Christmas Gospel - featuring Ron Brown

wednesday night, november 28
from my apt
it was a beautiful full moon. i saw it outside my window as i was thinking about the weekend. sure i was excited but excited would be too bland a word for what was in store.



thursday, november 29
arrival at the kansai international airport
i took the limosine bus service from the kobe sheraton. its always amazing how the bus is always on time. i mean how do they calculate all the traffic and everything...well, that's japan for you. so i left my apt at 1:45 to hop on a train to the sheraton. the bus left at 2:18 to get me to the airport at 3:10 as scheduled.

that's my plane that would take me to akita

gate 21 now boarding

last time i was in akita was w/ mark last march for a discipleship conference. i was excited about the concert but i was also excited to meet all the wonderful people at the church especially the pastor and his family.

akiko and tamiko took me out for some really good yakiniku
i arrived a day early so i was able to just relax, supposedly my only time to do so until everyone arrives tomorrow. the pastor and his wife were at home sick so it was us three.

back in the guest room at church
after getting stuffed w/ kalbi and cold korean style ramen, they took me to the church where i would be spending the next couple of days/nights. the church has a japanese style tatami room where guests can sleep over.


friday, november 30
i woke up to this spectacular sunrise
can you see the stream of light shooting straight up - unreal! would this be a sign for the amazing things that were to come?

it was too bad...the colors just didnt come out right but oh well...

tsuchizaki gloria chapel
after breakfast w/ the yokois i took a walk outside in the brisk morning.


tsuchizaki station
what a cute little station. you dont see this in tokyo.

on the way to the church

the entrance

the sanctuary taken from the 2nd floor balcony


preparations for the reception on saturday

pastor on bottom right

there's a buzz in the air as we hear that the guests are arriving


the lovely welcoming crew

sound check

ron on sax, kaz on keyboard, yvonne on vocals

mickey on drums, kenshi on bass would be arriving later


are we ready for an awesome weekend?!

saturday, december 1
morning rehearsal

it was funny hat day

why does he look so normal in that wig...


a local tv crew came to film a snippit of the rehearsal


pastor's granddaughter, yuka at 10 months w/ pastor's wife

on air - live







hiroshi - sound

sunday, december 2
final rehearsal



filled to a 300-capacity crowd

this is it!

the closing reception
what an amazing concert!





da bruddahs

one of these guys is not like the other



snow!
i've been checking the weather report before i left and it was actually forecasted to snow the entire weekend and i was somewhat looking forward to seeing snow. i mean you come all the way up here, you might as else. and the very last day, there it was!

akita city

at the airport

wave cloud formation
on my flight back to kobe

kobe airport

landing at kansai international

what a truly amazing weekend!
i am still in the midst of trying to process everything that happened and i dont think i'll ever know how much this weekend has impacted me but it was definitely the biggest thing that has happened during my stay here in japan which means has been the biggest thing to happen to me after i dedicated my life to Jesus and which means the biggest thing that has happened in my life!
in short, there were a lot of pictures taken but a lot that just wasnt able to be captured on film. no words will also fully describe the events that transpired but here are the highlights of the weekend.
on saturday, after the morning rehearsal, there were 2-one hour workshops where you can choose to learn vocals, sax, drums, keyboard, bass or gospel history. i was w/ yvonne as i translated for her vocal workshop and as part of the concert on sunday, we had planned to have a gospel choir sing on stage so gospel singers from a nearby university came and many other local people signed up for this. there were over a 100 people in the choir and most of them signed up for the vocal morning and afternoon workshops.
in the morning session, yvonne spent the first part talking about the spiritual aspect to singing gospel music, how God gave us a voice so that we can sing praises to him. latter part was spent in vocal technique.
and it was in the afternoon session that God really started moving. at the end of the session it came time to audition for the solo singers, 5 girls and 3 guys. and it was when the last guy went up to sing that yvonne started to cry. when everyone was done w/ the auditions, yvonne just gave an invitation to everyone in the workshop that whoever feels God's presence to come forward and receive prayer. 8 people came up to accept Jesus into their hearts and there was not a dry eye in the room.
little did i know that this would just be the beginning of what was to come.
the next morning, the pastor gave a message on Jesus being the light of the world and if you believe in him and receive him into your life, he will be the light in the darkness, and hope to your life. and at the end of the night, as we all said our thank you's and people came up to thank us, 4 more people received Jesus as their personal Lord and Savior. the room was just so charged w/ God's presence. it was a weekend i'm sure changed and impacted many of us that were there.
so, here's to all of you who have started this new life! you have all touched me and have greatly shifted my life as well.
so, here's to the 12 new sisters and brothers that are now part of God's family. we welcome you and will be praying for you as you begin this journey to walk w/ God.

this is the first time i think i wrote so much. there's still so much more i want to say but i will leave you all with that. i hope you were able to catch a glimpse of the wonderful blessings i was able to be a part of this past weekend.

thank you all of you at tsuchizaki gloria chapel and to all the wonderful people that i met! i hope to see all of you again soon!

may God's abundant blessings be upon all of you. dave