outdone

...today we took the subway and went to new community church in nishinomiya...NCC is a large, established japanese evangelical church...it is the parent church of our church plant, gakuentoshi chapel...

...what makes NCC so unique is its multi-generational dynamic...the founding pastor is kodairu-sensei, who has retired from a ministry that spanned 47 years...upon retirement, kodairu-sensei passed seamlessly the mantle to his son -- makio kodairu-sensei...and because many members of the kodairu family worship and serve at NCC, the congregation reflects a wide spectrum of ages...younger and seasoned christians grow together in christ...NCC also includes many multi-generational families...this is the exception, not the rule, in japan...

...this sabbath day it was awesome to worship with brothers and sisters at NCC...from the moment we entered the building it was evident that we were in a japanese church...

...while the faces and style of the church was distinctively japanese...



...the worship, witness and hymnody of NCC was completely Christian...after a spirit-filled time of praise worship...

...I shared my testimony of God's salvation and calling with uncle minoru's translation help...

...makio-sensei preached powerfully on the obedience and faith of abraham when God asked him to sacrifice his son isaac (genesis 22)...

...following the service, the adults and youth went to sunday school classes...the senior (retired) kodairu-sensei taught the adult class...how awesome is that!

...then came the fellowship lunch hour...

...rice plates always hit the spot!...

...after plates were consumed and cleared, makio's winsome brother took the mic and hosted a festive time of welcome and introductions...

...senior kodaira-sensei gave formal words of welcome and prayed for us...the elder kodairu said that, like me, he started ministry in japan at age 31 and he prayed for an even longer ministry for us (in case u forgot, he preached for 47 yrs!...but maybe he should un-retire...boy, he can still bring the word!)...

...on the much lighter side, joshua -- who we first knew as the one who took care of our internet hookup (but little did we know that is a great worship leader) -- came up and broke the ice with his 'fro and less formal words of welcome...the yellow-black stripes represent the hanshin tigers (as beloved and hated as the yankees)...most NCC members root for the tigers, but the kodairu family love the giants (hideo matsui's former team)...

...then came a game where the mc asked us 10 questions regarding japan and we had to answer "yes or no"...we felt like we were on one of those kooky japanese game shows...using a stick sign that had "yes" on one side and "no" on the other, we had to raise the stick and answer 10 questions, starting with a couple easy ones like: the capital of the u.s. of america is washington d.c....is tokyo the capital of japan? (answer = yes)...but there were hard ones dealing with the emperor dating system and how many prefectures there are in japan...whew...with good guessing and a helpful whisper from yoko on the emperor question, we got 10 out of 10 correct!

...following the 10Q game, claire shared her testimony...by God's grace, many people were moved by her testimony...

...afterwards, I sang them a song i wrote based on psalm 92 ("it is so good to praise you Lord")...

...the welcome program ended with a time of Q&A where the congregation directly asked us questions...some of them were:

Q: do you plan to stay here longer than 3 years?

A: as we trusted God to call us to serve for 3 yrs now, we will trust God to call us to serve longer as well...

Q: what psg from scripture is most meaningful to you?

A: prov 3:5-6 (turns out, this is the theme verse for NCC this year)

Q: what are your hobbies?

A: after we jokingly said that as missionaries we should say "praying, fasting, and reading the bible," we said: eating/spending time with people/traveling (claire), reading/writing/playing music (bobby)

Q: what are your favorite colors?

A: red for claire, purple for bobby

Q: do you plan to have children in japan?

A: children, like all the blessings we enjoy in life, are a pure gift from God...we don't deserve or merit children, but, should God want to give us the gift of children, we will gladly receive...

Q: how did you propose to your wife?

A: i popped the question in a song that i wrote for her

...following the hour long program (which seemed like it lasted only 10 minutes), we mingled with lingering NCC members and had a good time of christian get-2-know...generally speaking, japanese christians are very warm and hospitable and welcoming...language is not a huge barrier as it would seem...

...after church, brother minoru and sister yoko came to our place and continued our education in japanese living...yoko taught claire how to do the laundry...

...while minoru and i assembled a metal rack for kitchen appliances...

...then the four of us headed to another welcome party for us hosted by the kokubu family and the gakuentoshi chapel members...

...talk about feeling honored and welcomed!!!...if our welcome at NCC wasn't enough, the effort and time that went into preparing the food and festivities by the kokubus nearly floored us...we were soooo moved and overwhelmed by their love...

...following a time of praise and eating wonderful food that mrs kokubu prepared...

...claire and i shared our testimonies to our gakuentoshi church family and i shared the psalm 92 song (they also insisted that i sing the song with which i proposed to claire)...

...we praise God for the radiant people God has placed into our lives thru this church plant...know that they have such a big heart for God and want to see many of their neighbors and friends in gakuentoshi saved and sent out by God...

...radiant new friends like megumi (below), a school nurse whose parents are navigators staff in torrance, ca...

...below: izumi (or affectionately we call her "hana-chan"), who is an e.r. nurse who last sunday asked us, "how come so many people are praying for the salvation of the japanese people but we japanese never pray for the salvation of other peoples around the world?...she then said, "i too want to pray for other people, not only japan"...we're joining her in praying for a missions-minded husband...

...claire and yoko biting into a sour japanese plum...

...romans 12:10 says, love one another with brotherly affection...outdo one another in showing honor...today, we were way outdone...from the way NCC and gakuentoshi chapel welcomed today, it will be impossible to outdo them, but we'll try -- by God's grace and strength -- to love and honor them as our new beloved family in Christ....join us in thanking God for answering our prayer for good partners in ministry...to his glory, God has done far more than all that we have asked or imagined (eph. 4:20)...