Noah's First Music Class

Since this is our second year and the major culture shock is over, Noah and I are really trying to get out and meet people in the community. I have been blessed to meet a women in our neighborhood who I meet with that is learning English. We are teaching each other the languages we know and it has helped a lot. I have also really enjoyed her friendship. She has a little boy that is Noah's age, which is perfect! Noah and I also hang out at different children's play places during the day in hopes of meeting new people. A few days ago Noah and I went to a children's music class.


As you can tell by the pictures, Noah had no problem being the center of attention. And of course he was, as usual, because of his blonde hair, blue eyes and of course his overall cuteness (although I tend to be a little biased.)


We'll be attending this music class once a month and I am really hoping to build some relationships with the moms in this class and let Noah meet some new friends. Will you pray for us as we make new friendships?

GIVEAWAY: Simple Sheep CD Set

UPDATE: GIVEAWAY CLOSED!

I have some great music to give away this week! Simple Sheep has generously offered four sets of CDs to be given away on our blog!

Each set includes: 2 CDs from Simple Sheep.

Once a month we have a bi-lingual service at our church. During the bi-lingual service Simple Sheep leads the praise and worship. I have really enjoyed this time of worship lead by this band. They are a very talented praise and worship band and I would like to share them with YOU! Here is a little more about them:


Genre:
Praise and Worship

Members:
1. Kentaro "Kent" Sumiya (Lead Singer, Piano, Words&Music)
2. Koji Sato (Drums)
3. Nozomu Hotsuki (Bass Guitar)
4. Yoshimitsu Matsumoto (Electric Guitar)
5. Kensaku Higashi (Acoustic Guitar)
6. Joey Zorina (Electric Guitar)
7. Kohei Yamakawa (Sound Engineer)
8. Kevin West (Lyrics Translator)

Hometown:Aichi, Japan


They are also going to release the 3rd CD this summer! The title is
"MARRIAGE" in Japanese.

So what does Simple Sheep mean?
"We want to love Jesus as our Shepherd just like a simple and pure sheep listens to His voice and obeys His words. We want to spread the gospel to all generations through music with easy-to-follow words."

Check them out on youtube:



So, let's support this fantastic praise and worship band from Nagoya!

Giveaway:
Four lucky winners will receive a set of 2 CDs from Simple Sheep.

How to Enter:
(Each of these entries counts for one entry. You can have up to five entries!)

Follow Perry Clan In Japan. Go to the right side of the screen and click on the follow button. Fill out form below, with your email address, saying that you do indeed follow this blog.

"Like" Simple Sheep on facebook. Fill out form below, with your email address, saying that you do indeed "like" Simple Sheep. Click here to "like" them. (Let's support this band as the share they Gospel in Japan!!)

"Like" Perry Clan in Japan on facebook. Click here to "like" us on facebook. Fill out form below, with your email address, saying that you do indeed "like" us. (We know you like us as people, but let us feel the love on facebook!!)

Subscribe to us by email. Just put in your email address right over there --> and come back and fill out form below.

Post a comment on any other post. Come back here and fill out form below letting me know which post you commented on.

This giveaway will end February 25th. I will use random.org to chose the winners. The winners will be notified within 48 hours of the giveaway closing.


Good luck! And THANK YOU for supporting our blog and Simple Sheep!

Worship: Making Music for Him.

“I tried out in college for the singing group and the director said 'You'll do anything in life but sing.' So this is pretty cool. I never felt like a great singer, but if God could use this voice to lead people to worship God, then I'm grateful for that.”

When thinking about this artist I am so glad that he did not listen to the person who told him this. He has become an amazing worship leader and has wrote several powerful worship songs for several years. Can you guess who this is?

Chris Tomlin.

Wow! It's amazing what God can do with someone who is obedient to His calling, even when people do not approve, or when you don't think you can do it yourself.

This is one of the many reasons I have started playing on the worship team at our church here in Nagoya. When the team first asked me to play I was not sure I could do it. Sure, I had piano lessons for eight years of my life but I hadn't played much of anything for at least four years. (For those of you who know me well you know that this would be a huge leap of faith for me. I love to play the piano. In my home, by myself or with a close group of friends. I am never the one who is jumping up and down screaming "PICK ME! PICK ME!" when the question of who could play in front of these massive amounts of people is asked.) Anyway, I wasn't sure if they would really want me to commit to this after they heard me play. But after several weeks of prayer and thought about the offer I decided to give it a try.

I played the first week and thought to myself, that was not so great. I probably won't hear from them again next week. They now completely understand why I was so hesitant at first.

ANF Worship Team plus their Families.
But I was really hoping I would, because I really enjoyed it. I really enjoyed making music to worship Christ. I didn't expect to enjoy it that much. I thought I would be stressed and ready to quit. I was really excited when I received an email the next week saying they would love for me to come back.

REALLY?!?!

I have been playing for a few weeks now and I can see God strengthening my musical abilities every week that I step out on faith and play worship for Him. I am so grateful God is using a gift I had let get so rusty. Thank you Lord, may I always play for you.

I just wanted to share a Youtube video that was sent to me about creating a worship team that plays well together. It is by Paul Baloche. I think it would be really helpful for those of you who are in a worship band, no matter how big or small. It really helped me a lot.



Like this video? Check out Part Two HERE.