Thursday, July 16, 2009

49

7/15

Today was a great day! We went to Seikei today for one of the final times this summer. We will return a few more times, but with exams coming up soon and summer break almost here... campus ministry is coming to a close. Today on campus I was unable to meet with my friend again which was a little depressing. it has been several times now that i have shown up and she has been unable to meet with me for lunch. I pray that God is handling it and Satan will let go! So today i was able to really reflect on God's glory and how much he used me to work in another contacts life yesterday! I still can not get over how much he is working in her life!!! :) Our team wasn't really busy on campus today because most of our contacts are studying for their finals... so we left earlier than normal and headed to our station. Today at 4 I had a meeting with a man who was very interested in the Bible! He is from Iraq and I meet him during 5ME on Saturday. We were able to sit down on Saturday and I was able to present to him the Gospel and every thing he had questions about. he was very knowledgeable about the topic and said he would like to meet again. So today was the schedule meeting day and he came at 4! I had asked my teammate Brian to come over if he showed up. So there we were 4 of us and our contact answering his many questions! he came with at least 30 questions written on his paper in Arabic! It was such a blessing to see that he had been thinking about all these questions and writing them down since we met on Saturday! As interns we were able to answer all of his questions and he really acted like he understood each answer we gave him! God is really working in him and allowing him to see and understand what the Bible is all about. Upon his meeting with me he presented me with a small gift of jewelry which was very sweet of him! It was very thoughtful and kind of him to bring me a gift. he was able to exchange numbers and emails with the guys and is excited about meeting again for more bible study next wednesday! God is so amazing! After 5ME today we went ahead and headed home to the cave and Katrina went to have bible study with one of her contacts she has been meeting with for a month now! tonight at worship the interns shared we had 2 people come to Christ today and one Christian Japanese woman rededicate her life to Christ! GREAT DAY!!!

-Our contact from last night!
-Seikei university and their final weeks of school
-Mitaka station and 5ME!
-My Iraq friend who is so interested in the BIBLE!!!
-2 new believers :) that their hearts are broken for Him!
-rededication of one's life to Christ!!! PtL!!!

haley michelle :)

amazing 48

7/14/09

Today was such an amazing day and I know this blog is going to be long so I apologize as I start this blog! Usually i have Tuesdays off, so this was a first Tuesday for me to be working with my original teammates! We distributed to the very first houses we did together at the beginning of the summer and had so much fun! We were able to finish and spend some time together having fun at a park! this was our first park time together at the beginning of the summer and now as we head to the end of our summer we got to enjoy it together, us 3 again! So today I had plans to meet with Katrina and our new friend for a fun day together! I joined them at Starbucks and we took off on a bus headed to her university! ICU - International Christian University! :) It was such a beautiful campus and we got to see cheer leading and authentic Japanese culture drum playing! it gave me chills as I watched them, maybe I can see it again sometime! :) So we took a tour or the campus and it was HUGE! the chapel was very large and peaceful and we went in together and read the Lord's prayer in Japanese and English! Amazing experience :) So for lunch we went to the cafeteria and bought some food and sat down to talk to her about the Gospel! It was amazing and god was definitely at work in her heart from when we met the first time to today. When we met her she shared with us she would love to be our friend and teach us Japanese, but was not interested in the bible. Then that night when we went to dinner with another intern Justin, she shared with us that she could not wait for next semesters Christianity class! So just in one day she went from not being interested to being excited about a class! :D So Katrina started asking her questions and basically what was holding her back from God. Sh explained to us that her friends and family had built her up and helped her live the life she is living without God. So on a scale we would say she is about a -20. So then she told us that from being accepted at ICU and her counselors there helping her get through a depression she moved closer to God. here we would say she is now at a -15. Then as we continues talking to her she explained to us that through our 2 meetings and everything she has learned from us she is now only at a -10 and that not much is holding her back from God. She says she knows he is real, but their are still unclear things! Praise the Lord for really working in her heart the last few days! :) So after lunch our friend taught us the Japanese way to use the squatty potty :) Oh how i wont forget these memories :) Good times! After her campus visit we headed by bus to her house and were so excited about it! We arrived and met her sweet little mom who was so nice to us! her mom is a teacher of tea ceremonies and she even taught us today how to make the green tea that they use at the ceremonies!!! :) We enjoyed grapes, Japanese trail mix and regular tea together while engaging in "girl talk" as she called it. She shared with us that her boyfriend caused her to suffer a depression. Katrina and i were able to share so much about God's love and how much greater it is than earthly love! She really understood it and we got to talk so much girl talk and she grasped every bit of it! Later her mom came back and we learned how to make the green tea and we enjoyed bean jello and tiny doughnuts together! before we left our friend shared with us that the day and the hours we had spent with her were so precious to her and she would never forget us. she shared with us how she is waiting for a man to come along so she could get rid of her boyfriend... GOD wants to be that man! Today in her home for 4 hours, God was just really moving in her heart and we could feel his presence! Eventually Katrina and i left her home and went to eat dinner at the sushi bar together and to talk about how amazing God worked through us today! HE is so amazing! :) We went and had fun at a photo booth together and later I ran with Jasmin! She thinks I am crazy for sprinting on Tokyo streets! lol It is a great time though we have working out :) God blessed us so much today!

Requests!
-Our contact that we were so blessed to spend the entire day today with
-Pray that she continue to want to know more and ask us more questions!
-her mom is so precious! Pray that even though she didn't understand much English that she saw Christ's love in us today!
-Mitaka distribution and its progress

haley

day number 47!

July 13th!

Well here we are another Monday!!! We woke up this morning, jasmin and I to take care of out tie dye shirts! we had to rinse them a bit and then dry them so some of the girls could wear them :) It was such a blast making them last night with all the girls! I GOT MY PACKAGE TODAY! My best friend sent me a goodies package last week that got here today full or my favorites :D The package actually came during the middle of my meeting... so typical of my best friend to barge in on something! It was a great surprise :D So today in our meeting instead of everyone sharing like usual, we just let those who needed to talk speak out and lay it all out there. The distribution is going really slow and so we are trying to figure out a better process for everything and how we can reach all these houses this summer. It is going to be a mind blowing experience to get these house distributed to but I know Christ has a plan. the houses he has planned for us this summer are going to get the Gospel of John and the ones he wanted to get the tract has already gotten them and 35 responses! how amazing is our father! :) Today everyone left during fellowship time and some of the girls and I stayed back and invested time in our different books! I am really enjoying Redeeming Love! Christ has shown me so much about myself through this book and how much I need and deserve a man on fire for God like the man in this book! So amazing... you should read the book! :D Tomorrow instead of having my day off, I am meeting with the lady my friend katrina and I met at Starbucks and went to have dinner with last week. She has invited us to see her campus and her home! that is such a unique opportunity in the japanese culture and rare occasion for americans to experience. We are so excited about this opportunity and instead of tomorrow, my day off will be Thursday! :)

requests:
-all the wigtakes and their teams!
-distribution and reaching the home Christ has planned for us this summer
-volunteer teams and their motivation throughout their time here!
-Audrey and her safety getting home and her future!
-future husbands!
-WBU opportunities in BSM and at FBC!

Hay Hay

46 (four and six) FORTY SIX

7/12/2009

Celebrate it is SUNDAY!!! :) We had church at the park today and it was awesome as always!!! We had an amazing worship time today with all 3 volunteer teams that are here, our high school interns, our m's and their families, and of course the regular interns! Our bible study today was over Acts 16:1-5 and I found out amazing news today! We had 3 salvations this week! One of the stories I wanted to share with you... One of our teams met a Christian Japanese woman who came to talk to them during 5me! She was so excited that she was talking to a Christian! Her and her husband are christians but her son was not. Her husband recently passed away and the son is actually a few years younger than the interns at this station! So the lady asked if our intern would be willing to meet with her son and tell him about Jesus! OF COURSE!!! Well after 2 meetings, this week the son asked Christ into his life!!! Such an amazing and heart breaking story! To know and see that this whole family will join together in heaven one day is such a blessing! Praise the Lord! :D Today was a very hot day at the park so park evangelism didnt go as nice as we would have liked it to! If there was a pool at our park, i bet we could have met and hung out with so many people! Tonight we had a girl party for our journeywoman Audrey who leaves after serving here for 2 years. She leaves on wednesday and we are going to miss her! she has been such a blessing to meet this summer and so supportive of my interest in the journeyman program! Anyway tonight we had a chips and queso while tie dying party! It was so much fun and we all did our own shirts! :) The chips and queso came from Rachel, my teammates mom. It was in the package she brought with her when she came to visit a few weeks ago!!! :) So today was a fun sunday and great fellowship and going away party.

prayer requests!
...audrey our journeygal as she leaves after 2 years and goes home!
...park ministry throughout the remaining weeks in tokyo!
... 3 new christians!
...pray for their hearts and their understanding of the importance of baptism!
...pray that their families are accepting to this decision in their lives and will join them in the celebration of baptism in the coming weeks
...pray for their discipleship and the work god is doing in their lives already!
...pray for all of our families back home! We know they miss us :)

haley

Wednesday, July 15, 2009

40 + 5 = 45!

7/11/09

Today is Saturday and we have been invited to attend a Saturday class on our university with our 2 Christian faculty members and their classes! Today was such a blessing when we got to the class and we were able to help the students. Those that came wanted to practice more english with english speaking people in order to get more practice before their exam. Their exams are in the next two weeks and for their english exam they have to summarize a movie they watched in english! So today I sat down with 3 students and was able to get to know them a little bit and help them! For those of you who don't know, my minor is in english and I love teaching! I realize I haven't completed my courses and hours, but just to get a before hand look at what it is going to look like really excites me! I can't wait to be directly connected with students and able to teach them and share with them the love of Christ through my teachings! PLUS I get to coach and what more can a girl with a passion for sports ask for! WHOOP! :) So class only was an hour and it went by pretty fast. Afterward we enjoyed lunch we met with my teammate rachel's contacts and had lunch together with her friends in an empty classroom. It was nice to be able to sit in their environment and connect with them! After lunch and hanging out with our Japanese friends for 2 hours we headed over to our station to do 5me! there were so many politicians here today and it was very busy. Right now elections are going on in Tokyo, so their are so many campaigns going on!!! Hopefully that will end soon though! :D So since it was so busy today, we sort of got run out of our station during 5me. Our team was able to speak to 7 people today and actually 5 of those conversations we were able to share the Gospel in!!! our Father is amazing :) I started a new book today called Redeeming Love. A friend of mine from Germany and now at WBU actually referred it to me a year ago, but because I am such a book worm I have been engaged in other books! So finally this summer I have picked this one up and am reading it! i highly recommend it to EVERYONE! it is not just a girl book at all! It is a must read! :) I went running when we got home today and it felt nice! Volleyball season is coming up sooner than I know it!

PR:
-classroom opportunity today
-praise for the christian faculty members
-contacts at seikei and closing up the school semester
-exams are coming up these next two weeks, very stressful time
-elections in tokyo
-our team...rachel brian tori jordan and i
-upcoming semester at WBU and volleyball season!

Thank you :)

haley Michelle

~~~44

7/10

Today was a campus day and again I was unable to meet with one of my contacts for lunch. It is getting upsetting, but I know Christ may have just wanted me to plant that seed in her life. I will allow Him to be in control and not stress and or worry about why she is unable to meet with me. One of our other contacts on our university wants to meet tonight for karaoke! I am happy my team along with other interns will join her for fun! I am unable to go tonight because I am meeting with a separate contact for dinner and fun! I know Christ has a plan for both of these meetings :) We didn't get to go into our classrooms today like we usually do on Fridays because we will join in with them tomorrow for a discussion class on Saturday! their exams are coming up soon, so the faculty offers random saturday extra tutorials for their students. We have been invited to come and help with the english classes in order to help them practice more english! We are excited about that and being able to see some of our contacts in the class and help them some more. They know we care about them and we continue to want to help them with their english studies! I met with my fiend today and she brought one of her other friends! i was excited to see them both and finally meet them :) We went to dinner and it was so good! We enjoyed a pasta place and had great conversations! i was able to share with them again why i was here in Japan and just like the year before when they met my friend Kyle from WBU. They understood what I was hear for and why I wanted to build relationships with the Japanese people. After dinner we went and did a fun photo booth thing that is very popular in Japan. You take photos and then you decorate them with fun writing and pictures. It was a lot of fun and the girls enjoyed it! they had to leave after a while because they live further away in Yokohama, so they had to get on the trains before they stopped running! Today was a great day and the karaoke meeting went amazing! they had a great time with this contact and she is very open to the gospel and is interested in learning more!

PRequests!
..dinner contacts tonight and their understanding of what i am here for and what i am all about
...karaoke party contact and her openness to bible study
...seikei university
...our faculty members that are allowing us to come help tomorrow
...saturday morning tutorials on our campus and the opportunities to build relationships with these friends!
..mitaka station :D

hay hay

..forty three...

7/9/09

So yesterday my best friend sent me a package and I am excited about getting it! many interns have been receiving packages all summer, so I think she wanted to send me some goodies too! lol God has given me such an amazing best friend! All of my support this summer has been amazing - thank you! I meant to share with you that some of the girl interns yesterday went shopping after work at one of the stations that has a H&M store! it is a very nice store and they are having a huge sale right now! I got to buy "teacher pants" and am so excited about being able to wear them! I can not wait to finish college and get a job and start teaching and coaching :D So today was a distribution day and now we have started to go back over the houses and apartments we already reached. Now we are distributing the Gospel of John since before we were doing the free DVD Hope tract for them to send in and get a story on DVD of the Gospel. We finished faster than we had expected to since the Johns are thicker and we can only carry less as we distribute. We talked about a better plan and for next time we will all carry a bigger number of packets of Gospel of Johns. So since we had a large amount of time between when we finished and free 5me time, we walked around our station and found a new restaurant to eat at! The 2 high school interns and I sat down together and enjoyed a delish lunch in an American type of restaurant! it was a hamburger patty with "special" japanese sauce and fish :) there were more sides, but that is normal rice and salad :) It was nice to be able to sit in there for a good period of time and talk to the girls and get to know them a little better. Tori and Jordan are my 2 high school interns and then are the youngest of the interns. They are presh and I was able to talk to them about the whole internship and what God was doing in their lives. I can tell this is going to be a great learning experience for them! After lunch we still had a good hour or so till 5me, so we met with the other teammates Rachel and Brian and went to mcDonalds. We sat together and read some of our Bibles in order to prepare our hearts for what god was going to do today during 5me! I saw a man reading the book "5 people you meet in heaven" and was very curious as to which this man was a Christian. I asked the girls what the book was about since they had read it and learned that the book is about a man that when he got to heaven there were 5 people waiting to meet him. these 5 people were not his close family or friends in life but they were random people he met throughout his life. These men had been impacted by the one man they were waiting to meet. So it seems to be such a great book and I would like to read it sometime this semester. Anyway... so I decided to go talk to the man. Well definitely not what Satan wanted and he immediately shared with me that he was not a Christian and was only reading the book because it was interesting. So I sat still for a bit still in McDonalds... a cute Japanese girl sat down beside me and by this time Katrina had joined me. This girl was studying for her coming exams and eventually we started talking to her! Come to find out she is a PT major and I got sooo excited! i went into college as a PT major and my best friend is also a PT major! it was crazy how I went to talk to the man reading the book about heaven, but Christ brought me a sweet lady who is interested in meeting with me sometime soon for dinner! So after this conversation, we returned to 5me and spoke to about 30 people as a team! God has been blessing us so much lately!! i went to starbucks to get Katrina in order for us to go back to our apartment and she had met with the sweetest girl ever! we sat down and talked to her before going to dinner. She took us along with Justin, another intern to a ramen restaurant and we had great conversations! :) She actually goes to ICU... International Christian University! God really has something in store for this contact and we are excited about her!!! :) Tomorrow I am meeting with one of my friends that I met before coming this summer... she is a contact passed on to me from a friend i go to WBU with!

PR's:
-Meeting with old contact tomorrow night
-My 2 high school interns and their summers here listening to God
-the man reading the book about heaven, that God will really speak to him through that book and he will want to know more about it!
-the presh girl I met a McDonalds, the PT major, that she does well on her tests and can meet soon for dinner and more talk about the bible
-The starbucks contacts we met today and had dinner with! she is such a person of peace!!!

Thank you so much for reading these and praying for the specific prayer requests. this nation is HIS nation!!!

haley

---42

7/8/09

So Christ really has been laying it on my heart to reach out to the girls at WBU through a women's bible study. i am a little nervous about it and giving it to Him and allowing him to use me to reach the girls at WBU! It is amazing how much Christ has been able to show me and just showing me I am capable of doing this for Him. Last semester I struggled with wanting to reach out through a girls ministry, but I was stubborn and said no. But not anymore :) I know I can do it and I feel Christ has a plan for the girls of WBU! I am excited about going home and being involved in FBC Plainview and our WBU BSM group. God has amazing plans for this semester and it continues to blow me away as I am seeing all these amazing things this summer! :D Anyway so today was campus ministry today and I was going to have lunch with one of my Japanese friends, but she was unable to join me so i had lunch by myself. My teammate brian joined me and one of his contacts did too! We were able to sit down with her and retell her why we were here and we actually got to help her with her Christianity class! She had certain passages in the new testament that she was assigned to read and has to write a summary on them. I am excited about this because I know a few of my other friends have this class as well. Perhaps they will allow me to help them understand the passages! Our Father is great! :) So after campus ministry today we went to our station to do 5ME and another intern, Dustin joined us to reach our station! We were able to talk to about 15 people in an hour a a half and God really worked through that! I was able to talk to 2 people who knew about JC! One of the women I spoke with knew a lot about the bible, but was hesitant to believe certain stories in the bible. So I was able to talk to her and share with her some of the stories that she was uncertain about. God really spoke through me during this time! Then after she left to get on to work a man came to me and wanted to practice his english. I chose to be bold and went directly to why I was in Japan and why i was doing free english lessons. He stayed and talked to me for about 45 minutes which is not normal for 5me! this was such a blessing and I learned that he learned his english from the mormons and he has been confused with what they believe and what i was presenting to him. He is interested in studying with Brian my teammate and I so I am happy that he would like to do that. the only problem is he works 24 security shifts every other day, so please pray that we will get the opportunity to meet with him. Tonight for dinner I went with one of my intern friends to eat at a sushi bar. He ate many different things than I did, so that we could try the different ones :) My favorite was the crab! lol I learned how to say no wasabe in Japanese from one of my friends, so now when I go again I can ask for no wasabe! I like it and all, but I love the sushi more without it! :D Today was a great day and Christ really blessed our team!

prayer requests:
-the many contacts we have on our university
-our friends in the Christianity class at Seikei and an opportunity to help them with their reading passages from the Bible!
-the woman i spoke with today during 5me... clarity in stories in the bible
-the man i also spoke with that has been mixed in with mormons
-mitaka station and 5me!!! It is picking up!
-our remaining time in japan and reaching out to these precious people

Hay

41...

7/7/09

Tuesday is my day off and I have been busy updating my blogs like I do every week and i have been replying to emails! Thank you so much for all the emails and all the support you guys have given me while I have been here in Japan! I love opening my email account and seeing the prayers coming in through the emails! It means the most and i thank God for giving me such amazing brothers and sisters who support the sharing of the Gospel in this nation! Thank you! :D Today I got to spend a lot of time with the Lord and able to relax and refocus for these coming weeks! They are going to go by so fast and I know i am going to be sad when we finally leave. it will be a bitter sweet moment for me because though I am excited to go back to WBU!!! i am sad to leave this nation! God has a plan and as you can see and read slowly they nation is turning to HIM! So today I watched the movie "UP" and it was hilarious :) It was great to sit alone and relax and fall asleep and wake up and watch more of the movie and so on :) I washed clothes today :) I know I have mentioned this before, but I enjoy washing clothes and just the chore of washing and drying and folding and putting them up :) I am funny I know! i have been told, so you can think it too! lol So I know yesterday i shared with you that I have given my relationship situation to Him :) It is exciting because I know God has the perfect man for me :) So I have chosen to stop dating for a while because I know I am not where I want to be with God when I do begin to date. I feel like I do not need an earthly relationship yet if I have yet to fix the most important relationship with HIM! Maybe it is a personal thing and hard for you reading this to understand... but hey i get it! :D Even though today was my day off and I didn't go out to our station, my teammates shared with me that today was such a good day at our station! They were able to talk to over 20 people during 5 ME !!! that is huge for us and our station is really picking up :) Tonight during prayer and worship our team of 30 in the apartment enjoyed some time together singing and praying for these Japanese hearts!

Prayer:
-please continue to lift up the hearts of the Japanese people!
-that one more person will hear HIS name :D
-Mitaka station and the sudden outburst of great numbers during 5me
-the volunteer teams that are here with us right now at other stations
-Tx SS will soon come in a week or so! prayers for them!
-all the single girl interns and allowing Christ to take charge of their husband!
-motivation for the final 3 weeks!!!

haley

FORTY!

7/6/2009

Today is Monday so as always we have meetings today! :) We shared with each other and I will share these prayer requests later in this blog! So living with 29 other people and 13 other girls you can imagine we often have a messy apartment!!! This morning was def one of those mornings when the clean freaks get frustrated with the dirty crazy kids! :) So that was a great and fun start to this morning! Def interesting to say the least, but eventually things got picked up and our apartment looks like people can actually live in it again :D Worship with all the interns and the goTokyo high school interns is so crowded BUT so amazing to see that many people praising our Father! :) It is a fun experience to squash into one room and sing together!!! Tonight after worship and bible study Katrina and some of the interns and I went to TGIFridays! This is my first American meal in a long while... I guess since May, so I was so excited :) i have enjoyed eating Japanese food and it is delish, but i needed a little American! Tonight all of the gals joined together for muffins and movies and it was SO much fun! Mondays are not only meeting days, but fellowship time for all of us interns here! We ate some amazing banana nut and mixed berry muffins that one of the girls mom brought her! We also watched the movie, "He is just not that into you" together in our kitchen :) this is such a funny movie, but it allowed all of the single girls here to pull together and be a support system for one another during our single stages in life. We all know Christ has our perfect man and we are here to be together and support one another until we are given that man! God has just shown me so much about relationships this summer and though I hate to say it... I needed it! Took a small slap to the face, but i see what he wants for my future with my husband and how I am giving it ALL to him! I don't need to worry about who or when my husband will come :) God has an amazing man who is going to be able to deal with my crazy self and we will run to our Father together!!!

Wigtake prayer requests:
-motivation in this last stress of the summer
-volunteer teams that just arrived (3) and their work here
-new contacts and getting the gospel presented to them soon
-free bible study scheduled for this week!
-some stations are still without solid contacts
-exams are soon on our campus' so our contacts are busy studying
-basketball club is coming to a close soon
-distribution and getting closer to reaching all of our area


PR's:
-the hearts of the Japanese! More and more people are hearing about JC! Pray that the are receptive to the word and can understand the importance :)
-interns and our relationship with the high school interns. that we will show Christ like love to them even in the hard moments
-3 more strong weeks or telling people about how amazing God is!

hay hay

Tuesday, July 7, 2009

********* 39

7/5/09

Celebrate it is Sunday :)
Today was a great time at church in the park and we are so excited about our teams that are here with us right now! We now have three teams that are with us this week! We have a college aged group from different cities in Missouri, a World Changers group, and an intern from last summer brought a team for this week! We also have a team from Cincinnati that has been here for 3 weeks but is leaving this week. Today was such a blessing!!! i know in my blogs I seem to say this a lot, but i truly mean it every time that i say it! During park ministry today i was sitting with a few girls and we were reading the WORD :D and a lady with her 2 children came up! After a little short talk in english we had an intern who studies Japanese in college come over and talk to her! Come to find out she is interested in bible study! We were so excited about this because she lives at the exact station that one of our M's live! We were able to play with her precious children while she talked on the phone with our M! God blessed us tremendously :D While she was on the phone she trusted us to watch and play with her children in the park while she was on the phone for at least 20 minutes! i had so much fun playing with the handsome little boy :) I love children and it breaks my heart that some of the Japanese children will grow up not knowing who JC is, but I pray that this mom will learn and accept our JC!!! After this great moment of God's, we sat there so blessed and talked about how amazing our father is! It started to sprinkle a little later, so we packed up and headed back to the cave for dinner. Tonight was a rough night in the patience category! With 30 people living in one basement and can get really loud and though we love each other we still get annoyed!!! :D

pr's -
... the mother we met at the park today and her connection with our M
... the sweet children and their future possibly investing in Christ!
... praise HIM for such an amazing day that was blessed with people he brought to us!
... patience!!!
... our 3 teams that are volunteering this week with us! obedience :)
... Cincinnati team and their safety home after 3 weeks serving with us here!
... the contacts these teams made and connecting with them after they leave

haley

...38...

7/4/09

HAPPY JULY 4TH!!! in America :D

Today was a small team day that is for sure! Rachel was with her mom while she is in Japan another day and our high school girls were invited on an overnight adventure with a group that IMB Tokyo is connected with. They had an amazing time interacting with the children there! the were able to dress up in the cultural outfit of the Japanese and looked beautiful! i would like to put on a kimono sometime while I am here in japan! Anyway so it was just Brian and I today for ministry so we did mall ministry. This is basically a ministry that we just go as Christ leads us in whatever direction speaking to people he leads us to and or praying over particular people we see somewhere. So we went to 3 stations in order to do this. It was a great amount of time shared in prayer today and though we didn't have many conversations with Japanese people we were able to set up plans with our contacts later in the day. I know Brian was able to go and play some basketball tonight after our ministry time was over! At each station we walked around the area and just watched people and were able to pray for needs that were shown. It was a good day invested in prayer and I feel like I got a lot out of it! :D Oh in one of the stores I actually splurged and bought me a frog! For those of you who don't know, i collect frogs stuff and had to buy it because now I have a frog from Japan! lol :D When everyone made it home tonight to the apartment we had a fun movie night together to celebrate fourth of July...! We did some small fireworks outside of our apartment, but didn't make too much of a scene since this is an American holiday! We watched the hangover tonight and earlier before everyone made it home I watched the proposal by myself. It was such a funny and cute movie and love story! Marriage and love has been a huge topic in our apartment lately.

requests:
-pray for our team and motivation during the long days
-pray for our new contacts and our meetings with them coming up
-pray for our high school girls while they are connecting with the connected group
-future spouses for all the interns, that Christ will prepare them
-pray for our families at home and their holiday together

thank you so much for investing in my life through prayer

hay hay

friday = 37 :)

7/3/09

So today was another amazing day at our campus! It was just Tori Jordan and I with Brian having the day off and rachel spending time with her mom! We were so excited for rachel and her mom being in Japan! So today I had lunch plans to meet with one of the 2 girls Brian and I met on Wednesday! This was such a huge prayer request and lunch went amazing! She and I went to eat in the cafeteria and I got a new dish that I hadn't had before! She laughed at me saying I was adventurous and I was so full after I ate! We enjoyed great conversation while we had lunch together and I was so excited that afterward she gave me a sweet hug and asked for lunch again another day! Our Father is so amazing :) He continues to bless our days here in japan and send people in our direction that are seeking after something more! After lunch my new contact had to go back to class so I headed out to my home on campus- the soccer fields :) i went out there and prayed over the guys out there playing soccer! I though about getting out there and playing with them, but I was in a dress once again and the girls this time weren't in dresses playing! Maybe another time that I am on campus I will go out there with them! Anyway so while I was out there praying over them I was able tot talk to one of our guy friends we had made a few weeks ago and ask about his girlfriend. His girl asked Christ into her life a few weeks ago, but has yet to respond to brian or I for bible study. At 2 today the three of us went to one of our Christian faculty members classroom and were able to help the students learn english! They have a test coming up soon and we were able to do review with them! I had so much fun because that is like another home for me :) For those of you who don't know I am going to school to be an education major, so of course I love being in the classroom! After this class we left between classes and went and had a snack before returning for the next class! I was so excited to be in this particular class because I have a few contacts in this classroom that I hang out with! So I got to see my friends and help one of the same guys I helped last time on his test! they had reviews over clothing, movies, music, and other American things! It was fun to interact and be able to teach them about myself and help them understand things in the USA! After both classes were over we headed toward the station for me to go meet one of my friends at Starbucks and the girls went to our park to pray over it! It ended up that she was unable to come and meet me in Shibuya, but says soon she hopes she can! This contact was passed on to me from a friend that i got to school with at Wayland. My friend met her last summer when he was serving in japan on a 10 day trip, so I am trying to connect with her now that I am here! Christ has a plan :D I ended up going to dinner with Katrina and Caleb at another favorite place to eat here in Shibuya! It was a fun night :)

PRequests:
-contact with sister in Christ from 3 weeks ago, that she will not be scared and will contact us for Bible study!
-the boyfriend of the new believer that he will see something else in us on campus and wonder what it is that we have and what his girlfriend now has in her
-seikei university and our faculty members
-the classrooms we help teach english in and the time we get to invest in these students
-my friend that we will be able to connect soon since she couldn't make it tonight
-my friend that i had lunch with today :D
-soccer boys and ministry opportunities

hay

36 :)

7/2/09

BAPTISM DAY!!!

We started off our morning with distribution in the Mitaka community! There were 4 of us today because rachel went to pick up a team of just one person from LA! We are excited about this and later I will share some amazing news :) Anyway so we did distribution in the rain and though we didn't get much done... we are happy we have continued to distribute through the hard times! We have seen at least 40 responses from the distribution! How amazing is it that these people are sending in the tracts wanting a free DVD!!! This is huge in japanese culture, very different from something they would generally do! We are excited that these people are seeking to find something more and we can offer them JESUS! :) :D After distribution today we had a short lunch and went to another station in order to meet one of new brothers in Christ!!! We are so excited for him! We had his baptism today and it was the most amazing thing I have ever been apart of! We all met together and drove to a river close by where we are baptizing our contacts this summer. It was such a blessing to see how exciting our friend was to be raised into a new life!!! Definitely brought tears to my eyes as I watched Brian baptize him! Such a blessing and our God is mighty to save!!! After his baptism that friends and M's attended we had a small party for him! We had cheesecake and grapes and muffins and watermelon and as you can see I was so excited! I got to help one of our M's put it all together and I can't even tell you how American I felt decorating everything :) It was like I was at my own house celebrating this wonderful spiritual marker in our friends' life! Such a blessing to be a part of today. So today when our teammate went to go and get the one man team she had a surprise waiting for her! The one person team was her MOM! It was one of the sweetest things ever and such a blessing for her! Today was just such a great day and GUESS WHAT! 4 people accepted Christ today!!! Two people did this during 5ME and two more during free bible study at two different stations! Our Father is moving in this nation!!!

PR's:
-rachel's mom being in Japan!
-girls and future husbands
-gotokyo high school interns and starting ministry
-the baptism today! what a blessing
-our new brother in christ that he continues to be on FIRE!
-Mitaka station
-the nonbeliever friends who joined in on the baptism today

haley michelle

day number thrity five!

7/1/09

Happy JULY!!!
Well today was a campus ministry day :D We have really been enjoying our campus days and have been able to invest in many of our new friends lives! We frequently go to basketball club practices and enjoy that so much! For those of you who don't know, I use to play basketball and really enjoyed it, but I had to choose in high school which varsity sports I wanted to play. So long story short soccer and basketball our during the same season and soccer is my passion so end of story! Anyway so today we got to campus and gave our new team members a tour of our campus. Around noon we headed to basketball club and had a lot of fun with them! The girls just play in whatever they wore that day, so I must say this was the first time I have ever played basketball in a dress! Brian and the guys in basketball club have a great time and Christ has blessed us with this ministry. After basketball practice was over the girls went to eat with some of the friends they made while watching Brian and I practice with the active club members! Brian an I went ahead and went to the lunch area and ate lunch together while we were waiting our teammates. We ended up sitting there talking and reading in our bibles when two girls came up to us! One of them I was already in contact with from last week! She speaks very good english and she grabbed our "books" and was like what are you reading! So what a great opportunity we had to share with both girls that we were reading our bibles and we were able to sit and talk to them for a good 30 minutes or so! God used us to tell these two girls just while we were reading HIS word! Both girls are very interested in learning more and hopefully tomorrow I can have lunch with them :) I am excited about these two girls and being able to invest in their lives! PTL!!! After campus ministry Brian and I gave our new teammates, tori and Jordan a tour of the area between our station and our campus. There are many shrines and a few small temples. We led them through these and were able to pray over them together as a team. God knows what he is doing and each day as we pass these places, we cry to our Father to break the walls! :D We also went ahead and gave them a tour to our park where will we do ministry on Saturdays together! This weekend will be our first weekend there and we are excited about that :) We came home earlier than expected after campus ministry and all of the tours! The girls were needing to take care of things in their apartment building, so we called it a day after meeting 2 great contacts! We are so excited for the baptism tomorrow!!

prayer requests :
-New believer's baptism!!!
-that Christ will continue to bless our teams with interested contacts
-Basketball club and willingness to let us join in
-2 girls we met today!

heylee

34

6/30/09

LAST DAY OF JUNE!!!
Wow this month has gone by sooo fast and its is amazing how much God has done in this past month! We have told 100's of people the gospel for the first time in their lives and God has continued to bless us with meeting Christians! It is such an amazing feeling to be out on the field and have a Japanese Christian come up to us and talk with us! Well today was my day off so you can imagine what I did if you have kept up with my blogs this past month! I caught up on my emails which was actually a lot of fun :) I have many friends and family members who email me at least 2 times a week and it is so great to hear from them! So I enjoy writing them back and reading what is going on in their lives back home! I was able to sleep in today which felt so nice! After a long day at the river yesterday and a fun night with my roommates, I enjoyed sleeping in and just relaxing! I also caught up on my blogs today! lol If you haven't already noticed that :) It was a rainy day outside today so everyone got back earlier than normal because of the weather. So for dinner, I went out to eat with some of the interns at another favorite place of ours just right down the road! It was a nice day off and even though it seems from my blog I didn't do much, I really did! i got work done that needed to be taken care of :) The high school interns from my team, tori and Jordan came over to my apartment so that was fun! :) I think they are shy, but they will open up eventually! I am not shy as you may know, so hopefully I can help them to open up and be CRAZY!!! :D I talked to a friend back home today and found some sad news out. Please remember my friend in your prayers.

pr's=
1. seikei university and basketball club
2. our new contacts from the university
3. one of our new believer's has set his baptism date!
4. motivation during long hot days :) all for HIM!!!
5. friend back home dealing with some hard stuff

haley michelle

33 <3

day 33 :)

6/29/09

It is MONDAY!!! And generally Mondays are for meetings and fellowship, but not this Monday! We went to the river today and had so much fun with our new interns! Originally we were going to go to the river tomorrow, but it was such a beautiful day God blessed us with, so we couldn't pass it up! We all had hot dogs and chips and drinks and swam in the river :D There was a small cliff that we were able to jump and dive off of so that was an adventure! The water was pretty cold though so I didn't stay in as long as some of the crazy interns, but it was so much fun! I was able to get out and dry off and hang out with some of our new interns! i have a good friend that I had already known before coming last week, so we were able to sit down and talk for a bit! i am excited about her being here and she has an amazing ministry team! we ended up staying at the river till it started to rain, so it was a good 3 or 4 hours! It was a fun time being able to hang out with our new interns and connect with them before going out to our sites! :) Tomorrow all the new teams will start their ministry back up with the 2 new high school interns! Tonight for dinner I went to meet one of my friends here, Katrina's friend.. at starbucks! He was able to make it this time because last week he wasn't and katrina was sad! i was so excited to meet him :) he seems like an amazing friend and God is so funny! they went to high school together, but kat moved away for college 4 years ago! So God connects them not in Cali or Texas but in Japan!!! God is GREAT! :D We ate dinner at one of our favorite restaurants tonight, one of the places you get to cook your own meat! Then the rest of tonight we just all hung out together and talked about our past week! Tomorrow is my day off!

Prayer -
...Brian has a bible study set up with a new believer
...pray for our new contacts and their willingness to meet with us
...seikei university and our faculty members
...high school interns!
...team unity with 2 new members :)
...setting up baptisms with new believers :D :D

hay hay

Monday, July 6, 2009

day thirty two :)

6/28/09

Well we are getting close to JULY!!! Which means we are even closer to ending our summer journey. I am definitely a little sad that our work is almost over, but I know HIS work won't end here! Well we had church this morning in the park and we had special guests!!! Our high school interns camp in this past week while we were away on our retreat to the lake! We were all very excited to get to meet our new 20 interns and my team got to have 2 new girls on our ministry team! Our two girls are precious and as the Wigtake leader I get to invest in them and i am so excited about this! I love looking at my life and seeing how so many people have poured into me and that is why i am here today. Without those people in my life guiding me closer to Christ, I would definitely not be here in Japan! So thank you! Because more than likely you are one of those people who has helped to get me where I am today :D So at church this morning we had a bible study with our new team members and my current team members. There are now 5 of us on the Mitaka and Seikei University team :) We are so exited to begin our work! After bible study and an amazing worship time we ate lunch and then went off on our own to do park ministry :D The new girls went together and I am not too sure what they did, but they enjoyed park ministry together! Rachel, one of my teammates and I sat together and really dove into the word! We were able to just sit and read and digest what Christ was telling us in scripture! Then eventually it started raining so that was fun :) After getting home and waiting for people to come home from hanging out with new contacts and bible studies, a few of us went upstairs in our apartment and watched the boy in striped pajamas... so sad. Tonight was a fun relaxing night and we got to spend time in fellowship with each other :) Our team unity is amazing and I love being so connected with such strong Christians! My new girls, Tori and Jordan have the same day off as i do! So I am very excited about that and being able to invest in them on our days off together! :D

PR:
-new high school interns and their obedience
-encouragement for our new teams and their ministry sites
-new contacts have been made this week!
-house churches are building
-distractions outside of japan for all the interns to let them go and focus on HIM

thank you so much...

haley

Tuesday, June 30, 2009

treinta + uno = 31

6/27/09

well today was our last day at our retreat place and though it was amazing they had to kick us out! we had breakfast this morning and again I enjoyed yummy fruit! :D We had worship and bible study with our M and it was very refreshing and about daily seeking Christ's face and going to him. We read a passage about Jesus going alone to spend his time with God and though I have read it many many times, it was a slap in the face for sure. i really felt convicted on how much time I literally spend on facebook compared to the amount of time I give to my Father everyday. Last night we divided between males and us precious girls and had marriage talk. Though none of us are married, it is definitely on our minds if not close for some of us. For me... ya God has someone out there, but as I have learned this summer and seen it myself - I must be patient! And guess what patience is not only waiting your turn, but always being okay if your turn never comes. I know Christ will take that desire away for a husband if he has called me to a single life in order to devote my whole life to HIM. No worries, but i did learn a lot in our session with the M female! Since my team won the amazing race this week at the start of the retreat we had more free time to ourselves while everyone cleaned up the came and then we were to head out to the bus stop! One of our interns lost their phone along the way back to the cave, but he went back to it and found it! We had a great dinner in Shibuya tonight and am definitely ready for bed tonight!

PR:
-my future husband if I have been called to have one!
-patience for all the interns in relationships
-convictions of spending time with our father!
-high school interns and meeting them!!! UNITY!

hay hay

THIRTY

6/26/09


Well it is Friday and day two of our intern retreat :) Even though I stayed up late I slept pretty great in my room with Katrina! We each have a twin bed and it is great not being in a room with 10 others girls! Don't get me wrong I love all my intern girls, but being away is always enjoyable :D so we had breakfast this morning at 9 am and goodness it was so great to eat some fruit! In Japan fruit is so expensive and hard to buy with the limited food money that we get, so i was stoked about apples and bananas!!! YUMMY! For sure when i get home this summer I will be headed to the grocery and buying me sooo many fruits :) We had a bible study this morning after breakfast and had worship too! Worship was so great to be in a bigger room and really focus on ourselves and how we wanted to worship our father! I love it :D So i really don't remember how much I have told you about this place we are at, but I know I have shared it is by Mt. Fuji and is a lake! So a small lesson i have learned this week from my wonderful guy interns/brothers in Christ! Many years ago... I do not remember this part of the lesson :D Mt. Fuji erupted and created 5 lakes that look like fingers and today and this weekend I am on one of the 5 lakes! Oh so last night i forgot to share with you that I went swimming in the freezing lake with 2 of the guys and Katrina! so much fun, but definitely crazy! Welp that is me i guess :) After worship this morning we had sloppy joes!!! That is so Texan to me and i love that... haha And we had SWEET TEA!!!! yes, i miss food from home but enjoy Japanese food still! Today the girls, well some of us went to the onsin which is a public bath. there are 5 huge pools/baths that the girls have. It is different experience, but definitely something to experience about the culture. The guys of course is separated and from what I remember them saying they had 4 pools.baths and a sauna like we did :) One of the baths outside that i enjoyed was with 20 other women and filled with roses! So BEAUTIFUL! After leaving the onsin after about an hour we went swimming in the lake with several interns! It was warmer than it was last night for sure! We got out and went to dinner with Caleb and Teron at a nice Italian restaurant and had such a great time! I had a squid and artichoke pizza and loved it :) IMAGINE that! :D We had an awesome prayer time tonight for the nation of Japan after dinner. We just all poured prayer out to Christ and his people here! Then afterward we had a bomb fire together and had roasted marsh mellows! So much fun spending time together and pouring more and more love into each other! I went for a 30 minute or more walk alone around the beautiful lake and enjoyed it so much! To be alone and cry out to Jesus in his beautiful nation is great! :D Tonight was another great night. A few of us sat out on one of the many docks and talked about things and got to know each other a little more! :D

Pr-
.nation of JAPAN coming to HIM
.interns and rest throughout this weekend as we refocus for the next month of the summer
.our contacts as we go back after our retreat
.high school interns and unity

haley!

day 29 --- AMAZING RACE!

6/25/09



Well today is the day we travel to our retreat and we have to get there by doing the AMAZING RACE! I was pretty excited when i heard about it because i am so competitive about things like that! SOOO we had a short meeting at 8 and then we were to take off at 9! Everyone couldn't leave till 9 because we had to allow our checkpoint people to get to their location! So as 9 came along we took off and had to get to a train station and solve a riddle in order to find the checkpoint. We found the intern at the point an had to solve 3 riddles in order to get the next one. At this point we were in 2nd place. So we had to get to the next station, find a statue, take a team photo with it and continue to the next checkpoint. As we got on the train to get to checkpoint number 2, we ditched a team and now got in the lead! So once arriving to the next station we had to climb a hill about half a mile or so up and found the next intern with the next clue. So we got our next clue and only had one more train ride to get to the retreat! We jumped on and were secure in our first place lead by at least one hour :) We arrived at the lake and it was breathtaking! So amazing and so beautiful! I can't wait for the next two days here :) So we beat all the teams to our cabin by an hour a half, earned 1000 yen and had "no cleaning" privileges for the weekend! We were able to pick our beds in the cabins first and it was great! I stayed with the 4 girls in a huge cabin while the other 10 girls stayed together in another cabin! they were both very nice cabins and then we went searching for the other 3 lost teams! Eventually they showed up and we had dinner together! Pizza :D and played volleyball (:D) and rode bikes around the beautiful lake! At night one of the guy interns took me out to the lake because i had yet to see Mt. Fuji. So i am thinking it is one of the mountains on the lake and he is like SILLY girl look up! So hello HUGE MT. FUJI! In the view were rows and rows of forests and grasslands and that was as far as I looked because the clouds started. WELL... little did I know above those clouds was FUJI! Breathtaking let me just tell you that :) So I sat there for a good while just thanking God for such a beautiful sight! It was a fun night and we ended up staying up till like 2 am playing phase 10 with 3 of the interns! :D

pr-
.interns and the retreat
.our contacts while we are out of tokyo
.our high school interns learning about their assignments this summer
.M family and having us on vacation
.the many people at this beautiful lake


haley michelle

20 + 8 = 28

6-24

This is my one day of work this week :) With meetings and my off day and then having the rest of this week for our intern retreat today has been my only work day. I had plans to meet one of my contacts today at my university, but she was unable to come. So then she offered having one of her friends that I met last week to come meet me. So of course I was willing! Well it ended up that she couldn't come either, so i stuck with Brian one of my teammates and met with his contact! It ended up being one of the girls birthday!!! We had a small celebration together and sang happy birthday in english to her! Her friends brought her an amazing cheesecake with tone of whip cream and strawberries on it! For those of you who don't know... i can eat a zillion strawberries and if i wouldn't die I would eat tons of bowls of whip cream! :D so i was so excited about this precious girls cake! It was great and I was eating tiny bites because I didn't want to steal her cake... so let me just share with you the girls laughed at me! they were like you are AMERICAN why are you eating Japanese size bites! lol i thought but was funny :D After the short birthday party the girls crashed out on the table and funny thing is i was in the middle of them, so I decided to read one of the books I am reading this summer. Screwtape letters. So i was able to read a little bit before they woke up and had to go to class. After they left I went to meet Brian and the basketball club that we have been meeting with! They had about 15 minutes left, so i went in to watch with them. I love these facts.... #1 You don't wear shoes inside the gym. #2 You wear whatever you have on, girls may be wearing dresses playing basketball! #3 you trip on a basketball if it rolls at your feet #4 You laugh hysterically at the girls :D #5 They do not know the rule of no TRAVELING!!! It is so much fun to work with the basketball club here at our university :D After their practice they all went to class and Brian and I headed home because we were pretty gross. It rained today as we walked to our university, so our shoes were slimy and stunk! We got back pretty early and slowly the other teams trickled into the apartment with the same rain problem! We leave in the morning for our retreat we are all very excited! We will be at one of the five lakes created by Mt. Fuji's eruption! WOO HOO! I am stoked! Katrina and I made some videos for some of my friends along with some of the guys! I mentioned how we make our apartment fun and let me tell you it was great!

PR's=
1. The girl contacts I have been meeting with at lunch on our university
2. The birthday girl and her friends, that we can continue to meet up with them
3. The basketball club and the opportunities Christ is blessing us with!!!
4. The intern retreat and the high school interns that come in tomorrow!
5. The days of meetings for the high school interns while we are gone

galations 6:9

---hay hay

twa twa twenty seven :D

6.23.09

Well today is are oreintation day since we switched it from yesterday. As with everytime I meet with the other WG leaders we shared our prayer requests that I would lik to share with you later in this blog and talked about how distribution is going for all of us. This past week when we had the Brushy Creek team we were able to get a lot more done than we could have with just our team, so i was so excited to share that :) Our map is getting filled in pretty good and I wish i could show you, but I can't :) Imagine a map or a large rectangle and start in the middle of it. We have gone from the middle north and south and have covered many blocks. So now your map that you are imagining is black in the middle about 1/5 complete! So exciting :) We had an awesome worship time together and were able to share great news about all of our ministry spots. On campus ministrys there has been amazing work being done! Some campus' have been inviting our interns to their classrooms! We had a small talent show tonight during our fellowship time together and it was a lot of fun :) I didn't do anything because I couldn't think of a talent, so i decided to just watch :) It was funny and some of the interns have hidden talents! I know this is short, but as with all oreintations days we just meet and hangout together :)

Wigtake PR's:
-Great contacts are being connected. pray that this sontinues and they seek to want more from HIM so that we can continue to reach them with HIS word!
-Home stay girls are leaving to come live with us in the cave (our apartment). pray that the family that had them for 5 weeks was blessed by their presense.
-Two more girls will more out and live with another familly for 5 weeks. This family is hesistant to believe in christ, pray that these girls can share with them!
-Some of our music interns have been blessed with new Japanese friends who also love music! Pray that this creates an opportunity to share :)
-Our university has a greatset up with the basketball club and we are weekly meeting with them and having basketball practices!
-Disribution is slowly making its way to getting closer to being half way complete! Pray for encouragement and motive!
-Christian teachers on campus' !!! Bless them :)
-Intern retreat is coming up..

SERVING HIM
---> haley michelle

veintiseis

June 22, 2009

Well usually Mondays are orientation days for all of our meetings, but we have switched our Monday and our tuesday this week, SO today is my day off :) i took care of all my emails today and worked on my blogs, but obviously didn't catch up on them :) i have to share some great news with you because it excites me and may be very helpful to keeping my blogs up to date! BUT I must go ahead and tell you during our retreat in a few days i will not have a computer for 4 days so I am going to fall even further behind on my blogs! Don't worry though i will eventually catch up :) We now have Internet in our room! That is such great news!!! Now I can sit on mine or katrina's bed and use the computer instead of sitting on a hard tile floor in the hallway by the smelly guy's room! So I didn't do very much today but rest and enjoy being alone for a little while. It rained today so some of the interns were back before dinner time because they needed out of the rain, but it was okay because the girl interns were really able to connect with one another tonight. The ILT team was gone for meetings tonight instead of in the morning which means they finally get to sleep in which is great for them! The girls and I made funny dance videos together and just really loved having fun! Sometimes times can get boring living in this apartment with so many girls and guys, but we like to make it fun you never get to old for dress up, so we all put on crazy outfits and hats and jewelry and danced around :) Good times :) the videos are on my facebook if you have me added as a friend :D ENJOY! lol we definitely annoyed the boys, but who cares about them anyways :D

Requests-
*That the girls will continue to grow together in unity :)
*Rest for all the interns
*Preparation for our retreat to the lake!
*New contacts at our sites this week!

HALEY :D

..25..

6-21

It is SUNDAY!!! And it is raining :) So instead of going to the park today we had church at our apartment and it went really well. We had a bible study over Acts 5 :12 -42 and 2 timothy 3:13-15. If you would like to read it to know what i am referring to, I encourage you to do so! It is crazy to me that even in the ancient days when there was such great things happening.. Satan still tried to get in the way. And for the interns right now that is so huge - we have seen so many amazing salvations within the last week, but yet there is so much crap that the devil continues to through at us. BUT - We will endure this together and grow together through everything Satan throws at us this summer! So after our bible study and worship we had a town hall meeting with the M's and their families and all the interns. Next week we have 20 high school interns coming to join us for the rest of the summer, so there are things we want to talk about and fix before they get here! it went really well and we met for about 2 hours and then had the rest of the day off together to spend our time together and loving on each other :D i stayed with Katrina's one of my good friends here this summer and we had plans to meet a friend of hers that she went to high school with in Cali! Well we went to meet him at starbucks and ended up waiting for him for about 2 or 3 hours. Katrina was really upset that he never showed up, but we kn0w there must have been a reason so we ended up leaving and going on with the rest of our day. Hopefully she will hear from him and be able to meet with him sometime! Tonight we found out that one of our interns uncle passed away. :( Definitely was a sad moment and we all feel for her and not being able to be with her family during this hard time. there are 2 cousins that are both younger than 15 that are part of this family... Well my team only has 3 days left before our retreat to the lake! We will not have a volunteer team till we return from the retreat.

Prayer requests:
-Amy and the loss of her uncle. Please lift her family up in prayer through this hard time.
-Brushy Creek team flew home today, one of the team members will head off in two weeks to go on another trip. Please pray for rest and a prepared heart!
-Katrina's friend that Christ will show him the change HE has done in trina's life.
-Intern retreat that we can all push through strong for the nest 3 days before the retreat!

haley michelle

day twenty-four

6/20/09

Well today I was able to catch up on a little sleep because our volunteer team had their debriefing this morning. Brian met with them and our M to talk about everything that went on during their time here. It went very well and they were able to reflect and offer great advice for next summer. They would like to come volunteer next summer which is so great to hear! Rachel and I met them around 2 pm to do one more round of 5ME at Mitaka station :D The leader of the volunteer team mt a contact yesterday, the one that wanted to meet for bible study today. So Brian and him went to meet our new contact for the first bible study! How exciting and it went amazing! He accepted Christ yesterday and is so excited to already dive into the WORD! Two of our volunteers met a Christian photographer today who was able to introduce them to another Christian in the area. it is so amazing to see how God is slowly bringing his people to us! Everyday we have been able to meet someone who is a Christian and or who prays to accept JC. So our GOD is amazing and just wanted to clarify that again :) Tonight is Brushy Creek's last night so we went out to eat sukiyaki and let me tell you it was amazing! Sukiyaki if you don't know is unlimited beef and pork strips that you cook yourself at your table. You have an hour and a half to eat unlimited meat and unlimited vegetables and noodles :) So i loved this and let me tell you I ate so much! Our team blessed us with this meal, which was greatly appreciated. I had an eating competition (imagine that) with one of the guys on the team, haha. Tonight their was a GOSPEL concert in Tokyo! How amazing is this :D There is black gospel that tours around and some Japanese people pay lots of money to join the choir and sing with them. Sad thing is these Japanese that join them are not all Christians... :( Our interns that didn't have teams went to the concert and invited their contacts. From what I heard it was a great black gospel concert and their was definitely God being praised, but it was still a lot of lost people. Tonight was a great day and fun night with Brushy Creek. They leave in the morning!

PR-
.The BC team's safety home and their obedience to come to Japan
.The two contacts they led to Christ and the bible studies that will soon start up
.Those who attended the gospel concert who yet do not know who JC is, that the concert will have opened their eyes and started a spark.
.Our week off as a team with no volunteers serving under us

thank you so much for investing in my summer through prayer

haley :D

Monday, June 22, 2009

*******23

6/19/09

Well today started off pretty well and like Wednesday we have one teammate off work we only have two of us working today. We divided the Brushy Creek into 2 teams again, but this time I was able to go to the campus and Rachel went to he train station! The two younger guys and I headed to the university and we prayer walked for a good while before the lunch hour. I was able to find all the fields for their sporting events and was STOKED about that! I got to watch some of the golf classes going on and it was fun to pray for these college students! Anyway we went our separate ways and I went to meet one of my new friends at lunch and the guys went to another basketball practice. I met with my newest contact for lunch and she invited her friend! It went great and we were able to share fun times together :) They taught me how to make ramen the RIGHT way and it was funny for me :) It was a lot of fun to st down with these two girls and invest in them! We have a date next wednesday during the lunch hour and I am so excited about that. She has said she will bring more friends to meet me :) I got passed this contact from one of the California Baptist students! Praise God that that team made great contacts and were able to pass them along to our team! So while I was eating with this presh girl, the two guys from our volunteer team were at basketball practice with their contacts! So after lunch I went and watched the soccer practice that was going on with one of the guys and the other went ahead and headed to his lunch time. Eventually we made our way to the train station for 5 ME!!! It went really well and one of our volunteers was able to help someone make our Father his SAVIOR!!! We had been there for a good while, talking to few people and this young man came along and accepted Christ! And guess what! He wants to start bible study tomorrow :) That is so exciting and great to hear! We had our friendship party for the Brushy creek team tonight at shakey's piza but ended up not eating there. There were 3 young ladies that showed up for the party and they were ALL christians!!! How amazing is that! :D We went out to eat a an indian curry place because Shakey's ended up being really busy and loud. The ladies were SO sweet and they made the team a cake to take to their hostel with them to eat! they also helped us to find and call the movie theaters nearby because TRANSFORMERS 2 came out here in Japan today! We were so excited to go see it and so rachel, one of the younger volunteers and I went to see it! It was so great and fun to experience watching a movie in Japan. The movie was in english of course, but with Japanese subtitles!! How great :) It was a blast and we had a great day today as a whole team

prayer requests:
-new friends and contacts made during 5ME today
-friendship party was a success
-Rachel is meeting with these 3 christians to learn more!
-NEW BELIEVER!!! Pray for his heart :)
-Bible study with Brian and one volunteer tomorrow with new believer :)
-Brushy Creek leaves soon... praise God for them!
-my contact at seikei and our meeting from today and next week!

haley michelle

twenty two

6/18

TODAY was a distribution day and our whole team was here alongside our Brushy Creek team AND we had a M and their family here with us! We split up into 3 groups and went into 3 different directions to start our work! We were able to cover a lot of area and like I said yesterday I AM HAPPY about that! Everyday we are getting closer to reaching everyone in the Mitaka area! So we started our 5ME today pretty early and it went great! I was standing there praying as the people walked by me and after a while as sweet older lady walked up to me! She started speaking to me in Japanese and I tried to tell her I didn't know Japanese, but she kept talking to me! It was so cute because I couldn't communicate with her, but she still wanted to stand there and talk to me. So I made conversation with her about the little band that was playing at our station and I enjoyed it so much! So she eventually left and I remained in prayer for this precious lady :D Anyway so I went along with my 5ME and talked with a few random people that would stop by, but never was able to present the gospel to these people. Eventually it was a time that I sat down on a little bench and started praying for my team and the people they were speaking to. The little lady came back to me and sat down beside me! I was so excited because it is unlike Japanese to just walk up tap someone on the shoulder and sit down by them! She started speaking in Japanese with me again and I just kept talking to her in english even though neither one of use understood each other! So when she went to leave she handed me a box of sushi rolls that she bought for me! It was so sweet and it made me so happy! It was just so sweet because neither one of us could talk to the other, but she still wanted to give me a gift! I love the Japanese and Christ continues to tug at my heart for this nation! :D There were a few children that came up to me after this older lady left and they were balancing their umbrellas on the hand and so I LOVE CHILDREN... so then I wanted to join and I started balancing my umbrella too :) It was just cute! Tonight is guy's night so all the girls were able to hangout without the guys in the apartment! We are just enjoying ourselves :)

pR:
-The presh lady that gave me sushi today, that i will be able to reach out to her again
-The 3 little band members that play at our station everyday
-The small children of japan! i want to reach out to them :0)
-Brushy Creek has their friendship party tomorrow!
-Pray that friend that are interested in the gospel come and join us for dinner!
-The guys and their night with each other and the M families

haley