Wednesday, July 8, 2009

Week 4 - "Team Unity!"

Ok so now pretend that i'm posting this on June 20th, 2009 and it is now the end of week 4 - a pretty eventful week! I honestly don't remember too much detail from this week but i do remember it was full of fun events!

On Tuesday night, we had men's time at an all-you-can-eat Japanese BBQ restaurant and then went back to the apartments where we discussed how to live as true men of God, pro-actively pursuing others in encouragement, edification, and love. It was a really inspiring talk and really touched on a lot of the things God has been teaching me recently.

Gen and Kylan bbq'ing!

On Wednesday night "family night", we went to dinner at an all-you-can-eat shabu shabu restaurant (so much meat for one week!, it was amazing) and then went out to a karaoke place! That was a super fun night.

Since the theme of the week was persevering together through team unity, each person was required to switch with the other campus team for one day. For me, I ended up going to Gaidai (Tokyo Univ. of Foreign Studies) on Thursday with campus team 2. It was really cool getting to go sharing with one of our guys Kyle who I had never gone sharing with and getting to see him talk to students.

Friday night was the creative date we had planned for the ladies and it was very much a success. We presented a quite comedic skit of what project would be like without the girls as well as a poem prepared by some of our guys telling them how much we appreciate and love them.

All of us all dressed up after the date

The busy week ended with yet another busy day of the whole team waking up at 7 AM to spend the day at DisneySea, only to come back home around midnight. Even though Saturday was just a fun day at a Disney theme park, God used a lot of stuff that happened to really show me how much He loves me and how much all I really need is him and nothing else in this world. On the train ride back from DisneySea, I had some of the best worship/prayer times I've had in a long time. It was a pretty great night.

Most of us, waiting in line at DisneySea!

Week 3 - "Challenge" Week!

Ok, so i know this is a really late post, but just pretend like i posted this on June 13th, 2009. It is now the end of weeks 3, "Challenge Week", a pretty great week for me. The "challenge" aspect of it involved three goals that we had to set (a number of gospel presentations, a personal goal, and an "exceedingly more" that only God can fulfill). I had a goal of 6 gospel presentation, a personal goal of having quiet time twice a day, and an "exceedingly more" that one of my contacts would e-mail me back after over a week of not responding. At first, I wasn't really sure how I felt about this whole thing, thinking we're kind of putting God's plan in a box. After talking to Gen about it (talking to him always makes things better lol), I began to see it as a way of challenging myself in getting out of my comfort zone and sharing my faith more, while humbly trusting that the Lord is taking care of me and will provide what needs to be provided. In the end, it was a great week!


This is my campus team in front of Hitotsubashi University

The best part about it was that my "exceedingly more" prayer was answered the next day! Kylan (our campus leader) and I were heading back to the gate at Gakugei on Monday ready to head home where I see someone who looks really familiar. I didn't wanna look like a fool so I didn't want to approach him but Kylan encouraged me to and then I realized it was Yoshiki! (the guy my "exceedingly more" was about). He was really excited to see me and told me how he had e-mailed me the night before and I hadn't gotten it! How sweet is that!? I then got a chance to invite him to the "English Lunch" hosted by Campus Crusade and he came to it! It was really encouraging to see God answer a prayer so quickly.

On another note, while my goal of gospel presentations wasn't quite met, it really encouraged me to just go out there and talk to a lot of people about Jesus. Whether I felt like it or not, I persevered through dry times and went out and formed relationships. As a result, I met my dear friend Daisuke. He was sitting on a little seat in the grass reading a book. Jeremy and I approached him and he was really nice in inviting us to sit and was really welcoming in his conversation. The convo quickly led to spirituality and we told him all about Jesus. His response was pretty much: "wow that sounds like a great God, i wish a God like that was true in my life". The bummer was that it was followed with the response, "but in Japan, we've learned that religion is bad, so i can't join a religion". Nonetheless, we talked for over an hour about religion, culture, Jesus, and just life in general. It was the start of a pretty sweet friendship.

The thing that frustrated me the most was how typical this reaction was with Japanese students. So many students talk about how great of a god our God sounds and how much they long for that sense of peace and joy that we talk about. I can tell not only how much they need a god, but how much they want a god! They just have grown up with the thought of religion as a terrible thing that leads to hatred and violence, even though this is the first time for many to hear the message of the gospel. It's so frustrating! Either way, it was really encouraging to meet Daisuke who was so open to Jesus and allowing God to work in him.

We finished the week with our "Discover Friends" Party, a ministry-oriented party that we held for all the Japanese friends we've made over the last few weeks. It was a really cool opportunity for us to share the gospel and just have a good time with the friends we've made.


Ok, now onto the fun of the weekend. After such a rough week, we were "highly encouraged" by our team leaders to rest on the weekend. We did so by going to Tokyo Disneyland for the day. Gen, Heather, Jeremy, and I spent the day (from 3 PM) having a chill and fun day and it was great! After dland closed and we got back to Koenji, we spent over 2 hours at a local park playing on the swings and playing the Haha game. It was one of my favorite days of the trip!


Me, Heather, Jeremy, and Gen in front of the Disney Castle!