Saturday, June 6, 2009

Week 2!

So, this past week has been a pretty rough week. Monday was spent at Gakugei University where I had several great conversations and got to share the gospel with a student. The next three days were at Hitotsubashi and were not quite as encouraging. The conversations were awkward, the students I talked to didn't seem interested, and my motivation to start conversation was being drained. It was really rough! I never really though about ministry as being as hard as I'm learning it to be. But Thursday was a turnaround! I had great quiet time on campus reading a few chapters of Matthew and then had a really encouraging conversation with one of our team leaders Gen.

The story of Peter walking on the sea really stuck out to me:

"So He said, “Come.” And when Peter had come down out of the boat, he walked on the water to go to Jesus. But when he saw that the wind was boisterous, he was afraid; and beginning to sink he cried out, saying, “Lord, save me!”
And immediately Jesus stretched out His hand and caught him, and said to him, 'O you of little faith, why did you doubt?'"
- Matthew 14: 29-31

This is such a great portrayal of our days on campus. We take leaps of faith, trusting God is there to keep us up. The moment we start doubting the Lord's power, we begin to fall. But the greatest thing about our Lord is that even if we do doubt and fall, his hand is immediately there to catch us! How legit is that? So, that's been something I've been learning to rely on.

Another thing I've been learning is how much of a team we really need to be. We're all going to have encouraging days and have discouraging days. Something that's really helped me get through that is taking joy in victories as a team. A win for any of us is a win for Christ, how can I forget that? We're not in this alone, we're not even in this as just a team of 17, we're in this as all the Christians in the world with God by our side!

None of this is really news for me and it's all kind of common sense, I'm just recently learning to live it out in times of trouble.

So, let's look at the positve!
Last Wednesday, one student at Hitotsubashi University, while talking to one of my teammates and a Christian Japanese student, decided to accept Christ! YES! It's the first and only we've seen so far, but that's so encouraging to hear! I ask that you pray for him that his faith is genuine and that he continues to grows in the Lord.

Also, we recently found out that the administration at one of our campuses has forbidden the Japanese Campus Crusade for Christ from ever coming back onto ICU (which stands for International Christian University... pretty ironic huh?). As a result of that, the whole team got to go to ICU High School where they had some pretty quality time talking about their faith and sharing their testimonies! At that point, the whole team wasn't even upset about the ICU situation anymore! Pretty cool to see how God has his own plan, huh?

Now onto the tourist-y stuff!
Saturday, we woke up at a painfully early time of 4 AM and went to the Tsukiji fish market. It was crazy! There was fish and blood and guts everywhere! It was pretty sweet. After the fish market, we went to a fresh sushi place right nearby and had some delicious nigiri!


After a much-needed nap, we went to a local park and just had a chill time exploring the park, playing volleyball and soccer, and watching a sweet local quartet perform!


Sorry for the long post, but it's been a while and it's been a pretty eventful week.

I wanted to thank you all again for your prayers and encouragement! It's been one of the most encouraging things for me to get e-mails and messages from friends and supporters telling me to keep on going. You guys are awesome!

Until next time,
Andrew

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