Other Important News
Who is Ruth Linton? Barry Walker shared this: “We got to know Yoshie-san when she and her (at that time) fiancée were in Nashville. He (Patrick) was finishing up a Master’s level degree at Vanderbilt. They married at the end of their time here. Yoshie-san played the piano for us. She is sweet, personable and best of all loves the Lord. Patrick is a neat guy, raised in Singapore and fluent in Chinese. The two of them and a third person that I have not met have formed a band. I won’t tell you the whole story, but Yoshie-san has been well trained as you can read below. Links below can take you to the band’s web site, a recent news article that she translated, etc.. You can listen to her music. I wanted you to know about her in case you or someone you know might be interested in checking out using her and the band for outreach to Japanese.Here is her report:
Dear my family in God!
Hello everyone! I like to invite you to take a look at my article on Christian News paper(in Japanese) issue of Oct 25, this week.
I was interviewed by this news paper last month in Tokyo and it is published now! As you may know, my Christian name I was given is Ruth, this is what I use in music scene now.
This article is about my music and God. Here are my translation from the article;
Ruth wasn`t sure why she is singing, what she is singing for after she became a professional singer in Japan after graduated from Osaka college of Music(Osaka, Japan). At the same time she was invited to go to a Church in Tokyo where she lived at that time, and she met people from C.C.C. from L.A.. The person from C.C.C. asked Ruth if she has something to pray for her, after Ruth told her “I want to find something I sing for…” she started to pray for Ruth. This is the very first time for Ruth to know “I can request what I want people to “Pray” for me”, and she couldn’t stop crying during the time the person was praying for her.
After the day, she tried to go to the Church whenever she can. She was working at the wedding choir and Sunday was the busy wedding day(As many of you know, there are many of Christian “style” Churches for wedding in Japan).
And this is where she met the pastor Nesbitt from OMF Japan. She asked his help for understanding the Bible better during the break of wedding services. After 3 months, she received Christ into her life. Then she got baptised by Pastor Nesbitt at St. Mary Church in Tokyo where it usually has weddings .
She moved to Hong Kong to see the world, and taught some vocal classes at Japanese Church in HK. This is when she got to know many “Christian music”. But she was still not sure why she likes to sing and what she is singing for. So she thought it is selfish to sing if the reason why she sings is for her satisfaction of love of music,but she knew she really wants to sing. At the same time, she was always interested in outreaches as she believes “I want tell everybody I know about Jesus”. She does`t know anybody who believes in Christ in her home town or friends in Japan. After 2 years since when she went to the Church in Tokyo, she started this band called “World of SPY” started in San Francisco, U.S. 2008 after she had stopped almost 2 years of performance career. Because she finally found why she should sing, she realized “Pops music is a tool of me telling people about what I believe. Japanese audience always likes to hear what the song is about, what the story of the songs etc… that is really good time I tell about who I believe and what God`s love is.
“I brought my friends to Church sometimes, but it is not easy thing…” she says. Now she says with confident, “I need to use my singing for God, because this is what He gave me to use for”. She was shocked how little the percentage of Christians are in Japan. She sings any kind of place such as bar,clubs, parties, live restaurants and concert halls wherever people are, because everybody needs God. She carries “Pop music” to everybody with believe in God. If I say “I sing Christian Music and I only sing at here and there.” I can`t reach everybody, Why Do I need to choose people who I want to reach to? she says. wherever people are is where I should sing and deliver my music with the message. “I can clearly imagine, if I say I am a Christian musician and sings only Christian music, then people won`t come to hear my music” because that is how I was. I sing Pop music but there are many hint of my believe, God`s message. “I am a believer and pop singer, this way I believe more people will open their heart to hear the message through the music”. “I want my Christian family to use my music for their outreaching, they can introduce my music to Non-Christian friends and talk about what I mean in the song. Especially the song called “Still Did Always”, “Eien No Inochi(means an eternal life in Japanese)” and “Coffee Shop” have very strong message, but again they are not pushy, very subtle but all of Christians will notice clearly I am singing about God`s message…
Thank you for reading this long story!
You can listen some of our music
here
or some on the World of SPY website at;
http://worldofspy.net/
Pastor Tetsuya Fukusaku from Vancouvers shared this.Our IYG regular ministry is growing and very fruitful, Gospel Night concert (4th Gospel Night will be held at Michael J. Fox Theater on OCt. 9). This will be in cooperation with Mission Centre (that is the Int’l student ministry in down town Vancouver. This year we’ve had 2 Japanese came to know the Lord and got baptised at our church through their ministry).Our IYG members will go to Korea for Mission trip next year(We went there last year for the 1st mission trip from our church and I will go there again in this Nov.). (Received 9/4/09)
I was so excited about seeing “The Open”(British Open Golf Tournamant). Tom Watson almost made the record of oldest winner. But he missed 5 feet putting for win on 18th hole. He is 59 years old, same age of me! I wished his victory, however, the winner of the play off was Stewart Cink who visited Japan in 2004 to play “Phoenix open” in Miyazaki. Cink shared Jesus with many golfers at that time. His caddie Frank and his pastor of Atlanta visited Kawagoe church on Sunday, the pastor gave a message for us. Anyway, Stewart Cink won the Tournament. We hope he will come again to Japan to share Jesus through golfing.