pictures/video

Hey Everyone,

Here are some more pictures. I will explain in Nara we went to this park that has a lot of Buddhist temples and shrines in it. This is a picture of mike feeding the crazy deer that come really close to people. they are not afraid of anything. The picture of the suitcase is known as 

"Big Birtha" the pictures 

are of us leading worship 

at Osaka church, and

in front of the English school

have a great one

Recap

Hi Everyone,

I am sorry there has not been an update for a few days it is because the places we have been staying have not had internet. Ok so Monday we headed out to Osaka (3 hr drive) where we met Robin's old boss who owns an Grace English School. This is a place that is a Christian organization that teaches English to the Japanese people in Osaka. After enjoying a great supper we head to a little church where we did a mini concert and and gave our testimonies. The cool thing is that Kenji from the Nagoya church came up and gave us a hand he played both guitar and djembe, and he also sang a few hymns in Japanese. For me it was a really cool experience. A key verse for tonight is the one that says "where two or three are gathered God is there also,"(paraphrase) Even though there was only 20 people there including us it was a really cool service God really showed up. After the service we headed back to the school and went to bed. This was our last full night of ministry :(...

Tuesday the owner of the English School took us to Nara to do some sight seeing there is a beautiful park there that we walked through. It is a Buddhist park but it was very beautiful. In it there was the world's largest wooden building and inside of it was one of the world's largest statue of Buddha. After walking around and watching what this religion is all about I was so thankful that I believe in a God that I do not have to pay to say a prayer or that I question whether or not God heard my prayer. The God I believe in is a God of second chances you do not have to pay for his love, it is free. Something that cool was there were a lot of deer just walking around the park and walking up to people so they can feed them. At around 4pm Robin, Mike and I headed to the train station so we can go to Tokyo. We went to Tokyo for two reasons one so we can see the famous "crossing" where a lot of people cross 1 intersection from a bunch of different directions. We also went to Tokyo so we could stay at the World Gospel Mission house. Kevin is the person in charge of the house he is from the United States it was nice to be able to hang out with Kevin and hear his vision for Tokyo. 

Wednesday was the LONGEST DAY EVER. I can now officially say that I have been in 3 countries in 30 hours. It was very tiring but I did it. Both of our planes were very smooth and safe. We arrived at the Halifax airport around 9:30 pm and I got home around 2 am. Due to the whole time change and what not I am writing this early Thursday morning. A praise note is we were able to get through all of the customs, immigration, and security very smoothly!! (Praise the Lord)

I just want to say thank you to all of you whole helped me financially, and who spent a lot of time praying for us while we were traveling and while we were doing ministry. I believe God used us in a powerful way this week to encourage these many churches and ministries we worked with. I would ask that you would continue to pray for the leaders of the ministries and church as they are going through a hard time. I will continue to post some more picture. 

Thank you again & God Bless!!!

Nick

more pictures

Hey everyone, 

Here are some pictures from the last few days!

Sunday

Hello everyone,

Happy Mother's Day to all the mother's

Yesterday we had a great day. we headed back out to Gifu City for their morning church service. This was the same church that put on the service Saturday in the mall. There were 33 people in the service including 3 of us, 20 regulars, and 10 new people. The church was very excited to have the 10 new people show up. During the service we lead worship I gave my testimony and Mike preached. Mike gave an altar call and a lot of people responded. After the service we had a MASSIVE dinner. It seemed as though the people kept bring more food out. As far as food goes we are definitely tasting everything. During the dinner there was lots of people asking for prayer so it turned into a prayer meeting which was cool. After everything was cleaned up the pastor took us up a 300+ m mountain to a castle. It was really beautiful out today so we were able to see very far. On our way down the mountain the mountain before going on the tram the pastor treated us to a nice cold drink. Before heading to the train station we went in the tallest building if Gifu it was 43 floors, that seems small to us but all of the buildings are small here. Once arriving back to Nagoya we had some Japanese fast food which was really good. When we arrived back at the church where we were staying the young adults were having a party so we joined them, after dessert it became a worship service. Overall it was a really good day in the Lord. Thank you for your continued prayers and support, today we are heading to Osaka. 

P.S. it was 32 degrees C which translates means 89.6 degree F It was EXTREMELY hot. 

Many Blessings,

Nick

Video/picture

           

Kenji Playing a song in Japanese

And two little kids I gave Canadian pins to. 

May. 8, 2009 - Saturday

this morning we began our day FINALLY being able to sleep in till 6:45 and had some breakfast. Before practice Robin, Mike and I went for a little walk down the street where there was a market going on. At 10:30 we met with Kenji and another guy from the church where we are staying and practiced for the ministry today. It is cool some of the young adults for this church are going to help out the other church in Gifu. We spent some time playing both English and Japanese songs, with both Robin and Kenji singing. 

This afternoon was a really cool experience. The church rented the stage in the indoor/outdoor mall to have a service, and to promote the service tomorrow morning. We spent some time leading worship and giving our testimonies. It was really nice the pastor spoke both English and Japanese very well. Overall, it was a great ministry for some of the people from the Nagoya church it was their first time doing ministry outside of the church. It was a very cool experience watching them talk with strangers. 

Last night Robin took us around Sakae a city not fat form Nagoya and then we went up the tallest building in the Nagoya. I think it was 46 or 50 floors up.  It was such a beautiful night out for walking around. Something we need to do because we are eating so much. 

A funny note a couple of days ago while we were doing ministry the Japanese health organization called robin to see if we had any new sings of swine flu (which we don't) and then today they faxed papers to the church wanting us to fill them out, taking out temperature both morning and night everyday till we leave. The Japanese are very cautious people, even if somebody has a cold they will wear a masks. There is a lot of people wearing masks around here. I will post a picture of one of the members of the welcoming committee when we landed in Japan. These government people came on the plane and took all of our temperatures with a picture machine that apparently was used in the sars outbreak. 

Alright this is getting long enough Thank you everyone for your prayers as we continue to encourage both Robin and the two churches here. This is a real learning experience and God is doing some really cool things. 

I hope you all have a great day!

Nick

P.S. Ok, SO i have a hard time with this picture posting thing i will explain

#1 - The band getting ready to play with the Pastor introducing us

#2 - The health person from the government I did not get a picture of his white rubber boats

#3 - Picture of the group from the Nagoya church

#4 - Kenji and I doing the percussion thing, it was nice to have another drummer 

#5 - The Band again!

Pictures #2

Here are some pictures the ministry ones are from the first night we were in Japan at the prayer meeting.