Snapshots of Thankfulness

It's been a crazy week and a half with cheese-making, appointments with students on campus, Day with the Lord, team Thanksgiving on Thursday, a Let's Talk T-din outreach event Friday, real Thanksgiving dinner on Saturday and catching up on life yesterday. I just wanted to post a quick update with a few photos of my most recent adventures. I'll have a more in-depth update on Thanksgiving in the next few days!

Team "Silver pot" at our cheese-making at Omar and Jennifer's

Pasta press

New calling- Pasta-holder

Shabu shabu hot pot with the ladies- meat and veggies for days

3 hours at Starbucks with the Lord

Glassy reflections

Mr. Waseda on a fine autumn afternoon

Dream Christmas at Skytree

Early Christmas card from the team. Taken at Skytree, edited by Christine

BRUINS

I wouldn't be a True Bruin if I didn't somehow acknowledge my boys' awesome win over USC this weekend! I woke up Sunday morning to the good news: 38-28 win after a 5-year losing streak! Obviously I wish I could have seen it with my own eyes, but it is nevertheless quite satisfying. In honor of the victory I sported my blue and gold to church.

You can hear from far and near the mighty Bruin roar!

Break Every Chain

At our retreat we took our first hour there as time with the Lord. It was a time to quiet our hearts, come before him with our ministry thus far, and ask him to show up in leading us the rest of the semester. I'm never sure how he will show up in those times, but he always does in some way. This time he spoke to me through song. My handy dandy i-Pod shuffle (Thanks Mom!) was playing and Will Reagan's song Break Every Chain came on. The lyrics are as follows:

There is power in the name of Jesus

There is power in the name of Jesus
There is power in the name of Jesus

To break every chain
To break every chain
To break every chain

All sufficient sacrifice
So freely given
Such a price bought
Our redemption
Heaven’s gates swing wide

As I sat there praying through stuff the lyrics started resonating in my heart. God showed me how little I was believing these words. There is power in the name of Jesus to break every chain.

Here in Japan there are a lot of chains holding people in spiritual bondage. It breaks my heart and that's a very big reason why I'm back. The sad thing is I have something in the gospel that can free them from their bondage, but I'm terrified to share it because of my fear of man. Listening to the song I realized how little faith I have in the power of Jesus' name. I care more about how people view me than sharing Jesus with them.

There is power in the name of Jesus to break every chain. The words rang in my head over and over again as I hashed things out with God. I repented of my fear, cowardice, and lack of faith in his sovereignty and omnipotence. And I trusted him to use me as a proclaimer of Christ's name to the Japanese students I am meeting.

I do believe there is real, life-transforming power in Jesus' name. I want to be more faithful in proclaiming his name to those around me. The power isn't in me and how I present the gospel, it's in the fact that Jesus died on the cross in our places and rose again from the dead. That kind of love is truly powerful.

Truth of the day for us all- There is power in the name of Jesus. I challenge you as God challenged me to live in that power.

Team Retreat: November 11-13

 

 Pictures galore from our team retreat at Okutama Bible Chalet in Saiwa.

View of the Chalet from the girls' room

Getting creative with ping pong

The never-ending hot beverage bar

Bonfire

View from high up of the river

Pretty

Christine, my river-walk buddy

Cutouts in a lookout over the river

Autumn foliage

Artist

The bridge

Laundry- "Great Champ"

Unreal fall colours

Nature at its finest

One of the most brilliant trees I've ever seen

Sunshine

Boots

The girls

We spent all of Monday planning our campus ministry for the rest of the semester, but had the remaining time free. It was wonderful to sit in the fireside room and read, play card games, or just sit. All of our meals were ready and waiting for us once the dinner bell rang, and there was endless hot water with tea and coffee and hot chocolate mix at our disposal. We also got to explore the surrounding mountains and riverbed and enjoy the magnificent autumn colours. I fast realized how extremely depressing SoCal autumns are in comparison.

Walking by the river, hearing the water rushing by, breathing in the crisp fall air, and taking in all the amazing colours I was really refreshed. You forget how draining city life can be until you take a step back and realize how still you can actually get if you have the chance. I'm very thankful I had a literal breath of fresh air this weekend!

Retreat Preview

Just returned from a two night team retreat at Okutama Bible Chalet in Saiwa. We used the time away from campus ministry to plan the rest of the semester out as well as just enjoy being together in a beautiful environment. Back to work now, but here is a taste of our time there. I'll have more pictures up in the next couple days!

Prayer for the lost

Prayer for the lost, taken from scripture in Ephesians 4:17-24

Dear Father,
I pray for your children who are living in darkness, living with futile thoughts. Their understanding has been darkened and they are separated from reconciliation with you because their hearts are so hardened to their own sin. They have lost all sensitivity and given themselves over to the continual lust of the body. Lord free them from this imprisonment. Clear their vision so they might see and understand your glory. By the power of your Holy Spirit help them put off their old corrupted self. Transform their hearts and minds so they might grow to be like you more each day, living in true righteousness and holiness.

We insist on all this in the powerful name of Jesus Christ.
Amen.

Halloweeny, Halloweeny, Halloweeny

Halloween festivities continued on Tuesday night with a costume party hangout for students we've met at Nichi-dai. Because I had so much going on with the overnighter, I didn't have to help plan this one so it was refreshing to just show up and hang out with the students. We played Birdie on the Perch and taught them several line dances. One thing I've learned from this past week is you can do the Electric Slide to basically every song.

On actual Halloween we were on campus at ICUHS and held a mini festival. Students stopped by our room and said "Trick-or-Treat" and got candy and Subway sandwiches. We had a few games and prizes and taught the Electric Slide again (this time to the Monster Mash). About 35 students came and most of them stuck around the whole lunch period! I got to meet over a dozen new faces so that was a huge blessing.

With Hiro and Leimi

Doing the Electric Slide

Juggling Tangerine Jack o'lanterns

Mandatory group photo

After school about 10 or so students came back. We played several intense rounds of Jenga and each had the opportunity to connect with students at a deeper level. One of the 3rd years walked with us to the train station and Jacob, Christine and I got to have a cool conversation with him. His life has been incredible- living on every continent except Antarctica, and never staying in one place for more than 5 years. Because of that he is very open to talking about different things so it was neat to get his views on Christianity in Japan and different spiritual concepts.

The game heating up

Figuring out my game plan

Talking about the universality of certain symbols

Picnic Family and Johnny!

After all the candy and costumes, my Halloween quota has been reached for about the next 5 years. But the Lord used all of the festivities to plant a lot of seeds I think, so praises to him for that! Please keep all these students in your prayers this next week or so. Halloween is all about the facade, masks, and hiding. These students hide a lot of pain and brokenness every day, please pray that our loving Father would be able to use us to enter into that hurt with them.

Again, all thanks for the pictures goes to Christine, Pun fu Master :)

Halloween, 1st edition

Let me preface this by saying I've never really been super into Halloween. I like carving pumpkins and eating candy, but am too cheap to get into costumes, too lazy to trick or treat, and too jumpy to enjoy scary stuff. So basically I don't celebrate Halloween. That all changed this year! Following is some photographic evidence of this transformation.

First up, our Let's Talk high school overnight costume party! Costume for the night, gangsta' (aka pretty much all of Jacob's wardrobe)

Omar and Gangsta' Quinn

From the MW, Midwest

Toilet paper relays

ICUHS alum now at Waseda!

Jacob's Life story

Playing Golf

The whole gang

Picnic family and Ryuuki

ICUHS staff and students

Omar^2

Costume exchanging

Future architect

I ended up only getting four hours of sleep, but the sacrifice was definitely worth it. The students seemed to have a lot of fun and were really engaged in the things we had planned. About half a dozen spent the night at the student center so we got to invest a lot of time in those relationships. It's amazing how much bonding can happen at 3 in the morning! God definitely showed up and filled in where we lacked.

Jacob shared his 3 minute life story that we all have been working on, and we had discussion time afterwards. I went with all the high school girls who came and, though the discussion was mostly in Japanese, from what I was able to follow they took the questions very seriously and all opened up at least a little bit. What an honor to be part of that feeling of safety and openness! Please pray that the Holy Spirit would continue to be at work in these students' hearts and minds as well as provide my team and I more opportunities to be a safe place for them to turn.

All photo cred goes to Christine, again you can check out her blog of our time here at http://christineharada.tumblr.com/!