News for Summer 2013
The Extreme Tour 2013 in Japan
Japanese Christian band “IMARi ToNES” joined the Extreme Tour in the US last year. Bandleader, Tak “Tone” Nakamine, said it is “an outreach tour that uses Christian music and sports to reach youngsters.”
Last year, Canada also hosted the Extreme Tour. This year there is the opportunity to have it in Japan and other parts of Asia.
IMARi ToNES is a heavy metal band, which is quite rare in the Japanese Christian scene. They have toured the States a total of four times.
Valued as a musicionary
“Musicionary” is a term the tour coined from the words “music” and “missionary” to encapsulate the goal of the tour. The Extreme Tour began as a grass-roots project of “The Extreme,” a cultural outreach project started by Ted Bruun in 1994 to reach at-risk and counter culture youth. The tour has since produced bands that have grown to become big names, such as KJ-52 and Kutless. Nakamine said, “A secular artist might go on tour, working to perform in larger stages and aiming for success. But the Extreme Tour works to teach and equip artists, valuing being obedient to God more than success.”
There are roles for each band depending on what order they appear. “The first band is to be friendly, the second draws them closer, then gradually we have testimonies and talk of Jesus, then we end with a time of worship. That is the basic structure [of the gig].”
A Facebook page has been created, and a Japanese pamphlet for “The Extreme Tour Japan” has been printed. (http://www.facebook.com/theextremetourjapan) They want to work not only with artists from the US, but also with Japanese Christian artists and sports evangelists, such as skateboarders.
Nakamine said, “We would be glad if people would support this tour, and help us organize an event in their town by providing accommodation, catering, and booking.”
From Christian Shimbun, February 22, 2013
Translated by Tim Williams
Supporting Residents in Iwate
In the disaster zone, the number of volunteers has drastically dropped in Sanriku district. However, some Christians—the members of the Iwate Church Network—have remained and are supporting the residents who lost their houses and loved ones.
Michio Nagata visited an old lady living in temporary housing who said, “I only think of killing myself every day and actually tried to drink bleach, but was disturbed by a helper visiting me. I should have died in the tsunami but my neighbor tried to save me and he died instead.” Three months later, Nagata visited her again with his guitar to sing “Happy Birthday to You” on her 90th birthday. The lady burst into tears. She said to Nagata, “I won’t say, ‘I want to die,’ anymore. I know now that as long as I live, I can find something good.”
Nagata, cooperating with Kazuo Iwatsuka, Pastor of Miyako Community Church, is involved in various activities such as visiting temporary housing in Taro, Iwate Prefecture, and running a mobile café there. “We listen to people, give them massages, and play with children.” A woman over seventy, who was baptized on Christmas Day last year, said, “God is always with me. I can see him through the appearance of the volunteer who has been visiting me.”
Rina Oshio went to Otsuchi-cho, Iwate Prefecture, during her summer holiday in 2011 and was shocked that there was no church there. “The area had been seriously damaged and their hearts were broken. When God saved them, how could they spiritually grow without a church?” She was given the vision to help build a church there, so she resigned from her work in Tottori and went back to Iwate in March 2012.
At first she felt lost as no one seemed to understand her vision, but finally she came across Yoshiya Kondo (Pastor of Morioka Bible Baptist Church, Coordinator of the Iwate Church Network), who had the same vision to build a church on the coast. Oshio now coordinates events for people in temporary housing, teaches them English conversation, and visits each resident to listen to them. “At the beginning I could not follow their dialect, but soon found the people of Ofunato really warm. I will stick with them.”
From Christian Shimbun, March 10, 2013
Translated by Tomoko Kato
Rieko Ando, New Headmaster of Tamasei
In 2010, Bernard Barton, Headmaster of Tamagawa Seigakuin (Tamasei), asked Rieko Ando to succeed him. At that time, Rieko was about to leave KGK (an inter-university Christian students association) after 20 years of service to study in Scotland for two years.
“The offer scared me at first,” recalled Rieko during an interview with the Christian Shimbun in early April.
Tamasei is a Christian junior and senior high school institute for girls in Tokyo. “I understood that it was time for Tamasei to have a female headmaster for the first time. I also saw Bernard’s passion to turn it over to someone who could effectively share the gospel. But I had no experience with working in a school setting.” In the end, Rieko agreed to pray about the offer while in Scotland.
At the International Christian College in Glasgow, where she studied modern interpretation of the Bible, God began to speak to her repeatedly, telling her to have no fear. “I remembered that it had been the same when I was about to become General Secretary of KGK in 2007,” explains Rieko. “I had thousands of reasons not to take up the role. From God’s point of view, however, none of them were legitimate. If God is inviting me to tackle a daunting task with him, I had better accept his invitation.” After a year of praying, Rieko accepted the offer to start at Tamasei in April 2013.
During the entrance ceremony on April 4, Rieko spoke from Psalm 1:1-3, the passage that led Shigehisa Taniguchi to found Tamasei in 1950. She encouraged the students to draw energy from Scripture at the daily chapel. Rieko considers it a great privilege to preach weekly in front of the school body of one thousand.
“When I began my internship here last January, I was deeply impressed by the kindness and openness that I found everywhere on campus,” says Rieko. “I must preserve this wonderful culture at Tamasei while I try to keep the school relevant to the needs of today’s society.”
From Christian Shimbun, April 21, 2013
Translated by Atsuko Tateishi
1. IMARi ToNES photo contributed by Tak Nakamine
2. Reiko Ando photo contributed by the Christian Shimbun