I am still trying to catch up on my blogs so this is for Saturday 6/6/09
Well today was a rocky day for our team, but we pulled it all together at the end of the day! I love my team--Rachel and Brian and we are daily growing closer to HIM together! So today we were with another team from Higashikoganei to work with the CBU choir team! We went to the largest temple in Tokyo and it really broke my heart. So we broke into smaller groups of 2 or 3 with the CBU students and prayer walked all over the temple grounds for about 2 hours. So I will start off by telling you a little about the temple. You enter into the temple grounds by going under a huge lamp. This lamp is for lighting the path for their "gods" to enter the temple and provide for them enough light. I found this pretty ironic considering the one true God is the light in our life. It is sad to see these people worship these many gods of Japan and be so lost. As you enter under the light there are two huge demon statues on the left and the right o the lantern. these demons are standing there on guard of the temple gates in order to keep the demons out of the temple these people are worshiping. As you enter into the temple grounds you are surrounded by so many booths and stores selling small gods and small replicas of the temple and little things people buy. The money that is made off all these profits is put towards building a bigger and bigger temple and adding on to it. We made sure not to buy anything, so that if people saw this they wouldn't get it confused with us supporting the temple. Anyway as you enter and walk further there is a children's daycare on the actual temple grounds. This broke my heart to know that these children under 5 years old see this temple everyday and are raised watching people worshiping the many gods that are not even there! So finally I got closer to the large temple doors and before you enter there are many "stations". There is a place you go pay money to get your fortune, you shake up the jar and a fortune pops out. If you do not like the fortune you are given you tie it on a rope and if you do like your fortune you take it home with you. If you leave the bad fortune tied to the rope and do not take it home, it is said that you will not have the bed fortune and it will go away. Sad stuff that these people are being fooled. Another area is the burning of incense. There is a large tub of burning incense that smells so bad or did to me. the Japanese people come to this incense and loft it on themselves or touch the ashes and rub it on themselves or their hurt body parts. They believe that the more that is on their younger children the more power they will have... There is a station to wash their hands and cleanse themselves right before entering the temple. As I walked into the temple I was very overwhelmed by how many lost people were in there searching for a got to answer their prayers. I wish that we were given the opportunity to share with everyone of these lost souls that the only god that will ever answer their prayers is the one true God. there are two large money pits that people throw their money into to get good fortune back to them and they bow down to this huge alter. I was hurt to see the LARGE amounts of money these people would throw in to this false god. beside one of the alters is the abortion candle chamber. The people pay money to light a candle for their aborted baby. It is said that if they light the candle the spirit of the aborted baby will not come back to haunt them. This made me cry inside to know that these Japanese people felt haunted by these lost babies. It was very sad to see so many people walk up to this area and light the candles. As we were in the temple we prayed allover these stations and the many gods that were all over the temple grounds. We were able to pray specific prayers for people and their needs. Throughout the summer I will be going to this temple often, so I know the Lord will show me many more things that need prayer.
After spending the morning at the temple, oh and seeing a wedding! We went to eat as a team then headed to the park for evangelism with the CBU team. The choir didnt get to sing to many people but they were able to sing to some walking by. It was a slow park ministry day but there were several opportunities still presented to us through the singing! there was a little down time while at the park so Katrina and I, one of my good intern friends, went around and took pictures and enjoyed the beautiful day together with this team! They were able to practice several of their songs together that they will be performing later this summer in front of crowds! Tonight was the CBU team's first friendship party and it went AMAZING! As these teams make contacts they invite them to friendship parties and we give the mangas like I have said before! We actually didn't bring enough mangas for the number of people that showed up! Christ really blessed their party and allowed more contacts to be added! We ended up having to break into two groups at two different restaurants to fit everyone inside to eat! The day ended much better than it started and we were all tired at the end of the day!
PR:
-The friendship party went so well... pray for these contacts and their interest in learning about JC and the opportunities that arise!
-CBU choir team and their dedication to serving this summer here in japan
-The temple grounds that one day these walls will fall down and the many gods will be vanished form this nation!
-Team unity :)
-Park ministry and ll the opportunities that arise from this!
haley michelle
Tuesday, June 9, 2009
day NINE!!!
I am catching up :) This is for Friday June 5th :)
Well today I had the California Baptist University team with me at my campus and it went amazing! This is a choir team from CBU that has come to sing and create opportunities to share about JC! Today definitely didn't go as it was planned, but Christ really led our day! The plan of the day was for prayer walking until lunch time, lunch time of meeting new friends on Seikei campus, and then heading to Mitaka for 5ME! Well short story... we never made it to Mitaka because Christ definitely had different plans for us today! Today is Brian's day off so the team was with rachel and I at our university and we split into twos in order to prayer walk to he campus. Christ has really shown me that no work can be done anywhere if we do not go to him in prayer FIRST! So we all went off and began prayer walking for our university and were to meet back up at 12 for lunch hour. The cafeteria gets really busy at about 12:20 so I had planned for them to eat and then start singing some when they felt it was a good time. Well so then team met up at 12 except two of the guys on the choir team, so I sent the team off with Rachel to eat in the caf and waited around for the guys... Well they never showed up and long story short they ended up at a community center. They ran into a 67 year old lady that had her own choir and asked them to come join in on practice tonight at 7! Well so that definitely wasn't on the schedule, but we decided to do this and see what the opportunities would be. Somewhere between this time and the time it took them to get the the caf after already being late the boys ran into one of the 2 known CHRISTIAN professors at our university! How amazing is that :D Christ allowed these guys to already find us contacts on the campus! So we were invited to come to her class at 2:50 and help her students learn english! So that was the new plan of our day today and we just went with it! We finished lunch and the CBU team met many contacts after singing to the people in the caf and they invited them out for dinner at Shakey Pizza tonight! So we went to this class and it ended up that these students were testing one on one today with the teacher so the choir entertained the class as the students went in one on one to test. I met a new contact and was able to help him with this test! He was so excited that I helped him learn some english and our new teacher contact told me he did so well! I was happy for him :) Anyway so the choir sand for them and when class ended at 4:20 we headed to Shakeys for dinner! they had at least 10 of their new friends show up and it was a great fun dinner with our new Japanese friends :) One of which I have been told is VERY interested in learning more about JC and having FBS! The teacher has asked my team to return to her classes on Friday's to help her students with english. Please pray that we are able to invest in these students lives!
Galations 6:9
We went to the choir practice and it was an all aged choir and they were precious :) I really enjoy older people, so I had a great time singing with them and learning a few Japanese songs. the CBU team sang for them after their practice was over and the older singers LOVED it! They were so happy the team was able to come and sing with them! As the team sang about JC, the elders were able to ask questions and like every time they sang. Rachel and I were able to tell these Japanese people why the choir had come to sing and who they were singing about!
PR:
-Please pray for our new teacher contact and the opportunities that this has presented us with! Apparently there is one other Christian teacher at our university that also wants us to help!
-Pray that this other teacher contact will be great in reaching Seikei University :)
-We found out today that yesterday on campus there was a suicide in the library. Please pray for these students and the family of the lost one. There are one suicides a day in Tokyo. Please pray for these lost hearts, they have no hope and we have come to offer them the HOPE IN JESUS!
-Pray for the CBU choir team and their time here with us.
-Bless the older choir team and the questions they have about the beautiful singing the CBU sang for them.
-pray for the hearts of the students that were met today in the caf and in the classroom. Pray that the Shakey's friends will be invested in by this team and may draw interest in our Father.
haley michelle
Well today I had the California Baptist University team with me at my campus and it went amazing! This is a choir team from CBU that has come to sing and create opportunities to share about JC! Today definitely didn't go as it was planned, but Christ really led our day! The plan of the day was for prayer walking until lunch time, lunch time of meeting new friends on Seikei campus, and then heading to Mitaka for 5ME! Well short story... we never made it to Mitaka because Christ definitely had different plans for us today! Today is Brian's day off so the team was with rachel and I at our university and we split into twos in order to prayer walk to he campus. Christ has really shown me that no work can be done anywhere if we do not go to him in prayer FIRST! So we all went off and began prayer walking for our university and were to meet back up at 12 for lunch hour. The cafeteria gets really busy at about 12:20 so I had planned for them to eat and then start singing some when they felt it was a good time. Well so then team met up at 12 except two of the guys on the choir team, so I sent the team off with Rachel to eat in the caf and waited around for the guys... Well they never showed up and long story short they ended up at a community center. They ran into a 67 year old lady that had her own choir and asked them to come join in on practice tonight at 7! Well so that definitely wasn't on the schedule, but we decided to do this and see what the opportunities would be. Somewhere between this time and the time it took them to get the the caf after already being late the boys ran into one of the 2 known CHRISTIAN professors at our university! How amazing is that :D Christ allowed these guys to already find us contacts on the campus! So we were invited to come to her class at 2:50 and help her students learn english! So that was the new plan of our day today and we just went with it! We finished lunch and the CBU team met many contacts after singing to the people in the caf and they invited them out for dinner at Shakey Pizza tonight! So we went to this class and it ended up that these students were testing one on one today with the teacher so the choir entertained the class as the students went in one on one to test. I met a new contact and was able to help him with this test! He was so excited that I helped him learn some english and our new teacher contact told me he did so well! I was happy for him :) Anyway so the choir sand for them and when class ended at 4:20 we headed to Shakeys for dinner! they had at least 10 of their new friends show up and it was a great fun dinner with our new Japanese friends :) One of which I have been told is VERY interested in learning more about JC and having FBS! The teacher has asked my team to return to her classes on Friday's to help her students with english. Please pray that we are able to invest in these students lives!
Galations 6:9
We went to the choir practice and it was an all aged choir and they were precious :) I really enjoy older people, so I had a great time singing with them and learning a few Japanese songs. the CBU team sang for them after their practice was over and the older singers LOVED it! They were so happy the team was able to come and sing with them! As the team sang about JC, the elders were able to ask questions and like every time they sang. Rachel and I were able to tell these Japanese people why the choir had come to sing and who they were singing about!
PR:
-Please pray for our new teacher contact and the opportunities that this has presented us with! Apparently there is one other Christian teacher at our university that also wants us to help!
-Pray that this other teacher contact will be great in reaching Seikei University :)
-We found out today that yesterday on campus there was a suicide in the library. Please pray for these students and the family of the lost one. There are one suicides a day in Tokyo. Please pray for these lost hearts, they have no hope and we have come to offer them the HOPE IN JESUS!
-Pray for the CBU choir team and their time here with us.
-Bless the older choir team and the questions they have about the beautiful singing the CBU sang for them.
-pray for the hearts of the students that were met today in the caf and in the classroom. Pray that the Shakey's friends will be invested in by this team and may draw interest in our Father.
haley michelle
day 8 :)
So I know I am a little behind... okay more than a little but I am updating now on my day off :)
Thank you for being patient and reminding me! It means a lot that you guys are reading my posts and daily praying for our needs here in Japan!
So this blog is for Thursday the 4th :)
Today was our first distribution day and it went really well. We ran out of hope tracts to distribute 30 minutes earlier than expected so that was great news! I think we probably distributed about 1000 or so within the hour and a half we did it! Our distribution process will take place all summer long. We have been assigned the Mitaka area to reach twice so right now we distribute a tract that is for a free cd about Jesus Christ. Then after we reach all these houses and apartments we will return to them later in the summer and distribute the Gospel of John to every house and apartment! Today was my first day of 5 minute english! 5ME is something we will do everyday except Sunday in order to reach people in Tokyo. 5ME is a really easy task to do. Our team stands there with several signs that read 5ME in Japanese and english. The people who would like to do a free 5ME lesson walk up to us and we are able to help them practice their english and prayerfully present the gospel to them. I was able to talk to two people over a 3 hour period and I was so happy about this! I talked to one girl for about 30 minutes to 45 minutes. I was able to tell her a lot about why I was here and get into a spiritual conversation with her, but when it came to wanting to walk through the summary of the bible she wasn't very interested. So in turn I just decided to invest in her and continue to help her with her english. As we spoke she started asking me more questions about why i was there and why I was offering free english lessons. So even though she wasn't interested she sure did want to talk about it still! So from the beginning of the presentation of the Gospel she wasn't interested, but 45 minutes later she wanted to have the summary of the Bible! I was happy to share with her this small piece and we prayed together and she ran off. Please pray that she will continue to want to know more and more about the Word and find me on another day in Mitaka! About 30 minutes later an older man came up to me and wanted to speak english! This is unusual in Tokyo because usually the older generations do not know english but the younger ones do because they are being taught in school. So I went along talking to this man and pouring into him as he worked on his english. He actually lived in the states while getting his doctorate in science and continued to learn english till this day. he was a very smart man, but because of his science background and his continuous studies in this field, he was resistant to the Word. He knew about it and that there was only one true God, but he said it was not for him to believe. When living in the states his host family took him to church every Sunday with them, but he never accepted Jesus. So at the end of our conversation and after many questions of why i was here in Japan, I asked him if I could pray for him. Of course he let me because Japanese people are very kind and as I prayed he continued to thank me. Please pray that this man will search for the real science of this world. We were created by our Father! After 5ME for 3 hours or so we had a session of free bible study with one of our M's serving here in Tokyo. For FBS we stand there with these huge signs and those interested in a free bible come to us. I did this last night for 4 hours with Brian! So today only Rachel and Brian had to do it the whole time because I had a dinner with one of my contacts from Asia University. Well it ended up that we got kicked out of Mitaka train station for doing FBS so they ended up going to Shibuya which is where we live and the largest cross section in Tokyo is! I believe it was a very fruitful night for them at FBS. I have dinner with one of my contacts and one of her friends. These girls are Chinese, so because of that I have no material to offer them and no materials to do a FBS, but because the Lord has blessed me with this friendship and this contact I will continue to invest in their lives. Dinner was amazing and cost me 1300 yen which is way expensive considering we get 500 a meal!!! But it was totally worth it :) I had octopus, sushi two kinds actually, salad, oysters, chickens, pig intestines, and several other fun things :) This was my first time with real sushi... :D It was amazing and I cant wait to have more :) My friend knows why I am in Japan and please pray that even though there are no materials in Chinese for her that there will be an opportunity to present the Gospel to her. There has been a seed planted and the Father is teaching me it grows in time! I pray one day she will find our Father who will truly love her unconditionally! Tomorrow I have the CBU team!
PR-
-Since we have been kicked off Mitaka station for FBS please pray that we will still be able to have 5ME and evangelism still taking place here.
-Please pray for my contact at Asia University and the Chinese barrier there. Please pray that the lack of materials in this language will not be a problem.
-Pray for the CBU team and their time here with us serving as volunteers.
-Pray for the two 5ME opportunites I was given today and that they will continue to search for the one true God.
Haley Michelle
Thank you for being patient and reminding me! It means a lot that you guys are reading my posts and daily praying for our needs here in Japan!
So this blog is for Thursday the 4th :)
Today was our first distribution day and it went really well. We ran out of hope tracts to distribute 30 minutes earlier than expected so that was great news! I think we probably distributed about 1000 or so within the hour and a half we did it! Our distribution process will take place all summer long. We have been assigned the Mitaka area to reach twice so right now we distribute a tract that is for a free cd about Jesus Christ. Then after we reach all these houses and apartments we will return to them later in the summer and distribute the Gospel of John to every house and apartment! Today was my first day of 5 minute english! 5ME is something we will do everyday except Sunday in order to reach people in Tokyo. 5ME is a really easy task to do. Our team stands there with several signs that read 5ME in Japanese and english. The people who would like to do a free 5ME lesson walk up to us and we are able to help them practice their english and prayerfully present the gospel to them. I was able to talk to two people over a 3 hour period and I was so happy about this! I talked to one girl for about 30 minutes to 45 minutes. I was able to tell her a lot about why I was here and get into a spiritual conversation with her, but when it came to wanting to walk through the summary of the bible she wasn't very interested. So in turn I just decided to invest in her and continue to help her with her english. As we spoke she started asking me more questions about why i was there and why I was offering free english lessons. So even though she wasn't interested she sure did want to talk about it still! So from the beginning of the presentation of the Gospel she wasn't interested, but 45 minutes later she wanted to have the summary of the Bible! I was happy to share with her this small piece and we prayed together and she ran off. Please pray that she will continue to want to know more and more about the Word and find me on another day in Mitaka! About 30 minutes later an older man came up to me and wanted to speak english! This is unusual in Tokyo because usually the older generations do not know english but the younger ones do because they are being taught in school. So I went along talking to this man and pouring into him as he worked on his english. He actually lived in the states while getting his doctorate in science and continued to learn english till this day. he was a very smart man, but because of his science background and his continuous studies in this field, he was resistant to the Word. He knew about it and that there was only one true God, but he said it was not for him to believe. When living in the states his host family took him to church every Sunday with them, but he never accepted Jesus. So at the end of our conversation and after many questions of why i was here in Japan, I asked him if I could pray for him. Of course he let me because Japanese people are very kind and as I prayed he continued to thank me. Please pray that this man will search for the real science of this world. We were created by our Father! After 5ME for 3 hours or so we had a session of free bible study with one of our M's serving here in Tokyo. For FBS we stand there with these huge signs and those interested in a free bible come to us. I did this last night for 4 hours with Brian! So today only Rachel and Brian had to do it the whole time because I had a dinner with one of my contacts from Asia University. Well it ended up that we got kicked out of Mitaka train station for doing FBS so they ended up going to Shibuya which is where we live and the largest cross section in Tokyo is! I believe it was a very fruitful night for them at FBS. I have dinner with one of my contacts and one of her friends. These girls are Chinese, so because of that I have no material to offer them and no materials to do a FBS, but because the Lord has blessed me with this friendship and this contact I will continue to invest in their lives. Dinner was amazing and cost me 1300 yen which is way expensive considering we get 500 a meal!!! But it was totally worth it :) I had octopus, sushi two kinds actually, salad, oysters, chickens, pig intestines, and several other fun things :) This was my first time with real sushi... :D It was amazing and I cant wait to have more :) My friend knows why I am in Japan and please pray that even though there are no materials in Chinese for her that there will be an opportunity to present the Gospel to her. There has been a seed planted and the Father is teaching me it grows in time! I pray one day she will find our Father who will truly love her unconditionally! Tomorrow I have the CBU team!
PR-
-Since we have been kicked off Mitaka station for FBS please pray that we will still be able to have 5ME and evangelism still taking place here.
-Please pray for my contact at Asia University and the Chinese barrier there. Please pray that the lack of materials in this language will not be a problem.
-Pray for the CBU team and their time here with us serving as volunteers.
-Pray for the two 5ME opportunites I was given today and that they will continue to search for the one true God.
Haley Michelle
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