FIRST FULL DAY!!!

awww today was AMAZING :) I just want yall to all know I love Tokyo Japan and though I will come back, I will miss this place :) Ya it is that amazing after one day!!!

okay so my base camp was awesome! My team of ten of us really connected!!! We enjoyed igosia, for those of yall that not know what igosia is ill let you know just a tad bit! iWitness the group that has sent us here at base camp IS igosia... they put us through samples of things that can happen at customs, immigration and different random cultural things that can happen... I will just finish talking about it by saying it is tons of fun! 

we got up at 4:30 a.m. to take off for the airport and flew off about ten in the morning :) the flight was a looooong 14 hours but we were all so excited to get here! i am still so excited!!! we took a train and a bus for an hour then took a 45 minute hike up to our apartment :) I will have some amazing legs after this summer! Praise the Lord for no jet lag!

Today was our first full day and it was amazing! we had our orientation together with the other interns from the imb and our leaders. so today we enjoyed lunch and i must tell you i ate octopus!!! AMAZING! lol so today a small group that i was in took about a 30 minute hike and a 20 minute train ride to a university! i was with two partners inside the latte place hanging out and the Lord really allowed us to open up to people!!! i spoke with about a total of 1o girls and they were SO excited to talk to me :) The first girl I started with came to our dinner tonight! I will talk about this in a minute :) I sat down with a group of about 3 after my first contact and started talking to them, but there was small language barrier there and it was difficult to share with them. After this barrier several friends of these girls wanted to have small takl as much as they could, so I said OF COURSE! And I enjoyed some talk with them for a little bit before they returned to class. Then I was sitting there enjoy a latte (I do not like coffee well lattes for those of you who know this!) and a Japanese girl tapped on my shoulder and wanted to talk! The Lord just really set this divine appointment us because we ended up talking the rest of the time!!! 

So tonight we had dinner with new friends and I was so happy some of my girls showed up!!! The two others in my group had some of their guys show up too!!! It was amazing we had about 20 new friends show up for dinner :) I tried a new dish which was great :) even ate some seafood! Be proud! lol Our group was able to share the gospel with several of our new friends and one ACCEPTED!!! Praise the Lord :)

The Lord is doing some amazing work here! Please continue to pray for Tokyo!!!

SERVING HIM

Haley :)

EXCITEMENT~!

It is almost here!!!

Bags are packed, car is loaded, time for a wonderful drive to Dallas with my mom and an amazing learning weekend with my fellow interns! I am so excited for this opportunity and I thank everyone who has given financially, prayed for me and this experience, and those 17 prayer warriors who are AMAZING and have committed to praying for our team this summer!

This past week our leadership team went ahead of us to get everything ready for the interns this summer! Guess what! 4 people have already accepted Jesus Christ!!! How amazing is that :) This excites me so much. It is not about the numbers, it is about planting that seed in these Japanese lives and allowing the Father to do his amazing work in these people's lives! God has already started investing in lives that were shared to just last summer, proof - 4 people! Last summer the seed was planted in their lives :) How amazing :)

So I am a little worried about my bag weight :) You get one carry on and one bag! I am thankful I am not a real girly girl because there is NO WAY I would have been able to manage one bag! But, I am good and have my one bag, now just have to worry about the weight :) FYI: At wally world they have these amazing bags that you vacuum the air out of and make it easier to pack... THEY WORK!!!

In my last post I talked about Satan and how he is trying to win... Well he is fighting again so I want to share this with those of you reading. I lost both my grandmothers when I was in high school. My mom's step dad who I knew to be my grandfather passed away in October of last year... So I have only one grandparent remaining and that is my Dad's father. I have been shaken with the fact that if he is to pass away this summer, there is no way for me to get home for his funeral. This scares me and I know it is Satan, but please pray for this for me. I need a sense of peace about this and it is very hard. I am slowly releasing this and not allowing Satan to win this battle, but I need some prayer.

ON A HAPPY NOTE...IT IS SHOW TIME!!!
My bags are packed and I am off to Dallas.
Please say a special prayer at 10:00 a.m. on Tuesday this is when our
team will fly off to Tokyo, Japan to do amazing work for our amazing God!
I will post again IN Japan!

JOHN 3:30

Satan can not bring me down!

Well Satan is at work that is for sure!

BUT awesome thing is, he will not get me down :)

I mentioned my debit/credit card fraud in my last post... Well I just found out last week that about $250 has been taken from my account from 2 companies! A magazine company and a video company! I spent hours calling these companies to stop charges and then gave up! I realized I don't need to get worked up over this... It is Satan trying to bring me down and he WILL NOT WIN!

So I have spoke with Bank of America and they think I have two fraud cases that can be taken care of. So it was great news to hear that :) I will call them again today to try to get this taken care of BEFORE Japan! I am thankful BOA has worked with me so far in dealing with this. I ask for your prayers that while I am gone in Japan these 2 companies will not continue to charge my account!!!

Satan - 0
He loses :)

May update :)

FYI: I am PACKED and ready to go :)

Well it is Wednesday and I leave for Dallas with my mom on Friday! I am super excited and can not wait for this weekend and the start of an amazing summer in Japan. :)

Some updates in May...
-Finals stressed me out of course, BUT I did not let them consume me like I have in the past! I did great and was happy with finishing my first semester at WBU!
-I came home with great grades for this semester and was extremely happy about that!
-I received a $400 scholarship for next semester! Anything helps pay for school when you go to a private university!!! :)
-I got to see me aunt from CALI!!! and spend time with her and family members while she was down :)
-I have a friend getting married on August 8th and I will return from Japan on the 6th and be able to make her wedding! How exciting :)
-I have 17 prayer warriors for this summer and am so BLESSED to have people committing to pray for my team and I throughout the whole summer! THANK YOU!!!
-My home church held a commissioning ceremony for me and I was truly blessed by the support within my church and from my family.
-My mom will get to take part in my commissioning with my team in Dallas before I head off!
-I have enjoyed being home and seeing high school friends and my family :)

Prayer requests
-Unexpected money is needed for Japan...
-My debit/credit card has fraud on it! I will share more about this later...

Wake UP!!! The Lord is calling you... Lose the stubborness...

So if you don't know me personally I will be blunt with you:

I am VERY stubborn!

Anyway now that I have set that out there for you I will start my blog :)

Well this deals with last night as well as my past experiences with the Lord calling me to do things for HIM! Last night at synergy I was praying about becoming part of the leadership team for the BSM. It is not like it is a hard decision to make, but I had to make it a hard decision. Why? I am stubborn and I will admit that. I just have a hard time fighting my battles with God and when to do something and when not to. If you read my last blog about how great is our GOD! you would read about another stubborn moment I had. Whether to speak up or not. I am the queen of excuses! So when it comes to the leadership team, I struggle in saying yes. I know I would be a great asset to the team and would love to, but I just am on the fence about it and can't make a decision. Always have my excuses..

Donnie (BSM director) issued a challenge to us last week. Become a servant... Well you know, I thought about it. BUT guess what that isn't good enough! I am so stubborn. I have an amazing opportunity to reach out to several students at my school and build them up, but do I do it? no... One of my close friends that I have made lately allowed me to open up to them. It is so much easier for me to fly across the world to Germany and Japan to share the gospel, but I struggle doing it at WAYLAND! What is going on? Once again I make excuses as to why I won't talk to this person or why I won't say things bother me and explain.

Another challenge offered to me this week... hello Haley you play on a volleyball team... open opportunity to start a ministry... here come the excuses. When is this going to stop? When am I going to just stop with the stubbornness and say yes to what the Lord is calling me to do? As much as I would like to say TODAY i will stop, I still find my excuses... Please be in prayer for me..

Prayer Requests

-A close high school friend of mine, Eloisa Luna, had her father pass away two days ago. Though I do not know how this feels personally, I am so hurt for her. Please pray for the Luna family.

-Please pray for my stubbornness and willingness to just DROP the excuses...

-I am reviewing for my finals :) and :(

How Great is OUR God?

Last night was the last night of SYNERGY for the semester. Synergy is the weekly fellowship that the BSM holds on Monday nights. I have really enjoyed being able to go to that this semester and being able to connect with new friends!

So last night we were singing a song in worship and I just became extremely emotional and convicted of not giving God all the glory. I don't recognize him near enough for the happiness in my life. Then the BSM director opened the floor for anyone to share just how great God is in people's lives. Already being emotional I couldn't talk, well I thought I couldn't. Perhaps I should have and really became transparent to the students I attend Synergy with, but I didn't.

God has done some amazing things in my life this semester and though I was unable to express myself last night, I know I can express it here. And to those of you reading this, I am just being transparent and showing you what God is doing in my life!

This semester started off pretty rough for me and has continually gotten better, but definitely had huge bumps along the way. I came to Wayland knowing 4 people and having only met the volleyball team during Thanksgiving. I wasn't real worried about making friends or finding a church home, just serving God in ways that were still unknown to me. Well I have had my struggles with volleyball, with financial problems, with trust, with raising money for Japan, with my grades, with family struggles and with accepting myself for who I am becoming. What I realized last night and became so emotional about is the fact the God has handled EVERY bit of these struggles and I have yet to give him praise for it. How sad is that!?

The Lord has blessed with with an amazing church here in Plainview and I could not have be led to a better church to call home at Wayland. The university group has been such a joy to be around and build up and keep each other going strong throughout the semester. I have made close girl friends and kept an amazing roommate who I can't wait to have more memories with. Volleyball is getting better and I am slowly, but surely accepting my role. God is helping me through this and I know he will continue to ease my heart. Why did I ever worry about my financial problems with school or Japan? Waste of my time, stress, and I should have been praising God during this whole time. The Lord continues to provide in both of these areas and deserves ALL the praise! Christ has healed my heart through broken and upsetting relationships. He has shown me what real love is and no matter how much I get hurt, he is the ultimate HEALER! My grades are fine and I need to focus on HIM! Not the A or stressing about the B, focus on HIM and give him the glory. My family has struggles, but through everything I know God is working on something wonderful and we will see it someday. Till then I WILL PRAISE MY GOD! Through a very rough and emotional semester these last few weeks have been full of joy and happiness. I can not express how happy I am that I have stuck with everything and not given up! I have been blessed with an amazing friend lately who has pulled me through and helped me to see God's glory. From one friend to multiple other building friendships I truly thank God for providing me with an amazing person to come into my life and whip me into shape!

How great is our GOD? Let me just say that more than any words could ever say, I will praise him for the greatness he has done in my life. It is time to leave the selfishness in my life behind and focus on the fact that EVERYTHING has to do with how great MY GOD truly is!

The harvest is HERE! The kingdom is NEAR! You said ask and I'll give the nations to you O Lord that's the CRY of my heart.

JSI RETREAT!

Well I just returned Sunday night after driving 700+ miles to Davis, Oklahoma! Our JSI retreat was held at Falls Creek this weekend and went very well. We learned a lot of things :)

I got to hear a lot about what our plans are for the summer and how we plan to take these plans on! I am so excited to reach out to Tokyo! We are focusing on west Tokyo this summer and narrowing it down to 9 train stops only. I along with another intern will be assigned a specific area that we will cover the first month with smaller teams that come in for a week or two weeks. Then along side the high school interns that are going to come in in July, we will match up 2 interns and 3 high school interns with larger teams of 200+ that will come in toward the end of the summer! I am excited :)

I definitely have to go shopping :) Sounds like fun, but with limited money for shopping, I will make it work! In Japan we will try to wear mostly dresses and skirts to fit into the culture as well as try to look nice. Japanese women dress very nicely and can be found running around in heels! So cute! So with the many pairs of jeans I have, they will not be used in Japan this summer because it is too hot! Dresses and skirts = party :) I'm excited!

Our goal for the first month of the summer is to get the gospel of John into every mailbox of western Tokyo! That is extreme! Remember that Tokyo alone is at a population of 33 million and is getting close to 34! This gospel along with a card of interest and maybe a small tract will be just one way we will be able to reach those who are seeking something greater in their life! As the return the card to our leader we will be able to personally contact them and continue to plant and grow that seed! :)

I might think of more later to share, but I got to head to class :)

Galations 6:9