Yokohama, Japan Skateboard Trip

Jordan Theisen pushing in the streets Photo taken by Tj Tamayo

Preparing for the Trip

With a new team being built for SkateMin Asia, we had some planning to do. This trip was to focus on team building and getting the website ready for launch. For our team to grow we needed a way to promote SkateMin Asia and allow for partnerships with the ministry.

Scheduling for this trip was a nightmare of constant messaging back and forth for a group of four guys with four different schedules between 3 countries. A later date wasn't going to work and we had to make this happen within a month to fit it in this year. With the one week that fit almost everyone's schedule, we hit the green light to for everyone to buy their plane tickets.

Day 1 & 2 - The Arrival

TJ had a long flight from America taking 11 hours for just one-way flight time alone. Dale was able to easily hop over the from Taiwan within a short amount of time. Important thing is we had all made it. The only person that couldn't be with us was Minori.

The first morning TJ and Jordan met up. They spent the morning in God's Word reading Acts 2, the start of the church.

Shortly after Dale arrived he was already bumping his head on the low Japanese door ways in Jordan's house. We didn't have a large budget for this trip and wanted to grow as a team. It felt like being in college again, sleeping on the floors and in the hallway, except we are 30-40 years old.

God was talking to us on this trip through His Word. That night we met up with the YWAM team for some worship. Once again Acts 2 was opened up. We had a great time of healing and rest just sitting and worshiping in a room that smelt like feet.

Day 3 - Filming

The following morning we opened a 52-week devotional called "Skate Church Movement". We didn't know which page to do as we all have read different parts of the book. So Jordan and TJ joking said "Let's flip the pages and see what we get." Both of them took separate books and amazingly stopped on the same page...Acts 2.

We were encouraged by the Words of Acts 2, as we ourselves are starting at a new beginning in the skateboard Christian movement in Asia. We are a group of believers coming together to do what seems like an impossible task of seeing skaters want to come to Christ. We also felt encouraged to be bold with the Word and to start "skate churches" in our local parks.

We headed out to Xin-Yokohama Skatepark to film 2 videos to profile Dale and Jordan allowing them both to share about their faith and ministry through SkateMin Asia.

As we worked on filming at the park a random foreigner came up to us and began chatting. It turend about to be the legend Eric Dressen, taking an extra long stay in Japan after a Santa Cruz trip. We got to skate with him a tiny bit and encourage him to reach out to some skate pastors he knows back in California.

We also met another awesome dude named Meesh. Who knew Jordan before he was a Christian. And luckily through God's grace Meesh turned his life around. He shared his testimony. Meesh is planning on working at a local military base to lifeguard and run the skatepark. He is going to start a skate church at the park he's working at.

We took a lunch break and headed over to the local skateshop. The owner there was a really cool guy. TJ wanted to support him, so he bought a board from him. We hope Jordan can continue to minister to him.

While at the park we noticed some kids not speaking Japanese, but rather Mandarin. Dale approached them and began talking to them in Chinese and it turns out TJ has some distant connections with them through the past ministry SkateMin Asia had in China.

Day 4 - Naked Bathing & Coffee Spills

Being sore from skating all day the day before, we planned on taking it easy. Our goal was to get photos around town and head shots of everyone for the website.

We hoped on the bus and Jordan dumped his coffee all over the bus floor. Tj went into full dad mode...quickly pulling out a white t-shirt to soak up all the brown coffee flowing a crossed the floor of the bus.

That evening we went to the local's favorite hangout spot, the Onsen. Onsen is a naked bath house with hot and cold pools and a sauna. It's one of the best places to sit and open up with Japanese since everyone is at the same "level" there.

As we got ready we noticed that Jordan had a towel in his bag, giving everyone a flash back to the spilled coffee earlier that day, when TJ used his shirt to clean up the spill. We gave him a hard time for not pulling out his towel to clean up the mess. The Onsen was an awkward but relaxing experience for the team. It restored our sore bodies and aloud us to bond on a whole another level.

Day 5 - American Dog

The last whole day we had together before everyone had to hop on their planes to head back home. We wanted to get one more video filmed for SkateMin Asia highlighting the general ministry and goal of the organization.

We headed to Chigasaki Skatepark. On the way we ran into a local that Jordan has ministered to in the past. He rode his bike home and came back with his board to hang out and skate with us. Throughout our time there both Jordan and Dale got a chance to minister to him and pray with him.

For lunch we went to the local 7-11. While there we ran into a group of skaters. We invited them over to our table and had a lot of laughs despite the language barrier that Dale and TJ had. Jordan suffered through translating for both sides but did an awesome job at it. TJ got the American Dog (corn dog) and expressed how he could be their American Dad in terms of age. We had a lot of great laughs during this time with them before heading back to the park to skate together.

At the park we got to skate with some Japanese pros who were insanely good but friendly guys. We took turns filming tricks for our separate videos and chatted together in-between runs.

Our final meal together had to be at the Sushi Bar. We skated to the local spot and enjoyed the closing of our trip. We were all exhausted, refreshed, and excited for the plans God has through SkateMin Asia.