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