Japan Deserves a Blog

If it weren't for their heart size I could be two Japanese people in one. Weaving through the packed roadways with eye level above most heads, awkwardly disrupting the rhythmic flow of the Japanese metropolis, one can feel like the proverbial bull in the china shop...Elephant perhaps. Metabolic rate must be particularly high in this country because I don't remember going half an hour without eating...especially sweets and rice, and yet these people are delicate and petite. A beautiful hearted people.

There's so much to share...if you can't read it all scroll the headlines for some goodstuff.

Why Japan?

Our school sent over 400 people around the globe the past weeks. Israel, Mozambique, South Africa, Kenya, Alaska, Mexico...Japan; all to locations that Bethel Church has relationship with. Japan is still a "dating" relationship. We went to partner with several house churches that have been there 15-25 years and have begun to connect with Bethel the past two years. So teams are flying back and forth from Japan and California...sharing life and revival.


The Feel of Japan

Being Canadian space is a vast commodity, this can be deeply appreciated in Japan. Constantly surrounded by literally millions of people there is a tangible pressure in the atmosphere, you seem to believe you can feel the people for miles. Feel the movement. The lives. The recycled air.

There's an advancement that seemed to lauch me into the future...all the cement, and the computerized systems, the narrow streets, the new vehicles. Indeed foreign.

The toilette seats are heated and despite all the people the cities are very clean. Very orderly.

The ancient temples are intermingled with holographic advertisement screens.

Osaka in Southern Japan seemed to be a more preserved Japanese culture, though still an immense city. Tokyo was of course international, brimming with extreme fashion gurus, bold lights and statements, and dark avenues with heated secrets.

However, the nation in entirety carries a hunger, a desire for real. And it's a ripe atmosphere for God's outpouring. Can a nation be saved in a day?


Embarassing Moments

Amongst general cultural slips like forgetting to wear my slippers inside, or neglecting exchanging them for the bathroom slippers when going to the toilette (very sanitary), I have two outstanding moments of particular hilarity.

The first morning in Japan, I was alone in a house with my Japanese homestay family who spoke no english. Breakfast was on the table, some fairly common looking things...like cereal. I filled myself a bowl, and scanned the table for milk. The closest thing I could find was a bottle filled with a creamy-brownish substance, the label of course in Japanese characters. I made some questioning gestures to the wife, who seemed to not grasp what I was asking, so I decided to go ahead with what must be their version of milk.

Turns out it's Soy-sauce salad dressing. The first bite was a shocker.

And to my surprise (and that of my Japanese hosts) I ate it. I really thought this must be the style, until I saw the sauce used that night on salad, and when the following morning the milk was clearly marked out in front of my table place.

Later at a meeting in my home, with some of my team and the locals, my homestay dad could see I was getting tired so in broken english he splurts out, "Let's go to bed." Chuckles erupt and the poor man stammers to correct his English. Oh, communication!

My Team, Our Mission

Eric Johnson and Sheri Silk led the Osaka Japan Team with stamina, wisdom, and joy. This was probably the most impacting aspect of the trip for me; to be under solid healthy leadership that desires to see you step out and succeed. They cover faults and magnify breakthrough, and I felt safe to try new things and to fail or excel. The other twleve on the trip were a team of mixed ages from eighteen to late fifties but all saturated with zeal and love and a heart to see Japan rocked by God's glory.

A day could vary a lot. Generally we traveled to various church meetings spoke stuff God has done in our lives, healed the sick, and prophesied to individuals in the congregation. We also did a lot of impartation which is a fancy way of saying we prayed for people and asked God to deposit in them what we have...and it happens.
Also we visited hospitals, schools, pre-schools, colleges, and homes.

We took local church teams on the street meeting people and carrying the healing and prophesy from inside the church out (where it belongs) to everyday people in the mall, on the bus, in the park who need miracles and encounters to point them to Jesus. Some very cool personal stories with this...if you want to know about them just ask me and say "treasure hunts."

Mostly we invite Holy Spirit. He comes. Staunch Japanese business men laugh ridiculously on the floor, filled with joy, others cry as their innermost senses God's presence deeply touching and healing them. Men and women and children foreign and local felt the moving.

Miracles, Healings, Signs and Wonders

Yes...this stuff happens today. Jesus is alive. Here's a few of many stories:

A woman with no hearing in one ear due to surgery in which one of the bones in her ear was removed and never replaced, begins to hear!!! as a team member prays for her. She hears whispering at first and then hearing increases.

Tim prays for a man with a 20 year hernia. He tests it after a quick prayer and the pain is still so sharp he cannot bend forward. They pray again and the man bends slightly not feeling the regular pain and then swiftly bends all the way touching his toes. He comes up wide-eyed and shocked. No more hernia.

Three people in paralytic conditions were healed on this Japan trip, two in Tokyo (one was a full recovery of body function, in the second case nerve sensation began to occur and movement in the leg but not the whole body...yet). In Osaka two of our team went and prayed for a woman in the hospital who had been there four months following a severe stroke. The right side of her body was completely paralyzed. They prayed a minute or so and she began to flex her wrist and move her fingers. Soon her foot was taping, apparently not of her own will, and as it tapped feeling returned to her leg as well as mobility and strength. She said her back was still in pain, so they prayed and immediately the pain left. She stood and walked after four months on a hospital bed.
The Japanese pastor with them was ecstatic, but commented to the team as they left, "I don't understand you pray such simple prayers! I should do this with my church."

A man on the street with a knee problem received prayer and began excitedly running back and forth...healed.

A girl struggling with suicide and self-hatred began manifesting a demon during one of the church meetings. A few of the team escorted her privately outside as she was vomiting and yelling that she wanted to die, and began to pray with her, lead her through forgiveness of herself and speak truth over her. Soon she was filled with peace as she returned to her right mind and her entire countenance changed as she experiemced freedom.
There were quite a few deliverances on this trip, as much of the healing that took place dealt with heavy internal issues. However, often when these internal or sometimes demonic things were confronted many would experience physical healing from bodily ailments.


Knees, eyesight, headaches, flues, insomnia, backpain...were various miracles of restoration that we witnessed. Also I'm excited to hear cancer reports, because we prayed for at least ten people with cancer who many immediately felt heat sensations or "electricity" in their bodies as we prayed. So were waiting for the full doctors reports to endorse it.

Here's a sweet one. There was a little boy in the preschool that was being taught about hearing the voice of God and he begin to stand with his arms up and eyes closed, tears flowing down his cheeks. He's three years old. Some of the ladies begin to ask him if he's okay, "Are you feeling angry, or sad?" "No," he says, "very happy." The kids don't get a jr. Holy Spirit.

(The Mexico team shared how they had the street kids come in the church and pray for the adults...healing and prophesying. These kids who are always told they are dirt began to move through the cathedral and men and women began to weep as the children ministered and they were healed and touched, but more than that this was a picture of hope and destiny to their nation.)

There are so many many many stories. Classes the past few days back in Redding have been packed with testimonies from Africa, Mexico, Alaska and so on. Here's some tastes...

One team 13 blind people..eyes open.

3 Deaf mutes from birth, ears open and they begin speaking. One five years old, one nine, and one about in their 30's.

Cancerous tumor on baby's neck, gone.

Two year old dying of malaria...healed and running around.

Food MULTIPLIES in Mozambique as they feed 250 school children, several adults and the team with one large pot of beans that won't run out.

Paralytics healed. Broken bones crack and reset.

Man dead for 3 hours raised and healed from his disease.

The greatest miracle: People encounter Jesus.