Isaac Knopp

God is building his church

We were all surprised and delighted that we are running out of room in our chapel. This is a wonderful problem to have! Our church is a multisite church. The location that I am at has grown incredibly rapidly. Last sunday after I finished teaching sunday school I walked into the worship room to find no chairs at all. There was only standing room. There was around 100 people at the worship service. There are also a lot of healthy signs; good fellowship growing relationships; open repentance of sin; and around a 20% non-Christian worship attendance each sunday! Praise God!

Karuizawa is a nice sleepy mountain town that every japanese person things is very Romanic. The most active volcano in Japan constantly puffs smoke just over the top of the city. Almost giving you the feel that the town itself is a sleepy mountain cottage with the puffing smoke of a wood fire going constantly.
 It is quite a tourarist attraction in the summer for hiking and of course the winter time for skiing and hotsprings! This is a picture of our group.

Every morning I led the group in a devotional. First about the beauty of God`s Creation which we drank in through the time there in the moutians. We had a great time hanging out at the cabins after skiing talking about life and playing Games. Matt Chase who is now in language school also came a long and shared his testimony with the students the first night. But I really felt what made the trip worth it was the second days devotional. I had the privledge to share with the students that yes we can know quite a bit about God in creation but actually the bible is quite clear that we actually can`t know God through creation. As I shared from the book of John when philip askes Christ to show him God , Christ responds with the question: Philip don`t you know me?! We must know christ or we know nothing. Many of the students were visually effected. And I praised God for the result s of the trip.

I had the great opportunity to speak at a elementary school in the neighboring area. This was great because we have a Church plant that we Just started in that area around a year ago. I was able to speak in front of 600 students in Japanese. Yes, I did get nervious! But the Lord really helped me through it. I was by far the most loved of the vistors that day. after we did our presentation in front of the group we went to individual class rooms. I was mobbed the entire way by second graders. All of them yelling their names similtaniously pleading that I would remember them. I was wisked along and taken to the first class room where I answered all  kinds of questions about America and Christmas and who I was and why I came to Japan. It was really an overwhelming experience. I then went to another class where we played the game train wreck, and sang christmas Carols.The last room was by far the best because of one little girl who took it Upon herself to whisper to me all the class secrets as we were eating lunch.

The experience taught me just how much it is important to know as well as be known. I still have this feeling of ten children holding each of my hands walking down the halls in a veritable mass amazed at how much these children were excited to be around me because I was someone they could know.

CPI was a great trip we went to the mountain of Japan. The retreat was Jam packed full of events and learing about Japan. I was challenged in many ways.This is the group from my Church in America!

Fujisan what quite breathtaking to see. I have never been so impressed just by looking a scene of nature. But there is something about the sheer height of Fuji and it`s symetrical slopes which is hard to capture and truely beautiful.

Here are some pictures from the frist two weeks back in Japan. We had a Big Buffet where church memebers prepared food for our friends at Chiba University.

short term team from Delaware

Youth Group

Well I feel this is a return to the blogging scene after quite a long absence. I am sorry. In the process of trying to learn Japanese and more specifically boast that our ministry has a website for students to check on their cellphone, I broke my own site. It is now revampted and ready! Stay tuned for more…