CoE- short for Certificate of Eligibility and the magic words my team and I have been waiting and praying to hear the past few weeks. In order to get a visa allowing us to be in Tokyo doing ministry we have to have this CoE.
Praise God, this morning one of my team leaders texted me saying the Japanese Cru office had received our CoEs! They will be sent to us and hopefully be in our hands by Friday. After that we will each have to go to the nearest Japanese consulate, mine is in LA, and go through some process to get our official visa.
I'm still unsure about what sort of time frame we're dealing with as far as when we will be leaving for Japan, but this is a HUGE step forward! Thank you so much for all your prayers on our behalf in this process. God is so good to provide for us in this way.
Wednesday, August 22, 2012
Naperville, Illinois- STINT Briefing 2012
Jet-setter Quinn is back at home after a rather hectic week and a half! I spent a lovely, albeit brief, weekend in the Bay Area with some of my favorite people.
With a turnaround of about twelve hours, I flew home Sunday night and was off again Monday morning for Chicago. Technically the briefing was in a lovely place called Naperville, but we did make it into the Windy City for a little touring one day of briefing.
The week consisted mostly of large group talks and smaller breakout seminars and team times. A really awesome band called Page CXVI led worship- I had never heard of them before but they are all about making hymns relevant again in worship. I was blessed by them.
Almost 400 STINTers were gathered for the week; students from across the States and going literally around the world. It was so cool to see such a diverse group of people and to know how diverse our experiences would be even as we go out with the same goal, to bring glory to our God. I met some new friends and am excited to see how the Lord uses all these brothers and sisters to further his kingdom.
One of the highlights of the week was finally getting to meet my whole team in person. I roomed with three of the girls so we had some good bonding time, and we also had quite a few team times when we could talk about what ministry in Japan is going to look like. I knew three people coming in, but it was awesome to be able to put real faces and personalities to the talking heads I had seen online thus far.
Speaking of my team, we had some really bad news on Saturday. One of the girls on my team is no longer going to be coming to Japan. It was a huge shock for us and definitely put a damper on the week. Please keep her in your prayers as she tries to trust the Lord in this hard turn of events.
With a turnaround of about twelve hours, I flew home Sunday night and was off again Monday morning for Chicago. Technically the briefing was in a lovely place called Naperville, but we did make it into the Windy City for a little touring one day of briefing.
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| The girls in front of the Chicago Bean |
The week consisted mostly of large group talks and smaller breakout seminars and team times. A really awesome band called Page CXVI led worship- I had never heard of them before but they are all about making hymns relevant again in worship. I was blessed by them.
Almost 400 STINTers were gathered for the week; students from across the States and going literally around the world. It was so cool to see such a diverse group of people and to know how diverse our experiences would be even as we go out with the same goal, to bring glory to our God. I met some new friends and am excited to see how the Lord uses all these brothers and sisters to further his kingdom.
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| With Brittany and Megan, both going to El Salvador, reppin' UCLA |
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| With Daniel, from Cal Poly SLO |
One of the highlights of the week was finally getting to meet my whole team in person. I roomed with three of the girls so we had some good bonding time, and we also had quite a few team times when we could talk about what ministry in Japan is going to look like. I knew three people coming in, but it was awesome to be able to put real faces and personalities to the talking heads I had seen online thus far.
Speaking of my team, we had some really bad news on Saturday. One of the girls on my team is no longer going to be coming to Japan. It was a huge shock for us and definitely put a damper on the week. Please keep her in your prayers as she tries to trust the Lord in this hard turn of events.
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| Tokyo guys at the commissioning |
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| Tokyo Ladies at commissioning |
Friday, August 10, 2012
Gold
Quick shout out to the USA women's soccer team for winning gold today! Since we are still happily living in the stone age without cable my family and I enjoyed the game at a local pizza parlor. Sweet victory!
100%
This morning I woke up to two e-mails from Cru giving saying I had received a combined $125 in monthly support overnight. I needed $126 monthly to be finished with support. It's been so interesting to see how detailed God is, he really does pay attention down to the dollars and cents. Once I prayed for $200 to come in overnight and woke up to $203.33. Today it was just a dollar short, perhaps as a reminder that he knows what I need and is fully capable of meeting it, I just have to trust that he can and will.
The remaining dollar of monthly support was quickly covered by the extra one-time gifts I had. With those $12 transferred over I was at the magical percentage- 100.
The feeling of being complete with support is hard to explain. I almost feel like one of the gold medal athletes who cannot say anything but "it's incredible, it's a dream." After several months of this process, to be at the end and be able to look back and see it unfold is truly incredible. At the beginning I had a lot of doubts. I knew it was possible with God's provision, but I would have been lying if I had really believed raising so much in such a short time was possible. Yet here I am!
This last $126 was a very specific answer to prayer as well. I'm flying to the Bay Area for the weekend to visit some college friends one last time before I leave. And then I will be heading to Chicago for STINT briefing with my team and all the other STINT teams being sent out. My extension deadline was the 12th so I was praying to finish before I left for the Bay so I could just enjoy being with my friends. The Lord heard me and knew my limits as far as handling deadlines and stress and he was gracious yet again. I am so blessed.
Anyways, I just wanted to celebrate this with you. 100%. Amazing!
The numbers:
The remaining dollar of monthly support was quickly covered by the extra one-time gifts I had. With those $12 transferred over I was at the magical percentage- 100.
The feeling of being complete with support is hard to explain. I almost feel like one of the gold medal athletes who cannot say anything but "it's incredible, it's a dream." After several months of this process, to be at the end and be able to look back and see it unfold is truly incredible. At the beginning I had a lot of doubts. I knew it was possible with God's provision, but I would have been lying if I had really believed raising so much in such a short time was possible. Yet here I am!
This last $126 was a very specific answer to prayer as well. I'm flying to the Bay Area for the weekend to visit some college friends one last time before I leave. And then I will be heading to Chicago for STINT briefing with my team and all the other STINT teams being sent out. My extension deadline was the 12th so I was praying to finish before I left for the Bay so I could just enjoy being with my friends. The Lord heard me and knew my limits as far as handling deadlines and stress and he was gracious yet again. I am so blessed.
Anyways, I just wanted to celebrate this with you. 100%. Amazing!
The numbers:
92 financial supporters; 36 of whom I met at UCLA
and countless prayer supporters
= 100% of my support goal!
= 100% of my support goal!
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