Photo Diary

I finally uploaded pictures again so here are some photos from my past week. Enjoy!

Christine and I with the limericks that we wrote for each of our teammates:


Our adventure with Aki and Rurika on Tuesday:








Our friends at the outreach on tuesday night:

Me with Jean, a Christian student at Waseda, and our new friend Manami:


The men:


Albert and Me in front of the Waseda statue/Okuma Hall:


Family Sushi Night!






Good meal. I actually added on one more plate to this stack after I took the photo:

Finishing the Race

I cannot believe we are only here for four more days! It's so weird to look back and remember when we first got here and thought five weeks seemed ridiculously long...and now it is only a drop in the bucket and not nearly enough time to do anything! I've been wrestling with God about leaving all of our friends behind and not knowing what is going to happen to them. It is hard to let go of them and trust their future to the Lord. I am thankful for technology because it is so much easier to stay in touch with people with things like Facebook and e-mail. With these tools we can hopefully continue to be a blessing to the students we have met.

Moving on, it's been a really great week since I last updated. I think Tuesday was probably my favorite day, maybe even of the whole trip. Ada and I had an appointment to hang out with our friends Aki and Rurika. We had lunch, ice cream, explored a Japanese garden by Waseda campus and went to Takadanobaba for purikuya. It was really sweet just to spend the day with them and get to know them better. We didn't really get into much spiritual conversation with them but I think it still meant a lot that we invested so much time in building our relationship. Please keep them in your prayers!

That night was the highlight of the day. We hosted a second, larger outreach at the Student Impact student center in Mitaka. About 12 or 13 of our student friends came to hang out with us. We played a couple interactive group games like Human Knot to get everyone up and at 'em. We had initially wanted to serve pizookies (cookie pizzas with ice cream on top) but had no access to an oven. We made do with ovenless cookies and vanilla ice cream. It actually tasted really good I thought! The Student Impact Gospel choir performed a song for us all and one of the JCCC staff Koji gave his testimony in Japanese. Obviously I had no idea what he was saying but people really seemed to appreciate his openness. After that our team did cardboard testimonies. We broke off into groups and talked about the testimonies with the students.

I had a really awesome conversation with a girl named Manami. She is so close to knowing the Lord. She talked about feeling some presence but being scared to label it as God. She asked a lot of solid questions about God, how I became a Christian, how I know God exists, relationships, rules we have as Christians, etc. It was really awesome because she was so interested in everything and really wanted to know the answers. Another guy on our team, Jordan, had an equally sweet conversation with Manami's boyfriend. They are both so close to realizing the truth of the Gospel in their lives! We prayed for them at the train station and I would definitely appreciate your prayers for them in the future.


That's all I've got for right now. God continues to be faithful, as always. And I'm slowly learning to have faith in His faithfulness. I'll post some pictures next time.

Blessings in him!
Psalm 67

Saturday in the City

Good morning! Saturday is our Sabbath if we don't have appointments with students so I have the morning/early afternoon to rest. I'm quite thankful for that as this last week with the heat and range of emotions has been quite draining. I've been reading through Job the past few days. It's been a little weird to read just because I feel like I can't relate to it in a super intimate way, but Job's attitude has definitely set me a good example to follow.

My favorite chunk of verses so far is 19:25-27: "I know that my Redeemer lives, and that in the end he will stand upon the earth. And after my skin has been destroyed, yet in my flesh I will see God; with my own eyes- I, and not another. How my heart yearns within me!" It reminded me that if a guy who has lost everything material and physical and can still praise the Lord and look forward to the day of his return, how much more should I be confident in the fact that "my Redeemer lives"? Anyways, I thought that was really cool.

Yesterday was refreshing for me because I just had two appointments with students. I ate lunch with a girl named Eriko with my team leader Jennie. We ended up talking for over two hours. The second appointment was with a girl named Aiko whom I had met on monday sitting on a bench on campus. She was hilarious! She was very enthusiastic, peppering the conversation with lots of Wow!'s and the inevitable Asian "mmm". She's in the magic circle so she did a couple card tricks for Christine and me. We got to talk a lot about Japanese culture and American culture and shared the gospel too. She was very open to listening but said it was all too new to really believe it. We gave her a Manga version of the gospel and she seemed very excited to read through it. Please be praying for her and for Eriko, that God would be moving in their hearts.

Last night we had a small outreach event where we invited students to come to the guys' apartment for sundaes. About 6 or 7 students came and we hung out for several hours. It was fun to get to know them better in a more personal setting and it seemed like they really enjoyed the time as well.

Anyways, there is a mini update of the most recent news. Thank you for all of you who have encouraged me through the blog, Facebook or e-mail. You have reminded me what matters most and I'm so thankful for that! Blessings in him, our Redeemer who lives.

Heat Wave

Well, the rainy season here in Japan is officially over as of two days ago. Since then it has been a steady 90+ degrees here. Needless to say, I'm not a huge fan of the temperature change and it certainly adds another dimension of difficulty to our work here.

Sharing yesterday and today was pretty slow as most students are in the middle of their final tests and projects. Most don't have time to talk or are just not interested. ALbert and I got to meet a guy who had lived in California for 12 years and just came back for college. It was funny because we saw he was wearing VANS and Levis and decided to talk with him. When we approached him with our "spiel" he said dude and yea. We ended up talking with him for a good while and he was really cool. It was interesting to hear his perspective on Japanese culture with the background of living in America for so long. He had a really dry sense of humor so I liked him right away.

Something he shared with us was really interesting and really heart-breaking. We had noticed on the train schedule signs that sometimes "accident" will appear in red by some lines. Albert mentioned too that the kanji for "man" is often by it too. Our friend said those "accidents" are usually people committing suicide by throwing themselves onto the tracks. Hearing that was really shocking and a definite slap of the dark reality here in Japan.

Last night after our team bible study we went up on the roof of the guys' apartment and prayed over the city. The train station was close by so that you could even here the automatic announcements being made. Seeing trains coming and going filled with people really broke me because I realized just how broken their lives must be. That so many people are so hopeless and lacking in true meaning and love that they just want to end their life really hurts my heart. I started crying as I watched the trains go, wondering how people can even get to that point of emptiness that death is better than living. Also the fact that people just go on with their own lives without shedding a tear for those who kill themselves. People are so caught up in saving face, working hard and having a good reputation they don't even slow down enough to mourn. It also made me want all the more for God to claim Japan as his own right NOW. I've been struggling this week to trust in his timing because we have less than two weeks left and I want to see lives changed. Especially with this new perspective on the brokenness here, I want it even more and I'm feeling impatient for God to step in. I know that he loves these people, he desires them to come back to him, I'm just having trouble waiting on him right now.

Anyways, that's where I'm at at the moment. I would appreciate your prayers for my patience and trust in God's plan, and for our team that we would press on through the heat and frustrations and have faith that God is using us here to further his kingdom. Thank you all!

Hakone Photo Gallery

I want to start this post off with a shout out to the Australia summer project in Melbourne. They just arrived a day or two ago. Just wanted you all to know that I love you all and am praying God will show himself to you in an awesome way these next few weeks. It is hard work for sure, but God promises that he will be faithful to those who call upon his name. Blessings you guys!

And now, for your viewing pleasure (I'm hoping) here are some photos from our retreat in Hakone!



Here is half the team in the tram/cable car. It was a really gorgeous view, even though we didn't see much more than fog and tree tops. It's a very lush place.



This is the view looking behind us. Hakone is in the foreground and you can even see the ocean way in the background. It was starting to get foggy here as we were ascending.



Some of us in our lovely Yunessun spa tunics ready to soak our stress away.



This is the fishy pool where the little nibblers swim around and eat the dead skin off your feet. Sorry if any of you are squeamish about these things! It was a super ticklish experience.









These are some pictures of Christine and my adventure to the Craft House. There were some beautiful flowers there. Christine took the hydrangea picture- it reminded us of a photo that would be in some Psalms calendar or something.





This is the outside of the Yunessun where all the pools and spas were. It was quite the structure.











These are some pictures from our last adventure in Hakone- the Hakone Open Air Museum. It was beautifully set up with some really cool sculptures and installations. We had fun walking around and climbing on some of the pieces.


So, there is our retreat in picture form! Today was very low-key which I was extremely thankful for. We got to sleep in and then went to church at 3. We actually went to a new place, Grace City Church, which was actually planted by Tim Keller. The people were all very friendly and even though the service was all in Japanese they provided us with headsets with English translation. And after the service one of the members put on a mini violin concert for us. Apparently she lives in Vienna and plays there but is home in Japan for the summer. It was beautiful and very soothing to listen to.

I know this is getting slightly long-winded, so thank you for your perseverance! I just wanted to ask that you be praying for the team as we go into our second to last full week of ministry (so crazy how fast time has gone by). Just pray that we would hold fast to the faith we have and run the race mapped out for us. We were pretty tired going into retreat, but I know we all have a sense of mission in continuing to be bold for the Gospel. But we need the Spirit to be in us to be able to accomplish anything. Pray that we would be bold in making requests to God and that he would show himself to the Japanese students in crazy mighty ways. Thank you!

Back from Hakone

We had an amazing time in Hakone. We left thursday morning for an adventurous 3-4 hour train and bus ride. It was crazy to see the green emerge as we got farther and farther away from the center of Tokyo. I was thankful to see nature again.

Some of our activities included a sky tram, the Onsen (hot springs), and a crafthouse and garden. The evening we got there we all went on the sky tram. It was quite the experience because the clouds had rolled in so at some points we couldn't see anything but the cable right in front of us. The wind was blowing too so it would whistle in the ventilation slats of the car. On a clear day you can see Mt. Fuji in the distance, but the fog made it a little difficult to distinguish anything, even something as large as a mountain.

The Onsen was an interesting cultural experience to say the least. You get a locker and change into your suit and then are given a blue or orange (depending on your gender) tunic that you wear in between pools or even at the buffet lunch. There were tons of options for pools to soak in including Greek baths with the full rotation available, a sake bath, green tea bath, coffee bath...the list goes on. There were water slides and kiddie pools and a pool with fish that nibble the dead skin off your feet! LIterally something for everyone. We spent Friday morning exploring all the options and then enjoyed a buffet lunch. My favorite was the "cool temperature" pool and the smell of the green tea pool. It smelled like jasmine tea, and the cool temperature was just right for relaxing in.

Christine and I had heard about a crafthouse in the area and we decided to go check it out. After a bit of exploration we found it. There were glassblowers and potters in the house. It was cool too because there were gardens around the crafthouse. There was a rose garden, fountain and a lot of native Japanese plants. Hydrangeas thrive here and there were some beautiful ones at the gardens. We wandered about for awhile taking pictures and enjoying the peacefulness before heading back to the hotel.

Last night we had a team encouragement time where we shared for over an hour what we appreciated about other people on the team. It was a cool time of building up and remembering what we like about each person. It was also a cool reminder of how the body of Christ works. Each person has unique characteristics about them that the body, or specifically our team, would not function as well without.

We left Hakone around 11 today, but before leaving we checked out the Hakone Open-Air Museum for an hour or so. There was an abundance of sculptures and random things to climb on and admire. I'll post pictures tomorrow because it's hard to explain all that was there.


Anyways, there is the quick update of our retreat. It was nice to get away to nature and just be with the team. I know I personally needed a break and I think everyone appreciated the time away.
I'll post pictures tomorrow! Love you all

Hard Times

Well, today the honeymoon officially ended. I think I shared last week that it was a really dry week for me with few quality conversations and not much encouragement. God ended it on a higher note for me so I entered the weekend reassured. Going back to campus today was a reality check yet again because it was very hard to initiate meaningful conversation today. Most students have all of their final exams in the next couple weeks so they are much busier with studying and homework.

My partner and I talked with a couple people but the conversation felt really forced on our part so we finally prayed in one of the buildings from a window seat looking out onto campus. She was having a particularly rough day and was able to open up about it. We had a good cry and our last hour or so was just spent being honest with ourselves and with God about how we were struggling. Our leaders had told us about this "mid project crisis" of sorts and it definitely hit today. I wasn't as down as my sharing buddy was, but I could totally relate to her emotions because God had been breaking me since last week.

We had to meet with our team at 4 so we went to the central meeting spot and saw two other girls from our team. They had had a rough day as well and we all just broke down crying for ourselves and each other. We prayed together with lots of sniffling and tears but I personally felt really refreshed after that time of vulnerability. I think it helped the three of them especially to see that it wasn't just them feeling frustrated or discouraged. I definitely think Satan wants us to believe that we're each alone in our feelings of inadequacy and discouragement because that takes away from the work we're called to here. Sometimes when there aren't immediate results from our work it's easy to wonder why we are even here in Tokyo, what makes US worthy, why God would want US to be here. And yet I guess I've been realizing that it's a testament to the moving that God is doing through us that Satan would feel threatened enough to attack us in this way. I'm slowly coming to terms with that fact that I might not see tangible results while I'm here or even in this lifetime but I need to trust that God is working through me here in Tokyo, that he did call me here for a specific purpose and that when I get to heaven someday I will finally understand the fruits of my labor here. It's something I really want to believe but at the same time it is hard to have my actions back it up.


Anyways, I wanted to be vulnerable with you just as I am learning to be vulnerable with my team in this struggle that we're going through. I would obviously appreciate your prayers for us all that we would just be reminded of the Gospel in our own lives as we try to reach if the Japanese with it. It's hard to speak truth when you don't fully believe in it and are totally invested.

Thank you.

Soccer

With the World Cup going on there is soccer memorabilia everywhere! The guys on my team and I have been wanting to find a place to play soccer, but we've also enjoyed the flurry of soccer mania here. Also, call me crazy but two of my teammates and I woke up at 3:30 monday morning to watch the final. We thoroughly enjoyed the delirious time together. Sadly for my friend who is Dutch the Netherlands did not win. But we got a kick (pun intended) out of the cleat to the chest kung fu move one of the players pulled out! Fun times in Tokyo...











I dedicate this post to Tynan, since he loves soccer :)

The Streets of Tokyo

Here are some views of the beautiful, bustling city of Tokyo.

Shibuya:



Massive department store at Shibuya- included a whole floor of pastries and gourmet food of every kind.



Looking down on the crowds at Harajuku



Streets in Japan





Waseda Images

Home Tour

Happy Sunday! I just got back from church/ramen at Ichiban in Shibuya. It started to rain reallllly hard and of course I didn't have my umbrella. But thankfully I did happen to have my sunglasses in case a floodlight or something was blinding me! It's always nice to be well prepared.

Anyways, I finally uploaded my own pictures from my camera so I wanted to share some photos with you all. I figured you would appreciate some rest from my rambling and enjoy actually seeing what I see each day here. So, enjoy!

First, a tour of my humble abode. Like all good Japanese, we take our shoes off before entering the house:




Next is our lovely shower room. It took us about a week and a half to figure out how to get hot water. Even though we know now, I still usually take cold showers just because I'm normally so hot.





This is our wonderful washing machine. When on it sounds like a gurgling monster and on the spin cycle it shakes back and forth like it is possessed by a demon or something. But it's very handy and gets things clean so I can't complain.



This is our pride and joy, the toilet/sink combo. Japanese people are very conscientious about wastefulness so this is very common here. The water goes to the sink first, in case you were a little grossed out.



Here is a view of our lovely kitchen/dining/socializing room. Our apartment is the official hangout apartment of the team so everyone's stuff is everywhere.



The apartment has two bedrooms, one traditional tatami room and a western bedroom. Here is the tatami room with the futon mattresses out.



Here's a view from the kitchen of the two bedrooms. I sleep in the one through the sliding doors on the left side.



This is my closet! I'm living half off of this clothing rack and half out of my suitcase so at least it is semi-settled.




Anyways, there's a tour of my home! I'll put up some Tokyo street pictures next time. Blessings!

Friday Reflections

Well it's pouring rain here in Koenji. I will never figure out this weather- I'm always a day late. For example- yesterday was sunny and hot so today I figured I would bring my sunglasses to campus. Wrong. It was overcast the entire day and sprinkling basically the whole time we were at Waseda. I just can't get anything right!

But other than that today was an awesome day and I'm feeling really encouraged right now. This week has been pretty dry and frustrating for me personally because there really wasn't any solid conversation or promising relationships being built in my time at Waseda. It was a lot of rejection and a lot of non-committal conversations. I was pretty frustrated because I felt like I came here to bring people to Jesus, to tell them about his love. That's a little difficult to do when no one wants to talk to you. But through this dryness God reminded me that I'm not in control and I have to trust him with my results. I've been charging ahead trying to take control of the situation, making things happen and changing lives. God just reminded me this week that that isn't how he functions. I need to trust that I am here for a reason, that God does want me to tell people about him, but remember that this is HIS mission that he is just ALLOWING me to be part of. It has nothing to do with me.

Knowing that I had a lot of peace going into today. I asked God just two things for today's sharing: that I wouldn't get any more bug bites and that Jennie and I would have one solid conversation. And praise the Lord he answered both fully! The first person we spoke with was actually a Christian of two years! She wasn't super talkative but it was still so encouraging to hear her talk about her love for Jesus. Coming off of that we approached two girls at a table. We ended up spending the rest of our time on campus talking with them. One had spent 8 years in America as a child so her English was impeccable. They were both so cute and fun. We didn't get into any really serious spiritual conversation with them but learned a lot about their lives and background. We laughed a lot and got to share about our own culture, school and why we were even in Japan. And, best news of all, we're hanging out with them tomorrow! We're going to purikuya with them- the photo booths that are so popular here. So I am verryyyyy excited for that and very humbled by God's faithfulness in hearing my prayers for today. Going into the weekend especially I'm thankful he gave me this encouragement to take away from this difficult week of learning.

Anyways, that's where I'm at right now. I'll do my best to post some pictures for you over the weekend! Love you all.

Praises and Requests

Hi family! Just wanted to fill you in on how God has been working and things I would appreciate prayer for.

First praise- two of our team went sharing yesterday and got into a really cool conversation with a Japanese girl. She had received a bible from her grandfather and read it a lot. When they told her that God loved her and wanted to talk to her all the time she got super excited as she had never heard that before. They went through the Gospel with her and she accepted Christ. So we have another sister in Christ and heaven is partying it up. That was a huge encouragement to us.

I'm also just really thankful for my team. They are great people, down to earth and totally in love with Jesus. We all have different personalities but everyone is respectful and fun-loving. When we have just team time we're always laughing and having fun. The work we're doing is very draining so when we do have time to rest and just be I'm thankful I get to spend it with uplifting and loving people.


I would ask you to pray for a couple things too, specifically. We've gotten to know the JCCC staff pretty well and they are an amazing group of people. It's a hard life because there are so few of them so please just pray that we could be an encouragement to them while we are here and really be intentional about loving on them during this time. The same thing for the Japanese students who are Christians, that we could encourage their community and love them. Also prayer for little things like health and bug bites would be appreciated. I've learned a lot this past year being on prayer team at UCLA that God truly cares about the little things in our lives and nothing is too small to bring before him. A few of our team have had sniffles from allergies or something and almost all of us have bug bites. While it's not a huge deal, it is just something that can distract from what we're trying to accomplish.

Thank you so much for your faithfulness in praying and keeping up on my trip. It means so much to know people are praying over Tokyo even now.

Reflections on Week 1

Happy 4th of July! Sorry it's been a week since I last updated you on my adventures here. It's been a very busy time here. Since you last heard from me I have gone sharing at Waseda University three days, meeting about 10 people each day, visited Harajuku district with my team, gone to a bible study for Japanese Christian college students, had date night with Jesus, team family night, and gone to TOkyo Baptist Church this morning. Needless to say it has been a crazy adventrue from the very beginning, but I am definitely seeing God already working in my own life and the lives of the Japanese students at Waseda.



This is a photo of our team on the Waseda Campus. The statue is the center of campus. We are sharing on the main campus which has about 10-12 buildings. There are a lot of tree-lined walkways with benches that students hang out on during their breaks. These benches are where most of our conversations are taking place. Usually we approach people and ask if they are a student, what they're studying and if they have time to talk. Most have very good English skills and once they get past the first shyness of speaking to Americans they get quite comfortable talking. We were told by staff here that awkward transitions aren't as noticeable by the Japanese as they are for us. Knowing that has been really helpful to me because it makes it so much easier to take a normal conversation to a spiritual level without having to worry about smooth transitions. I've been amazed at how willing most people are to talk about religious things once you bring it up.



After our first day sharing at Waseda we went to Shinjuku. It is a lot like TIme Square with signs flashing advertisements everywhere and people wherever you look. There were a lot of department stores, high end stores like Gucci and even chains like Forever 21 and H&M. Two girls on my team and I explored and then had dinner at Freshness Burger, a burger chain. It was good but the burgers were about three bites each.



Thursday nights are family night for our team. We made spaghetti, salad, and garlic cheese bread seen above. We were a little short on utensils and dishes but it was a fun experience to eat spaghetti with chopsticks! It was really nice to just be together and share a meal and laugh. I've been surprised at how worn out I am at the end of the day and times to just relax and de-stress together are a blessing. We also have date night with Jesus on Wednesday nights. These are just a time for us to be alone with Jesus and rest in his presence. As I said before, I have been surprised at how worn out I really am after sharing on campus, both physically and spiritually. Being an introvert means it takes an extra effort for me to approach strangers and initiate conversations. Add the spiritual war that I'm fighting in and it makes it that much more wearing.



Saturdays are our free day to have a Sabbath or just explore the city. Yesterday seven of our team went to explore the Harajuku district. We didn't see too many people dressed up in their crazy costumes, but we did have fun window-shopping and people-watching. I'm normally not a huge fan of droves of people, which Harajuku definitely had, but it was fun to be there just because we're in Japan. When you can't read any of the signs it is automatically cooler for some reason.




Today after church we had lunch at Shibuya, famous for having the craziest intersection in all of Tokyo. It definitely lived up to its name when we crossed it today. People were crossing every which way, totally disregarding crosswalks. Once you started in one direction the current of moving people made it hard to change directions.


Our team is co-hosting an Independence Day Swing dancing party outreach with the Japanese CCC staff. We're going to teach students how to swing dance and one of our team is sharing her testimony. It should be fun!

Thanks for all of your faithful prayers. Even though I haven't maintained my blog daily, I have been writing down everything that has happened and God's faithfulness is definitely a major theme so far. Love you all.