Boku wa osoi na!!! GOMEN NASAI!!!

Wow, it's been too long since my last update. And sorry but it'll be a short one today... Sorry, just been really busy lately. This new job is really insane! So yeah! I'm no officially a high school english teacher! I have sooooo much more respect for my old teachers now... Really learning a lot from it too which is great. Yeah, loving it eh. The kids are really noisy and hyper and even a little naughty, but it's great. They're awesome kids. So great. Get to hang out in the teachers' room too which is really weird!!!

Church is going amazing! Sunday we had 70 people there! :D Yeah, it was so great. Lots of new decisions all the time, and new lifegroups starting up. Rockin the set hardcore style! Seeing a lot of guys that have been on the fringe for ages starting to come closer and closer which is great! Reaping some of the sowing.

Currently have another Church team over here at the moment which is good. They just started today so we'll see how they pan out! Please keep them in your prayer, that good seed will be sown and great connections be made. There's like 17 of them or something, so sheer laws of probability state something good should happen!! :D Yeah, loving it.

Oh yeah, another thing to please keep in your prayers, a really really really good friend of mine is currently in hospital with some pretty serious injuries and really needs a lot of prayer. So the more the better please!! She's an awesome girl and really needs support right now.



Yeah, we didn't know these guys at the time. We just saw three guys all sleeping in Maccas and so Andrew went and pretended to join them and I took some photos. :D Then when they woke up we started talking to them. They were all really awesome guys, just apparently really tired! Hopefully they come to church this sunday!


It was Yukiko's (left) first time singing on stage this week. That girl can really belt it out!


Shoto rockin the set!


Lewis came down from Tokyo to preach it up like the crazy Kiwi he is!

Reaching Further

So what's been happening here at JLH Osaka? Well we're still rockin the set. Our team has actually been going through a bit of spiritual warfare as such. We've been sowing and sowing and sowing lately, but we're not really seeing the results that we want. We want so much more than what we've been getting. We sat down the other day, all us guys, to talk about what's been happening. So we've come up with a few ideas to get out there a bit more. Like me and Luke are gonna try and join a boxing gym. That'll be awesome! *punch* "Jesus loves you!" *punch* "He want's to be your best friend!" *punch* Yeah, lovin it. We're trying new places than just starbucks and maccas, trying to find where more guys hang out. We're looking into starting an indoor soccer team, going to more live concerts, hanging out at pool halls. Go where the people are ya know? Like they're obviously not at starbucks. At least not many that is. But I am so keen to get these new areas up and running. It will be great! Lovin it.

We're really just sick of not seeing the fruit we want to see from the seed we've been sowing. So we're just pushing in more and more, trying new things. Not getting stuck in a sense of "Oh, that's just what we've always done." There needs to be more, just get out there and experiment ya know! Hey, if something doesn't work, at least we can say we tried it and we know for sure it doesn't work, so lets find something else that does! And not to get discouraged when things don't go quite the way we desire it. Instead of being discouraged just be dissatisfied, so we can reach further in for something that will be more effective.

Bec had her 21st birthday for the 10th time here the other day! Yay! Happy Birthday Bec! Woot! Yeah, we went out to this really nice restraunt called Monsoon Cafe. Best fried rice I've ever had in my life... Soooo good. And the chicken satay was top notch too. Yeah, kinda miss fancier restraunts in a way. Like we're always going to maccas over here. Not exactly silver spoon dining...

Church this week was AWESOME! Soooooooo good. Loved it. Loved it like a fat kid loves cake. Probably more even. Was so many people there. No matter where I stood in the room, my widest lens could not take a picture of everyone. It was great. :D And Ps Rod was down from Tokyo to do the preaching. Gave an awesome sermon on relationships. How to build a strong, Godly relationship, before you even start one. It's something really needed in Japan. Japanese marriages are really quite bad. Due mainly it seems to the Japanese Men's work ethic, of working ridiculous hours of like 8-10 and then coming home and refusing to talk to anyone. So talked a bit about not putting your work before your family. Great for the single people too, about how to make sure of the relationship you're gonna get into. Ps Rod is a total matchmaker by the way, always trying to get the hook ups happening. Yeah, it was awesome. :D And we've had to start a kid's church lately too! That's pretty cool. They're so cute! Everyone wants to just steal one and take them home.

And Ken's back! Yay! Ken's a champ. He's a Perthie studying at a university here and just got back from summer break. Yeah, he's got great t-shirts.



This Sunday's session, was so packed. So many more people than you can see here.

I just really liked this photo. Tim looking seriously rock star.

Da J Boyz. The second guy from the left came for the first time this sunday, after being invited on Mixi (Japanese Myspace). It's cool to see some of our digital outreach starting to work. :D

Ps Rod and Chihiro preaching it up hardcore styles!

Growing Vision

So I was out to dinner with Luke and Sam and these two Japanese, a boy and a girl, and as we were talking I realized it was absolutely amazing. When we asked them what they wanted to do with their lives, they said they had absolutely no idea. They had no hope, no visible dream. They were working a basic job at a call centre, at only 19. When we asked the girl she said "I have nothing good in my life." It was heartbreaking. We were talking to the guy by himself for a bit, and he said how he was in love with the girl because they had the same ideas and thoughts. Luke asked him what those ideas were, it was 'nothing'. They both couldnt see anything in the future, and that's what was so attractive to eachother. I think the most tragic thing about the whole situation is that it is sooooo common amoungst Japanese youth. So many don't know where they're going, what they're doing. So many just feel that the normal thing is just to graduate High School with good grades, go to a good University, get a good office job, and then retire and die. Maybe reach the head of the company if you can, don't have to but ya can. Yeah, it's really not on eh. So totally not on...
God is so amazing eh. He gives such vision and purpose to those who follow after him. The young Japanese disciples in our church are fully onto that eh. All the time we're talking to them about seeing all their friends and family find God, seeing our city and our nation know what it's like to have this relationship. It's awesome.

You know what else is awesome? Phil Wickham performing an acoustic version of Divine Romance. So beautiful.

HEY! I got a steady job finally!! It's awesome, I'm gonna be a high school English teacher! You know that weird hairy german teacher you had or crazy indonesian teacher you had back in high school? Yeah, I'm gonna be the hairy crazy english teacher to a host of Japanse Students. Yeah. So bizzare... Only problem with it all is that it's gonna be two months before I get my first full paycheck because of how it's all set up here! Yeah... eekness. I wish they paid by the week here... Be so much easier...

Yeah... So! Things are going awesome otherwise as well. Having a grand old time. But yeah, just really lovin it. More and more I'm getting a vision and a deeper desire to see more and more happen. I don't want this to stop. I want to keep going harder and run this through stronger. Speaking of running, I ran nearly the whole way from Kitakagaya station to Tamade station and wasn't even that tired by the end! I was so impressed with myself, I've never been able to run anywhere near that far before! Go me! Maybe I'll take up morning running...

Well that's enough for me I think, need to be getting home I feel. So see yas all later and have an awesome time pressing on!

Summer Camp!!! YEAH!!!!

HURRAY!!! Time for another amazing tale of Jesus Lifehouse Osaka! OSAKA SAIKO!!! Yeah, that means Osaka is awesome by the way. Okay, so this week has been sooo good! We've had Lewis from JLH Tokyo visiting us for a week, he's always fun to have around! :D Such an
amazing guy, so passionate and dedicated with such an uncompromising vision for Japan. Really
something. Has such an incredible call on his life.

Also! We had an overnight church camp in Nara! Was soooo good! Had two combined evening
sessions and a guy/girl seperate day session on the second day. All were so awesome. Worship
was amazing as well. Had about I guess 25 people. By the end of the camp I think we had 3
new christians and nearly all of our young Christians who hadn't already been were filled
with the Holy Spirit. So awesome!

And what an awesome location too!! Had such an amazing view! It's like this live in bible
college thingy that's currently on holidays so we could go there. Such an awesome building. We
were kinda naughty and ended up climbing up on the roof at night, was incredible looking out
from the top of this hill over the whole city of Nara and the mountains.

At Church, we had such an amazing new venue! Ruido Osaka! WOOT!!! Yeah, we were the second event ever in there. There was one saturday night and we were there Sunday morning, so everything was completely new and so great! Crazy lights and fog machine and incredible
bass-ey speakers, I'm sure our church is the loudest in the world... Bec Robbo preached up a
storm, about living your life strong as a lion, not giving in. Was really cool. Actually gonna
start putting up messages on our homepage so you should be able to check that one out in the
next day or two! Had around 15 first timers as well which was great! Didn't even have enough
welcome packs ready for it!

Well my battery is about to die so I guess I should wrap this up! So I'll be seeing you all later!
Love yas all even if I dont know ya! It's just the way it is! :D


During the first session at Camp

Luke and Chihiro preaching it up!

P&W went off!

Here we are in our first time in Ruido Osaka!!

Wow! Finally an update!

Wow. It has been soooo long since my last update. Soooo much has happened. It's been

great. We had a group of guys and gals from Penrith come and help out a couple weeks ago.

That was pretty cool, great guys all of them. But now we kinda have the saying on team

whenever any one starts going on about who likes who, "What, are you from Penrith or

something?" Sorry guys, it's just funny :D Nah they were cool, we'd go out with them,

meet new people, have fun. Met quite a few amazing people eh!

Also, while they were here, we had an absolutely amazing Baptisms! It was sooo good! Had

5 people getting baptised, 3 girls 2 guys. 4 Japanese, 1 Swedish. Yes Swedish. They are

all such champs, brilliant people, love em. Had such a great move of God that day, it was

incredible. It's such a great thing, seeing these young people all stepping out and

saying "Yes". I see such greatness in them all and can't wait to see how they're going to

grow. Lovin' it!

Oh! Had a new housemate move in yesterday, the one the only SVANTE!!!!! Our lovable,

huggable indian/swedish friend! He's been living in Tokyo until recently and going to

Tokyo University, the best Uni in the country, so he's really smart and speaks incredible

Japanese. And he brought a TV. Don't really know what to do with it, but we got a TV for

the first time in 6 months! Now we can watch the Olympics! Man, he's such a champ, really

passionate and keen to see this Church grow as much as he can. Just hope he makes a good

housemate! :D Sure he will!

So this sunday we had a full vision sunday, telling people all about where the church is

going, what we're going to be doing for the next 6 months. It was brilliant. Pretty much

lost my mind that day but it was great! I'd been working on a video for it, massive

project, we've got like all greenscreen and narration and interviews and everything for

it. It's absolutely awesome! Only problem was I couldn't get it to render and working in

time because my computer kept breaking down on me!! Such annoying. But I'll get it ready

for showing at next sunday. Can't wait till it's all done and I can see it.

Oh speaking of next sunday! We're going into a new venue and it is CRAZY AWESOME! The

best livehouse in the entire city I'm sure! And we have such a great relationship with

the manager and staff, so we're like totally blessed with our time slot and the rental

price. Plus now we have it booked for 6 months we now have a regular venue and not always

moving around every few weeks! It's gonna be crazy! Lovin it! Really feel now after our

last sunday everyone in the church is getting a crazy vision for what the church will be

like in the next few months. It's just keeps getting better and better seriously!

Ya know what's been getting a lot of attention lately? The youTube channel. I was

starting to wonder whether much was happening with it, but I've been getting so many

comments and messages from people about how much they've been touched by what was being

said. Even started talking to some random guy in a cafe Monday and found out he'd

actually watched all the testimony videos and how amazed he was! That was so crazy!

Really humbling eh. So amazing to see. Should check it out. Search JLHosaka on Youtube.

Oh! Went to a fireworks festival on saturday with heaps of people. Was great, even when

it started raining and around a thousand people all squashed together under a bridge to

take cover. That was so funny. :D


Keiko Preaching up a storm on her Five Minutes of Fire

The now infamous Yakisoba(fried noodles and vegies, love the stuff) sign

A great problem to be having, too many people to see over to get a clear shot from the back!

The Double Swede Attack! Svante on the left is my new flatmate, and Mikael on the right is our awesome church member who has to leave Wednesday back for Sweden cause his visa finished.

And lets hear it for some random guy sleeping on the train after it had stopped! YAY!!!

ARGH!!! JAPANESE INTERNET COMPANIES ARE ANNOYING!!!

Ya know something? I really am frustrated at Japanese internet companies. Why oh why can't they just come out and get our internet up and running? What is so bad about expecting an internet company to come and actually set some internet up. Golly golly gosh it's annoying.

So today is the last day of our great and mighty Marin. At least for around 3 years. She's off to merry London, or Kingston to be more specific, in order to study Fine Arts. Go Marin. Marin rocks. For those of you who don't know may I please start this out by saying she rocks. In a less general sense, Marin has been our pretty much lead translator/keyboard player/evangelist/increadibly spirited Japanese girl. Her testimony video is already up on Youtube but I have redone it in our newer style and in light of her immenant departure and the redo should be up shortly. It's still quite simple, not as funny as some of our others, but still, what she said as we were doing it really struck a chord with me. She's going to England, as a young Japanese girl who is so full of passion she's wanting to go to show others there about God and I have no doubt she will see a huge difference in every place she touches. How awesome is that? We've come from a western nation to try and reach Japan, and one of our earliest disciples is now leaving us for London, with her sights set to see everything in her path changed for God. How's that for reproducing evangelism? Oh yeah.

As for Church this week, we actually ran into a bit of a problem during the preaching parts. A terrible problem. There weren't enough chairs available for all the people that showed up. Booyah. Was great. So many people and with such an amazing atmosphere. All in this really small livehouse (shout out to all the folks at Atlaniqs Livehouse, go hard). Bec preached exceptionally well, was so funny, and Marin gave her last translation for a while.

Church this weekend - Worship

Church this weekend - Preaching

Shota!!!

Cool shot I kinda liked

Bec bustin it out!

There goes our Hiro! Watch him as he goes!

Oh yeah, we got this new guy started coming last week. Japanese guy whod lived in Perth for several years and going to PCLC. Name's Yasu if anyone know's em. Top bloke, keen on serving and already so passionate for the Church. So great.

(I love The Innocence Mission, wonderfully calm and mellow without the least hint of depressiveness, it's an amazing mix.)


Lunch After church

Marin (middle) with some of our others. They all rock!

People say I need a haircut... I don't see it!

Some of our peeps imitating a famous Japanese cartoon character I think

On an odd note, it's been discovered that the 16 year old daughter of our neighbour is keen on me. Freakin me the heck out. So awkward everytime I see her.

Apologies and Thanks

Ok, first off in this update I really want to apologise to everyone following and supporting my journey here in Japan. Over the past couple weeks I've really been facing a culmination of several issues and a build up of problems that I have tried to ignore and refused to deal with. This has led me to, especially in this past short while, be rather inconsistent in my dealings, and quite frankly not giving my all. I have been swaying in my commitment, causing others to take up the slack. This was exceptionally poor form on my part and I apologise profusely.

But praise God for grace beyond our fathoming. When someone like me can come, repent, turn around and see breakthrough, that's nothing short of miraculous. I've been listening to a lot of teachings lately (yay for podcasts!) and God's really been just showing me grace and grace and grace in everything. That's what encourages us to come forward, and helps see change & growth in our lives, not condemnation, grace and acceptance. The knowledge that no matter what we've done or are doing, there are still arms wide enough to take us in and say "it's okay, I love you. C'mon, let's get up and try this again, and better this time!"

I, and 'we' really, can not afford to let fear and doubt to hold us back. Run the race, take the prize, see it through to the end. I've been doubting these past weeks whether I'll be able to make it through the whole year. No longer. I will not leave this place until I see the plans and purposes set upon my life fulfilled to the utmost. I will see change, I will see growth and I will see success in the lives of my Japanese friends as well as my own. It's been a rough ride so far and I don't think that'll change in anyway even with this new commitment, but the difference is that I'm closer to the one that can strengthen me to face it. Woot!

It's a new day. A new day with new chances and new opportunities and chances and risks to be taken, success to be had, failures to overcome and lives to see changed for the better! A new day, a new song. Sing to the Lord a new song. There were some Hare Krishnas walking round Amemura the other day, singing the same song they've been singing for hundreds of years, with the same sad faces and dreary feelings. It gets a little old I think. Take up your cross daily, a new commitment everyday. His mercies are new every morning, each day is a new chance to be had.

Luke the punk tried to run ahead of me from the station to our building and stop the elevator so I'd have to take the stairs to our apartment on the 11th story. But I chased his sorry backside down, cut through the park and beat him to the elevator! I collapsed in a heap as soon as I got in but I beat him! Booyah! Watashi wa ichiban! Haven't run that hard in ages!

In more of an update about the Church things are going really good. These last two weeks we were at a hall instead of a livehouse. This means we had to bring, set up and then pack up all our own sound system instead of using the livehouse's as we've been doing and is far more convienent. However, the major upside of this was that because we had to really get it going and fast,everyone just really got in there and helped out as much as they could. It was soooo awesome to see all the teamwork and willing spirits going around. Had so much fun getting all the cables and speakers going, and it all went smoothly, quickly and with smiles and amazing attitudes all the way! Japanese people are so willing to serve, sugoi desu!

Oh! This weekend we had a combined party for mine, Kazuki's, Yuriki's and Shota's birthday. Was awesome. Had it at a Mexican restraunt called El Torittos. Was such a hassle getting there, had to try like three different restraunts before finally finding that could fit us all! So here's some photos! Cause everyone loves photos! :D


Eri with a sombrero. Because she's awesome.

Ken being all zombie styles and trying to eat my brain.

Table 1

Table 2

Three of the four birthday boys. Kazuki, me and Yuriki

Some of the gang getting a group shot. That's the fourth birthday boy, Shota, in front in the red.

And just before I end this update, can I please give a hhhhhhuuuuuuuuggggggeeeeeee thank you and rock on to all the peoples over at Harvest West. There is not a single one amoungst you that does not rock harder than... something that rocks really hard... ... But yeah, you guys are awesome. Metcha kakoi, ne? The long and the short of it is that I probably would'nt still be here if it wasn't for you. Your continual support has kept me here, encouraged me, and given me so much joy I dont think you really know. You are truly amazing people. Thank you. Thank you all. :) And enjoy your holiday! I mean study break!!! Sorry staff!! :D And if any of you can figure out what the card I'm holding says, I'll give you a lolly next time I see you! :D

Joel