Hip hip hooray I’m in Japan!

Hello everyone from Nagoya!

After so much time planning it’s hard to believe the time has finally come and I’m here! The plane flight over on Singapore Air was long, and when I met up with the team in Singapore Airport, I was ready to collapse with exhaustion already. We all arrived in Nagoya at around 8:30am Nagoya time (9:30am in the sunny town of Brisbane) and managed to successfully navigate our way through customs with only one small problem of Andy leaving his passport on the plane. Luckily they managed to find it no worries and Jody, our Staff missionary contact helped pile all of our luggage into his tarago and take us away.

That first day we met the Nagoya area director, Sejii and his wife, as well as Jody’s wife and the pastor of the local church where the Christian students of Gaidai University attend. I can’t vouch for the intelligence of the conversation that day, as 7 of us had only just stepped off some very long plane flights with very little sleep, but it was a warm welcome from everyone who was happy to have us here.

Our apartments are the size of a standard living room in Australia… maybe a bit smaller. The entrance way (about 1m across by a 1.5 long) has a stove on the right and a door to the left which opens to a bathroom with just enough room to stand in, and be right next to the bath and toilet. When you sit on the toilet, there is about … 15 or 20 centimeters in front of your knees before the door. That’s how small it is… and I’m a short person. I imagine those with longer legs have much more difficulty in there!

Continuing forward in the room, you have one room which is about 6m by 3.5 with a bed, a TV, fridge, a small table and a ladder, which takes you to the “loft” which is some planks of wood stretched across the ceiling. When sitting in the “loft” it’s probably only a meter away from the roof and about 2 meters wide.

In the apartment I share with Cecilia, the loft is my home. I’ve dragged my luggage up and placed it all along the wall and then my futon rolls out next to it. Don’t worry I won’t be rolling out and falling 2 meters to the floor, there are handy steal bars preventing that. The boys share an apartment that is in a different building about 5 mins bike ride away. Wai Ling, our missionary has her own room which we use for group meetings and ministry time. All the cooking for our meals is done in the other 2 apartments (mine and Cecilia’s and Shiho and Esthers) where we also cram in (around luggage, the ladder and beds) to eat dinner every night. When this happens Andy and I have found a great way of making more space by climbing up to the loft, pulling the ladder up after us and then jumping down. After our dinner Andy hoists me up on his shoulders and I climb up to the loft and pass the ladder back down. It’s worth it for the extra room we get when the ladder is not in our way.

Anyway, I hope I’ve given you a good idea of how things are here, I don’t want to make this too long or I’ll loose you before I get on to the important stuff!

Every day we bike 40mins to uni. On our second day we met the young Japanese Christian students who are part of the movement here. It was so cool to meet these baby Christians (as they described themselves!) who just wanted to learn and be encouraged by us. They were such an encouragement to us, sharing their faith and their hearts for their friends who don’t know Jesus yet.

Together we went on a prayer walk around Gaidai University, and then headed over the Aichiu Medical University where we also prayed.

Our first day on Campus was Monday and we were just finding our feet for most of it. Jody had messaged his student contacts, telling them we would be on campus to have lunch, but many of them replied saying they couldn’t make it. Because of this, Jody wasn’t expecting many people at all, but then Kahori (one of the Christian students) turned up with two of her friends! Following that Kaji (another Japanese Christian student) arrived with Kenji (a student who accepted Christ around 5 months ago, but had family circumstances which prevented him from following through with his decision) and from then on more and more friends of friends just arrived.

We had some great talks with the students, just getting to know them and making friends. Praise God for good contact! Jody explained that getting to know the students as friends and building trust relationships works much better as an effective ministry tool than the gungho method, so just having lunch and talking about the differences between Australia and Japan was fantastic!

I had better head to bed now, it’s been a long week and I hope I haven’t lost you with the length of this email – so much has happened!!

Please pray for our team, for unity and strength. Pray that we will be filled with the holy spirit and that God will protect us from sickness so we can work to the best of our ability.

Please pray for the Christian students who are sharing their faith with their friends! Pray that God continues to encourage them in their work.

Also pray for the students we are meeting who are open and interested in the gospel. Pray that their hearts would be softened to receive God’s word and they would come to know Jesus as their Lord and Saviour.

Finally, we had a small accident when Andy slammed the car door shut on George’s finger, so please pray for healing of his finger. It’s not broken, but it is still quite painful. Pray that God would heal George’s hand so that he can enjoy his time working in Japan.

Thank you!