2010 Summer(2)

2010.08.28 TGIS Blog  (Posted by Ninja)

ICEBREAK---"Chicken or Eagle" (Yue)
Today's activity was a discussion on 'freedom'. I entitled this activity, "Chicken or Eagle" because of Yue's last question. When do you feel free? What does 'freedom' mean to you? How do you get it? Which one would you like to be, chicken or eagle?... See? The topic sounds deep and fascinating, doesn't it? Yes it was! We all enjoyed listening to each other. Let me invite you to come join us next time. It's a week after next week,  but we'd like to see you in our circle! Please don't be shy. ...OK. Maybe you are just very far from Tokyo. All right, then, you may want to check out our website around 15:00 [TOKYO time] so that you may see us enjoying these activities. Have you ever heard of USTREAM service? Do you know anything about TWITTER? TGIS service is now available on USTREAM, so please try it, if you are familiar with these services. Unfortunately I cannot help you with these things, as I see myself practically a dinosaur in the technological transition!) Anyway, thanks, Yue, for leading today's ICEBREAK!

By the way, our dear brother Aki nicely put his comments on spiritual freedom. Very nice! New Vocabulary: Financial freedom, Emotional freedom, Spiritual freedom. Anxiety and worries.

 

TESTIMONY (Kumi)

Kumi shared her testimony on her recent trip to UK. She was there for enjoying a cup of tea with Queen. Of course, I'm joking. What are you talking about. Kumi went to UK this summer for studying and working on a project, but she also enjoyed meeting people including professors and English teachers from various countries. God amazingly gave her opportunities to share the Gospel with some of her new friends. That is awesome! God is amazing. Indeed, He can show and teach us many things everywhere we go. He is beyond times. (Can we say that? I mean, "Kami-sama wa Jikan no Waku wo Koeru" in Japanese.) I sincerely believe that your new dream will come true, Kumi. (God helped Kumi to revisit her memory of traveling UK with her family, and now she's got a new dream. Her new dream is to go to Wimbledon with her dad to watch the Wimbledon Champion tournament.) Ronnie said that watching tennis on-live is really different from watching it on TV, so you will have a great time there! Oops! I've just realized that last week's testimony by Ronnie and this week's by Kumi, both point us to this: Honor your father and your mother. Amen!

 

MESSAGE (Wayne)

Wayne! We love your joke in the beginning! (Maru calls it "Oyaji-gyagu", but don't worry. He loves your joke, too.) The title of today's message is "A House Divided". We read Luke 11:17: A house divided will fall.

 

Theme for this week was "Learning & Growing, You can enter the Promised Land of a Happy Life/Marriage", so Wayne first opened the floor for a question: What makes a house divided?

 

I.     Unresolved conflict, hurt feelings, unforgiveness, bitterness, 

        complaining & grumbling, anger, pride, selfishness, revenge, and 

        hardheadedness

      A. Whose to blame? What's the cause?

           Self, the world, and the devil

      B. It starts with a seed thought and goes into the heart

      C. Absalom, who was he? He made a divided house, very selfish

 

II.    There's only one hope for a unified house, Jesus

      A. It's found in his Word, and the power of the Holy Spirit

      B. Reconciliation: to make things right, listen to what God has to say

      C. Covet unity

 

III.   Story of Mae: Domestic Violence, she married young, had a son,  

        husband an alcoholic, she found out, beat her until he threatened to

        kill her and the child, crossed country through safe houses, ended

        in Hawaii, became a Christian, met and married my good friend,

        Jesus rescued her and has a stable home

 

Summary: When in a group/church/marriage/company, don't be the one to have unresolved conflict, strive for unity. yes you can disagree, but quickly forgive, forget, pray, always look to the Lord, WWJD. Don't shoot

each other in the toe, its not worth it. Let's not be a house divided but one of unity going forth for his kingdom       

 

SONGS (Ronnie [Worship Leader], Aki [PA])

1. You are Good

2. You are Holy

3. At the Cross

4. From the Inside Out

Announcement (Pastor Elmer)

There will be no TGIS service next week at Shinjuku Shalom Church. Instead, we will be attending the Christopher Sun Conference held at Ariake Colosseum. (Flyers are available at church. Also, please visit at:

http://www.sun2010.org/ for more information. Thank you.)

Fellowship Time
Thank you for coming to TGIS today!

2010.08.21 TGIS Blog (Posted by Maru)

2010.08.14 TGIS Blog (Posted by Yue)

Hallelujah, how was your Obon holiday?
We had small group around 8 people this week, and God blessed this time as well.

Icebreak
Tomoko did well=)
We played a game by using cards like Karuta-tori.
Tomoko gave us questions,and we tried to find the card with the answer quickly.
That was a lot of fun, Tomoko!
Thank you so much for preparing it!



Worship&PC
Wayne, Maru, Keiju, thank you,
At last we could sing all songs with the lyrics of both English and Japanese.


Message
Wayne shared the message, an Sora translated them.

Thank you guys a lot.

Today's topic was about marriage.

JOSHUA 18:3
"So Joshua said to the Israelites: 'How long will you wait for you begin to take possession of
the land that the Lord,the God of your father, has given you?'"

God promised that we are given the eternal life filled with love, and marriage as well.

JOHN 10:10
"...I have come that they may have life,and have it to the full"

so,all we have to do is just to take the life God planned for us.
How can we do that?
We need to get up and fight (spiritual things like worship and pray).
That is, we shouldn't try to take actions by ourselves, but just asking God first.

Wayne lead this message with sharing his story about
how he and his wife got married with each other.

After the service,
we continued talking about the marriage  =)

Well, we also prayed for Colin.
He were suppose to lead today's message,but he couldn't come.
We are looking forward to seeing you in October, Colin!

And, we are looking forward to seeing you,
who read this blog, or interested in TGIS, English, or about the grace of God...

You are always welcome =)

Byebye~

2010.08.07 TGIS Blog (Posted by Yue)

Hallelujah!
Lord, thank you so much for giving us the good opportunity to meet new people in TGIS everytime.
This week, 26 pepole joined! It was awesome to worship you Lord with all together!
 
★Icebreak
Thank you guys so much for enjoying a lot!
Todays game is called "What it is?".
We had two groups and each one of them guessed  the word i wrote down at the board through
the members' explanation.
It's a good way to know NEW words,isnt it!?

 ex) flip-flop,flot-ring,shaved ice etc...

★Worship
Thank you for leading the worship,Colin!
We sang four songs,and for one song "Here comes the Reign" , we could see the Japanese translation for one song .

 ★PC
Thank you for showing the picture of DVD,Maru!
 
★Testimony
We had two pepole who shared their testimony/how to decied to follow Jesus and how God changed you.
Thank you guys so much for showing us how God works in your life!
We can convince that "God is faithful" more and more through the testimony.
★Message
Pastor Elmer shared the message, and Sora translated them for us.
Thank you so much!
 
"And do not be drunk with wine,in which is dissipation;but be filled with the Spirit."
(Ephesian5:18)
 
Pastor also shared the story about one guy through this passage to summarize this story,
The man always spent his times and salary on drinking to fill his life before,
but after he knew and accepted God, he stopped drinking and he spent the time with family after work. That is, God and God's love changed his life. We can say that there is nothing that can be greater than God and His love and the Holy Spirit.

★Fellowship

We had great snack time. Thank you all for coming!   Please join us again~

2010.07.31 TGIS Blog (Posted by Ninja)

 

1. Icebreak: Kumi
"Thanks for that brain teaser icebreak Kumi," says Wayne. Indeed, the game, 'Odd One Out', stimulated our critical thinking? "My partner and I had to really think and for the double interpreting." It looks like everyone had a good time today.
Would you like to know what the game was? Alright! Please come join us!

2. Worship: Wayne
We introduced a new song, which is Pastor Elmer's recommendation. It's called "Here comes the Reign".

3. Testimony: Paul
Thanks for coming to TGIS today!

 

    Testimony: Denny
4. Worship: Wayne

 
5. Fellowship!

2010.07.24 TGIS Blog (Posted by Ninja) 

1. Opening: Wayne- Ice-break activity

Thanks, Wayne, for planning an interesting ice-break activity! We all enjoyed it, because it was a lot of fun! 
Today's game is called..I don't know, but we had to guess a word that is the opposite of a word given. For example, "What is the opposite of 'cold'?" Yes. Of course, the opposite of 'cold' is 'hot"! How about the opposite of 'sunny'? That's right. The answer is 'rainy' or 'cloudy'. Good job. You may think it's easy, but some questions were quite tough.

 

For instance, what would you say the opposite word of "dollars" be? ...Um... The opposite of 'dollar'? Any currency! (Sora and Kumi were wondering.) The answer was "yen". Why? We still don't know exactly, but some of us seem to see the connection. How about this: what is the opposite of 'Japan'? I personally liked Maru's answer, that is, 'Brazil'. The answer was 'United States of America'. How come! Why is Japan the opposite of US! (Sora and Kumi were wondering again. Please help them.) Wayne, thanks a lot for leading today's ice-break activity. 

 

2. Testimony: Denny

Denny came to TGIS as a guest speaker today and shared her testimony. Thanks, Denny, for sharing how you got to know Jesus, and how your life has been changed since then. What you shared today show His Love, faith, His Dream and Hope in your life. And we are so grateful to hear your walk with God.

 

Just to share a bit of Denny's testimony with readers of our blog: At the age of six, Denny and her family moved to US and unfortunately, Denny had to experience some racial discrimination, which made her life very difficult. Her depression made it to the level that she thought of killing herself. However, God's Hands were there and Denny found a way out. God sent Denny a help that day to give her the Bible and to share his amazing experience with God. Glory to God. Denny, you were a blessing of us today. You said today's was just a part of what you could tell us. We are so grateful to have you at TGIS. Please come again! We are looking forward to hearing Part 2 and Part 3 of God's miracles in your life, and let's grow in Him together.

 

3. Worship: Maru

Maru led the worship service today and we sang:Mighty to Save, Oceans Will Part, and More to See.
Praise the Lord! 


4. Message: Wayne

This month's theme is "Going from a Corinthian to an Encore Church" and today's message was about
 "Covering, communion, gifts, order, and resurrection." Main Scripture was 2 Cor 13:11.

We learned a lot today. Thanks, Wayne! As for covering, we need God's covering and his chain of commands. As is written in 1 Cor 11:3. As for communion, we need to recognize the body of Jesus in communion (1 Cor 11:29). About spiritual gifts, Paul does not want us to be ignorant. There are different gifts, for different things, but same Holy Spirit (1 Cor 12:1). As for order, if there is chaos in the church then people will think we are crazy. God is a God of order (1 Cor 14:23). As for resurrection, if Christ had not risen from the dead, our faith is futile and we are in our sins (1 Cor 15:17).  In conclusion, many things to think about! Have faith and begin to do what God says in His Word. 

2 Cor 13:11
Finally, brothers, good-by. Aim for perfection, listen to my appeal, be of one mind, live in peace. And the God of love and peace will be with you.
Amen!


5. Prayer and Worship: Maru

Before the final worship time, Maru prayed for our sister,Y-chan who was going to lead the Icebreak activity today, but could not come because she was ill. Maru! That was very nice! 

Worship:How Great Is Our God


7. Fellowship time:

Many people came to TGIS today! Hallelujah! 

Final remarks:
To everyone who is reading our blog: Please stop by at TGIS, when you have a chance. 
We want to see YOU! May God bless you and keep you.
Thank you..