Misawa Concert

I am a musician. I have played a lot of concerts and shows, at big clubs and small bars, jammed out summer camps and empty rooms. I was surprised to then find out that no one rocks harder than the people at the Misawa Air Force Base in Japan.

At first I was taken aback. It seemed odd to me to fly half way around the world so that I could play worship music in Japan, and then go do it in the United States... in Japan. But OMF told us to be flexible, and hey, I don’t ever mind playing guitar. It was a beautiful drive through the country, we saw hills and mountains and forests and even some public washrooms (those are new to Japan). After a few hours in the car I was relieved to pull into the Airbase parking lot. We grabbed our passports and ID’s and went inside. We had lunch first, provided to us by the officer who invited us, and it was a bizarre switch to suddenly have Taco Bell and Pizza Hut available to us. After lunch we headed to the chapel to set up. We were greeted by some friendly US military who helped us set up and did our sound check. After a few “Check one two’s” we were ready to go, so we headed to the back room to pray. We prayed that we would play well and that God would minister to people through our music and through Martin’s message. He did. As we went through our set the whole team just let go of whatever thoughts or issues they were dealing with and entered into unhindered worship of the most high God, and in doing so we were able to lead others to do the same. As I looked out into the congregation I saw people of every age, race and background jumping and praising God. With hands raised they worshiped, with voices raised they worshiped, with knees bent they worshiped, with heads bowed they worshiped. With genuine sincerity they worshiped, and I was blessed.