Father's House Church in Tulsa, OK is a small church with a big vision. After their missions pastor Marty Whisner contacted us about a possible yearly short-term connection, we traveled to Tulsa during our 2002 stateside trip to see their church and talk in depth. Marty told us that this 200 member church felt called to grow their missions program to eventually have a "significant impact in 250 places around the world". We're happy that Osaka is becoming one of them. In June-July 2003, Marty brought a team of seven to Japan for a month, and most of that time they worked directly with us. We think every member of the team was super, but what got the attention of Japanese young people was that four of the members were an original band called Antifany (actually two of the real band members couldn't come on the trip, but two other musicians learned their parts and became their substitutes). They came with 100 copies of a CD that they produced just for this trip, with four original songs and an introduction to each song by lead singer/songwriter Amy Newsom with Japanese interpretation. We added to that the 30,000 summer outreach flyers that we hoped to distribute during the time they were here (as you can see, we gave one to Marty to look at as early as the train ride from the airport!).

We started out on the street. Antifany would play, and the rest of the team (plus Rachel and us) would pass out CDs and flyers about all our summer events, including Antifany's upcoming big concert. There's something about music... a much higher percentage of people accepted our literature when the band was playing, even when they didn't realize the band and literature were related - the music just put everyone in a good mood. Andrew, the youngest team member at age 16, seemed to have especially good success at passing out things, thanks to his bleach-blond hair and great young smile. And not everyone kept walking after receiving their CD and/or brochure; some stayed around to listen to Antifany for awhile (two guys did that for 2 hours!), or to talk to the team. In the photo to the right, a guy stops to talk to Rachel and Jeff, who was charged with holding a big sign advertising the concert.

A Day at the College

Perhaps the most successful day of ministry with the Father's House team was the day we spent at Osaka Christian College, which although founded as a Christian school, has less than 5% believing students. Dan Parry is an English teacher there, and his house is actually on the campus. He made the way for Antifany to play a song during the school's chapel time (for all 600 students) and for all of us to join him for one of his English classes (below).

Posing at the end of English class. Tulsa team members are: Marty (very back center), Aaron (below Marty, red hair and white shirt), Andrew (bleach-blond hair, blue shirt, surrounded by girls as usual!), Jeff (front row leftish, plaid shirt), Billy (front center, blue shirt), Amy (two over from Jeff, glasses), and Matt (next to Amy, blue striped shirt). Rachel and Karen were also there (right side).

During the lull time in the afternoon, students in the ESS (English Speaking Society) club stayed with the team in the school cafeteria, and some deeper friendships were made. Some of those girls even helped pass out CDs and brochures during future street music outreach, even though they weren't yet Christians!

The day was rounded out with a "garden party" that evening at the Parry house, and the yard was packed with students! Antifany did a concert, there was plenty of food, and everyone had a great time. Two members gave their testimonies as part of the concert, and everyone was encouraged to come to International Coffee Time if they wanted more time with the band.

The next night they played at OIC, and although it wasn't such a fancy, professional production, it seemed more like ministry. Many church members brought non-Christian friends, three excellent testimonies were shared in a more up-close-and-personal environment, and we even learned some new praise songs from Tulsa that we are still using on Saturday nights.

Then the following day, Sunday after church, Antifany created their own stage, as the team and a number of OIC folks went to Osaka Castle Park for more open-air ministry. The band set up on the side of a circular road around a fountain, where many families and young people were enjoying some recreation time. There was even a gathering of young unicyclists that day, providing entertainment for us as well. Unlike on the street the previous week, most of these people were not in a hurry to go anywhere, so they stayed and listened, and Christians from OIC were able to talk to several in depth.