This week’s photo was shot in the early part of 2008 in Nagoya’s Osu Kannon. I’ve posted this before, but at a smaller size, and not as a featured Photo of the Week. I did some light balance correction before posting it this time, but other than that it’s the same.

Last week’s re-cap was written on a boat somewhere in the Bay of Fundy during a storm. Obviously I arrived safely in Nova Scotia, but it was a rough ride. So rough, in fact, that they couldn’t dock securely enough to let the vehicles drive off, and we had to wait close to four hours before we could get off. So a 3-hour ferry ride took about 8 hours. Not pleasant, but I made it.

It’s been a good week of home ministries. The weekend through Tuesday was busy, but the week itself has been low-key as I wait for my last two church visits tomorrow. By the time this trip is over, I will have connected with six supporting churches in total — that’s six churches in nine days. I also got to introduce myself at a pastor’s breakfast meeting, which in a way means I’ve connected with even more churches, and may mean more open doors in the near future too.

So it’s been a safe and productive trip thus far. I’ve been well taken care of by my hosts, and I’ve enjoyed getting to catch up with some old friends as well. The only downside has been catching a cold, and even that hasn’t gotten too bad yet. So I’m thankful.

And that’s a wrap for this week.

Here are some links you might be interested in:

Odori Park (webcomic) – A tale of East marries West.

Jesus Loves Japan – Tons of Japan-related stuff from a Christian perspective.

Hirokona Kamura – Bi-lingual Japanese journalist, blogger, YouTuber.

Nagoya International Center – A good place for info on what’s going on in the Japanese I call home.

Segue Media Blog – Bridging nerd-dom and real life. I’m technically a contributor to this blog, but haven’t written anything yet.

Hi everyone,

I’m writing to you this time from Wood’s Harbour, Nova Scotia. I traveled to NS last week during the snow storm — which meant a long and rough boat ride, but thankfully I made it in one piece. Between Saturday and Tuesday, I had the opportunity to connect with 4 different churches, sharing about what God is doing in my life and in Japan. This coming weekend I’ll be visiting two more before driving back to New Brunswick. I’d appreciate your continuing prayers for safe travel and fruitful ministry.

As most of you know, a big part of the purpose of my home ministries time is to strengthen my financial support base before returning to Japan later this year. How can you help? I’m glad you asked…

If you’ve been supporting my ministry thus far, please consider re-committing. Unless you’ve told us otherwise, GP will assume that your commitment ended with my first term. If you’re planning to continue giving, you can do so by simply sending me an email telling me two things: how much and how often.

As always, your prayers and giving are greatly appreciated! Without you, this ministry would not be possible.

Just a couple of quick reminders: If you haven’t already, please check out the special edition of my newsletter talking about my vision for ministry in Japan:

http://www.robinwhiteonline.com/ministry-info/vision

Also, you can see where I’ll be over the next little while by visiting my online ministry calendar:

http://www.wesleyan.org/gp/mschedule2/WM04-0316/2010-01

Thanks again, and stay warm!

- robin

I’m writing today from a boat somewhere in the Bay of Funday between Saint John, New Brunswick and Digby, Nova Scotia. I’ll be in Nova Scotia for a little more than a week, visiting several churches and re-connecting with supporters and friends. It’s going to be busy, especially the next three days, but I’m hoping for a productive and fruitful trip.

So this week I’ve spent a lot of time getting ready. Since it’s my first big road trip this year, that meant some extra preparations, from presentation to PowerPoint to printed materials. Not to mention figuring getting directions and other logistical stuff.

Last night I got to visit with some friends along the way, which was really nice. The guy I stayed with — a guy I went to college with — is a fellow missionary, although with another organization and working in another part of the world. Since we’ve both hopped around the world a few times since college, we haven’t crossed paths very much, but we have kept in touch, and it was nice to re-connect in person for the first time a couple of years.

There will no doubt be many of those kind of meetings over the next few months as I travel around. This is one of the nice things about being back in Canada.

One of the not-so-nice things, sometimes, is the weather. It’s a stormy weekend, I’m on a boat, we’re behind schedule, and it hasn’t exactly been a smooth ride…

And that’s a wrap.

My friend Ryoko draws in the sand. Lake Biwa, Japan. June 2009. This is another shot I was really happy with but never got around to posting till now.

I’ve updated the Vision and Newsletter pages. Please check out my latest ministry newsletter HERE.

Life has been anything but normal lately. In late December and early January I was, of course, transitioning back to life in Canada and enjoying some downtime over the holiday season. Then, last week I was in Indiana for some training at our missions headquarters. Things have been good, but like I said, anything but normal, and it’s been a bit of an adjustment trying to get back into the swing of things.

This week I’ve been trying to get myself back into some semblance of a regular routine — by getting up and going to bed at reasonable hours, and trying to put in regular work days. I’ve been getting organizing and working on preparations for home ministries. I’ve done OK… but obviously not perfectly, because it’s Saturday and I’ve still got a few things on my to-do list that I’d hoped to get done yesterday but didn’t… and they need to be done before tomorrow. Tomorrow is my first speaking gig of this year’s home ministries tour.

So that’s been my week; just trying to get back into my groove. It’s been a bit of an adjustment coming back to Canada, but trying to get myself into a regular routine this week has helped. It makes me feel more like I actually live here, rather than just an extended visit. And though my heart is still in Japan, home is starting to feel more like home again. And that’s a good thing, I think.

And that’s a wrap for this week.

As you may or may not have noticed, I’ve been doing some work on the site. Here’s what’s new:

1. I’ve finally actually put some stuff on the About page.

2. I’ve updated the Ministry Info page, most notably the Vision and Support Info sub-pages.

3. There’s a new link in the top navigation bar for Schedule. This takes off-site you to a page at the GP website, where you can see my ministry travel schedule for the next while. I’ll be adding more dates before too long; some are already booked but not posted.

4. There’s a Japanese link in the navigation bar now as well. For those that can’t read it, it says “Japanese”. Here I’ll be adding some basic “About” and “Ministry Info” stuff, as well as linking to Japanese posts on the blog.

5. Yesterday I posted this year’s first Photo of the Week, hopefully kick-starting myself back into a more regular blogging routine.

6. I also recently did some “house cleaning” on the blog, fixing some broken video linkage and deleting irrelevant categories and even blog posts. That’s a work in progress, but hopefully will make the archives more easy to navigate, if anyone is so inclined to look at the old stuff.

And… that’s about it.

I can’t believe I hadn’t posted this here before. It’s about two years old, shot shortly after I’d first arrived in Nagoya, and is one of my personal favorites. Since I’m not in Japan anymore, I’ll have to dig into the archives more often for “new” Japan-related pics to post… though I may occasionally post some non-Japan photos too.

It’s a new year and about time to get back into a more regular blogging routine. So to start us off, here’s my latest ministry prayer letter. If you’d like to receive these by email, send me a message (japancanada at gmail dot com) letting me know. And stay tuned to the blog for more.

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Hi everyone,

Happy New Year! I hope you all enjoyed the holiday season and are getting the new year off to a good start.

This weekend I’m scheduled to fly to Indiana for some meetings and training at our Wesleyan headquarters. I’d appreciate your prayers for safe travel, getting through customs, and a productive time in Indy. The purpose of this trip is to get prepared for home ministries and my next term in Japan.

Later this month I officially begin home ministries, traveling to churches to share about what God is doing in Japan and what’s next for my ministry there.

My first four stops are:

- Fredericton (NB) First Wesleyan – Jan. 24 AM
- Havlock Wesleyan (NS) – Jan. 30
- Faith Wesleyan (Ingomar NS) – Jan. 31 AM
- Brazil Lake (NS) Wesleyan – Jan. 31 PM

If you’re in one of these areas, it would be great to see you! Thank you so much for your continuing prayers and support!

This photo was shot recently in front of Nagoya Station. I thought something Christmasy would be a nice last Photo of the Week for the year. I’ll probably not be very active in my blogging over the holidays, but that’s OK because most of you probably won’t be very active in your blog reading either. I hope you’ll be busy spending time with family and friends, celebrating Jesus this Christmas season.

Merry Christmas!

This past weekend I finished my first two-year term as a GP missionary in Japan. I had a good weekend spending time with friends:

Saturday morning, I went out for breakfast with a former classmate from Japanese school and then ran some errands. Then it was back to the church to hang out with some other friends. I had them help me move boxes, and then we did some preparation for Sunday, buying supplies and making some dessert for Sunday’s party. Really great excuse to hang out with 3 good friends. We ended the day with supper together at local Yoshinoya (Japanese fast food chain, and one of the things I’ll miss about Japan).

My last Sunday at the Nagoya church was, of course, bitter-sweet. I got to give some short farewell greetings in the AM service, but as I said to them, it’s “see you later”, not “goodbye”, because I do plan to be back. I had no ministry responsibilities this week, and it was nice to just hang out, chat, and eat together with my Church Family. The day ended with a young adults party; we ate nabe, followed by some great desserts.

Here are some photos from the weekend; click on any one of them for a close up and/or to flip through the gallery.

Monday morning, my pastor and one other friend drove me to the airport. We were early enough to have lunch together and spend some time chatting before I flew out in the afternoon. It was a good ending to my last weekend in Nagoya for the year.

Now I’m back in Canada, relaxing and waiting for the jet lag to wear off. Prayers for this period of transition are greatly appreciated. I’ll try to update you all soon on what’s next.

In the meantime, enjoy the holidays while you can!

Well, I’ve safely arrived back in Canada after a really long day of traveling yesterday. Since I was up super early due to jetlag, I had the time to do some photo sorting and editing. So this and the next post will bring you up-to-date on some recent events, in words and pictures…

On December 6 I had the opportunity to lead/host a Christmas outreach event at my church in Nagoya. It was a bi-lingual Christmas party we called “Christmas Around the World” (that’s the event flyer on the left). The event was well-attended and a lot of fun. There were almost 60 people who showed up, a good handful of whom were not regular attenders at the church. After some games and music (but before the sweets) I shared a short message about how Jesus came so that we could find peace with God.

Below are some photos from the party; you can click on any of them for a close-up and to flip through the whole gallery.

It was a great “bridge-building” event — thanks for praying!