Japanese skills. He got us coffee but spilled it all (very sad, but he insisted and went to get it himself). A bit after this guy decided to sit next to us, another older Japanese man came. He didn't say much of anything. Just smiled really big, shook our hands and nodded allot. I liked him allot actually. I tried to teach him how to 'fist bump', since he wanted to shake hands allot. He thought it was funny and laughed allot. Some of the guys with our group got to give him big hugs and made him smile even more and more. I also talked to a couple of other men who stopped. One on a bike who joked and asked if the red headed white man was the father of the shorter dark skinned girl beside him. Another, maybe only fully sober person all night who I tried to conversate with but in the end got told that "even though you have lived in Japan for 3 years, your Japanese doesn't show it." (At this point though, we had stumbled through communication and big topics like religion and Trump. Also, we had joked a bit too.) I was actually happy he said it. I'm glad he was honest.
This past Friday I gave him a small pack of Chocolates. He received it happily (which can be rare in Japanese people). But the best part about getting to see him this night was getting to listen to him for a good long while like I haven’t been able to before. I was glad there were no questions I needed to find the words for in Japanese, just a glimpse into this man's life. The part of the story that he shared was about how he married a woman from Taiwan when he was 23. He was in school at the time then too, and his parents strongly told him that this marriage would be a bad idea and he was to young. But he did it anyway. It didn’t go well, not because of language but mostly culture and after a while they divorced. It was hard for him, and he said if he had a second chance at life he wanted to marry a woman from his culture, have kids and raise them up. But even though now he lives all alone and works labour jobs for not allot of money, he told me, "I don't regret marrying my ex-wife. I don't regret my decisions. Its a little late now of course to realize this." But I was so happy to get a glimpse into this awesome "guardian" of ours. It reminds me that us being in that park for so long, is doing something.
FINAL STATEMENT
One thing I want to end on is this amazing YWAM Tokyo community. It truly is a safe place that I can call a home and a family. I can openly say that these people have changed me forever. Without them, I would be living in a darker place. God truly puts the lonely in families (Psalm 68:6). I never want to take this group of God loving people for granted. Thank you for praying for us. We love you all!
(P.S. this photo is only a portion of our staff. not all.)
THANKS AND PRAYER!
Thank you for reading! Sorry it was a bit long. God has truly started this new year off with wonderful things! I haven’t even written about everything, just a few of the best ones.
BLESSINGS!
Please Pray For:
- DTS students to apply and come
- Our YWAM Tokyo Base building (finances for buying it.)
- Revival in Japan
- The church in Japan (Grow and be who God made them to be)
- Mori-san (From West park worship outreach)
If you would like to contact me:
Email: mcg11223344@yahoo.com
Facebook: Micaela McGinnis
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GOD IS GOOD AND BIG!
BLESSINGS!
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