Japan Outreach and End of School Update

Hello everyone,

I am very excited to finally be sharing with you about our outreach to Japan, and also what is happening here on the base.

 I lead a team of 7 students with two other staff members to Japan in June. We were in Japan for 7 weeks and stayed in two different locations. For the first 3 weeks we stayed in Tokyo. We worked mainly alongside a Christian school called God’s Kingdom. The kids ranged in age from about 4 to 18. We would lead worship in the morning at the school and sometimes would share our testimonies or some teaching. During the day we would have team meetings to pray for Japan, other teams, for our contacts, for the kids at the school, and other things. We would take the younger kids to parks and we would go to PE classes with the older kids. We would run activity days where we would plan games, songs, dances, and other awesome crazy things. We were also able to connect with a church and share in their Sunday service. Something amazing we saw God do was allows us to be a part of the redemptive process of the God’s kingdom school.  When we first arrived in Tokyo, our contact who was also the principle of the school shared about how in the last year the school had really taken a hit. The school really had been damaged by past leadership and was now looking at closing down for good. However, through the churches involvement and help, a new International Christian School will be opening in a new area with a new solid foundation. I am so excited to see what God does through this ministry.

While in Tokyo we were also able to do street evangelism, prayer walk in homeless areas and places of high mafia activity and prostitution. We also were able to pray over high suicide attempt areas. We worked with a kindergarten one day and one of our biggest ministries was inviting people over for dinner. So many times we would have at least our team of ten, our host family of six, and sometimes five to ten kids from the school and their friends. It was an amazing chance to encourage them and love on them.

After 3 weeks in Tokyo we took a night bus for 7 hours to Osaka, Japan. There is a YWAM base there that is in the process of reopening. We took on 3 weeks of painting, cleaning, fixing, and serving the base in whatever ways we could. We also were able to partner with a church there as well and encourage them. We would run youth groups and Sunday schools, do worship, serve a events, and even help run a VBS for 30 non Christian kids there. SO AMAZING!!! We also were able to do some homeless ministry, help in a kid’s camp, host an open house, and step out in evangelism and prayer. Food was also a main way for us to connect with the Japanese people here as well. We would make heaps of food and invite over people we had met. Japanese people focus a lot on relationship and that was a perfect way to spend time with them.

We spent the last few days of our outreach in Tokyo once again. We helped move everything into the new school and also did team debriefing. Our time there was difficult, but God did a lot and we all grew so much. I learned a lot about the difficulties of leadership and how dependence on God is the only thing that could get us through. Sometimes the culture was hard to adjust to, and our lack of language skills was challenging, but it was worth it.

Once we returned to Australia at the beginning of August, the Discipleship Training Schools had 2 weeks left. 3 DTSs graduated on Aug. 16. Then there were many bags being weighed, tears being shed, and trips to Brisbane Air port. Now on Base 3 new schools have started, a Beach to Bush school, School of Digital film, and School of acting for the screen. I am going to soon begin my logistical role of Base Hospitality. Our Base is also opening a coffee shop soon, which is amazing. So much is happening and God is so good!! Thank you so much for your prayers and support through this season. If you have further questions or would like to financially support me please send me a message at Lindsey.music.burton@gmail.com  .

I am so blessed to be a part of what God is doing in Australia, Japan, and at YWAM Brisbane. Also I am blessed to be a part of an amazing supportive Church!! Thank you ORC!

 

Blessings,

 Lindsey Burton