Back from the UK!

Well, we have been back for about 2 weeks now and after a short period adjusting to time difference and reverse, backwards, upside down culture shock things have pretty much retuned to normal. Well perhaps "normal" is not the right word... how about "as they were when we left!" We are still living with Maiko's parents and trying to back into our own house which is kind of a weird situation and one I think I might (try to)explain in the next blog!

We had a brilliant time in the UK. We stayed with my parents and Daniel took to them immediately despite only having seen them a few times before. He loved everyday and was constanly played with, brought to all sorts of parks (The UK has great parks) and given as much attention (and sweets) as it is possible to recieve! He was also really good on the airplane and slept about 13 of the 18 hours on the way! Yay! He also seemed to adapt to the language difference with no problem at all and has done the same since we have come back to Japan. Now he just keeps asking of we can go back again... he asks me almost everyday!

It was good to come back to church after missing a few weeks. The church members ran everything and did it brilliantly and seemed to really gel as a group while we were gone. I think thats really important. It has also given them the confidence to take on more responsibility and feel that a church is always a joint adventure and never about some missionary couple building "their own church."

The kids also continued to come but since we have been in Maiko's parents house numbers been fewer, we think primarily because its further from where they all live. It seems that the same people are coming but that they dont come everyweek now. For that reason we are really hoping to get back to our house ASAP so we will have more freedom and space to hold more events and be a kind of open church where people can come anytime. Please pray for that... thanks!

But the good news is that Maiko has been busy on the phone since coming back, talking with some kids who are asking her questions about the Bible and life in general, and she thinks some of them are really showing signs of being changed by what they are hearing. They are saying that they fight less, make fun of people less and try to remember to help their parents wash dishes and stuff like that... Some have new dreams to work for aid charities and some are offering to prayer for friends in school! Faith is so cool when seen in a child, and it goes to show that God works with us at whatever stage of life we are at, and impacts the very issues that we face on a daily basis. I'll have some of that too please!

(D) aniel

Daniel reached an important step this month in finally being able to say his own name! It came through as "Aniel" but it was well understood and appluaded by his parents! He is generaly a little slower than many other kids his own age to get speaking, but I suppose that because he is learning two languages at the same time. He does seem to understand everything we say though which is great.

When speaking he seems to use the word that is easiest to say, so, often Japanese people are confused when they try to hug him and he is saying "all done, all done!" I suppose there will be similar confusion when we go to the UK and he is saying "choudai, choudai" (please give me...) to everyone!

That UK trip by the way, is from the 6th of October to the 23rd. Less than two weeks from today... wowowow!

Farewell Satoshi (but see you tomorrow at dinner time)

From yesterday, Maiko's brother Satoshi moved out of his parents' house (where we are currently living) and into his own place. For a first house I have to say its a great place he found. Its nearby, the price is good and its brand new! After seeing it Maiko and I were planning to move in with him! It is quite small by European standards but a really good size for a one person place here in Japan. It even has a really cool "loft" room that overlooks the main room and is perfect for sleeping or studying or whatever. He really has done well in finding the perfect place for his first home.



Since we are now living with Maiko's parents, it has been pretty difficult for Satoshi because he has had no bedroom of his own (i.e. we took his room :o poor Satoshi!). So since coming back from the UK last May, after 5 years of being there alone, he has had to exercise that very Japanese of qualities, patience, in large quantities while sleeping on the floor in either the living room or in his parent's room (this is undesirable at most times but at 23 years old perhaps more so). So he is rejoicing, and we with him, that he now has a place to call his own. That being said, with no fridge or food yet I fully expect to see him around for dinner tonight, and fairly often after that too! That’s an eternal privilege of being a son :)
Enjoy the new house mate!

p.s. Sorry about the random picture.... But Daniel will definitly miss seeing "Tochi" everyday.

Short Post, Long Story

The seemingly never ending, super-elongated, extended version of the story of our house is way too... how can I say it... long, to be fully writen down here. In summary we have been in it, out of it, allowed to use it, told to get out, hated and welcomed all at different times over the last 4 years. We are currently out of it (i.e. living with Maiko's parents) and waiting to get back into it.

As you can tell its been a bit of a rollercoaster with the house but recently, on the basis of the ownership issue now being more or less sorted out we believe that God would have us back there again. This is brilliant news for us as it really is the best site for the church. It has everything we need and its really near to where all the kids live. Hosting the church in Maiko's mum's house has been good because it is a beautiful house, but for some of the kids its a bit far to come. The church was started in our house and we really believe that God will bless us when we move back in. So here's to a happy homecoming :)

The house currently needs some reconstruction where a part of the wall was knocked down (I'll maybe tell you that particular part of the story some other time!) but we believe the money will come at the right time. Until then its business as usual at church, and I'm off tomorrow to plan an orienteering event at a local park... Long Live Kid's Ministry!

Britain, baptisms and blessings

Konnichiwa! Maiko and I have been in Japan for 4 years now (Daniel for two!) and have thoroughly become acculturated and settled to life in the Land of the Rising Sun. But that does not mean we dont want to head back to the UK every now and again. So we are doing just that this coming October! We will be in High Wycombe for a short while visiting my parents. Its a great blessing to be able to do this and we really cant wait to catch up with Dad and Mum and have a bit of a rest. (Smarties and Malteasers will also be enjoyed regularly). Daniel will have a great time too and will hopefully come back fluent in English!

Before that though we have a baptism service in our church! Hooray! 2 girls will take the plunge on the 3rd of October just 3 days before we head off to the UK. It will be the first baptism service in Hope Chapel Sakai since we started it a year and a half ago and we are so looking forward to it! Then while we are away the rest of the church will be looking after things and running the services which is really exciting too. We know they will do a brilliant job with the adult and kids services.

It strange how things turn out sometimes. We started the weekly kids church a year and a half ago with a desire to help some local kids from single parent families, and almost without too much thought we decided to have a 30 minute adult/staff service before the kids came each week. Its still only 30 minutes but it has somehow grown into a mini church with a cell group and various events going on. But most importantly we have a group of great friends who all want to help the local kids in Sakai and also know Jesus more. It really is exciting to be part of a group all seeking the same thing. The Lord is indeed capable of giving us way more than we ever expected.

Well Rested

Well it has been over a year since i last blogged on here! Haha, i am so well rested from blogging and thought i would give it another go.

But where to start? So many things have changed... I suppose the biggest thing is that we are now running a church in our house. Its called Hope Chapel Sakai and is a church for adults and then after that a church for kids. I am making a website for it (with equal slowness as is typical of me with blogs, websites and emails and stuff like that...sorry) and you can check it out here...

http://www.hopechapelsakai.jimdo.com/

Its currently under construction as you will notice, but if you have any ideas for it i'd like to hear them. Oh, in other news, i was accepted as a licensed minister in an church organisation here called "Japan Foursquare." Its cool and i have lots of new friends in it and they support us with kids church and stuff. We also got to go to Hokkaido (Japan's northern island) for an induction ceremony and all. Great fun and great great great sashimi (raw fish) there! Yum!

Anyway, Maiko and i have not changed much but Daniel is a big lump now so have a look! God bless!

The McKee Family in Japan: Update

Hello there everyone, we hope you are all well and looking forward to a nice summer. Well, it has been a while since we have posted any updates about what’s going on here in Japan, and as a lot of things have changed for us recently, I thought it was a good time to make this new update. Before that though, thanks so much to all of you for your prayers, support and encouragement over the last year or so. We miss you and think about you all and hope to see as many of you as possible sometime soon. Thanks! Chris, Maiko, Daniel

Daniel
Daniel is now 9 months old and has full control of our house! He is standing, crawling, clapping his hands, biting everything with his new tooth and generally making a mess! Most Japanese says he looks like me while many Europeans have said he looks more like Maiko. What do you think? Seeing his little face light up when he sees me getting home from work is still the best feeling in the world!

Just back from the UK

In March the three of us headed of to the UK for a family visit where we spent two weeks at my parent’s house in High Wycombe. My sister Louise and her family also came down from Scotland, so Daniel got to play with his two cousins for the first time. We all had a great time and even got this rare picture taken with us all together.

It was really just a flying visit and we didn’t get to meet up with everyone we wanted to see but we did manage to fit in a trip to Nantwich to see Maiko’s brother Satoshi, and a few other good friends up that way. We also met lots of really nice friends of my Dad and Mum and saw their church. We relaxed and generally had a really good time. We praise the Lord that He gave us this time just before we start a new work in Japan....

A new thing....
Speaking of which.... things have really developed recently in terms of what we are doing here. Until now we have been mostly working independently doing bits and pieces of evangelism where we could. However, just last month we have been accepted into a great new church and denomination who have asked us to help with their children’s ministry. They have also suggested that I start their training course to eventually become a pastor with them (yikes!). The church is called Hope Chapel (from the denomination Foursquare) and the pastor who will be training me is a really cool guy.

Actually we are still kind of doing the same things, (our kids clubs and English classes will continue), but now that we have so much more encouragement and help we will be able to develop them all. In fact, we have already developed one of our monthly kids clubs into a Sunday morning weekly children’s church which is really exciting for us. There is also a short adult/staff service before this and the plan is that this will develop into a church plant from the main Hope Chapel church somewhere down the line. We also have a new cell group and kids club open too. So it kind of feels like a lot has moved on recently and we really thank God for using us in this way. The kids seem delighted with the change and we are all really excited about the future!

The children we work with have generally never heard of Jesus and have no real concept of a loving God. Furthermore, about 80% of them come from one parent families, and are often glad of something to do on weekends. This country seems rich, but as is often the case, a quick look under the surface reveals hurts and sufferings in abundance. Our aim here is just to create the opportunity for the love of God to enter into people’s lives and to allow Him to do His healing work. Seeing God at work in previously hopeless people is a great privilege.

Visitors
We still run our mission centre so if anyone would like to do a short term mission to Japan (visiting churches, school, hospitals etc) please give us a call... We would love to have you.

Prayer points:
We know many of you have been praying for us and we appreciate it so much. It’s very encouraging to know and it seems to be working too because God is certainly doing something here! Here are some prayer points we would love you to talk to God about for us. Thanks!
1. Children’s church: Started in April, every Sunday morning in our house. Pray for wisdom and leadership skills for us and for many kids to come and be impacted by the good news of Jesus.
2. Pastoral training: Pray that I can learn a lot, especially how to minister in a Japanese context.
3. Language: Pray a lot about this one please! (But it has been going well recently so praise the Lord).
4. Finances: Our ministry is voluntary and time consuming (although very rewarding). Pray for supporters and thank God that He has provided for everything we have ever needed.
5. Other outreach: Please also pray for our church, kid’s clubs, cell group, mission centre and English classes. Thank you!

IAAF Athletics in Osaka

From the 25th of Aug to the 2nd of Sept the IAAF World Championships in Athletics was held in Osaka. Did you see it on TV?? Actually, the stadium they used is about 20 minutes from our house so the place was crowded with tourists and athletes all week! I managed to get a ticket for one of the days but when my friend tried the next day and they were all sold out! So I happily went along to see what was going on.

It was a really great event and I saw loads of famous athletes competing and was even sitting really close to a huge German woman who I had seen winning the discus the day before on the TV! The highlights were the long jump final (man those guys can jump!) with a guy winning it in the final jump, and also the 200 metres with Tyson Gay from the USA. Its unbelievable to see people running at the speed they do and after the starter gun sounded there was a collective gasp in the stadium to see a human move that quick!

Maiko, myself, Satoshi (Maiko's brother), some teenagers we know and even Daniel also went along on another day for an outreach. We got talking to lots of people and gave away about 100 Bibles and books. Our cunning ploy was to use sweets to attract people to us and then start up conversations! But it really did go well and we made many friends there.

I didn't know this but apparently the World Championships in Athletics is the third biggest sports event after the Olympics and World Cup. Also, with 212 countries and territories represented i think it was a new record. Cool!


The Stadium starts to fill up

News

I have just made a kind of newsletter thing so I thought I'd post it here just in case anyone is interested:

August 18th 2007
Hi everyone! Well, we have been here in Japan for two years and are now well and truly settled. We just thought we would write a short newsletter to let people know what we are up to and how things are going.

Daniel
Well, our main news is of course the birth of Daniel Kenshi McKee! He was born on the 29th of June and weighed in at a healthy 3.195 kgs (about 7lbs). Since then he has grown quickly and it’s been really great looking after him and getting to know him! Our neighbours, friends and relatives here all really love him and there was a real buzz about him being born... I suppose there are no so many N. Irish/Japanese babies born so everyone wanted to see what he looked like! It’s funny because all the Japanese say he looks like a European while all our friends and family from home thinks he looks really Japanese! You can judge for yourselves. We just think he looks like himself, as they say.

We really did receive a lot of presents from people all over the world so thanks so much for that everyone. Everything we got was lovely and we really appreciate your kindness. (Check out our blog for more pics).

Work
I am still teaching English in a private after-school class and also at a local church with maiko. It’s been going well and we can easily see how God has provided for us in everything. Recently, I decided to lighten my workload a bit this year and study some Japanese as it had been difficult to work so much and learn at the same time. I joined a morning class which allowed me to continue working in the afternoons and evenings and it went really well. I have finished a 6 month course and I will do another 3 months from October if all goes well. It’s been great to be around other foreigners learning Japanese and I think I have improved a bit... but not enough yet! Maiko is continuing to study at a Bible school in Osaka as well as being a mum!

Ministry
We are continuing to teach Bible during our English classes and are also involved in the children’s and teenagers work at our church. Our monthly kids club in our house is doing really well and we are constantly amazed that so many non-Christian children are coming and hearing about God for the first time and being changed by the story of Jesus. In October we will start another kids club near the city centre so we are praying for that. Our main news in this area however, is that I have joined up with a Pastor who is planting a church in Osaka city centre. I will be helping out in various ways but mainly through children’s work, teaching some English and doing prison visits (an interesting mix I think!). We really thank God that this opportunity has opened for us because this is the sort of thing we have been praying for for a while.

Guests from abroad
We have also continued our vision of hosting groups from abroad who want to come to Japan for short term missions. This ministry is called United Ministries Japan and this year we were again visited by a YWAM team from Switzerland. They were a group of young people from Swiss churches who created a dance concert and we assisted them as they toured Osaka and the surrounding areas. It went really well this year and they really blessed people in old people’s homes, child care centres, churches, city centres and many other places they visited.

Prayer points. Please pray for:
The new kids club which will start in October near Osaka city centre
The new church plant I am assisting
Daniel
Maiko’s studies
My Japanese!
The IAAF World Championships in Athletics was in Osaka this month. Praise the Lord our outreach went so well!

That God will continue to guide us and reveal his heart for Japan to us

Well, that’s all for now. God bless you all and hopefully we can speak to you soon!
Bye, from Chris, Maiko and Daniel

More pictures

Swiss Mission

For the last two weeks a group of 26 Swiss missionaries have been here in Japan on a short term mission. Last year the same group came out here and we had a brilliant time so its been great to have them again and to see so many young people really wanting to serve God. They have been to old people's homes, churches, festivals, orphanages and many other places doing song and dance concerts. Everyone loves them and many people have been really blessed by their coming, including us!



Actually Maiko and I have not really done anything to help them this year. Maiko's mum and brother are doing all the work (Satoshi was thier translator which is amazing considering he could not speak a word of English when I met him first... he did great by the way). Maiko and I have been a little busy with a certain little dude who needs lots of attention at the minute!

On that subject check out this video of him dancing... he actually seems to like it too!

Just a final note to remind anyone who might be reading this.... if you or your church wants to come to Japan for short terms missions please dont hesitate to ask us.... we would love it and there is loads of work to do here!