I don't speak much Japanese (yet)

It is a beautiful day here in mountains. We are taking advantage of the nice weather and fixing up the bike park. Painting, sawing, and building to upgrade and renew the ramps and stunts. This morning I got up early for a run and an elderly Japanese man stopped me. I tried to tell him I didn't speak Japanese, but he seemed excited or mad about something. He kept making making a shape with his hands. On my way back he stopped me again this time he was in his van. I made out that he was not mad but had lost something and had maybe wanted me to keep an eye out for it. Later I saw him smiling with his little dog, I guess his dog had ran up a tree or something. (Last Picture is of a Church group from Tokyo which we hosted recently) Maybe he wanted me to help him retrieve it that morning. It can be a little awkward not knowing the language, but this story turned out good. He seemed very nice and hopefully I will see him again, maybe someday when I can speak better we can laugh about it together.
Anyways things are a little slower right now. Which is good as we need to do some general maintenance on the facilities and bike park. Today a group is coming from an international school. There will be children with a mix of different faiths represented. Both Australian, Japanese and Indian kids will be having their school retreat here. Please keep this camp in your prayers as we host these kids. That they would see Jesus in us and through us as we interact with them.
I will be heading to Tokyo for a little break this weekend to see friends there and see some more of this massive city of 34 million.
Well thats all for now. Stay in touch!

Waking inTokyo

Filmed this in March while waiting near the busiest and largest subway station in Tokyo, Shinjuku. This was after rush hour but still lots of people around.

I'm Here (again)

Picture 1. -Abbotsford Day before I left 2.- My Plane in San Fransisco



3+4 - These two are from the taxi that picked me up from the airport in Tokyo. You can see the rush hour traffic that we met up with.


5.It took almost three hours just to get out of Tokyo. In this picture is a lot housing in a small area.





My trip back to Norhtstar looked like this. Leave Abbotsford 3:50 a.m. - Fly out to 6:40 - 2 hours to San Fransisco - two hour lay over in San Fran plane leaves at 11:30 a.m. - Travel back past Vancouver and follow near Alaska and Russia then dip down to Japan 12 hours - Once in Japan taxi picks me up at 3 p.m Japan time about 11:00 p.m? my time - Taxi takes over six hours to Matsumoto 10:00 p.m - and lastly a 40 min drive up mountain.

Its really great to be back. I feel really revived and rested, although I need to get over jet lag. But when I left I was pretty exhausted and had lost focus. After speaking with Dan the director here, I am really excited about my future role here. I will begin teaching in the schools next week already and I will also be teaching a different adult class down mountain a bit.

Its still somewhat cold here. Not quite shorts weather yet. Even Tokyo was chillier than I though. Thing are much greener and it is absolutely beautiful up here in the mountains.

Well thats all for now I will post some pictures of Northstar in the summer soon.

Leaving for the Airport in 4 hours

Hey all,

Well its a strange feeling looking at the clock and thinking about leaving this country in the next 6 hours. A year is a long time and this time it is almost certain I will be staying for that long. I now have my working holiday visa in hand. It is a single entry visa, which means every time I want to leave the country and re enter I will have to apply for a re entry permit. Kinda a hassle and in cost $60 every time.
Its exciting to think about what this next year will hold, I am expecting God to do some amazing things in Japan. It is hard though to say goodbye again, as life goes on. Even though in coming back it seems like I just left and everything should be like it was. The thing that is comforting is that after spending years with many of you, it is just like nothing changed, just with more exciting stories to share.
So to all those family and friend who may read this. I guess this is goodbye for now, but when we meet again it really won't feel like that much time has past. I am excited to see what God does in your lives, over the next while. Keep me updated. And get mad at me if I don't update this blog often. It really is something I want to do, just easy to put off.

In closing here are some verses that came to mind. Paul's words but also my prayer for you all.
Philippians 1:3-11
3 Every time I think of you, I give thanks to my God. 4 Whenever I pray, I make my requests for all of you with joy, 5 for you have been my partners in spreading the Good News about Christ from the time you first heard it until now. 6 And I am certain that God, who began the good work within you, will continue his work until it is finally finished on the day when Christ Jesus returns.
7 So it is right that I should feel as I do about all of you, for you have a special place in my heart. You share with me the special favor of God, both in my imprisonment and in defending and confirming the truth of the Good News. 8 God knows how much I love you and long for you with the tender compassion of Christ Jesus.
9 I pray that your love will overflow more and more, and that you will keep on growing in knowledge and understanding. 10 For I want you to understand what really matters, so that you may live pure and blameless lives until the day of Christ’s return. 11 May you always be filled with the fruit of your salvation—the righteous character produced in your life by Jesus Christ^[a]—for this will bring much glory and praise to God.

Teaching English

Teaching English is going well. I have about 10-16 adults coming to my night class. Afterwards we hang out, play games, and talk for at least an hour. It has been such a great way to get to know people in the community. For most we are the first Christians they have met. The second picture is after a class some of the staff shared songs they had written. While we sang one of the adults who knew no English kept saying peace. He was wondering if the song was about peace. The crazy thing is that he knows no English and the song had just begun, later Gabe shared that the song was about having true peace from God. God totally was speaking peace to this guys heart, cause there is no way he would have known what the song was about.
Teaching the kids at school has been fun as well. They really enjoy learning and we often play games and hang out with them. The nice thing about Japan is that we can eat with the kids and we all share the same meal. This creates many fun times out of the class room.

Please pray for those in my adult class, and the kids that we see every week at the school. We so want to show Christ love to them, but the language barrier makes it hard. So we really have to rely on God speaking to their hearts through our actions and words.

DRK at Northstar 1

Just a quick clip of me snoaboarding in Japan

Update and Prayer Requests

We are now over out quarntine and can eat in the dinning room again. These pics are from the staff room where we spend any fee time we have. It's been a couple weeks of preparing, training, and getting over sickness. We're now into the real deal with 30 American youth here from the US army Base in Tokyo. Its been crazy I taught my first snowboard class and that was so tiring, but also fun and rewarding. Please keep us in prayer as we have another week straight of guests and lessons, before our day off.
I am so impressed by the camp and its approach to ministry. We had three families here from both Japan and the US base. We spent alot of time with them played with their kids. Then the last day we offered free wall climbing. After the climb one of the staff went up blindfolded and had the kids help him reach the top. This led to a talk led by another staff memeber about the importance of authorty and our parents. These are people who probably would have very little contact with a Christian community such as ours.
Also please keep my English classes in prayer. In the near future I will be offering free classes here at northstar. There are many people here my age working at the ski resort and local lodges. Our goal is to build relationships with them, help them with their English, and in the end share our faith and passion for life with them.