comin to an end...

Things here are winding down. Justin and I will be leaving on the 3rd, Monday. Please pray that the flights work out we are flying standby so there is no guarentee. Please keep us in your prayers not to be stressed out or overwhelmed, please pray that the language barrier would not at all be an issue.

Praise God for the 42 people that accepted Christ last week with the super summer team! That makes a total of 84 salvations this summer. Praise God. Please pray that the follow up goes smoothly as well!

I look forward to sharing with you all that God has done this summer!

All Faithful, All Powerful Father

God is totally wonderful!

This past week has been good! Tiring, but good, God has worked in Amazing ways! The Texas Super Summer Team was here. 103 students here to serve the Lord in Tokyo! God used them in so many ways this week. We have many new brothers and sisters in Christ! Praise God for our new members in the Family! This team has been very encouraging to me this week!
First of all it was wonderful to see a familiar face from home, Josh C. was on this team. I didn't get to work with him a lot, but I did get to see him a little bit each day.

Today, in Kunitachi, we were able to witness a new brother in Christ come to salvation. One of the students led him to the Lord. It was just amazing, because the four of us on the Kunitachi team have been praying so much for this station, and it was literally like starting from the ground up at this station. But today God allowed us to see a glimpse of the harvest in Kunitachi. Praise God for D-san our new brother in Christ. Pray for him that he might grow in his walk with Christ.
Please pray for T-san and his wife K-san, a pastor and his wife that are in Kunitachi. Also, DR-san as she works with this pastor and is there to tell the Japanese people about Jesus.

Please pray for the new Christians here in Tokyo, pray for follow up to go smoothly!

Amy and I are meeting with K-san on Saturday, please pray for open doors to share with her, please pray for salvation also, that M-san can meet with us. This will be the last time for us to meet with them.

Also, last week I had the opportunity to meet with two of my team members witha woman, S-san and her from H-san. They have had the Gospel laid out for them, we will be meeting with them, tomorrow, Wednesday, pray that the things holding them back would be broken down, pray for God to bind satan from these women that they may come to know the Love Jesus has for them.

Please pray for Y-san, I will meet with her on Sunday. Please pray for salvation. This is a 3 year relationship that God Himself has grown and continues to grow, please pray for her salvation!

I appreciate your prayers this summer. I wouldn't have made it without yall lifting these requests up to the Father. God has taught me many many things this summer. I look forward to sharing with you what God has done in my life this summer. May God be gracious to you and bless you and make His face shine upon and give you peace!

I will be home within the next week. Please pray for flights, that they will be open so that Justin and I might get home safely and without too much stress!

I praise God for How He teaches His children

I wanna Praise God for how He teaches His children. It may not always be easy, but I find I am more teachable in the valley. But I praise Him for never leaving me, and always giving me a way out. I am thankful that a huge lesson I have learned this summer along with the lesson that it is a privilege to be CHOSEN by God to serve Him in Japan this summer, is humility. Definitely a difficult lesson to learn, but when we ask to be taught, He never fails to give us times to practice what we are learning.

He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High will rest in the shadow of the Almighty. I will say of the Lord, “He is my refuge and my fortress, my God, in whom I trust. Surely He will save you from the fowler’s snare and from the deadly pestilence. He will cover you with His feathers, and under His wings you will find refuge; His faithfulness will be your shield and rampart. You will not fear the terror of the night, no the arrow that flies by day.
Psalm 91:1-5

For you make me glad by your deeds, O Lord; I sing for joy at the works of your hands. How great are your works, O Lord, how profound your thoughts!
Psalm 92:5

Praise God for our 3 new brothers and sisters this week and one who has rededicated his life!




When I said, “my foot is slipping,” your love, O Lord, supported me. When anxiety was great within me, your consolation brought joy to my soul.
Psalm 94:18-19

For in His hand are the depths of the earth, and the mountain peaks belong to Him.
Psalm 95:4



MIGHTIER than the thunder of the great waters, MIGHTER than the breakers of the sea-the Lord on high is MIGHTY.
Psalm 93:4
God knows the thoughts of man; He knows they are futile.
-Psalm 94:11-

…For God is greater than our hearts, and He knows everything.
-1 John 3:20 -

Please pray for…
The new Japanese Christians as they begin their walk with the Lord. Pray for the discipleship process.
That the new believers will follow through with baptism.
For those who are discipling our new brothers and sisters.
We have a huge team coming in this week. 138 volunteers will be here this Tuesday. Pray that we will not let satan will not use the business of this week to get in the way of how God wants to use us.
Please pray for all of the interns who our time left here is short, pray that our trying to get a missionary hooked up with our contacts goes smoothly so they can be followed up with after we are gone.
Continue to pray for our team. God is doing some great things; He is changing one heart at a time we are waking up to what God is teaching us.
PRAISE GOD FOR HIS WORK HERE IN TOKYO THIS SUMMER!

God is still God

Sorry it has been a few days...



Thursday came along and I wasn't lookin forward to goin out for the day. I was feelin' kinda blah...



Thursday night, we had the girls accountability and it was absolutely wonderful. We decided as the girls on the ILT to wash the girls feet. We began the time by reading Romans 10:14-15 and then we sang a song, just spent some time in worship. After that we read John 13 when Jesus washed His disciples feet. After this time, which it was a precious time for me! We spent time just on our knees before the Lord. It was so obvious the Holy Spirit was at work in all of our hearts. It was a great time for us to be like Mary and sit at the feet of Jesus.



Friday came along and I wasn't feeling good again, so I stayed in for the day just to rest.



Saturday was a very long day. We went to the park for park evangelism. July is when it begins to get really hot; rainy season is over, and it is just plain hot (and humid some days). PJ and I spent the time at the park talking with the leader of the Cincinatti team. It was a very productive conversation and also encouraging time. God really convicted my heart of how I had missed out on a opprotunity to really get to know this team. They still had a few days here, and I felt like saturday night I was able to hear their hearts and I am so thankful for that time. Their friendship party was that night and we had it at Johnathans. They had four Japanese come and I am so glad they came. Amy and I met with K-san and M-san who we will be meeting with for Bible study. They came to church Sunday morning also! They are interested in doing Bible study! We will meet with them Friday (with M-san) and Saturday (With K-san) please pray for that time. God is definitely working on their hearts!

Sunday was a wonderful day! The girls came to the worship service and after the Service I got a phone call from my friend from 3 years ago Y-san! Praise God we weren't gonna meet until this coming Sunday because she didn't think she had any free time, but she finished an exam and was goin to be comin to Shibuya for a few hours so we got to hang out. We had so much fun! I will be meeting with her this sunday to, please pray for that time, that God would speak through me clearly to her heart!

Things here are still difficult. I really covet your prayers. Please pray that I can be sensitive to the Holy Spirit. That I would follow God and not man. Please pray for our team as we prepare for a huge group of people to come in the next few weeks. Please pray for our preparation for climbing Fuji-san at the end of July. (physical, mental, emotional, spiritual preparation)

satan is still working on our team. please pray that God would bind the enemy .

Please pray for us not to undestimate HIS POWER!

I hear the Savior say, thy strength indeed is small, child of weakness watch and pray, find in ME thine all in all...

So these past few days, I feel like my emotions have been on a roller coaster... Up one minute down the next. Tuesday was our first day back in the swing of things (back into ministry).

Tuesday, God was really convicting me of the attitude of my heart. When I left the apartment was my heart in the right place for where I desired to meet people, or was I going with the attitude of I have to go. I feel like God has really just changed the attitude of my heart!

Wednesday was my day off, I just tried to relax most of the day. That night we went out and at sukiyaki. This is an absoluetly amazing and expensive meal. But it was wonderful! The budget has been tight so McDonalds and cheap Japanese food has been diffcult to eat most of the time.

Thursday was a good day. It was a draining day. I woke up and spent some wonderful time in the Word. I felt like God was sitting right beside me and was just helping me to understand His Word. Amy and I headed for Kunitachi and it was pouring down rain. Amy left her passport so we waited for someone who was coming to the station to bring it to us, so we didn't have to walk all the way back to the apartment. So to say the least we were runnin a lil' late yesterday!
We finally got to Kunitachi and we did some distribution, so please pray for those who have received the Gospel in Kunitachi that they will want to mail in their paper to get the free DVD of the Gospel! After distribution the team did 5 Minute English and Amy and I had seen that our friend that works in the Dish Shop, Y-san was working today! We were so excited. The mintue we walked into the shop he recognized us and we were so excited. I think I mentioned a little bit about this man before and he has pretty much taken 5 different religions and put them together with the things he likes. He believes in reincarnation. This man is very passionate and he knows his stuff. Most of the time when a Japanese person does have a religion they aren't passionate about it they way this man is. This guy is like a morman, he knows what he believes. The first question he asked was "has anything changed since we spoke the last time?" Amy and I were like.... No it hasn't. Y-san began talking for about 20 minutes and I could not follow a thing he was saying, it was all mixed up (the law of cause and effect, the Bible, reincarnation). I kept asking God, "where are You, I need something to say." I kept feeling I was just to be quiet. I had no idea what he was talkin' about to go off of what he was saying. We have given him the HOPE offer. But next week I hope to take him the actual DVD so that he doesn't have to do anything to get it, he will have it so maybe he will watch it. Please pray for him. It is difficult to talk to him. But he is so happy when Amy and I come in, he has this big smile. I can't help but think he is so confused and I know he is not a Christian, he has a lot of head knowledge of the Bible and what Jesus says. Please, please pray for him.

Amy and I walked down to this old Kimono shop. It was like a vintage kimono shop. This precious woman worked there, she was so sweet. She showed all the things down stairs and we were tryin on different things and I went and got her to come tell us how to put these things on. It was a lot of fun. I don't know her name, but hopefully Amy and I can go back and visit her. We gave her a HOPE offer, so hopefully she will send it in to receive the DVD. So please pray that we will have the opportunity to talk with her again!

Also, the Cincinatti Team will be leaving on Wednesday, and their friendship party is tomorrow so please pray that their contacts come and that as they pass them off to us it is a smooth transition. One girl Amy and I will begin doing Bible Study with her hopefully in the next few days! Please pray for K-san. I believe from what the girls have told me about her, God has been working on her heart for a while and she wants to learn. Please pray for her.

Praise God for our 4 new believers in the family of God yesterday. God is at work, what a privilege to see Him at work here in Tokyo! Thank you all for making it possible to be obdient to what God has called me to this summer!

PRAY PRAY PRAY!

"God did not bring you to Japan for the Japanese, He brought you to Japan for you."

Fuji-san

For two days we had our intern retreat at Lake Yamanaka right at Mt. Fuji. It was absolutely beautiful! I praise God for holding off the rain for a few days! We had a very relaxing time, we rode bikes around the lake where all you had to do is turn your head and there was Mt. Fuji. It is huge...I can't believe I am going to be climing that in just a few weeks! We had times to worship together and laugh together. Last night was amazing, we took the Lord's Supper together as a team and we had a wonderful time of prayer where we begged God for the salvation of Japan.

It was a time for us to pour out our hearts to God for the nation of Japan, But just before we began our prayer time we sang a song that says, "Ruin my life, the plans I have made, Ruin desires for my own selfish gain Destroy the idols that have take your place for it's You Alone I live for." We asked God to ruin any plans of ours that were not of Him. I trust He heard our prayers and will be faithful!

God showed me in these past few days what He wants to teach me this summer. The past few weeks have been very difficult for me in every way possible. Satan decided he wanted to weasel his way in a find any foothole he could, and I was not trusting the Words that God was trying so hard to get through to me. But this past two days God revealed to me what He was trying to teach me last week as I began reading through Isaiah. I started reading in chapter 40 and the same thing kept standing out to me "Do not be discouraged, Do not be dismayed... I have chosen you." I kept telling God I am trying so hard not to be discouraged, but satan continued bringing things to my mind that were discouraging.... I kept asking God why did you put me in this position I am inadequate, I am quiet , I am not a bold person, satan was using any lie he could dig up, the sad thing is they are all lies I have heard before (he never uses anything new). But this weekend God revealed to me through one of the missonaries Bible Study, that "God did not bring me to Japan for the Japanese people, He brought me to Japan for me." God was reminding me that when He showed me in His Word that He chose me (Isaiah 44), it wasn't just that He chose me for the position of the Lead Ladies Intern, but He chose me to come to Japan, He, the Creator of the universe, they One true God, Jehovah Jireh, chose me to be an instrument for Him here in Japan. He is also teaching me how to speak up for what is right, and not just think that because I am a quiet person my opinion doesn't matter. He has given me plenty of opportunities to speak up. I love when God reveals you a little glimpse of His intentions!

Please continue to pray for our team. God has brought about a sense of community and unity, and it is an answer to prayer! We have 19 new team members (high school interns) that arrived this past week and so pray that we can all get to know each other and that we all mesh well and can work together well!

Praise God for what He is doing and what He is going to do!

Pictures

We rented Bikes! Yay so much fun!

Amy at a Recycling fair we found

A FUNNY sign! Read carefully

Me and Rachel

The Girls on the Leadership Team

Amy, Sonya, Audrey, Jessica, Birmy and Lindsay

*Audrey and Sonya are journey girls

GIRLS NIGHT

The Kunitachi Team.(Lindsay, Amy, PJ, Jessica)

God is the God of peace and comfort and restoration

This past week has been very difficult in many ways. Satan had weasled his way into our team through internal struggles, conflict and many different areas he tried to prevent unity among our team. But I praise God that He is so much bigger than any of satan's schemes.

Yesterday was missionary day. We had all the tokyo missionaries out on the field with us. It was a good experience to get to serve along side them. The missionary at our station had us go like Paul yesterday to evangelize. As we were going (do things that interest us) and try to meet people. Amy and I met this man who was so confused. He had taken things from like 5 different religions and picked what he liked and put it altogether. He told us about parables from the Bible, he talked to us about reincarnation... all kinds of things. We were able to explain the parables to him and share what they meant, because his interpretation was way off. Please pray for Y-san. He works there in Kunitachi and so hopefully we can see him on a regualr basis, even if it is just to stop in to say hi. We are praying that he will want to do a Bible study and we can help him to understand the Bible.

All last week, when I was really discouraged I want to praise God for His Word, I am so thankful for how He spoke to me through is Word. My journal is full of "Don't be discouraged" "Do not be dismayed" and "Ihave chosen" Isaiah was the prefect book to be reading through this past week!

Thank yall so much for your prayers.

In our Karaoke church on Sunday, we had two new Japanese Christians that attended. Y-san and o-san. Y-san is so enouraging, he is so interested in the Bible and is he is teaching us things from the Bible. O-san was baptized yesterday, so give God all the glory for how he is changing hearts and lives! Pray for these believers as they grow in their relationship with the Lord. Pray for boldness.
Thank you for your prayers, Keep on praying! We leave for our intern retreat on thursday. I am excited about the time of relaxation! But it starts getting busy as soon as we get back!

So I haven't written a blog in several days, sorry about that. Things startin to pick up with teams comin in. We have new team that came in yesterday. The high school interns are preparing to come next week. The get in on wednesday and we leave on Thursday for our intern retreat at a cabin by the lake, so hopefully that will be nice and relaxing. Our prayers have been answered for our station (Kunitachi). Our station is very small and it is difficult to do things like 5 Minute English because the station and our campus (Hitsosubashi University) are close together so we don't want to risk being noticed at both places and being kicked off. But we had gone for two weeks just covering that station in prayer, and last week our two week team met 3 girls and Friday night we got to have dinner with them. L-san, K-san and Y-san, and we ate dinner with them and were able to share the Gospel with them, so a seed was planted, so please be praying that they will contact us to hang out again.

Then on Tuesday Amy and I met a woman, who had wonderful English, she was like 74 years old and she stopped us on the road to talk with us. She was so happy, she told us how she loved country music, and she especially loved Willie Nelson. Her name is K-san, and she is a Christian. When she was 14 years old she began studying English with an American Missionary, and she studied the Bible and she learned English. When she was 17 she was baptized, and she attends church even now. She was so encouraging to us. It was our first contact that we made at Kunitachi. Amy and I hope to meet with her soon, to have coffee, we want to be an encouragement for her, because she even told us it was so hard to be a Christian here. Please pray for K-san, also her daughter and granddaughter.

Please be in prayer for C-san and S-san that became Christians last week, pray that they will have free time to meet next week or the week after! They weren't able to meet this week, so pray that God will just bind the enemy from them.

A huge praise, M-san, my very first contact this summer, it had been a few weeks since I had heard from him. I was nervous if we would be able to meet again. And at a point when I was really low, God blew my mind! M-san called me on Sunday and came to church and dinner, and he told us that he wants to study the Bible, so Praise God for that. Please pray that our schedules will work out and we can meet for Bible study.

Please continue to pray for our team here, pray for joy, peace, and renewed spirits!
Thank you for your prayers, God is working in mighty ways and He continues to amaze me and He reminds me that He doesn't need me at all, He will work around me. But be encouraged that He chooses to use me!

Today is the day of Salvation!

Praise God, we have two new sisters in Christ! Thank you so much for praying for C-san and for Y-san. Last nite after 3 hours of Bible Study, they prayed to receive Jesus Christ as their personal Savior! they told us " I want to accept him" Praise God! We will continue to meet with them for Bible study! Next wednesday we will begin talking with them about baptism! God is moving in a mighty way here. Even though some things here have been difficult, God continues to show us that He is so much bigger than that! May God receive all the glory!

Before meeting with these women, I received a message that 2 others had prayed to receive Christ. That was 4 people just yesterday! Please pray that God's power continues to move in a mighty way here in Tokyo. Please pray for God to bind satan from our team, from the Japanese and for God to break the strongholds here in Japan!

I am currently listening to they hymn, The Blood will Never Lose its Power. That is so true, it reachest to the highest mountain and the lowest valley! I thank God for the words of this song!

Please keep praying! Satan knows God is at work, and he is not happy at all. God is stronger!

In the valley, there are still glimpses of Sunshine

If I were to tell you things here were great, it wouldn’t be true. It is very difficult here, in many ways. But since my last blog (Sunday) we have 3 new brothers in Christ. Praise God! He is at work here. I met a Christian today, his name is Kazuo. He is going to disciple Yoshi, who has been a Christian since Friday.

Things here, within our team, are difficult, we are really crying out to God to unify us. We all get along for the most part, but the way the team is split up into train station teams, it is difficult, we have some teams really struggling. Please be praying for that us in that situation. We want unity, but most of all we need community, all throughout Acts you see the apostles doing everything together! They had a community. We all have one purpose and that is to tell the Japanese about Jesus Christ. We have had several teams kicked off campuses so far (I think 3). That is so discouraging for some teams.

Today Justin and I will be meeting with C-san and Y-san for Bible study. We met with them this past Sunday, so please please be praying for these two women! I truly believe C-san will become a believer before the end of the summer! We will be talking about Jesus from beginning to end. She emailed Justin this weekend, asking questions about the 10 Commandments. So he answered that so we may be going over that as well!! Please pray for their salvation!

Prepare the Way, Prepare the Way, Prepare the Way of the Lord

Well this week, it has been full of ups and downs. But we have 7 new brothers and sisters in Christ in the past 10 days. So I praise God for that.

Please be prayin for C-san and Y-san! These are two women, one who has studied the Bible for a year with a journeyman who was here and left a few months ago. Justin met her on the bus last week and she said that it must be God's will that she continue to study the Bible because she met him. We met with both women today and C-san knows a lot about the Bible, but she still has some questions. So please pray that we can answer their questions clearly!

Today at our Karaoke church in Tachikawa we had our first Japanese Christian come, so we were very excited. Y-san was so encouraging, he shared with us what he had learned from God's Word since he became a Christian on Friday, he said he understood that he had been made complete in Christ, and he has new life. He was so encouraging. He is very excited to continue studying the Bible, and wants to learn much more. Pray for him as he continues to be discipled. Pray for boldness and courage for him to boldly share his faith. Pray for him as he makes a decision about his dream of being an actor.

Pray for our other new believers.

Pray for our team for unity, for spiritual warfare to end, for strength as we continue and it gets busy with teams coming in.

Thank you for your prayers this far! God is at work here!! He is goin to do some amazing things!

This is my prayer in the desert, when all thats within me feels dry, this is my prayer in hunger and need MY GOD IS THE GOD WHO PROVIDES...

So Friday night Justin and I met with A-san and we shared the Gospel with her. We went into great detail with her, she said it was difficult for her to understand, but she was understanding some of what we were saying. She wants to meet with us again but we think her mom is telling her not to meet with us because she is very hesitant. She wants to meet with us but she doesn't want to study the Bible. So please continue to pray for her, that God will soften her heart.

So these past 4 days have been very difficult for me. Satan is trying anything and everything he can to discourage us. The ILT (Intern Leadership Team) is really getting hit hard with a lot of the logicstics. All the small details we feel are really getting in the way of what God is trying to do here.

It is very difficult to explain everything, it is just really hard, so I ask you to please pray for us, please pray for me! I am having a hard time, confrontation is not my thing at all and God is really testing me in this area.

Please pray for us to constantly, moment by moment seeking the Holy Spirit, and seeking His guidance and direction.

Please pray that Justin and I can meet with Miki sometime soon. Our schedules have had a difficult time getting on the same page.

Please pray for unity among our team.

Please Pray

Tonight Justin and I will be meeting with one of his contacts A-san. She is high school student and we will be meeting with her tonight to begin a Bible Study. Please pray for wisdom and guidance and that we would be sensitive to the Holy Spirit.

Please pray for our team as we go out today, it is very rainy and dreary so it is difficult for us to do our normal ministry activities.

I can feel your prayers here, God is already at work here and He is going to do an amazing work this summer! Please continue to pray with us and for us!

Answered Prayers- God knows what He is doing!

Well, we are very busy here in Tokyo, alot is going on! All the rest of the interns have arrived. The Cave(our apartment) is completely full! Today is a full day of orientation. It is raining outside and kind of cool, very nice, but dreary.
Yesterday was half a day of orientation, we had half of the interns here for orientation, the rest of the interns arrived last night. But after orientation we took the interns out for 5 Minute English in 3 different stations. My group went to Tachikawa. I was hoping to meet Miki, but he was not able to meet yesterday. So I was kind of discouraged about that yesterday. I was really tired yesterday and I was constantly praying for energy and strength to keep going. We started doing 5ME and it was kind of slow. The first person came up to me and his name was Ken. He had great english but he was not interested in hearing about the Gospel. He had traveled all over the world doing photography, and he said that he believed in all religions, he claimed to be a chrstian, but he claimed to believe in many gods. So from that I knew he was not a Christian, he did not understand what it meant to be a Christian. So I asked him if I could share with him my story, how Jesus Christ had changed my life. But he said "no thank you" and went on to say thank you for practicing English and he left. I was very discouraged, just hearing him say he didn't want to hear anymore, broke my heart in half. I was just prayed that one day his heart might be open to hear the Gospel.
Last week I shared with you that I met a lady named Yoko. She was interested in the Gospel, she listened as I shared the Gospel with her. But so far I have not received an email from her. So yesterday I prayed "Lord, please send Yoko back today so I can talk with her." About 15 minutes after Ken had left, a woman with her daughter passed by me, then she turned around and came back. The woman was looking for someone to teach her daughter english. So starting soon I hope I will begin teacher the child. She was about 7 maybe 8. I asked her mother to write down her information and I would give her mine. The woman wrote down her name. Her name was Yoko and her daughter's name is Seiko. What an answered prayer. This situation reminded me that God does answer our prayers, in ways we hoped for, in ways that are different than what we thought would be best. But He always answers our prayers, He hears us.
So please be praying that I can exercise what I have learned in school to teach this precious child. I hope to use the Bible to let her practice reading English. I hope to talk alot with Yoko and share Christ with her.
Please also pray for Hiroshi, a guy I met yesterday who has seen the Passion of Christ movie and he asked me why did they beat him. I got to share Jesus with him. He is interested in him and his friends meeting foreigners. So hopefully this will be an open door to share Christ!

God is working in amazing ways. Please pray that God would break down the strongholds here in Japan. That God would draw people to Himself. Please pray for boldness and that we would share the Gospel fearlessly.

Please pray for Miki. Pray for more questions.

Please pray for Yui, my friend from a few years ago, that I get to meet with her soon and that she would want to know more about Christ.

Please M-san, he met with Jessica yesterday and they had Bible study and he really wants to believe, he just wants to try to understand better.

PRAY PRAY PRAY

Please pray for the interns as well that the Lord would bind satan from this place. Especially in telling them they should not be here this summer. that is very discouraging for everyone.

Getting Ready

Today (Monday May 25th) we had a little more training. Now we are getting ready for interns to arrive tomorrow and some to arrive Wednesday. Wednesday and Thursday we have more and more training! We got our schedule for the summer and it is going to be busy! But I see the Lord's hand already at work! So please be praying for safe travel for interns this week and patience as we get ready for their arrival. Please pray that we as the ILT will be given an encouraging spirit for the summer because satan is really hittin' people hard already this summer...

Mysterious Ways

So yesterday was just wonderful! Relaxing, but stressful in some ways, but God works through all those times!

Yesterday was my day off, and I was able to catch up on my sleep, I was able to relax and read a book for a while, and spend some great time in the Word. We (the ILT) made pancakes and all ate together, it was a great time of fellowship.

About 2 some of us girls began making a sign of all the targeted train stations for the summer. We decided to be creative and make something really neat for the wall.

After making the sign, it was time for me to get ready for the friendship party at Kokubunji station, where I was to meet Miki. I had asked a friend, well a teammate to meet with Miki and I. I wanted someone who had a little bit of Japanese to meet with us so that he could have someone explain the Gospel at least a little in Japanese. He had told me the night before he would go with me. Satan decided to use something very small to get me frustrated and changed my focus quick. 15 minutes before it was time to leave, he told me he didn't think he wanted to go. Immediately I was frustrated. Not because he wasn't coming, but because he told me 15 minutes before leaving. So I quickly grabbed my things and left, I just wanted to pray about it and I asked some of my teammates to pray that this would not affect my conversation with him tonight.
All the way to the train station I prayed for the Lord to help me refocus and most of all to prepare Miki's heart and give me words to say to him so that he would understand.

When I met Miki at the train station, Justin met us at the light while we were walking. He was able to talk with Miki and I and it was great. After eating a burger and talking for a while, Miki, Justin and I went to get some ice cream. We had great conversation about the Bible. Most of Miki's questions are "WHY?" He has said that he does not really care about religion or anything like that but he still wants to meet. So I told him we do still want to meet with him, but we have a Bible study that I think will really help him, and help answer some of his questions. So please be praying that he will continue to be willing to do the Bible study, and I really feel like the Lord is really working in his heart, because he still wants to meet with us. Miki loved hanging out with Justin and I, Japanese people are not usually very touchy feely people, but when we left Miki gave Justin a big hug... We will be meeting with Miki again soon! So pray for his heart to be soft and open, and curious! But God gave Justin and I an opportunity to minister together as a team, so I praise God for how He worked in this situation!

• Please pray for our Karaoke churches that will be starting this summer. We have 3 we are trying to start. 1 church today had I believe 5 Japanese people (Buddy' station- Kokubunji). The 2nd church had 1 Japanese person (Jeff's station-Musashi-sakai). Today was the first day for the church at our station (Tachikawa station), so we are praying for at least 1 Japanese person next week. PJ is in charge of the church plant, but him and I will permanently be at the church every week.



• This week the rest of the interns are coming in, so pray for safety and unity and we will be have a lot of more training. So please pray for rest and time and energy to meet new people this week.


• We have a few unspoken issues that will need to be dealt with in the next few days. Please pray God's guidance and words...


• Also, today we were suppose to do Park Evangelism, but it was raining. So we went to the arcade to try to meet people . We met two girls and did purikura and at lunch together. It was quite difficult to get into the Gospel, we did not know enough Japanese and they did not know English, so please pray that they order the HOPE DVD so they can hear about Christ in Japanese.
  

He has given me a new song to sing, a hymn of praise to our God. Many will see hwat He has done and be amazed. The will put their trust in the Lord.

Psalm 40:3

Mighty to Save

Everyone needs compassion
A love thats never failing
Let mercy fall on me
Everyone needs forgiveness
The kindness of a Savior
The hope of nations

Savior, He can move the mountains
My God is mighty to save, You are mighty to save
Forever, Author of salvation
You rose and conquered the grave,
Jesus conquered the grave

So take me as you find me
All my fears and failures
Fill my life again
I give my life to follow
everything I believe in
Now I surrender
I surrender Lord

My Savior, you can move the mountains
You are mighty to save, You are mighty to save
Forever, Author of salvation
You rose and conquered the grave
My Jesus conquered the grave

Shine YOUR light and let the WHOLE world see
We are singin for the Glory of the Risen King

Zephaniah 3:17
"The Lord your God is living among you,
He is a MIGHTY SAVIOR
He will take delight in you with gladness
With His love He will calm all your fears
He will rejoice over you with joyful songs."

• Please pray for Miki, Adam, a team member and I will be meeting with him, hopefully sharing the Gospel and he will practice his english by reading the Bible.

God Almighty

Yesterday (Wednesday) was a long day for many of us! We have bee through 3 days of constant training, which has been good, informational and will be helpful in the future. It was vey hot yesterday and we have been doin a lot of walking. But God has showed up everytime we have gone out to do ministry.
Yesterday we finished training a little earlier and went out to eat with some new team members. Then we went to Tachikawa station to do 5 Minute English. Our prayers were all " God we are exhausted, please give us energy, and a cool breeze while we do 5ME. Please send us persons of peace(those who are willing to listen to the Gospel *Luke 10) " But I must say yesterday we saw God move yesterday!
I met an older man, who just walked up to me and said Hi (real big and loud HI) but he didnt have very good english at all, it was difficult to understand him. But I could tell he just wanted to say hi! I was able to give him a HOPE tract. A few minutes later a precious little girl, she was all by herself, she was about 7 or 8. * In Japan it is common to see children all by themselves on the rains on their way to school.* SO it wasnt out of the ordinary for me to see this little girl alone, with her precious little purse. She wanted to talk in english, but she was having trouble understanding me. So we just practiced reading in english. I would read it and she wanted me to read it so she could hear how I said the words. We talked for a few minutes, I gave her a HOPE tract as well. For her I felt like taking time to practice with her is what the Lord had for me to do, because it was difficult for her to understand. She waved goodbye to me several times. I watched her walk away and I prayed for her that one day she would come to know Jesus Christ. I believe her name was Saruka.
About 10 minutes after talking with Saruka I met Yoko. She was a little bit older she had good english. She told me she used to go to church and she asked me if I was a missionary. She knew about Jesus, not a lot but she had heard of Christ before. I was able to go almost all the way through the Gospel with her. I got to a part where we read Revelation 3:20 "behold, I stand at the door and knock..." and Buddy (missionary) has told us when we get to this verse ask, what "door" is Jesus talking about? If they say your heart then you know they are following you. I asked Yoko this question and she said your heart! I was so excited just praying for God to help the rest to be presented clearly. She had to leave, but she asked me if she could take the tract with her and so she has the HOPE Tract (to order a DVD about Christ), the Steps to peace with God(The Gospel) and a Gospel of John(The book of John). She could not remember her email, so I only have her name.

God is truly the Almighty God. I am so thankful for the opportunity to be used by Him here in Japan. What a privilege to see His hand at work right before my very eyes.

• Please pray for The older man I met that he would send his address in the receive the HOPE DVD. Also that Saruka would do the same!
• Please pray for Yoko that she would email me so that we can have Bible study together so that she can understand the Bible and the Love Jesus has for her.
• Please pray for my leg, it has been hurting me for a few days now, and I am not really sure why. But it is hard to walk alot with it hurting like this. Please pray for healing.
• Please pray for energy. We( ILT- Intern Leadership Team) have a lot of little projects to get done in the next few days. The rest of the Interns will be here on the 27th!

I appreciate your prayers!

Day 1

Today was a long day, we started with Intern Leadership Team (ILT) training. We were given a lot of information that will be very useful in the near future!
After training was over we went to Tachikawa to do 5 minute english. At first it was a little slow. The first person I talked to had told me that he had already received the HOPE dvd. So we talked a little bit about it, but he had to go kind of quickly for work, but I did get his contact information so hopefully he can meet with a guy on the team to practice English, and hopefully learn more about Christ.

• Pray for Daichi that he would come to know more about Christ, and that we would be able to keep in contact.
• Please pray for Miki, we had over an hour long conversation today, he was asking some difficult questions, it was very difficult to understand WHY most of all about God. "If HE is in control, why doesn't God stop war, sickness..." His question was mainly WHY? He wants to meet again, so we hope to meet soon.

I want to say thank you for praying, God is definitely working here in Tokyo already! Please also be praying for unity amongst the team of interns here!

Konichiwa

Justin and I made it safely to Tokyo today around 2:30! The flight was interesting, but it went by quickly for the most part. I praise God for getting us here safe and sound! It is about 9:30 p.m. right now we just had dinner with some other interns and are getting ready to sleep, it is quite difficult right now to keep my eyes open. It is hard to be still and concentrate on something.
From my understanding we will be having church (Bible Study) in a park tomorrow. Please be in prayer for this service that people will be drawn by the Holy Spirit. Also, for the California Baptist University Team (CBU) that is here now. Not sure of what else is instore for tomorrow, but I will definitely keep you updated.

Today I received an email telling us to be in prayer for our four new brothers and sisters in Christ this week, that they will follow through with their commitment to follow Christ now matter what. One man that is now a believer in Christ, used to be a mormon so we are praying for him as he studies the Bible it will be clear to him, and he will not confuse truth with the lies of satan.

Thank you for yours prayers and support! Please keep on Praying!

Trust

I have loved getting to be home for a few days. I got to see both of my nephews, Parker and Camden, who have both grown and changed so much! I have loved getting to spend time with my parents and my sisters, even if it is a small amount of time. It has been good to visit with my gram also and see my aunts and cousins! God has been so gracious to allow me time with my family these few days I am home.

Preparing for Japan has been such an experience for me and still is an experience. God is really teaching me about trusting Him, completely. I found myself today praying that I needed God to help me to believe what I was praying for, and trust that He can do so much more than I could ever ask or imagine. I am so thankful that God is always faithful, He has showed me little glimpses of His faithfullness all throughout this semester in preparing for Japan.

The other day I was in need of encouragement, I spent time that night just really pouring out my heart to God on different things going on, and the next morning I woke up with an email from a girl at school that I have never met. Her email said that she prayed for me, she prayed for my smile, my words and my actions, for any troubles I was facing, she prayed God's strength and peace over me. My jaw just dropped to the floor. It was from someone I have never met before and God really encouraged me through this girls' email. I praise God for being Faithful and that His blessings are far greater than anything I could have ever imagined. God heard my plea for help and He encouraged.

The time is drawing near, and satan is usuing anything he can think of to attack me. But my God is so much bigger than that!

Please be praying for...

• The flights over to Japan. All of us interns are leaving within the next 3 or 4 days. I leave Friday morning.


• The jet lag- that I can handle it well. Usually the first few days are difficult.


• The missionaries as they prepare for our arrival


• The Japanese people. Pray for curiousness about the One true God, pray for God to break the strongholds in their lives. Pray for soft hearts. Pray for God to bind the enemy.

As my first post on this blog, I just want to share with you how the Lord has worked in my life to bring me to the place I am today. I started praying about going to Japan this summer about a year ago. I knew it would be the last time I was most likely able to because of school and trying to finish up. But I began praying about going, and there came a point where I thought I was not going to be able to go because of various reasons. But as the year went on, I knew that God had called me to go to Tokyo this summer, and I would go no matter what it cost. The Lord impressed upon my heart Isaiah 61:1"The Spirit of the Sovereign LORD is on me, because the LORD has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives and release from darkness for the prisoners..." God has called me for this specific task this summer.

God began to open doors for a leadership position. I was first offered the role of a Prayer Coordinator. I prayed about that and felt I should accept this position. Probably 3 to 4 weeks later, I received an email from our head missionary, explaining to me that he had prayed about this role he had that had yet to be filled, and he felt that God was leading him to ask me if I would fulfill this position. The position was the Lead Ladies Intern (LLI). I had about 5 days to pray about this decision. I prayed about this decision earnestly, begging God for clear answer. In the missionary's email, he said he felt as "if God had raised me up for this very hour." ("for such a time as this" Esther 4) After lots of prayer, I decided to seek wise counsel and just someone to pray over me. On my way to school that mornin' I prayed for God to give me some sort of sign, even if it wasn't written out clear as day... I then went to my mentor, who when I told her I needed prayer about making a very big decision, and as soon as I said something about a leadership, she placed her hands over her face and said "it's my fault" she went on to say that in her reference letter she had said that I should be in a leadership position, and she proceeded with words of affirmation. I felt that I should accept this position, it will definitely get me out of my comfort zone, it will challenge me in my walk, and give me a chance to pour into the girls that I am serving alongside this summer.
So, I am very grateful for this opportunity the Lord has given me, May He receive all the glory, honor, and praise! Please join with me in praying for my team members, for unity among all the team members, for the missionaries, and of course for the Japanese people, that the Lord would soften their hearts to be open to hear the Gospel.