the line was around the block for the Ipad release

          Last week I took a look around Ginza before going to Tokyo Grace City Church and was amazed at how lively it was. These pictures do not capture the bustle of the streets. The main streets are closed to traffic on Sundays.

 I admit after having lived in Japan for this long I am rarely am deeply and genuinely surprised in daily life. But after having this experience I could not help but think that I wanted to tell everyone about this significant area. Clearly if we have a longing to see God`s Kingdom go forward in Japan this area needs to be in the forefront of our minds.

The last English Bible class was surprisingly normal. But I guess this is really the strength of it. Teaching this class for the last almost two years has been a great blessing. I have learned so much about Japanese culture and predominate ways of thinking. It has also been fun and taught me a lot about doing evangelistic Bible Studies.

              My students are very gracious and eager to learn. One of the so clearly broke the stereotype that is sometime associated with non-believers by coming to only the bible time. He would skip the class and just join for the bible time.

              After the Class we all went out to lunch together at a wonderful Italian restaurant. It was very suave. Most of my students fit into the have money category. They paid for my meal and treated me to a great lunch. As is always the case the teacher learns more than the students. Since I really poured my heart into it too, finishing the class was really significant for me. Looking back over it God really blessed me a lot and helped me out through many things and in many ways.

Japan really is beautiful! This years sakura(cherry blossoms) really proved that fact. The smell of sakura which is a soft sweet smell was drifting on the current of the air throughout my entire area. I took a walk and did an ethnographic survey with my camera. I took pictures of everyone who was out. People of every age were out. Family brought their grandparents in wheelchairs out to view the fresh blossoms.

Young kids were a common feature. But the most distinctive thing was definitely the atmosphere of levity. Instead, of the heavy hustle and bustle of daily life; I ran into a man who had taken the day off to spend time with his family. Everyone seemed to be enjoying these few moments of freedom to themselves.

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!

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.

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.

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.