PCJ Summer Conference in Chichibu

I had the privilege of attending the PCJ (Presbyterian Church in Japan) Summer Conference this month. Sarah and the girls stayed home, and sent me off to join ~150 Japanese Christians from the 4 greater Tokyo presbyteries.

I roomed with 3 Japanese pastors and an old friend, Shinya, from 2001 who is now in seminary. It was a great opportunity to "test out" my Japanese. It really went well, although I felt like there were lots of words on the tip of my tongue that I couldn't get out!

We had worship starting everyday at 6am(!) then breakfast, and then various sessions and worship times. On the last day of the conference, the drummer (who I had become friends with the night before at the ofuro) invited me to fill in for the bass player who had to leave early. It was fun to play, and contribute to the worship time. I didn't have anytime to practice, so I was very thankful that they were all songs I had heard before!

It was also a great time to connect with many people we will be partnering with in the gospel after we move to Chiba early next year. The picture below shows Ishido-Sensei, a professor of economics at Chiba University, and elder at one of the churches planted by our MTW team. We had a good time talking and sharing ideas and vision for how to reach students at his university. What a blessing to have a Christian faculty member as an advocate for us!


Here is a photo with a new friend I made named Kazu. He recently graduated from Chiba University and is now working in Tokyo.