Konichiwa!

I was six the first time I told my parents I was going to be a missionary in Japan. This week my dream come true. 
   After our week of manual labour in the hot Aussie sun, the five members of Team Japan were off on a full day of traveling, with a short stop in South Korea and an extremely full bus and train. you need to be prompt with timetables in Japan, nothing is ever late from what I see. Japan is absolutely beautiful, with presentation as a huge part of culture here. They may not have a lot of space, but they are so good at using what they have well.  If at all possible, we walk. Bicycles are everywhere, trains are well used, and there is almost no litter.  Osaka is such a beautiful place. 
    Our base is a very old traditional building, situated between a power plant and a shrine. It is quite cold, so we use kerosene heaters when we are in the rooms. 
    Our days so far have consisted of  dancing and handing out tracts with our faces on them (written in Japanese) in preparation for a Music Art Dance night held at the local church. We met some sweet girls who were super excited to use their English skills, and worked on figuring out the Yen system while some slightly complicated shopping. Guesswork was involved while buying groceries, but It turned out well so far! the base staff are great, helping us get our bearings the first few days. 
   There are quite a few surprising things I have learned while here. Some of which are  most things in Japan are smaller and less expensive. Slippers are the best things ever. (The Korean airline gave us disposable ones for the flight!) Green Tea stops altitude nosebleeds. When served, the servers always start with "I'm Sorry" and then continue to serve you. Never hand cash to the cashier directly, put it in the tray first. Japanese rice, curry and noodles are amazing. Chopsticks are fairly easy to use after the first few tries. Cherry blossoms and cabbages are beautiful. It's impolite to speak loudly in public. Playing  loud music in a neighborhood may get you a visit with the police, simply because it's unusual. If you want to be a supermodel, wear tye-dye and have blue eyes and freckles. If you want to stand out, be taller than 5 feet. Squatty potties and large amounts of buttons on everything is not unusual. Total Eclipse of the Heart is now our theme song.  Art is a HUGE part of culture here. If you can do Manga, the kids love you. Hugging isn't normal. 
   There you go, observations for the evening! 
  I love Japan, and the new experiences are going to last a lifetime. I never knew how very Canadian I was until now though! I'm really enjoying reading Anne of Green Gables in my spare time, and rereading it now, I know why my mother used to call me that. Anne is just like me when I was young!         
      God has really been using the language barrier to teach me to trust my leaders. I have always been extremely independent, so it's a hard lesson to learn. That, and I can't read!  I  think I would love to stay longer if I had the chance. Next update I'll try to give some real news, not just observations, but for now Sayanora! 
Before we left for outreach, the fine art track went on a field trip to the Brisbane art gallery, so the first pictures are from that. The last few are the very small amount of pictures I have taken so far in Japan. If you want to see more, check out our hashtag at #teamyapan !

week one and a giant donation!

     This week has been a busy one.  Most of outreach so far has been a lot of gardening (Yay rake blisters!) and impromptu skits and concerts.
This morning our team led intersession for the  base, and it really brought what prayer is into focus for me.           Why? Physical representations. we focused on war in certain countries,  and my station was two chairs set for people to stand on, and then someone in the middle to bridge the gap. I stood in first. Lifting my arms, I realised that's what prayer is. Lifting your arms and praying until you are sore with someone else's pain, then giving it to God. God is constantly calling for someone to intercede, like I called out to those around me, but no one would come. Who will lead, and lift up those who can't reach God for themselves? This is God's heart for the nations!
   We also cleaned up the Meals on Wheels kitchen, gardened at a mental care home, and right now my team is at youth group. I didn't go because I have a headache, but I still want to be productive so blog post it is.
 Yesterday we were nearly 7000 AUDs short, but today we had an anonymous donor give us the full amount, so WE ARE ALL GOING!!! No team member left behind! thank you all so much, God provides miraculously!
 I can't say how truly amazing it has been so far, and I'm stoked for the future. Hard, but good. The best place for me is working for God.

Send-offs

OUTREACH HAS BEGUN!
      This weekend Team Peru, Malaysia and Vanuatu flew out to to their prospective areas.
We have been practicing skits, stomps and sermons all weekend, and our Aussie week of outreach officially started.
     Two days in We did a bit of gardening and manual labour, which wouldn't be bad, but it's so hot! It's nice to feel accomplished though, however sweaty we are. We helped with the filming of a skit for the base, (Hello Broadway!) and then went and sang at a retirement home. Some of them were firmly convinced we were a professional band form America  that came to sing to them, and that we were all married with family back home. My name somehow got changed to Catherine while I was there as well. I talked to this 97 year old WW2 veteran who kind of disliked Daniel because he thought he was Japanese. (I refrained from telling him that's where we were headed.) The next things we are doing are yet to be determined, other than the fact that we are helping out with Soundwave, a crazy hard rock festival. (look it up!)
As a team, we are still short on finances, so prayer for that will be awesome, as well as health. Our leader, Hannah, may be coming down with a cold. NOOOO! Those things shouldn't interfere with our outreach though.
  Thank you all for your prayers and thoughts, and feel free to contact me and the team. Bye!

The Update before Outreach

Hey everyone!  The first part of this blog is what I have been up to, she second part is what I will be up to.
       These last two weeks have been really busy.  The last Beach to Bush DTS just graduated, so our base had to say goodbye to some really great people, but I guess that's what happens when you live in a place called the Go Centre! Today the new Sports, MAD (music, art, dance, film, photography, fashion design) and Beach to Bush school students were welcomed with a huge banquet lunch.
      There has been quite a lot of surprises as well. I can't tell you a lot about  our Missions Simulation other than it was hard, challenging, and amazing and that my team learned a lot about outreach and each other. I succeeded in writing a 30 minute sermon in less than ten minutes, and preached it in front of a mock Japanese church.
In lectures our last two speakers posed more questions then answers. Last week's lecturer was a funeral director who was talking on the poor and needy, and missions, but focused more on his adamant belief in the Gap Theory. This week we had a guy who was the first missionary to preach to monks in Tibet. The craziest part of it was a Communist official translated for him! He is speaking on unity in the Church body, and the importance of intercession. It's so good to see why we pray, and the differences it can make.

This brings me to the second part. Our school is officially starting outreach on Monday.
We have five teams going to different areas of the world, So I'm going to add a bit of info and some prayer requests for each one. If you guys feel led to pray for any of the outreach teams, the base, or missions in general, please do!

Team Peru: Team Peru will be helping out at an orphanage located in the Amazon. They would like prayer for excitement in what they are doing, and for the children at the orphanage.

Team Malaysia: Team Malaysia is focusing on building stronger relationships in the villages as well as reaching the youth of the country. They would like prayer for team unity, and that the Malaysian people would be open to hear the Gospel.

Team Vanuatu: Team Vanuatu Will be doing some practical labor on the new YWAM base there. They would like prayer for focus in their team.

Team Australia: Team Australia will be travelling around the country as an outreach music band. They would like prayer for the youth they are focusing on, and encouragement within the team.

Team Japan: Team Japan will be helping Team Australia for a week, Then going to Tokyo and Osaka. We are focusing on youth outreach with the Arts, as well as teaching English. We would like prayer for us to be able to bring hope to the country.

A couple general requests for the teams would be continued health, and finances. There are quite a few people that don't have the funds to go yet, so that's a huge thing right now.
 
I thank you all so much for keeping me in your thoughts and prayers. See you all soon!

P.S.  I heard that the comments section on my blog isn't working, and I don't know how to fix that, so you can reach me at kynyangel@hotmail.com, my facebook page, or my mom, who is amazing.   Bye!