Ministries at YWAM Tokyo

About a month and a half ago, we as YWAM Tokyo sat down to discuss different visions each of us as staff had to see the Kingdom of God come to Japan! It was exciting to see the room come alive as each of us began to share our passions! Through these talks and prayer, several different ministries were birthed within our base to pursue, and we have divided up into groups to see them come to pass!

The four main ministries in action currently are:

- Café

- Arts

- University

- Prayer Room

Outreach Phase: The Philippines

In continuation of sharing about the outreach phase of the 2012 YWAM Tokyo DTS, the next stop would be a two week trip to the Philippines!

Last year when attending my own DTS, we traveled to Olongapo City where we partnered with a YWAM base there that works specifically with women in the sex trade, trying to pull them out, teach them practical life values and steps, help them earn an education, and hopefully ending with the girls never returning to prostitution again. It was such a blessing to get to meet and stay with them last year, so I was excited when I was chosen to lead our team there again this year!

The trip itself was jammed packed with ministry opportunities

Outreach Phase: Gospel Team 2012

Greetings! Oh how long it has been since I have last posted! Well, I will spare you the whines and complaints about that.

For the past six weeks (including this one), the DTS has been in what is called the Outreach Phase. Normally, the first twelve weeks of DTS is spent in the Lecture Phase were we have speakers from within and outside of the DTS come teach on certain topics. The YWAM Tokyo DTS is slightly different in that we split our lecture phase into two parts, ten weeks before outreach and two following. But for where I am going, these details are unimportant (but interesting to know nevertheless).

The first outreach for us to participate in is

Edogawabashi!

So since arriving almost three months ago, the base has "moved" to a new part of town. We felt like the Lord has called us to locate ourselves in a specific part of Tokyo called Ikebukuro, which happens to hold the second busiest train station in Japan. I have now become one of millions who travel through its passages everyday. Interesting.

Anyway, I do not live in Ikebukuro. In the move out of Senzoku, which took place the day before the majority of DTS students arrived, three of us moved into a house in Edogawabashi. The house is also occupied by our male students. With one bathroom. That has the toilet, shower, and washing machine. Welcome to Japan!

While I do not have pictures of the house (and probably won't), I do have a few pictures from the surrounding area! So here is a simple little tour!

This is our house! Below us is a bento shop (single serving meals prepared in boxes; also used to describe packing your own meal like a sack lunch).  I do not know if any of us have purchased anything from there yet. They deliver, though, which is cool.

Japan, Fuji-san, and Building Houses!

Greetings from Japan! For those who did not know, I returned three weeks ago, coming back on the Word of the Lord and in faith without full support for my two year commitment with YWAM Tokyo. Honestly, the past three weeks have been absolutely wonderful! We have spent a good amount of time in worship, prayer, and fellowship with one another while also preparing for the upcoming DTS and the annual YWAM Japan staff conference. I have been sending emails covering some of the weekly happenings for the past two weeks, and if you would like to receive them, please email me at jpcorhern@gmail.com, and I will add you to my email list!

Honestly, with all the things that have been happening, it would be hard to recount all of them now. However,

Information Galore!

While it is not my desire to just push, push, push giving and where you can give and how you can give and how much you can give and what you can give and if you can give hanging upside down and give, give, give, give, give, I do wish to notify anyone who is interested that the Finances for Japan page does contain most of this information. It might have passed by unnoticed, so I wanted to give the poor page a shout out. Please never allow me to be someone who only ever asks and asks and asks - that would be much appreciated.

But more notably for this post is my recently posted newsletter! I just finished it last night, and I have posted a digital copy of it on the upper left hand side of the site! Some of it might be old information, but I thought readers might enjoy reading something else, especially since it has a few pictures! Speaking of pictures, I should probably do more of those...

Also, I will be leaving for Tokyo, Japan, in one week! Super exciting!

No Revelation, No Control

Greetings readers! Life continues to remain interesting I would say. Hmm... To say that on a blog. I am blogging, yet life is interesting. You would think if life was interesting, I would not be here blogging. Oh well.

No, seriously, two weekends ago, I was in Atlanta, GA, for the IHOP Atlanta's Praying Church Leadership Summit. (A mouthful, I know. Imagine if I had said the International House of Prayer Atlanta's Praying Church Leadership Summit! Wait a second...) The conference itself was very enjoyable, the content invaluable. We had speakers from all over the States and the World, and I took a great deal of notes. Some of them apply specifically to having a house of prayer and others just simple leadership, yet there was a definite theme of what Jesus is doing through the Earth, building a yearning for His touch and His return.

As I think about it, it really ties into something I have wanted to discuss since this past fall. In November, I had a great revelation

An International Experience!

Even though the deadline of support raising is coming close, I find myself wanting to recap an event from this past fall that is one of my favorite memories since returning from Japan: meeting the Italians! I had such a fortunate opportunity to spend time with some of the most passionate, most friendly, and most beautiful people I have ever met, and it was a great learning experience.

One day in November, I was sitting with a few friends in the Union on campus when I noticed a group come in. I do not know if I owe it to my international experience or just plain observation skills, but I could tell this group was not from nearby. Eventually, I approached one of their leaders and asked, "Excuse me, I was wondering where your group is from." He replied, "I'm sorry. I am not from here. I cannot help you." I laughed and

Back to the Grind(stone) pt. 2

So I absolutely love blogging. I find during the time of writing, I am able to reflect upon my heart and reexamine the things I wanted to say. Usually I gain another insight. Sometimes I just stop writing altogether because I decide it does not need to be shared. (This happened more in the Xanga days. I am glad those posts did not get published...) And sometimes I find myself going off on a tangent, a good one, that should be followed through upon. This last post was kind of a victim of that, so I separated my thoughts so I could 1) provide ease for the reader in length of post (which must be a joke), and 2) I myself could stop typing because I got tired. Yeah, it happens. You now know my heart.

Part one of this "series" hits more on the title's "Back to the Grind". Things are picking up once again. Life that rested over the holidays is once again in full swing. Soon enough, we will see creation reviving itself as it does annually, launching us into the beautiful, warm, pleasant, temperate, not cold, Chaco-weather, I-can-stop-freezing-to-death season of the year.

I find this introduction rather prophetic for this post, for when I started my last, the title was accurately stated for my heart:

Back to the Grind(stone) pt. 1

Happy New Year! Welcome 2012!

As I was just looking at my old post, I could not believe it had been over three weeks since I last posted! I am sure all of you have been sitting on pins and needles waiting to hear what has been happening with me since my last post. I apologize for this, and I soon hope to disclose this!

My last series of posts were covering the prayer burns we hosted last fall, the one before that my Southeast Trip. There is so much to mention between these two events, not even including the South Mississippi Trip I made after the semester ended!

Yet before moving back into recording and reporting past events,