Sending Them Home

26 Feb Sending Them Home

This month we want to share with you about our Fall/Winter DTS, as it has just come to a close. Here are some testimonies from the staff who led the outreaches to both Fiji & Alaska (including Japan outreach)…

While in Fiji, we got to share the Gospel of Jesus throughout the Indian reservations. We traveled to the Bukama village where one of our staff, Mosese is originally from. We partnered with the church there and helped out at the kids camp. We prayed for the sick in the hospital and built relationships with the people of Fiji. There was one guy who we met that was from Japan himself. He seemed to really like us and enjoyed spending time with our team. Some of the students were sharing the Gospel with him and He felt the love of Jesus during that time. One of our students is planning to go visit him after our DTS is over, because he is now back home in Osaka, Japan.

After flying back to Japan, we partnered with a church in Osaka, called ‘Jesus Cafe House’. During our visit, we helped out with their preschool, we helped make their new loft, and also helped renovate the stairs outside. We did a free hugs outreach in Sendai, which went really well. Lots of Japanese people came running to us for free hugs and it opened the door for conversations with them. During this time, we met a Japanese man named, Oizumi San who is 68 years old. He shared with us that he grew up in a Christian family, while attending a traditional and legalist church. When he was 16, he got baptized but felt pressured to do it then. He shared that he had some bitterness towards his mother and then our students felt that in order to receive healing in this area of his life, he would need to forgive her. After he forgave her and repented before the Lord, he decided to surrender his life to Jesus again! He was walking with a cane because he had serious back pain and wasn’t able to stand up fully. Then we prayed for healing and the pain left immediately. He put away the cane and said “I don’t need it anymore!“. Amen. He told us that this was the first time in his life that he experienced the presence of Holy Spirit and that he wanted to be baptized to start his new life with Jesus. A few days later, we were able to do that with him! Praise the Lord.

Mosese Nasegesege, Angela Simon, Harrison Kolts, & Antonio Jacquet (DTS Staff)

While in Alaska, we had the pleasure of spending lots of time in people’s homes, breaking bread, and fellowshipping with these families. We stayed in Wasilla from December 11th-22nd, joining several worship and prayer meetings with friends who are pioneering a house of prayer in the Matanuska valley. Our time in Barrow, the northern most settlement in North America, was spent serving the Inupiaq Assembly of God Church during their ‘Christmas Games’. These were traditional tribal games of strength and agility to teach survival skills used by the natives from generations past. We stayed there from December 22nd, through Christmas, the new year, and until January 5th. We spent ten days in Homer, from the 9th-19th of January, serving Regent Life Church. We did lots of worship and spent lots of time with people in their homes. Overall, our primary focus was the people, and making sure that they felt loved and blessed.

After flying back to Japan, we spent a week and a half working with one church in Asahikawa, Hokkaido. Over the past 20 years, this church has started a pre-school, 1st-12th grade school, an elderly group home, and a few cafes in their city. It was a privilege to see all that they had accomplished and also, an honour to contend with them about continually reaching their city. We spent every day playing with the kids from the school and it was such a good reminder that neither language, nor race, nor culture stops kids from loving on new people and receiving love!

Rees McDaniel, David Newell, & Lina Martin (DTS Staff)

A Message from our DTS Director

It’s easy to think that as one person we can’t make a difference in the world. Sometimes we say, “It’s so big; there are so many people, and I am just one person.” It’s true that by ourselves, we can’t. As we recognize our weakness in this, we also see that the world has such a need for redemption. When we look at the life of Jesus and his first followers, we see that when a person says “yes” to God, He can take ordinary men & women, and turn the world upside down.

The past five months have been an opportunity for sixteen students and nine staff to grow deeper in what it looks like to “yes” to Jesus. It was the first time for some and a going deeper for others, yet all have come out changed through this time. Dreams that once seemed impossible now seem too small for what is possible in Christ!

So while we say goodbye this month, not knowing who we will see again, we stand confident in our fellowship in the One Spirit that is still moving and working to advance the Kingdom of God everyday. And together, with the partnership of those at home and those around the globe, we can see the world be changed.

JP Corhern (DTS Director)

FOR JESUS AND JAPAN,

YWAM Tokyo