Summer Teams: NCCC

Our church from Cincinnati, Ohio - North Cincinnati Community Church - sent a team of four guys on a vision trip to check out our life and ministry here in Japan.

They kept track of their trip on their blog NCCCinJapan. Check it out to get much more detail of their adventures!

Here is a photo of the team with the Uchida family and 2 of the girls who went on a homestay to Cincinnati in February. Some you friends from Cincy will recognize them. :)

The climax of their week was an outreach event we titled "Oyumino AliveHouse & English Cafe" - which was an open mic/coffeehouse atmosphere where NCCC team played some music, and Japanese students also performed. We interspersed musical performances with English conversation games and activities. It was our biggest gathering of the year (since school started in April) with 12 Japanese students - 7 whom came for the first time!

We were so thankful for NCCC's involvement this week, and their faithful support of us over many years.

Summer Teams: Music Ministry

April-June are busy months this year with visiting short-term teams. In April, a group of teens from the Philippines called 180 Degrees came and did a number of outreach concerts and events.

In May, a Gospel choir from Mississippi called "Gospel Voices of Jackson" came and sang in a number of pre-evangelistic contact making concerts to hundreds of Japanese.

Black Gospel music is actually quite popular in Japan, and has been a good way to meet new people, and introduce them to the real "good news" that the music is all about!

You can see a joint concert with Gospel Voices of Jackson and Midoridai Church Gospel Choir. It was fun to see this "integrated" choir of African Americans and Japanese!

College Ministry "Homeparty" Style

Over this last month since the schoolyear started, we've tried some new ways to gather and get to know students - including ホームパーティー　(home-parties). Several College Ministry staff and friends from Church along with around 4-6 new students each Thursday night makes a great atmosphere.

The kids (our 3 plus sometimes 2 from the Noll family) also help put everyone at ease.
One night we had the theme of "Taste & See", where we did blind taste testing of various sports drinks, green teas, colas, etc. We also asked everyone to bring their favorite drink or snack to introduce to each other. I then made a simple connection at the end of the party, with how it is so natural for us to want to share with others what we ourselves love. For us as Christians, it is not a cultural identity, or an obligation, but because we love Jesus, we want to tell others about Him. I then encouraged them to "taste & see that the Lord is good (Psalm 34:8 ).

Sarah's sister has been staying with us, and has been fun to have her engage with students and experience first hand our life and ministry here in Japan. :)