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.