Grace City Church is officially settled into their new space on the 7th floor of the Ochanomizu Christian Center. Nestled in the guitar shop haven of Japan, the area is filled with the nation’s highest concentration of Universities and hospitals. On Pentecost Sunday, we celebrated the church’s 15th year anniversary with a huge dinner party! Our pastor ordered 30 corn mayo pizzas, one of Japan’s…specialties.
Me taking pictures during the church service
The people listening to various guest speakers
15th Anniversary party after the service
A church staff member giving a gift to the owner of the building where we are now located
On one of my days off, I took a solo adventure to the Ueno Zoo to practice my photography!
We are able to connect with loads of new friends from around the world…
Michelle, a Korean from Argentina
An inter-denominational group of young people from around East Asia and America
Now that the church has a permanent space, we are able to host longer events and even lend the space out to other groups. Kairos, a college ministry run under the RUF (Reformed University Fellowship) campus ministry, was able to host a large group gathering in our space. At this event, we had a team of 16 university students from Alabama demonstrate what a typical gathering looks like to local Japanese students.
A bunch of friends celebrated a church staff member’s birthday with Yakiniku (self-grilled meat!)
The worst selfie of all time, but you can see what Yakiniku is like
And last night, we hosted our monthly “Art Life Faith” event. These gatherings give local artists a chance to show how their life story influences their art. At this event, the interns made kimchi fried rice and Korean side dishes for 25 people. Our speaker was my dear friend, Kanako, a ballet dancer and night club DJ.
We continue to do lots of daily tasks, language lessons, community building, and preparation for future events! I can’t believe that I’ve already been here a month. Time is running by at lightning speed and we’ve only barely scratched the surface of all the work set out before us.