Tokyo has nothing on Wilsonville

Wow...my head is full of things I need to write about but am just too tired to write about. This whole week, we've been putting on a Kids Gospel Week at the church (basically a Music VBS). And today we had a performance for the parents/family and a carnival afterwards. I'm completely bushed!!! But I thought that I could atleast get on and tell ya'll about last weekend in Tokyo...

If anyone was wondering, George Lucas didn't computerize any of the cities in his "Star Wars" trilogies....he filmed them in Tokyo!!! You won't be able to get all of that from the pictures but the city is HUGE, MASSIVE! We went up on one of the towers to an observatory deck to get a good look of the city. When I got up there, I really thought I was looking a city in "Star Wars" (minus the flying cars!) Buildings as far as you could see, disappearing into the haze of the sky. It was a sight! Busy, busy, busy!! People running to and from, subways going in EVERY direction, buildings literally on top of each other. I saw children playing a game on a soccer field. The soccer field was on TOP of a building. The tallest building in downtown Birmingham wouldn't have made a dent into the skyline in the Tokyo city limits. We went to Tokyo for the weekend because Tom was invited to see a choir performance. He was in this choir when they lived in Chiba (a suburb of Tokyo) for language school. There is only one Christian in the choir and Tom made some really good friends while he was in it. Tom joined the choir to learn from the conductor on how to relate to Japanese people so he wanted to see them. It's really kinda ironic because they sang in english and swedish and all the songs were Scriptures. They just don't know what they are singing about or to who! Kinda sad. But Tom got to see them and keep those connections up. The performance was on Sunday and we went sight-seeing most of Saturday. I voted that we do all the "free" things so I saw the Busiest Intersection in the World (Shibuya), the Busiest Subway Station in the World (Shinjiku), one of the World's Biggest Ferris Wheels, ate at some really cool places and saw a shrine. Shibuya was the coolest thing ever! There were thousands of people every minute that went through that intersection. We sat up in a Starbucks and people watched. It was really cool! Hope you like the pictures. We also met up with and stayed with Teresa's brother (Randell and Atsuko) who lives in Chiba. They have three daughters who came to Nagoya for the Kids Gospel Week (Cana, Emmy, Mana.) Such a sweet family!

Later, I'll write more about what God has done this week. The Kids Gospel Choir really did bring alot of people into the church, many for the first time. God is gracious and so good! If there is one thing I've learned is that God blesses those that love and obey Him. The team here washes everything in prayer and submission to Him. It is so encouraging and yet challenging to learn from those working with the church. Thank you so much for all the prayers! God is working and I really appreciate many of ya'll making it possible for me to be here through your donations. We serve a great and awesome God!

Anyways...I'll write more soon. And for those that are wondering, Japanese is about impossible to learn! YAA!

~Richard-san

Prayer requests

I just want to ask for two specific prayer requests for this week very quickly.

*Please pray for this week (Tuesday through Saturday). The Wilson's and Nisshin Christ Church are putting on a Kids Gospel Week. We start this morning at 9:30am and go to 12:30pm. Please pray that we have alot of children come and learn gospel music. And that they will bring their parents/family to the concert on Saturday. This music will bring God's Word into their homes. Please pray for everyone helping in putting the camp on.

*Please pray for my interaction with Mikiya this afternoon. Mikiya and I became friends through a Campus Crusade event at the church. He is not a Christian. He wants to practice his english and is really excited about hanging out with me. Please pray that I can use this opportunity to share with him about Christ.

Thank you so much for the support and love!

Richard

I know what I want to be when I grow up...A sumo wrestler.

Well I'm just on the ball with this blogging thing. Two days in a row. Ya'll should be proud! But seriously, I'm leaving for Tokyo tomorrow and will be gone all weekend so I thought that I'd write now about what happened today...just real quick.

Inoue-san (Mrs. Inoue) and Kimura-san (Mrs. Kimura) are the two ladies in my Thursday English class with Miwa-san (the sweet old man below in the picture that taught me calligraphy). They all three are in the class together. Well...they wanted to do something special for me. i don't even know why because i've only been at their class for three times. But they are so, so sweet! The two ladies took me, Tom and Ian to a near-by sumo stable. this is where the sumo wrestlers pracice, train, sleep and EAT! We watched a morning practice. They had many young wrestlers and two high-ranking sumos. It was really neat and we were like 15 yards about from the ring. Pretty neat. Inoue-san is in one of the Gospel choirs but Kimura-san is just really interesting in English. I just thought that ya'll would enjoy the pictures. It was cool to see how they did stuff and get an insiders-scoop on how things are done. Please pray for Inoue-san, Kimura-san and Miwa-san for they are not believers. Pray for Tom and I as we travel to Tokyo this weekend. It is a 6 hour drive.

God is good,

Richard

I ate raw fish and didn't throw up

Ok so it's not actually the third week but I am trying to write more. I definitely have been thinking about America more and trying my hardest not to miss. Staying busy has been my answer for that and that's exactly what I'm doing. These last couple of days have been really busy. I have left the Wilson's at like 9:45AM and haven't returned until 10:30PM. AND it's been nice because I got a mode of transportation this week. A bike! The Newsome family are letting me borrow a bike...and a cell phone. So that's been nice because I don't bug Tom & Teresa and haven't had to bother them with driving me around. The last two mornings I've biked to the church where the English classes are. It takes about 30 min...and Japan right now feels like an Alabama summer. Hot...so that's nice. War Eagle! I show up to class nasty and sweating and then seat next to a sweet old lady and talk American with her. I'm sure she's loving me!

Classes for the most part are coming to an end which is kinda sad. But I've got to do some cool things with the classes. On Wednesday and today, both the morning classes took me and Mr. Peter out to lunch (ate sushi both days) and we got the opportunity to know them better. I've been praying that I would be willing and that God would give me the confidence to talk about my faith in ways that they would maybe understand. There is still and pretty good language barrier even though this is an English class. I'll talk about going to church or looking to God for strength and I'm just not sure if they understand what I'm talking about. But it's not me who is talking but Christ that lives within me which is encouraging. I just do what the Spirit tells me too. Therefore, the classes are keeping me busy in the mornings and some at night. In between classes this week, I have been helping the Newsome's paint their house and remolding their bathroom. So that's been fun, working hard and getting to know their family better.

Something really fun and interesting happened today. Miwa san (Mr. Miwa is English) is an elderly man in our Thursday class. He actually has pretty good English and we communicate just fine. His wife is in the Wednesday class (so that's sweet). But since today was their last class, he wanted to teach me calligraphy...therefore writing the Japanese language called kanji (i think). Anyways, he spent about two hours teaching me how to write "horse" and "love" in Japanese characters. And then framed it for me to keep. It was so awesome. He was totally into the horses and ask TONS of questions about the horses last week. I'll post a picture of him and me writing them and practicing it.

Thanks for the prayers and comments. I love hearing from ya'll and really appreciate the support. I have been really encouraged about what the LORD has done personally in my heart over the last two weeks. We serve a God that is a personal God, One that love US, cares for our own personal needs and knows what we want and think. I love when God reveals things to you and through that we are left with such a joy and peace...we just want to go tell people. As sad as this sounds, I've felt that this week for the first time. Though time spent specifically for Him, the LORD has made issues and concepts more clear to me. And I love that He uses Scripture to speak to us, especially when I have a particular situation I'm struggling with. He knows is and brings me the Scripture to me to find encouragement.

Please pray for those in my English classes. Most are not Christians. Pray that God would use the few words we say to make them more curious about the Gospel and that God would open doors for Christians to minister and share with them.

Please pray for protection on the missionary families...protection for their families and children, from the Devil temptation and ESPECIALLY from discouragement. Japanese are hard to minister to because one does not see fruit very fast at all.

Please pray that we would be able to minister to more Japanese men. The church is mostly women and Japanese men are very busy and consumed with work. Pray that God would raise up men who love Him, serve Him and take an active role in leading the church here in Nagoya.

Pray that I'll not miss family and friends too much. I'm loving it here and I try not to think about America too much. I want this time for Japan and not for counting the days until I return to my comforts in Birmingham.

Love you all and God Bless!

Mr. Richard (what Ian Wilson calls me)

Week Two....I am trying to update more than once a week I promise!

Howdy from Japan!

If only I could get someone to say that...that would be awesome! I don't exactly know where I left off last time (I guess I could look below and find out...whatever) But things this week definitely picked up. The first thing I want to tell ya'll about is my English classes. I absolutely love them! They are so much fun but it might be because I'm the new guy and everyone wants to know about me. Even if that passes (which I'm sure it will), I know I'll still love them. I really do enjoy "teaching" and talking with them and answer questions is about all I do. I am not the only one in there. I just help the actually teacher (Miss. Linda Wixon or Mr. Peter Bakelaar depending on the day). But since I'm new and the intern, i think they like it if I come it and allow them to rest alittle because they don't have to plan as much. The classes are all pretty small, ranging from 3 to 6 in a class. I had a total number of 5 classes this week and I'll do that again this upcoming week. English classes are almost done for the quarter and won't start back up until Sept. I've kinda arrived at the tail end and will really miss it but have greatly enjoyed what I've gotten to do already. The Japanese students (I call them "students" but they are all older than me) are mostly women but there are a few men. They love hearing about my family, our farm, the horses, how I was homeschooled, the Iron Bowl, Robyn and Jay's family (my sister and her husband) and why I am in Japan. I had one class where all I talked about was horses!! The elder man in our class wanted to know everything from feed and diet to horseshoes and types of horses. We also talked about how horse meat is a specialty meat here! Gross!! I told them how different that sounds and how nasty that would be to find in the grocery stores.

*Disclaimer: If horse meat is found in hotdogs....Richard does not want to know. Do not tell him.

I have also gotten a pretty good picture of many of the things I will be doing during the summer. I was kinda thrown right into the English classes because they wanted my help with conversations and that they will be ending soon. But I got to sit down with Tom earlier and schedule things out. I got to see some of that go into play when I seat down with Mrs. Amy Newsome! She has put me to work and I've really appreciated the help she's offered to me. She gave me the job of designing the t-shirt we will be using for the Kid's Gospel Week at the church next week. So that was fun, using Microsoft Publisher and getting that sent in. And then helping direct and plan things for the carnival the church is having next weekend. I am basically the handy man which is I think is cool anyways so I'm fine with that. I'll paint signs and organize the booths after buying everything for them. There are other jobs and minister things going on but I'll write about those later.

Today was alot of fun! It technically was my day off but we spent the whole day in downtown Nagoya, seeing some of the sights but mainly because the Nagoya Sumo Wrestling Tournament was at the Nagoya Castle! It was awesome and hilarious at the same time! A life-changing experience! Tom took me, two other missionary kids and a Japanese friend who explained everything to us. It was definitely something I'll remember and it'll be cool that I experienced. Not everyday that an Alabamian gets to go to a Sumo tourney! Hope you like the pictures...haha.

I need to go to bed. Church is tomorrow and I'm getting to play again this week. Later this summer, Tom wants me to play for the whole service which will be fun. But it'll be a huge help for him.

Please PRAY for my English class students - that they will understand the Gospel I tell them and the GOD I love; that I'll be able to continue to form relationships with them and that they will see God through me.

Please PRAY that homesickness doesn't get the best of me. I never experienced jet-lag which was great but I do feel homesick slightly. I do NOT want to wish my time here in Japan away at all!

Please PRAY for the missionary families here (Newsomes, Bakelaars, Miss Linda Wixon, Wilsons and many more) who are VERY busy and tired. They also have summer break coming up soon and will need time to re-energize.

Please PRAY that God will use this tremendously in my life. I don't want to get carried away with they things I get to do or the things I need to get done. This isn't just a job! This is a special ministry that God's has called me too. I want to be here serving HIM and growing towards HIM everyday. Pray that daily time with HIM will be put first and my to-do list will come second.

Please PRAY for my little sister, Rainey, as she is leaving today (17th) for Belize with my home church. I love you sis and will be praying that God's uses you and that you and the team grow in a deeper knowledge and love for HIM!

Thank you for the comments! I don't get on the computer much but when I do I really enjoying hearing from you all. Sorry that i don't respond personally to all of them. Thank you for the prayers!

In Him,

Richard

P.S. Some people have asked so here you go...Tom and Teresa Wilson's address (where I am staying for the next few weeks)

2-9-15 Mitake

Togo-cho, Aichi-gun

Aichi-ken, Japan 470-0156

Week One

Ok,

So I am really sorry that this is so late. I've been meaning to write for a couple of days now and just haven't gotten around to it. I actually hadn't called or emailed anyone (other than a quick email to say that I arrived just fine) since I've been here. But thank ya'll for the prayers and everything. I very much appreciate them!

Well...I sit here on the couch in the Wilson's house, trying to figure out where to start. This could be a long blog and I am really sorry if you have to read a terribly long blog about a sorta jet-lagged, kinda disoriented guy who can not spell. But the trip over went great! Thank ya'll for the prayers about that because I was very nervous about switching flights, going through customs and flying on international flights all by myself. But everything went great and I landed in Nagoya and found Tom and Ian waiting for me. For those that might not know, I am in Nagoya, Japan as an intern for a MTW missionary team that focuses on church planting. The church that they are in now is in Nisshin (which is a city on the outskirts on Nagoya). The church is Nisshin Christ Church and it is beautiful. Tom explained Nisshin as the Vestavia Hills of AL with Nagoya being Birmingham....but on a much larger scale. As of right now, I am living with the Wilsons who live in Togo (a town also on the ridge of Naygoya....kinda like a Pelham.) I didn't know that I was going to be doing that. But I'll be probably moving around and staying with some of the other missionary families or have a homestay with some church members.

What has been really awesome is that they've pushed me right into things and i am very glad about that. I got in at the airport about 5:30pm on Wednesday (7th) and I had an English class on Thursday at 10:30am! It was great! It was at the Nisshin church and i was helping Peter Bakelaar (another missionary on the team). We had 3 students and they loved hearing about my large family and our horses. I got to tell them about every single family member and they were even more shocked when i told them about Robyn and Jay's family! But it really was awesome and I thought that the class flew by. Every class is set up that they have a bible study at the end so that people ARE learning English but it is also an outreach ministry. Thursday night I was able to go to a Campus Crusade for Christ meeting at other church on the other side of Nagoya with Tom. Everything is in Japanese so that was interesting and only my first experience (of the future many in store) of sermons I will hear without understanding ANY of it. It was good thought because I got to hangout with college students and went out to eat with them afterwards.

This past weekend was really busy as well because there was a performance at the church with most of the choir members. Tom and Teresa have three Gospel choirs started up right now. They have been in Nagoya for only 8 months but the choirs have exploded. The choirs are in different places around the city but they all learn the same music. So the Wilson's brought in a guest soloist (Mr. John Lucus) and the members who could come all gathered at the church for a special singing/praise event. There were about 75 singers there. They sang and fellowshiped. John shared his testimony and sang other songs. And then everyone stayed for dinner and question/answer time with John. The Wilson's were EXTREMELY encouraged through this event b/c many people stayed to hear what John had the say and the gospel was plainly explained. If I can, i will download a short clip of one of the songs. Sunday is always busy b/c of the church service. Tom plays the piano and I was able to play for the prelude. Mr. Wayne Newsome (team leader) spoke on Romans 8:35-39 on God's Love. It's all in Japanese so I followed along with a english translation printed out. We had church choir practice afterwards and we are singing one of Ken Berg's arrangements of a song. We will be singing it next week. There was a church fellowship opportunity after that with another church in Nagoya. We all went bowling! It was horrible and so much fun at the same time! Horrible because I stink at bowling (I bowled a 54 the first game...haha) and then awesome to see the two churches come together and have a great time. There were pastors and tiny children there. And then there was an elderly couple next to our lane that dominated me!! Anyways, after that I went out to eat with some of the Newsome and Bakelaar kids. I hope to attach a picture from that...it was fun.

Since we had such a busy weekend, the Wilson's wanted to take an easy day on Monday. We just goofed around the house and Tom and I went for a run around a BEAUTIFUL lake (pictures to come in weeks to come). Today (tuesday) I have another English class tonight with another missionary (Linda Wixon) and two english classes tomorrow.

Sorry this is long but prayer requests:

-Pray that I keep a servant's attitude towards everything thrown to me.

-Pray for courage to make relationships and talk with people. I want to make contacts for the missionaries to come in afterwards and minister.

-Pray that jet-lag will not be a factor in my ability to help. It hasn't been that bad and I am very thankful for that.

-Lift up the Wilson's! They are awesome and have opened their house to me. Pray for them as they are attacked by the devil on many fronts (family, gospel choirs, church, etc)

Thanks for the emails and comments! I am sorry that I haven't responded and that might be a growing strend while i'm here. Love you all!

The video download didn't work. i'll try posting it another time. Thanks!

The Start...

Hello!
First off, I want to thank everyone for EVERYTHING! I have had the greatest support and encouragement ever. I seriously would not be in the place I am now if it wasn't for ya'll and the LORD's gracious hand. Thanks for the love and gifts! I really appreciate everything everyone has done for me and hopefully ya'll can keep up with me through this blog in the months to come.
I am so excited about my trip to Nagoya, Japan. I leave tomorrow morning (July 6th) from B'ham. As I sit here now, I have a million things going through my head about things I need to get done and things I don't want to forget to bring. But if I'm completely serious with myself, God is way bigger then the things that I might not bring or a mindset that I might not have. I have to constantly say that to myself and know that it is in He that I trust with my life therefore everything that goes with it...my worries, anxiety, health, possessions, etc. There aren't words to describe the excitement I have to see the LORD work in my own heart, soul, mind & body and also in the hearts and lives of those I will be working with.
I didn't want to be long on my first post but I did want to say that I will be trying my best to keep up with everyone and let ya'll know how things are going here. Please be in prayer for me as I have a long travel schedule ahead of me tomorrow (and plus). Pray that I get to Tom and Teresa safely and there without too much trouble through 4 airports. Thanks again for everything and I'll talk with ya'll soon.