High School Ministry 4

Merrick

In this post I will introduce two brothers,  Merrick and Marlon. In their family they bring together the nationalities of America and the Philippines.  Both Merrick and Marlon are home-schooled so this gives them an immediate bond with our family.

Merrick is a young man with a deep desire to please God with all of his life.  He enjoys flag football, which is  a way cool fun version of a popular game played in the US.

OK,  so I am wearing different clothes in this photo.  Somehow I missed Marlon in the original take and had to get this one taken at TBC yesterday.  Marlon likes flag football, too, and I recently got the opportunity to see him playing with his team at a high school in Kanagawa.  I love Marlon’s fun loving nature and enjoy having both of these fine young men in the small group.

SOE Begins

Kalafi Moala

It was on the School of  Evangelism that I first met Kalafi Moala who was the SOE director and at that time the Asia and Pacific Field Director for YWAM.  Kalafi was also the founder of the Pioneer Ministries base in Honolulu where I worked for three years before coming to Japan.

It was through Kalafi’s heart to reach the unreached that much of the work of YWAM in Asia and the Pacific was begun.  Kalafi’s passion for the unreached was very apparent and through the SOE my vocabulary took in terms such as  ”Unreached People Groups” and the “10-40 window”.  Part of the school requirement was to research an unreached people group.  This involved several trips to the library in Canberra, a very interesting city indeed.  I did research on Illokano speaking tribes in the north of the Philippines.  It’s kind of hard to believe that it was not that long ago that we could not do our research on the internet but had to rely on taking a trip to the library!

The understanding that I received of the millions of people in the Pacific and Asia arena who had never heard about Jesus even one time while we had so many full time workers in areas that had received the gospel so long ago deeply impacted me and was probably a major factor in my eventual long term call and work here in Japan.

High School Ministry 3

Kosuke

Yeah we are not finished yet.  Here is Kosuke, affectionately know as Ko in the small group.  Ko’s father is Japanese and his mother is from the United States.  Ko went to Taiwan  on the youth ministry summer mission trip this year and shared last Sunday that this was the high-light of his life for this current year.  Even though Ko is one of the younger members of the high school group his dream for next year is to be in the worship band.

Phillip

On the right is Philip.  This remarkable young man LOVES music.  He thinks music, talks music, dreams music, eats music and breathes music.  He plays bass in the band and is a great example for aspiring members like Ko.  Both of Philip’s parents are from Malaysia and have full time work here in Tokyo.  Philip has two brothers, William and Andrew, who also attended the high school ministry but have now graduated.

School of Evangelism

A long time ago in a past era of Youth With A Mission (YWAM) when a student completed their Discipleship Training School (DTS) it was customary to go on to take a School of Evangelism (SOE). That  is what actually happened in my case.  I took my DTS in England at a training base called Ifield Hall which is now no longer a YWAM property.  The DTS has given me two claims to fame, one of which may be lost in the dim memory of YWAM annals.  On my DTS I was in a small group with Colin Harbinson who until his DTS was a high school teacher (or perhaps a head master).  I forget some of the details as it was in 1979 when I was a little younger than I am now.  Colin brought into YWAM a drama that he had originally written for his school which was called “Toymaker & Son“.  Our DTS took this drama into  the Plazas of Venice during our outreach phase.  My second claim to fame was that Lynn Green was my small group leader.  Now while “Toymaker” may have faded into YWAM history Lynn still lives on.

After serving on the Anastasis for about two years helping the re-fitting process in Greece (where I got my next claim to fame as the first person to ever steer the Anastasis while using her own engines) I left to do my SOE in Goulburn NSW Australia.  This base is no longer in use by YWAM as shortly after the SOE they moved the base to their new facility in Canberra.  My claim to fame here is that this was the first ever SOE held in Australia.  Now I was showing some photos from that SOE to a few friends here in YWAM Japan and they strongly urged me to post some pf the pictures, especially the speakers we had on the school.

I plan to do this in a soon-to-come post but thought I would just give a little more of my journey in YWAM before closing this post.  After my SOE I joined YWAM Honolulu (when they were still Pioneer Ministries) in Manoa Valley right next to the University of Hawaii.  During my three years there before coming to Japan I took time out to do the Biblical Counselling School in Makapala on the Big Island of Hawaii.  Yes, you guessed right, YWAM no longer has this base either.  My claim to fame from being in Honolulu was surviving the lettuce soup summers and living in “Calcutta Mansion” where the cold water shower we used was out in the garden.

Finally I moved to my present country, Japan,  and took part in YWAM’S first ever School of Frontier Mission (SOFM) at yet another YWAM base – Yotsukaido -that is no longer used by the mission.  Well, I am tired of typing so will give it a break for now and look forward to posting some of those photos from my SOE in the near future.

High School Ministry 2

Chiro

OK,  to continue with the high school boys at TBC here is a picture of Chiro.  Chiro’s father is from Japan while his mother is from the Philippines.  Chiro has been at TBC for a long time and is now the band leader for the Next Generation worship team.  Chiro will graduate next year and head to Australia to continue his education.

Joshua

In this picture you can see Joshua.  He is new in the youth group and his parents are from Singapore and Japan.  I am looking forward to getting to know Joshua better and find out just what he is interested in.  He told me that his sister coloured his hair for him.

Japanese Language Test

December is here and once again we have all our staff take a Japanese test to see how their skills have improved. On the left you can see one set of the papers that we prepared for those taking the level three test.  Up until this year there have been four levels available.   One would start with level four and work their way up.  If you achieve level one fluency then the Japanese Universities will  accept that as sufficient to be able to study here in Japan.

As a mission we are challenging all of our staff to work toward achieving the level two test as a minimum language requirement.  This year however, the JLPT group that provides the test have decided to add a new level between the old levels three and two.

The picture above right shows Rhonda taking the level two test in preparation for actually going to the official location on the first Sunday to take the actual JLPT test.  Rhonda will have to wait until February however, to receive her results.  Even though it is computer checked it still takes awhile to get the official results.

On the left you can see Derick who is also trying out the level two test.  Derick will probably try to official test next year.  On the right you will see four of our staff, Bob, Maria, Jae-Hyun and Matthew trying the level three test.  Jae-Hyun did very well and will be trying to move up to level two next year.

We also had seven staff taking the level four most of whom had only arrived this year.

High School Ministry 1

Sam Ito

I have mentioned from time to time that I work as a small group leader with Tokyo Baptist Church’s (TBC) Next Generation Ministry,  the name  used for Student Ministries – young people aged 14-26.  So I thought I would take a couple of posts to introduce some of the guys I meet with from week to week.

Here is Sam Ito.  Sam is a fun filled high-schooler and is typical of many families here at TBC in that one of his parents is Japanese and the other is from another nationality.  He loves gymnastics and would love to take part in the Olympics some time in the future.

Tsuby

Next is Tsuby Kaneko.  Tsuby is 100% Japanese but attends the Christian Acadamy in Japan (CAJ) where both David and Jonathan went for their senior year.  Tsuby is hungry for God every day. He enjoys running and was into cross country during the runnng season.

These pictures were taken in the parking lot of TBC in-between services.  That is another thing that I do on Sundays – meet lots of people in the parking lot.

Bit of a late Welcome for Jae Hyun

Jae Hyun

Let me introduce our newest staff member Jae-Hyun from Korea.  I usually get this done shortly after a new staff person arrives but in this case I kept on meaning to take a picture with Jae-Hyun but also kept on forgetting to do it unitl the beginning of Advent.  Jae-Hyun really liked our Merry Christmas sign we put up outside our apartment so I took advantage of her being there to photo the event and slip in a time to take a shot with her.

So even though Jae Hyun arrived in October here I am in December finally posting her welcome post.  Jae Hyun has been in YWAM for several years now so brings a lot of experience to our team.  She has already been studying Japanese before arriving in Japan so did not join our team’s Japanese class but studied on her own to prepare for level 3 in the practice tests we took as a team.  Welcome Jae Hyun!