OK, so I have two days to cover.  So, yesterday was Sunday. I have to say, a lot happened.  Since the church service we attended didn’t start until 2:30 PM, we went for a little cultural experience and visited the Ramen museum.

That’s a picture of the inside of the place (sorry it’s a little blurry).  They decorated the place as if it were back in time (40’s I think), and I must say that I’ve never had a better bowl of ramen in my life.  It was delicious!

But, after that we met up with a few people before heading off to church.  The uncle of one of the group members, a Facebook friend of the same group member (the friend is a member of the church we visited), and the same guy we met earlier on the trip was the third friend we met up with.

This is a picture of the worship session at the church.

This church was definitely “quite the happening place.”  It is a church that is youth centered that is a church plant from Hawaii.  We definitely had a lot of fun, and it was a great blessing for us to be able to join them in worship.

After the service, the uncle and the rest of us went to experience a traditional tea ceremony (the uncle actually holds his own tea ceremonies, but due to various restraints, we went to a different place, and he joined us as one of the visitors).

By the way, the tea ceremony took place on the 65th floor of the tallest building in Japan.  Above is a picture from said floor.

While Sunday was less… intentional, today was very much focused on prayer.  Today was OMF’s day of prayer.  For the first half of the day we were all gathered in the OMF center to learn about and pray for the various areas of Japan.  Together we sang songs and several times broke into smaller groups for focused prayer for certain areas of/churches in Japan.

This afternoon we went out in smaller group praying that God would work His will in several areas of Japanese life.  Some prayed against materialism, some for the education system, some for the judicial system, and some against the plethora of gambling casinos.

Everyone on the team even got a chance to share with everyone some of what we’ve learned during this trip and in preparation for it. Everyone was very blessed with everything today.  It was good for both those here for a short time and those here long term to have the time to gather together and see a little clearer what all is happening.

So, in closing for this post…
Please pray for the church we visited, that their passion would continue and that the youth of Japan would be encouraged by their ministry, and subsequently hear and respond to God’s call in their life.  Please also continue to pray for those we’ve met here in Japan both Christian and non-Christian, that they would remember our time spent here, and that God would use that to encourage them and draw them ever closer to Himself.

Thanks again for all of your support! God bless! We couldn’t do it without you!