may 31-day five

Today was the first day we had not had training, in fact orientation  and training may be over besides our monday meetings each week. So since it was sunday that means it was time for church, we had church in one of the main parks in west tokyo. We worshiped and then had a small sermon and split up and did a bible study. after the morning service all the people split up amongst the park to try and do ministry. My friend thomas and i were looking for a soccer game that we could join, while we were looking it not only began to rain, but it poured so hard. so we were stuck under a tree with about four other of our teammates, it wasnt bad for a while and then the water began to rise around us so we figured it was time to move to higher and dryer ground so we ran to a gazebo. we had not had any divine appointments while we were there. AFter about twenty minutes we had attempted to talk to people but they weren't interested so we decided to venture into the storm. We had ended up at the back of the park before the storm so we had a long way to go, it was a long wet walk especially since i didnt bring my umbrella today so i embraced the rain and actually played some soccer with a friend who also embraced it with me. after we left the park we were supposed to meet at our focus train stations to pray over the people and discuss any situations. When we finished praying we got back on the train and left. After we got off the train at the shibuya station, one of my teammates (Teron) needed to stop at a place called donkyote which is basically like a japanese walmart. As he was inside Kelley(the third and final member of our team) and i were talking about how we were bummed because today was not what we expected and how we were talking about how sometimes maybe all we could do was pray....and as we were discussing this a japanese man walked up and awkwardly stood next to us for about five minutes in silence. Then after the silence he turned to kelley and i and read her shirt (her shirt was one that was handed out to all the interns, it was an IMB tokyo shirt and on the front it says Jesus Loves You in japanese.) He was so excited to read this, and we reassured him that jesus did love him. So we gave him the gospel of john, and then i started to use a pamphlet about christ and once i opened and had him read the first page and then took it from me because he was so intrigued which was amazing. its awesome how god reassures you his work will be done, but only in his timing.

may 30-day four

Today was a more laid back day, we still had training in the morning until noon or so. After training was over we were assigned our groups we would be our groups for the duration of the summer. my group has a good feel for each other and our strengths, i was assigned leader of the group by the "M" or missionary for you that dont understand my terminology. which i was praying that i would be coordinating the campus outreach but new in my heart that god was about to put me in a leadership role. after training the iwitness group had the opportunity to spend time with eachother for the first time as a whole since we arrived, we ate together at a place called pepper lunch and then went out on the town and did a little site seeing and shopping and random places. while about 5 of us were out looking for a certain store, we saw two homeless people on the sidewalk, this was definately a divine appointment because of one girl felt like we should attempt to show gods love and compassion to these men. So since we went the wrong way we had to double back and walk past them again, and instead of neglecting them as we did the first time her compassion rippled through our group and we collected all the change or smaller yen that we had in our pockets which ended up to be a couple thousand yen or around 20 american dollars or more. we then split the money and presented it to them as a gift along with the the gospel john tract that i had in my bag and told him that god loved them both and when we walked away we prayed for them korean style for them (korean style is where you pray simultaneously and wait until all are finished). it was a humbling moment for me and my friends i'm sure. After this we met back with our teams to go set up karaoke parties in our focus area, we attempted to get in touch with the contacts we had already made but god had different plans that we wouldnt realize until it happened. All of our contacts were busy with work tonight and were not able to meet us, so we were outside our focus station and trying to come up with a gameplan for the night. While we were waiting, a japanese man came up and started talking to a friend of mine, so i was evesdropping on this of course. the conversation lead to brian asking the man if he knew anything about christ and i thought id join just in case brian needed backup, but only if he was stumped. Turns out that this man was meeting with a possible japanese christian, he didnt give us very much information about this man and called him "MR. X" and was very persistent on keeping his identity secret so he would not get into any trouble. We had about an hour long conversation with this man, well brian did anyhow. it was so humbling again, even though we did not meet our contacts because of god's plan we might have an opportunity to meet "MR.X" and see if he would be interested in partnering with us and mentoring young japanese christians when we leave. please pray for us and gods cause. i miss you guys and thank all of you for your support and prayers. god has done so much more than i expected already!! 

may 29-day three

Same routine this morning With the orientation and training. then about one we went out with a different group, a smaller trek group of 3 that would most likely end up being our group for the summer. WE ate lunch together at a place called pepper lunch, which was so good. then about 3 we got on the train to head to our focus site. when we arrived at musashi sakai we headed straight to asia university again to just prayer walk which again turned into us going to common areas. i went to the same place as yesterday, while one leader and another member went to the gym and the other leader and the last member went to the caf. the thing about asia is there is alot of spiritual warfare on this campus, there is a buddhist temple on campus i believe. i walked into the coffee place and recognized someone i met yesterday, his name was Shuto, so i went and plopped down right beside him and just started talking to him and his friends. one in particular was very interested in me, my backround such as hobbies, family, interests, college etc. this guy's name was Ciggy, well ciggy was short for his real name which was hard to pronounce..maybe someday ill get the hang of it.. so i talked to ciggy for about an hour and then had him walk me to the gym because i had no clue where to go, during the walk i was able to ask his beliefs and tell him basics about my way of life, christianity and my heavenly father. after our conversation he and shuto wanted to hang out more, i informed them that i would be on campus a couple days each week all summer and they said they would like to hang out more. they offered to show me tokyo in  a way that a tourist cannot see. i was also invited to meet them for soccer sometime when i am available, by the way they dont play soccer on the ground or some field. they play on rooftops that are turf and made for this. they play on roofs because tokyo is so crammed and crowded that they do not have anywhere else to play. God gave me divine appointments today. he has blessed me so much so far and i hope there is more to come. i hope i am able to invest in the men i have met and plant the seed of life or lead them to a purpose driven life full of gods love if that is gods will. thats it for tonight so MATANE!! (which means goodbye)

may 28- day two

Today was our first day out on the city of Tokyo, we were focused and on a mission. The first half of the day was filled with training and orientation and at lunch we headed out. My trek group consisted of 11 people that i did not really know all too well. From the time we left the apartment i knew it would be an adventure that day, i could not speak a word of japanese, i was unfamiliar with the trains an everything basically which is normal of course. God had refocused me the night before and when it was time to go to the ministry site that i would be at i knew i was ready or at least hoped anyhow. As a group we ate lunch at a food court at our final stop, musashi sakai. musashi sakai would be one of the main spots for ministry, this is where we would do our five minute english lessons and try to establish some contacts with people in the area. we then went to the university that we would be working at, asia university is mine. when we arrived at the university 3 people of our trek group prayer walked around the campus asking for divine appointments while the rest of us split up among the common hangout places of the campus. at first it was a little intimidating for me because of how many were in the coffe shop area that i went to. my group of 3 talked to a girl named yan and it was a little intimidating for us and her, so from then we split up and decided to approach groups that way. after that i met about 12 different guys there, most of which were studying english which took the language barrier down for the most part. God has given me a heart for this college and the people in it. we actually werent supposed to go inside the college but our leader felt lead to do so and god had divine appointments set for us. i became close to guys named hiro, shingo, and yofi so i invited them and their friends to meet me for dinner that night at the food court so we could hang out more and even though they said they had to do homework (which they really did) they made time to come and eat with me, about all twelve showed up for dinner with my team and another ten or more people also came. one of my teammates got a chance to witness to one of them and HE ACCEPTED CHRIST!! After dinner we all said our goodbyes and exchanged numbers and parted ways. it was such an amazing day, i loved it. we then came back and shared gods work with the rest of our team, and just calmed down for the night.

May 27-day one

Base camp is over and we arrived in tokyo today at about 1 pm. The flight was 12 hours and felt so long, i only slept about 3 hours of the flight so i had plenty of time to kill. When we arrived at Narita Airport outside tokyo, we changed our currency to japanese yen then loaded up on the bus to head to kamiyama plaza where we would be staying the duration of the trip. The first day i had not yet grasped the fact that i was in tokyo, i was questioning myself and my calling and was not fully focused but then was reassured that night by something that was said. The next morning about 2 am after i had awaken from a dream about america, i had finally grasped that i was here! i was so excited!