Konichiwa TOKYO!

Ok, I hope for those who know Japanese, I did not butcher the spelling of the greeting. But, PASSION has arrived in Tokyo, Japan and my first reaction is that it is a beautiful and a very clean and safe City. The hotel is great, a 30 minute or so drive from the venue, but it is relaxing and a great view of Tokyo.

It is an early day tomorrow and will be a long one, that seems to happen a lot, but I am looking forward to seeing the faces of Japan in worship of the "Beautiful One."
The venue is sold out and will be packed out. It holds only 2000 and they may have underestimated the enthusiasm of Japanese students. It will be a quick trip as the event begins early at 5pm and has to end by 9pm as they need the venue for another event, so at least we will not be out to past midnight, which is usual.

Well, time to get caught up on some other emails, work and duties, will get back tomorrow night after the event with some photos and comments.
It is Sunday night here and most of you are still sleeping and will be preparing for your own Sunday worship in the states. I hope you pray for us and think of the faces around the world that have worshipped this past week and that there are many who love and want to proclaim the Fame of Jesus around the world. Think about that as you worship this Lord's Day.

Korea, Land of Prayer & Crowder

Korea, Land of Prayer & Crowder

WOW! WOW! That is all I can say. I have learned two things in the past 36 hrs. The people in this country and particularly the students here like two things. They love to pray and I will talk more about that in a minute. However they sure LOVE David Crowder. They love Chris Tomlin and Matt Redman to be sure, but this is Crowder country, no doubt. Somehow, someway they relate to, or David relates well with the students on this side of the world. It is amazing and they are amazing in their love of the worship music.
Back to their love of prayer. I have not seen anything like it on the world tour and that is saying a lot. In Sao Paulo, Brazil, the students were loud and wild and crazy with their enthusiasm when they started singing a song on their own when Chris stopped. But, here in Seoul, when there is a break or even in the midst of the songs, they are praying and will break out into prayer at any time. At one time in particular, when Chris had finished singing a relatively quiet worship song, the students, and I mean most of them were praying, and praying out loud, with tears running down their faces, they were talking with God. I know Chris hesitated for a good minute before starting his next song. They have done that throughout the event. During their prayer triangles they are very vocal and sincere in their enthusiasm to talk with their Father. They are not ashamed of their Faith and show it in their constant prayerful spirit. There is no way to properly explain what I am trying to say, so I hope you get the picture. They are a “praying” people and it shows in their lives. Even as I write this, just after the late afternoon even and just before the evening event, it brings “condensation” to my eyes to even think about their faces as they openly and joyfully praise and pray to their Savior. What beautiful faces and what a beautiful noise it must be to God to hear so many cry out in praise and exaltation to Him.
So, it is Saturday afternoon here, meaning it is about 3am back in Texas, CST and we will begin this last session soon, but I can not post this blog until we have internet access sometime tonight back at the hotel. But, it will be posted by Saturday morning U.S. time and we will be sleeping before our trip to Tokyo, Japan. Seoul, Korea was a tough one, because it was a 2-day event and the communication problems and some others as well, but God is faithful and He has seen it through. Talk to you soon…probably post some pictures I have taken as well. That makes this leg of the tour half over by the time you read this, 3 down and 3 to go, There is some very real excitement in that and some growing deep sadness as it draws to a close. There are not words to express the thrill I have experienced and the amazing wonders God has shown me.
Thanks for your prayers,

Ok, just finished the evening session and am at Hotel just after midnight local time, will send another blog tomorrow along with some photos.

Jim

Seoul, Korea Arrival

Well, not sure what day it is unless I think about it; I know we left Vancouver Tuesday afternoon at 3:30pm and had an 11 hour flight, but arrived in Seoul, Wednesday afternoon at 4pm!? There is of course the Int'l date line, etc., so once you think about it, it kind of makes sense. But, anyway upon arrival late Wednesday afternoon, unpacking and not eating, I went to bed and woke up at 4am Thursday morning; by 6am I went to gym to work out and then here to business center to get on pc and blog.
So, seems like it has been a couple days, but here we are in Seoul, Korea; they have told us the 4th largest city in the world with over 17 million people. The largest church with over 750,000 in one church; 25% of Korean profess Christ, BUT, that is mostly the middle to older generation. The younger generation has not necessarily followed Christianity and that is Passion's goal to "light a fire" to that generation to "make JESUS Famous."

Anyway, we have an off day today, Thursday, and start a long 2 day Passion event Friday and Saturday. For some reason, SEOUL has been a difficult City to plan and communicate the Passion Event. Please pray for that! There have been many communication issues and we want nothing to get in the way of the message...Isa 26:8.

Well, I am about out of time here and want to get some photos today to post sometime today or early tomorrow. We are almost half way done by the end of this week. I am missing home and family already and have some issue to take care of there and here. The people here so far have been great and I pray for some fire in the students this weekend. I will not go back and re-check my spelling or grammar as time will not permit, so please forgive and m!sp#l#igs

Jim

Vancouver...

The blog to come tomorrow...photos now.

Vancouver, Canada PreBlog

Well, it is Seattle type weather here in Vancouver; cool, cloudy and rain in the air. We walked the venue this morning. It is a nice arena, where the Vancouver Canucks play hockey. The venue people are very nice and accomodating. That is always a concern as Passion likes to do things a certain way and it is nice when the people are ready to do whatever you want to do. We are expecting a big crowd here as well, I think there are 11,200 that have registered thus far, so expect a big and fired up crowd with DCB & Tomlin's band.

Todd and I walked to the venue this morning from the hotel; got to sleep from about 1:45am to 7:30 this morning and the 4-5 block walk was refreshing.

Have you ever read Kings 18, I am sure you will know the story when you get to it...and saw 2 things?
1) I believe there are a lot of people out there, professing Christians, who are like the prophets of Baal. They worship G/god with all sincerity, dance, sing loud; they are so sincere about their faith they cut themselves and let the blood run down, Yet, no one is listening and no one even hears their cry.
Then Elijah prays a simple prayer, with faith, and God brings down fire from heaven.
2) When Elijah prayed and God did His thing, the people did NOT praise or even recognize Elijah...they went straight to God and praised and worshipped Him, v39. That has been my prayer for last few years. Like it says in Matthew, I want to do my good works, so that when the world sees them, they will "bypass" me and go straight to God and praise Him.
Have you ever done that? Do you know that this life, this world, heaven, church, even the cross, it is NOT all about YOU, but about JESUS!
That is what Passion is proclaiming in Isa. 26:8
The glory of God and the eternal fame of Jesus. I hope you see that in this blog and listen to the passion podcasts...@ 268generation.com would be great to listen to and follow the kids as they proclaim thier Passion to make Jesus famous in their generation.

So long for now, next blog may be from Seoul or at some airport along the way, keep praying and comment if you like.

Looking forward to the event and have to get back to it getting ready for Opening registration at 5pm and doors open at 6pm and event starts at 7pm.

two blogs

Ok just to let those following this blog my brother is also continuing his... it is toddh5902.blogspot.com

 

so you can get two updates on the same world tour

Ok, I published some comments on Todd's blog, so I do hope you go and view both blogs throughout this tour. I said that his "Apple" works better around the world and he seems to have better connectivity and time than I seem to have. Mexico City is over, WHEW! those 2 "dayers" are tough. When you have to get the students out of the arena 4 times it makes it more difficult. Plus the fact there were more students here than we have at some, even though 5-6 thousand never showed up. Well, the kids were ready and loud and sincere. I like to sit right on the floor in front of the stage and I really get to see their faces, expressions, and it is great to see the tears and openly weeping of their hearts breaking during the message and the worship times. There was a time when they did not even come forward to the stage and stayed by their seats standing...and I did not call them up to the stage like I have done before, because they seemed to be "someplace else". Many had their eyes closed with tears coming down their faces and hands raised. It was not a time for anyone or anything to interrupt for any reason. So, I hope to have many more close up photos of the students from every country. It was great to see and be a part of, this is something I will never forget or experience again I am sure. To see the faces of the kids is amazing. Well, don't forget to comment if you want to see something more and I hope to publish some more in Salt Lake City as we arrive in Vancouver, CA Sunday night (Steelers & Jacksonville on TV, I will miss) and the event is Monday night and we fly out Tuesday for Seoul, Korea. That one is supposed to be a wild one, another 2-day event.

Got to run.

Jim 

Leg III Begins, Mexico City

Well, I have no idea who is following this blog, but will try and update and let everyone know. I think Todd is resurrecting the other blog as well, so we will attempt to keep everyone informed of what is happening.

A long day today, Thursday, October 2nd, started for me at 5am with a trip to the airport by Donna. A different airport this time, Austin, so that was a change. Amazingly, I had to fly from Austin to Houston, where I met Todd and then on to Mexico City. Big place, lots of people, 24 million for those who may not know, the biggest city in the world. And that make for some traffic all day long.

Well, it has been a long day and time to call it to an end and get ready for day 1 of Mexico City. There are about 18000 registered so far and that will fill the venue to the max.
Chris Tomlin's band, DCB, Kristy Nockles, Frances Chan are all here, along with Kristian Standfill and his band. This is a 2 day event so, a lot of time for God to work in these kids lives.
Well, that is it for now, I hope someone reads this besides me.

Later,

Jim Harris