KOSTA Japan :D

There's been a whole lot on, but i'm just gonna blog a bit about the camp i just went to :D So KOSTA is a camp that was started in american by exchange students from korea, and it's made its way to Japan! This year was i think the 5th or 6th year in Japan, and it was an amazing camp to say the least. i think there were about 3000 koreans, couple of hundred japanese, couple of hundred chinese and like 20 people in the english part. It was HUGE!

The koreans are crazy! Worship style and everything is just so different! We had a summer festival thing the other night which was like a concert - there were heaps of amazing performances that night :) They did a re-make of some korean drama as a skit and made it Christian like, and also a remake of UP! :D They also had a bunch of famous singers come to sing, they had a heap of dances and other artsy performances :) Soooo awesome!

Learnt quite a lot and i was just struck by how disciplined the koreans and japanese are! Especially how they pray, worship and stuff. I mean it was kinda crazy... their praying style, but i can tell that they really do lift up their hearts to God when they worship. It's really amazing! Something i need to learn from. All in all, it was very tiring but i learnt heaps, and i think i can say that i am quite sure God wants me to mission here as a long term missionary some time in the future. It seems so obvious now! But of course, that would mean that i would have to go to Bible college i think! My parents are gonna hate that so much...

I met this american guy (who really reminds me of a friend of mine who just got married!) who is doing this english teaching program here in Japan for 2 years - and it's with a Christian organisation! :D I was so happy to hear about it :) He sent me the website for it, so i may check it out some time :) This guy was telling me how hard it is if you are doing the JET program (the non-Christian english teaching program) it's hard on Christians who dont have a proper support group there for them. So he told me about the thing he's doing :) I think he said he's almost finished, but he doesn't know where to go next. He said he may end up as a missionary in Japan as well! One of the kroean guys i met there (who is about my age and is living in Japan indefinitely) was also thinking about mission here :)

I was also talking to my other foreign student friends and a couple of them said they wanna end up living here in Japan - either because they dont like home, or because they wanna start a business here. In any case, it might mean that i will see some of them again here in Japan in the future :D

I'm really glad that God brought me to that camp :) If i haven't told the story on this blog already, i shall explain it now. So when i was on the Credo mission team in Japan, one weekend i was with the team in Kanazawa, but i had to come back home to make it for class on monday. So as i waited for the bus at kanazawa, this korean missionary came up to me and started talking to me, thinking i was a local japanese person who knew nothing about God. We talked abotu what we were doing in Kanazawa, and he told me about KOSTA. Didn't think very much of it, but when i get home early the next morning (dead tired) my chinese friend from the local korean church came up to me and gave me a pamphlet for KOSTA! So i thought "i think God wants me to go to this camp...", so i signed up and went!

I guess He brought me there to strengthen my will to do mission here... seriously it just seems so certain now. One of the talks that hit me the most was a talk the other night. The speaker was a 91 year old korean pastor, and he seemd younger because he was quite full of energy still :) When he was 67, he received the call (i think through a dream....and he referred to the Acts 2 passage where Peter quotes Joel "your old men will dream dreams") to minister to the world. he knew he then had to learn english even though he was so old. Once his mind was set, he set out to learn, and although it is like basically impossible to learn another language at such an old age he continues to try. He memorised all of Genesis 1 in English, as well as all of Martin Luther's "I have a dream" speech. Although i could not understand a word he said, i was so encouraged and inspired in seeing how hard he worked for God. He's also the pastor of the flutist who came to play that night, and the flutist was saying how great a pastor he is. He was saying that everyday at 4am, the pastor would get up to send an encouraging message to the flutist. 4am!!! And he's a pastor of a huge church in Korea! This pastor was also saying that afterh e learns english, he wants to learn chinese! He's really really got an amazing vision... and i am really inspired by how hard he works for God. Then i look at myself and i think about how lazy i am, and how small my passion for God is... and i think that i will need to get my act together. That's certainly what i prayed. And i think i will keep praying for that so please pray for me to grow in passion and love for Christ so that i may do His work wherever i am - that i may be His witness to the ends of the world (that was the theme for the camp btw - Acts 1:8).

The stories of the other pastors and speakers were amazing too...and some of the other testimonies i heard from other people were really amazing! One speaker was a famous korean pop star, until he went to jail for something - then God brought him back. Now he is the pastor of a church here in Japan! Another dude started a church i think in America - and although he didn't know much english, he started a taekwondo class, and from there proceeded to build 3 churches! One of the other guys i became friends with was born and raised in america - Christian family, but a rebel. He got into drugs and went to jail in the past, but when he came to Japan to study, he became a Christian! Actually it was 4 years ago at this camp that he became a Christian (i was wrong... this year wasn't the first time for this camp to be held here lol...)! And now his passion and all is very encouraging.

Now i can really see why Korea is one of the biggest (or maybe THE biggest) Christian country in the world... i've heard that Korea sends out more missionaries than any other country! Their passion is amazing! Their discipline and their style of worship is certainly something to model. Although i found it a little strange admittedly, perhaps i could get used to the worship style. During prayer, the person out front would tell us what to pray for, then all at once, while music is playing, everyone would pray together, and some would be doing some loud screaming, shouting thingy... i certainly found it... different... very different indeed to what i'm used to... but i feel that it shows how passionate they are and how much they pour out their hearts to God. I think many of the preachers may have lost their voices from praying so loudly! Some of them had pretty hoarse voices by the end of it!

I also heard a few songs that i came to like quite a lot! I don't think they're new or anything, but here are the names of the songs i liked:

Above all

There is none like You

I could sing of Your love forever

He knows my name

So yeah, the camp was certainly a great eye-opener :) Here are some videos for you to enjoy!

I was surprised at this! I found it quite funny that they would re-do the lyrics to pop songs like these and make them into Christian songs haha!! The strange thing is... koreans tend to be quite conservative and yet these girls dressed up almost exactly the same as the SNSD girls and danced almost exactly the same dance...in front of a big Christian audience of about 4000 people :0 Still rather interesting though (i mean i do like SNSD after all LOL!) Sorry for the horrible quality of the video though :(

This next one is of a korean singer who i think sings for some dramas and stuff. Her name is Lisa something, and her english is quite good! I assume from her good accent and her name that she was raised in America haha. SHe has a really really amazing voice :) She made like no mistakes and i heard her sing 3 days in a row! Crazyness! Oh and the pianist is really goood too :) He's like a jazz pianist that plays a lot of crazy stuff haha.

And this last video is of the flutist guy who came to play for us one night. He was really amazing :) He's a famous flutist in Korea - he does songs for korean dramas and stuff :D He studied in america for a bit as well so his english is quite good, except that he pronounces Jesus as "Jejus" like most native koreans do :P Before he did his last song he explained to us that everytime he wakes up in the morning, he gives a flying kiss to Jesus! Looolll, it sounded funny but i thought it was cool :) So he told us to do the same: to say "Jesus! I LOVE YOU!" And give Him a flying kiss :) I.e. kiss your fingers and blow upwards, facing heaven :D After his first song, he said something quite profound. At first i thought he was being boastful, but turns out i was wrong haha... so he played with three different flutes - a silver one costing more than $30,000 US, a gold one costing more than $100,000 US, and a small wooden irish flute costing less than $100 US. After playing all three he said "they all make different sounds but it's not like one sounds worse than the other. What matters is the player!" At this point i thought, "is this guy saying that he's so awesome that he can make even a cheap flute sound awesome!?" And then he said "what i mean is, even if you feel like you are useless, God can use you in amazing ways because He is God. You may feel like you are worth several hundreds of thousands of dollars and not be used by God in such amazing ways as someone who feels worthless." So no matter how useless we feel, we can rest assured that because God is the one in control, we needn't worry about feeling useless! So please enjoy this video! :D I really looooved the music he played! :) very nice and calming!

This one was reaaalllly nice :) This was when he showed that the little irish flute could sound really awesome :D

Anyways! I've got a bit of stuff to prepare for the KGK evangelistic camp, and i've only got tomorrow to do it :( But im really looking forward to this! Should be an amazing time :D Should open up my eyes to see how to mission here effectively as well!

Thank God for:

- KOSTA - Japan and the awesome people i met there, along with their awesome stories

- For keeping me strong and teaching me so much

Please pray for:

- Revival in Japan - that God will raise up more leaders, and more people who want to know our Saviour Jesus Christ!

- For the KGK camps (one this week - the evangelical one, and one next week - the Bible camp for Christians) - that they may run well and that many will come to know Him through them!

Well then! Thanks for reading and keeping up to date on my blog :D