Saturday 08-12-07

Something funny I keep forgetting to write about, is when the girls have a girly night, we still put the ladder up and then jump down. The hard part is getting back up to the loft to get the ladder back down again. We usually send Shiho up, I’m the base person who gets stood on. But Shiho isn’t so good with heights and takes ages to work her way up to it. She’s getting a lot better.

Today, we pushed her up, but then she got stuck between the 2 bars and wouldn’t let go to push her self up and out of the situation. It took lots of encouragement for us to get her to trust that we weren't going to let her fall if she let go. Good times.

On Thursday we were having our usual kind of day at uni – hanging out in YA for lunch. I was making friends with one of the English teachers over here (he’s from … somewhere in the states) and things were winding down with the students when i noticed someone go up to Andy and ask him something. Luckily Seiji (the Nagoya Director) was with him and said something in Japanese and the guy went away. A few moments later a security guard was circling our tables. Warning signs everywhere!! Then someone came up to me and asked if I was a student. *sigh* they always pick on the gaijin (forigners).

Anyway I said no I'm from a club in Australia, and he asked me if I was a registered club on the uni and I know we aren't so I'm humming and thinking and I grab Jody, and ask him to take over. So he does. The guy was from Admin, and was just checking up on us. Jody asked if someone had complained about us and they said no - so we think we are clean - but even so. They talked for while - Jody said we are here with Mr Kimura - who is a Christian professor who takes care of us if the admin step in, and they were ok about that, and then Jody offered to give him his number, but the admin guy was like, "no it’s ok..."

When he left, I saw him talking to a lady who was having lunch next to me and Pamela as we did a CE with Ayumi this morning - so maybe that's who said something - I dunno. After that, we split up and spread out a bit. Lunch was over, so we looked ominous all sitting together. I left campus all together but everyone else just tried to blend in. Jody went to see Kimura sensei, but he wasn't in. Apparently he was followed when he tried to do that. We all left fairly soon after though.

We got together and prayed at Nishin before biking over to Isha (where the Christmas party was going to be held that night) and then walking to the train station and getting the train and then the bus to Aichiu. We had a 5 min wait at Fujigaoka for the bus and so Andy and I decided to go to maccas. So he starts and I run to catch up with him but for some reason I’m unco today and end up compleately stacking it on the cement. My hands were all grazed and my knees (which were already bruised from falling off bikes) got new bruises! Hooray! We wiped my hands with wet tissues on the bus (I did make it to maccas and back in time hooray!) but some of the dirt is stuck in my hand making it quite painful. My knees look stellar at the moment – the bruises have come up nicely. ☺

English club at Aichiu was really fun, not as many students turned up because they all have tests this week, but we talked about Christmas – what it means and what different cultures do for it and then we headed over to the Christmas Party!

The Christmas Party was held at Isha church – apparently the 90 year old female pastor is currently in a coma, so prayers for her. It was the biggest church I’ve seen yet in Japan. All the Student Impact Students from Nagoya were there as well as a heap of Gaidai and Aichiu students! Hooray! After some fun games, the Christian artist Migiwa performed a concert, which included her testimony. It was about the same stuff that I’d heard on Sunday when she performed at Parkside. I think her testimony moved a lot of the students though.

We left the Christmas party (late) at about 9:45. I was really wanting to dance and so I did for a bit. I looked physco by myself dancing and pulling random Japanese people in with me. But it was fun. ☺ A whole group of us walked down the street to a Maccas and hung out there for a while. I was pretty tired, but biking home alone was not a suitable option (especially since when I was waiting outside with my bike (in a stationary position) I fell over :D) I just hung with everyone.

We rode home – yay for down hill! (honeslty God has blessed us so much in that area – whenever we are riding home late and night and everyone is tired – it’s always been down hill) and made it just before midnight. ☺

Friday we all slept in, aiming to organise Australian party stuff in the morning before heading to uni for lunch at 12:00. I took 3 Christmas puddings which was super heavy – ended up walking way more than I usually would. Andy and George took the 5 kg’s of spagittie and the other 2 puddings and the girls took all the light plates and soft animals and stuff.

We dropped the stuff off at Nishin and then headed to campus. I was still a bit worried about yesterday as we still hadn’t heard anything solid about our position on campus, but it looked so sus that I was the only one on time for lunch. The guys were hanging out in the Atrium anyway, but I was the only one there at 12:15. The girls didn’t turn up unill 12:45. Honestly.

Still most of our contacts turned up and we had a good lunch. Afterwards we got a text from Jody. Mr Kimura had seen the admin guy and assured him that we were no threat to the students and we were safe to continue our mission – hooray! It was really good to know we weren’t in danger of being kicked of campus. ☺ *whew*

After that, Shiho and I went hunting for a chemist to see if I could get ear drops (my ear is really sore – I think it’s infected) and after 2 different pharmisicts told me to go see the doctors at the hospitial and all they could give me was pain killer we gave up and headed to Nishin. Andy and Shiho were the MC’s for the night, Andy in English and Shiho in Japanese (although they started by swapping ☺ it was funny) and so they ran through some things.

Everyone else turned up at 3 and we prayed for a half hour before starting preparations. I’m glad we started early, because we had a few technical difficulties, but everything was fine. Shubo and a Singaporean missionary along with Masayoshi turned up to help out, and ended up doing a great job with the cooking. It’s great to see Japanese guys wanting to serve. We made spaghetti and had Christmas pudding for desert.

It took ages for the night to get started, hardly anyone turned up until 6:30, but then things got rolling. We had introduction games and Australian Bush Dances (Amy you are a legend for giving me that CD ☺). All up we had 16 students come which was a pretty good turn out considering a lot of them had been out the night before too and all of them have exams.

For dinner I was at a table with Ibuki and 2 of her Aichui Med School friends – Emily, who I’ve met through English Club and Yukako, her friend, as well as Masayoshi (Nagoya missionary). The first thing Emily asked when she sat down was; “At English Club on Thursday we talked about Christmas – what is the real meaning of Christmas?”

How great is our God who just hands us spiritual conversations like that! Both girls were really interested in knowing. Emily also used to go out with the guitarist of Nishin Church (who’s parents are both missionaries). She said that she has noticed that a lot of people have faith and that she thinks it’s good and she needs it. The sad news is that she also thinks she needs to check them all out (Islam, Buddhism, Christianity etc) before she can choose. We had a lot of discussion with both girls.

Later on in the night, (our discussion was still going) we played a song about identity. The plan was that from this we could discuss about our identity and where it comes from. Our table was still stuck on the bible and Christianity so we ignored it for the most part. I used the chance though to go and grab my bible and a couple of KGP’s from my bag to bring out later. When I got back to the table I flashed the KGP’s at Ibuki just to let her know I had them and the next thing I know, she’s bringing them out and asking her friends if they want to see them.

It was amazing, both girls were really interested. Ibuki starts running them through (a little too fast maybe) how God loves us and how we are sinful and we slow up around the third point – Jesus. We did a lot of back tracking there and going into who Jesus is and how it works and what the bible says. Yukako actually went to a Christian school, so a lot of it for her was stuff she’d heard, but never really understood. I got the feeling she really appreciated actually knowing what Jesus was about for a change.

Both girls were really intellectual, so there was a lot of good conversation. Masayoshi also helped out heaps too. It was really good spiritual conversations. The next video was a Casting Crowns song, “Does Anybody Hear her?” and this one the girls did want to talk about. So we took a break from Jesus and talked about how people can judge us from our outside appearances. This lead on to Christianity again, and then Shiho gave her testimony as a conclusion to the discussion and then Kaji gave his testimony.

It was really good to flow from Kaji’s testimony, where he talked about how we all have a door in our hearts and we need to open it to God, back to the KGP. Masayoshi pointed out that the door doesn't have a handle on God’s side, we are the ones that have to open it.

With this we went to the 4th point of the KGP – our response to God. Yukako was very definite about wanting to move from a self directed life to a God directed one, and Emily was of the same mind although more hesitant, but when it came to praying the prayer, and actually asking God to come in and committing their lives to him they were both reluctant. Both girls said that they were not at a point in their lives where they needed God and said that maybe later on, when they have work and family and stress, then they would be able to pray. Emily went further with this and restated that she wanted to make sure she was signing up to the right religion before she did anything.

We kept talking to the girls and sharing with them our testimonies, and they were both excited about reading the bible and understanding it more. Ibuki and I ended up giving them both English-Japanese new testaments and both girls poured over the pages with great interest.

After Emily left, Jody and Ibuki talked more to Yukako, and challenged her to do a Christianity Explained course. She accepted which was great news.

Overall the night had 16 students come, everyone had a spiritual conversation, 5 KGP’s were shared and one CE has been initiated. ☺ hooray! Praise God for a great night.

We didn’t leave until 11:00pm and so we all enjoyed the long sleep in after our busy week. Today, the girls had lunch together (salad and ham sandwiches) and then Andy, George, Wai Ling and Shiho went to an event for Japanese people returning from being overseas for long term. Cecilia went to do a bit of relaxation shopping and Esther chilled in her room. I’ve been catching up on sleep, prayer and general Steve time. ☺ yay!

Hello!

Well now it’s December and the cold is settling in. The Nagoya weather is still beautiful – cool sunny days, but if that wind picks up watch out! Everyone on the team has taken to bringing extra layers to uni just in case, and Andy has even pulled out his Grandfathers coat with the 10 plus pockets.

This last weeks ministry has been amazing. There are so many open doors. I was talking to a girl at church and she said she knows what I mean. Because we hang around Christians all the time, and are used to other people having a relationship with Jesus – we forget it’s something to be desired! We forget that it’s an amazing privilege to be able to know we are saved and loved by the creator of the universe!

I have so many great stories about Japanese people wanting to know about God from last week that I’ll just tell you about Friday. We have a group lunch on Friday and Sachie, one of the young Christians at Gaidai bought two of her non Christian friends to hang out with us. Their names were Ayumi and Shizue. Pamela was at the table with me and we got talking about our hobbies. Ayumi said that she liked reading books on life, so Pamela asked her if she’d ever heard of the bible – because that’s a book with a lot of wisdom about life in it.

Ayumi said she had heard of it, but that she was Buddhist, so she didn’t know if she could read it. The conversation flicked back and forth between us all, and I got the feeling that Ayumi had the desire to know more about Christianity – especially when Sachie told her that she was a Christian, and Pamela shared that her family was a Buddhist family, but that she was also Christian, but she was torn inside because her family was Buddhist.

Shizue also expressed a great interest in knowing more about what the bible said and having a relationship with God. It was a really good conversation and the girls didn’t notice the time until they had to leave or be late for class. Luckily though, they came back to find us after class so we could talk more. We invited them both to the Friday Night Live event that night, and although Shizue couldn’t make it, Ayumi said she really wanted to come! So exciting!

After that, I was simply waiting at the table for Esther to come to have a meeting when another Japanese girl – who had been sitting at the table next to us at lunch and had overheard our conversation – came over to me and asked if I was a club on campus. I explained that I had come from Australia, and asked why. She replied and said that she wanted to know more about western culture so she tried to read the bible and didn’t understand it. Her neighbour is a Christian and was telling her more about Christianity and so she wanted to read the bible and know more about Christianity, but didn’t know anyone who could help her!

What a blessing that she had over heard our conversation and that we were not afraid to be proclaiming Christ just hours before! Her name was Yurie, and we have met with her again since and Shiho and I have both shared our testimonies with her. She has decided to begin a Christianity Explained course so that she can know more about Christianity. Our prayer is that as she discovers more about God, she will also desire a relationship with him.

Later on that Friday, as Friday Night Live was winding down, Ayumi and Sachie ended up talking with each other. Sachie shared her testimony with Ayumi (praise God! As a baby Christian, Sachie is growing!) and they talked for a good hour about Christianity. Later on, Kaji, another young Christian, also share his faith with Ayumi, and Pamela also had the opportunity to share a Knowing God Personally booklet – which has the four points of the gospel inside.

Ayumi said she is a person who never cries, but that night she was so overwhelmed by God’s love in that place and in the people she was talking too, she couldn’t stop crying. She is also starting a Christianity Explained this week.

God is just opening up the harvest field here for seeds to be planted, watered and grow.

Praise God for all the work he has done so far in the lives of these Japanese people.

Praise him for raising up young Christians to help in the harvest, praise him for the workers he has called.

Praise God that he has answered prayer, and has shown us the people to meet. Praise him that he would be using us in his plan.

Psalm 8 says; “Who am I, Lord, that you would be mindful of me?”

It is so amazing that God cares about us, and chooses to use us to reach his lost people. Thank you for your prayer support – God is working wonders!

Thursday 06-12-07

The rest of Sunday we had a team meeting and hung out for a while playing take two. I smelt so badly of hamburgers (because I was helping Cecilia find songs for the identity party and ended up swapping with Andy and helping Shiho with dinner) that I left pretty early for a shower.

Monday, back on campus. More freeish time in the morning before people come out of classes and then lunch with the usuals – Ayumi and Shizue came as well as Yurie – pretty cool. More Christian talk and gospel smack down. It was raining on Monday too, so we took the bus from a stop about 10 mins walk away and then walked from the convenience store to uni.

Coming home, Andy, Shiho and I went via the “Home Center” to get Andy an extension chord so he could shave and caught the bus by ourselves. Turns out that even though we told Cecilia and George we were going they didn't know, and so Wai Ling and co were all stuck at uni with no way to get home.

We were like … umm take the bus…. They made it home ok, but were a bit annoyed that we had left them (despite that we told them we were going) *sigh* miscommunication. :P oh well. Dinner that night was marinated chicken by Wai Ling and scrambled Eggs made with whatever is left in the fridge by George. Pretty tasty.

Monday night was also team night, so we watched another movie – Gladiator – under the condition that I wouldn’t talk the whole time. I didn’t. It was tough but I didn’t. I think because no one was talking and making jokes the whole movie was a lot more serious and time consuming than it needed to be, but oh well. Good movie though.

Tuesday we had prayer at Kamiyashiro Church again, I played piano with Taka on guitar and Ma-chan singing. It was fun. We also had a warning that there is a no musical instruments clause in our apartment building, so we’ve had to stop playing guitar. :P As a result we walked to the park for our prayer time on Tuesday and sat in the freezing Nagoya wind singing to God. It was pretty nice time.

I also told Esther that she was going to have to practice a KGP with me, either today or tomorrow, but that she would do it, so yeah – laid it on a bit hard for her, but I think she needed it.

The rest of Tuesday was slow. The boys went to an Aikido demonstration at Aichiu (I wanted to go and only found out later that I could have gone!) and I left at about 7:45 to go meet up with Yukina and Ibuki at 8:30. Cecilia, Wai Ling and Pamela were all meeting up with Chisato.

Yukina, Ibuki and I went to a funky café place called “FuZi” – Fun Food and Zippy Drink. There we ordered a heap of different things and shared. The first thing that Yukina asked me was “So what do you do at Christmas time?” yay for instant Jesus conversation. We talked about a lot of stuff and I shared my testimony with her. Later on I was reaching for my bible, and Ibuki whips out a KGP and says “have you ever seen one of these before?” and starts sharing her faith then and there. Go for Gold Ibuki!! It was the most fantastic thing to see Ibuki running through a KGP with her friend. Yukina didn’t pray to receive Christ there, but I’m going to challenge her to do a Christianity Explained today ☺ weee!!

When I got home – at 11:30 at night – C and Wai Ling were hanging out in Wai Ling’s room. Chisato did pray to receive Christ which was exciting, but now we need to challenge her to follow through on that decision. Hooray for a new sister!

Yesterday we were at uni again – Esther did meet up with me in the morning and run through a KGP. She was really nervous and kept trying to over do things, but I was like “just stick with what you know”. She managed to get through it – she said that she can never see herself using a booklet, but did realise that it is a good start to know the 4 points of the gospel. I think she just needs practice now. I shared with her 2 Timothy 1:7 “For you have not been given a spirit of fear, but of power, love and a sound mind!”. I really encouraged her to know this verse as her own, because people can encourage her, but unless she know for herself that this is true nothing will happen.

Lunch time Ibuki came to visit with Masato – George and Andy had left their phone in the car the night before :P. and we all hung around for the ususal lunch. Two new guys – Yuki and Takayuki were there and we got talking about Christmas and Jody ended up sharing a KGP with them. Afterwards, Momo went through a CE and Jody and Kaji had their DT.

I hung out with Kahori for a while, she shared that last Friday her devotional was on “Grace like rain” and how she feels like God is just pouring out his Grace on us like rain. ☺ yay!

I almost fell asleep after that, and then the girls came by. Shiho, Cecilia and Esther all wanted to go to Karaoke, and I said no for a change. I have an ear infection and my throat kills. My voice has been working overtime lately, so I don’t want to make it worse. :P The girls ended up going and I went to check on the frizbee guys.

Only 3 guys turned up, and so with George and Andy – that made 5. It was a freezing day so I don’t blame the rest of the team. With them all going out to dinner though and no girls for me to chill with, I went back and met up with Wai Ling and cycled back home. We went past max value and got food for “hand rolled sushi” but then realised the other girls had the keys for the rooms with the cooking stuff in them! So we just lay around in Wai Ling’s room until the other girls got home and then had a late dinner.

I called Steve last night, I miss him heaps at the moment.

Pamela, Shiho, Cecilia, Wai Ling, Esther and Paula

Saturday 01-12-07

Woah I’m getting sleep deprived. ☺ Wednesday we had a day at Nanzan university, which is actually a Catholic university. Second and Forth years, I think, have to take “Bible Classes” as part of the curriculum! But as with most places like that, only some of the students are actually believers. We arrived there at around 11:00 and did some praying and met some of the students. Student Impact is actually a registered club on campus so we had a lot more freedom than we do at Gaidai. I went out with one of the students, Yosuko, to do a “Christmas Quiz” and give out invitations (as well as Christmas CD’s with candy canes taped to them) to our Christmas party next week.

We talked to one girl, who was still at high school – and just chilling on campus while not studying – who knew where Santa came from but struggled when it came to knowing about Jesus. Then we talked to another girl, who did know more about Jesus (being a uni student and having done Jesus101 classes) but when I asked her “Why do we remember a day when someone was born?” she answered; “Japanese people don’t, but Christian people do.”

So I asked, “Why do they remember? Why is it important do you think?” and she answered, “I don’t know, isn’t that just part of culture?”. So Yasuyo and I ended up inviting her to lunch with us and the other Student Impact Students and she came along and had a fairly good time. I hope she comes back next week and continues to wonder why we have Jesus.

Also at lunch, I was chilling by the door and a girl came in and said “do you come from Griffith?” And I was like “yep!” and she said “I met you!” and I said “I know! You never returned my emails!” It was Ayumi who I had met at the start of 2006. She had come to Griffith as an overseas student for a year of study. She had only just become Christian and had told Shubo that she was worried about coming to Australia, so he told Joyce and she had emailed Scott Adamson who had forwarded it on to me. I met Ayumi and she had come to bible study, but it was too fast for her and she never came back. I had emailed and said “it’s cool, lets just meet up!” but I never got a reply.

Now she was so surprised. Hehehehe it was funny. She’s still hanging out with Christians (in Australia she hung out with a lot of Korean Christians), but her own faith is pretty shaky.

After lunch, we had “Australian games” where we pushed the chairs and tables aside and played a around of fruit salad. After that, we did some name games and a new game that Andy and George knew called “Signs”. After about an hour of game playing, we wrapped up and started heading out. Wai Ling was spending time with Pamela, so us Megumi-ans were free! We really wanted to do something different, but ended up just hanging out at Nanzan for a while playing Hackysack with random passers by.

It’s sort of a shame we aren’t at Nanzan for more than a day, because we could really encourage the believers there, but as it is, we have our hands full encouraging Christians at Gaidai and Aichiu.

We headed back home on the train and the boys went off to have dinner at their place and the girls and I had a fun relax night together. Shiho and Esther came round and we ate instant Ramen, and just chilled for a while, then all got up and walked down to the convince store to get ice cream. Yum. Then I called my homestay mum and Michiko. I got through to my homestay mum and had a quick chat with her ☺ I miss her so much. I can’t wait to see them. Michiko I got an answering machine for, so I just left a random muddled Japanese message. ☺

When we got back home we stayed up for a while playing Take Two and then hit the sack. Thursday, we had a lot of cycling to do.

We rode to Gaidai in the morning and hung out there for most of the day. I came off my bike riding to uni. There is a patch of gravel when you come down a slope and I was in the wrong gear and off balance so I fell off. My knee is now blue and sore, but otherwise ok! The day was spent meeting up with Students and chilling out. I feel like something significant might have happened, but I can’t remember now :P woe is me. Oh wait – I’ve got it. It was Kaji’s birthday, so Jody and Pamela organised a cake! ☺ The boys were meeting Kaji for lunch, and then Pamela rang and said “Kaji I’ve got something important to tell you about Ayumi” (his girl friend). So Kaji goes off to meet Pamela, and the boys and Kaji’s friends all meet me with the cake and light the candles and seek in behind Kaji and start singing happy birthday.

He was so surprised it was excellent. Hooray!

When I was doing my quiet time though, I had a thought about the Students and the workers here. Pamela disciples 6 girls already, we have a huge handful of students who are so interested in the gospel, and are wanting to meet up and hear it. Jody says to Andy; “The harvest is plentiful and the workers are two.”

It’s so true. I was reading Matthews 9:38 and I was so struck – there is a huge harvest. There are so many wanting to know God! How can we send to them? How can we reach them with the good news?

“So pray to the Lord of the harvest. Ask him to send more workers into the field.”

It would be so terrible to see the seeds of God’s word falling here and starting to grow, but then being chocked by the thorns because there aren’t enough harvest workers to care for them!

Anyway, after chilling at Gaidai, we rode our bikes to Fujigaoka Station and caught the bus from there to Aichui for English Class. The ride to Fujigaoka was pretty long, but it was all down hill so we made good time. ☺ hooray! When we got there though – there was no where to park bikes! We called Jody, because he said he knew a secret spot, but he said it was only for certain hours. Bummer. What to do. Luckily – God was watching out for us, and we noticed a sign that said “Church 320m”. So we figured – lets go park at the church!

We rode our bikes down and stood outside debating what to do and Shiho, Cecilia and I ended up going in and asking. This little old Japanese lady came out and so Shiho said “Hi we are missionaries (in Japanese) and we were wondering if we could park our bikes here?”. The little old Japanese lady went to go check with the priest, and soon enough a western lady came out.

She introduced herself as Wendy, not the priest but the person in charge for now. So I took over and said “Hi we are here from Australia we work with Student Life which is part of Campus Crusade.” As soon as I did the name drop, she was like “oh Campus Crusade? They were at my uni in Canada!” So she came out and met everyone else and said we could park our bikes there and if anyone got in trouble for it, it would be her. Such a blessing. ☺

So we walked back to the station and caught the bus with Jody (who was recovering well from his broken back incident) and Pamela to Aichiu. English Club was really fun, we played the zombie name game and then charades and just chatted to the students. After wards, we all went out to Yakiniku together. It was really cool be hanging out with students. Everyone was really open and happy to be there. I was at a table with Ibuki, Midori (girl) and Humie (boy), and the first thing Humie asked me was “Why are you here?”. Yay for the opportunity to share about Christianity!

We got talking and Midori said she was Catholic. When she explained though, she said “my mum is catholic and I go to church with her” so it’s not that she has a relationship with Jesus, but that she just goes to church. Ahh – how similar is the situation in Australia! It was really tough to explain to her, (as it is in Australia!), because she though that catholic and Christian are 2 different things, when we were trying to say “going to church” and “knowing Jesus” are two different things.

Humie on the other hand, had gone to a Buddhist school and his family, it sounded like, were fairly strong in the belief. He was surprised when Ibuki told him she was Christian too. Exciting days. Later on, Ibuki was having a really in depth conversation with Midori about the Catholic/Christian debate, so I just kept Humie distracted and not interrupting them as they talked.

The yakiniku was really delicious. They bought out meat and we cooked it over a grill. Then they bought out kimchi, pickled stuff, radish, rice and miso soup as well. They also had onion, corn and capsicum to cook with the meat. It was so great!

Almost everyone had a spiritual conversation that night. Wai Ling and Shiho shared a Knowing God Personally book with Miku. George and Esther both had KGP action as well, though on a lesser scale.

Just before we were about to go, Yukina saw Andy’s shirt, which had the sentence: “Who do you say I am?” in Greek in the shape of a question mark on it and asked him about it. I came in just in time to do some handy translating (:P) because Andy’s explanation was “This was a question Jesus asked his disciples when he was on earth”. So we did a bit of back ground about Jesus and who he was and who the disciples answered that he was.

And then Andy asked me, and I said, “Jesus is God, he is my saviour.” Andy says “What does that mean?” I replied, “That I will have eternal life.” Andy says: “Does that mean if I stab you now you won’t die?” So I say “Nope, I will die, by my soul, or my spirit, will live forever with God, because Jesus is my Lord.”

Everyone pauses while we think about this. Then I ask Andy “How about you Andy? Who do you think Jesus is?” and Andy says “I’d have to agree with you. He is my saviour and Lord.”

Then we pause again and turn to Yukina. “What do you think Yukina?” I asked, “Who do you think Jesus is?”

Yukina replies with, “I’m not sure, but I think I need to know.” She said she knew Ibuki went to church and said she might ask to go with her some time. We encouraged her to do so and then later on saw her ask Ibuki to tell her more about Christianity.

So many great conversations that night – praise God!!

Also, after we left Yakiniku, after being there for over 3 hours, a bunch of us went to karaoke. It was me, George, Andy, Shimpei, Nobu and Daisuke and Ibuki came late, after dropping Jody home. I was the only girl for a while but it was fun. We stayed out until 12:30 then had a nice night ride home. It’s good riding with the guys because I can keep up, and that late at night, we had the road to ourselves pretty much, so we were riding next to each other and chatting, and George was practicing riding with no hands, so was Andy (in between practicing Air Guitar).

When I got home at 1:15, Shiho was in our room practicing with Cecilia – they had decided to pull together a spice girls act for the live event on Friday. I smelt really bad from the smoke (no one smoked but you can in the Karaoke rooms, so it was there from the previous people) as well as the riding home and a long day, but I watched the girls give me a preview – so funny.

I hit the sack at about 2:00am and slept in until 8, I wanted to sleep more (and should have) but I thought we had to be on campus at 10:30, so I left at about 5 to 10. George was on campus at 10:35, and everyone else was late. The girls didn’t make it till 11:15 (despite the E-Team having a meeting) and Andy didn’t get up till 10, and wasn't there till 11:30. *sigh* I was so sleepy.

Lunch time, I sat at a table with 2 of Sachie’s friends, Ayumi and Shizue, who were both really cute, as well as Pamela and Sachie. Ayumi said she liked to read books about life so Pamela used that to say “have you ever read the bible? It’s a book about life.”

And into the spiritual stuff we go! Both Ayumi and Shizue were really open to hearing more, and after a bit, I shared Romans 8 with them “nothing can separate us from the love of God!” Then we talked about how if we rely on people, they can often let you down, but when it comes to God we know he’s always there.

Ayumi seemed to be struggling and defending people, because she said “I like to believe in people” but Shizue said “I agree, you can be in a room of 100 people and feel alone, but if you have God, you can be alone, but not lonely.” We talked more about how God is always there, and I shared a bit of my testimony, and we encouraged Ayumi to try reading the bible. She said she was Buddhist, so I think that’s the struggle. She’s interested in Christianity, but she’s got the family background of Buddhism, so she’s stuck. Sachie shared that she was a Christian and both her friends were shocked. She was about to share her testimony (which is great because Sachie is only just learning to share her faith! Way to see a young Christian grow!) but they girls had to go to class!

They left but not before we invited them to the Friday Night Live event. Ayumi could make it, but Shizue had work. Luckily though, Shizue came back at the end of her class to see me, so she got my number. I should be meeting up with her next week. ☺

I was so amazed that God had given us such great contact with these 2 girls and such open hearts from both of them. Everyone else drifted away after lunch, but I waited at the table, because I wanted to take Esther through the KGP (because I found out she had never been shown how to use one) so that she would be able to practice with it. As I sat there and prayed and flicked through a few things, one of the girls at the table next too us (who had been listening in to our talk about the bible before) came up to me and asked if I was with a club on campus.

It was so surprising to see a shy Japanese person be so bold and ask! It turns out she has tried to read the bible, because she was interested in western things (she said) but she found it too hard. Her neighbour is a Christian, and the neighbours husband is studying to be a priest (they are both Japanese) and had told this girl, Yurie, about Christianity. I offered to meet up with her to look at the bible or talk about Christianity, and she was really enthusiastic about it.

Then Pamela and Kahori both came over and met her and we are going to meet up next week. So exciting! I can’t believe what a huge harvest there is here. These people just want to know about God!

The rest of the afternoon I took Esther through the KGP, it took about an hour, just going through it slowly with her and explaining how to use it. My voice (which was pretty raw after Karaoke) suffered for it, but I figured even if I did a bad performance at the Live, at least Esther would know how to use a KGP.

I went outside with George to play around with the hackysac for about a half hour. I’m getting a lot better, but I still need practice. Then we all headed off to Nishin for Friday Night Live!!

I was playing the piano for the Australia “Kookaburra Song”, as well as accompanying Kahori, singing “Hero” (which I only down loaded the Chords to the night before) and playing “Grace Like Rain” myself. Andy and George pulled together a rap/beatbox duo, Cecilia, Shiho and George formed the Spice Girls. Jody’s daughter and her friend played/sang “Porcelain Heart” by Barlow Girl (rock on!!) and Ibuki played Piano. It was a pretty good night – thankfully we had enough time to practice so everything went smoothly enough.

Some girls were making us brownies in the kitchen so I kept eating the dough with the chopsticks I had after my act. Yay chocolate again – no more worries about saving my voice.

When the final act was up (a guy from Jody’s church known as “the Fat Blue Man”) I was so drained and tired I just wanted to lie down, so I went out to the foyer and did just that. Pamela came out after a while and asked to pray for me and then we sat and talked for a bit.

After a while things wound down and everyone was just sitting around talking. I joined Jody’s kids (Amiee, Joel, Nathan and some other randoms) in hanging out. Andy joined to and we all walked to the convince store to get food for dinner. After the ride home I was dead. Sleep sleep sleep. Cecilia and I put on a load of washing and hit the sack.

This morning, I woke up to find I was lying on the phone, and after reading the time: 9:50, and forgetting the phone was on Melbourne time (so that’s only 7:50 here) C and I had a bit of a panic and thought we’d be late to breakfast. When we realised we slowed down and hung out the washing and took our time. The guys made us sasuages and pancakes for breakfast, and wai ling put together a fruit salad. We had a really slow morning, but I’m still pretty dead from everything.

Today is our retreat so I’m going to walk down to the local park and have a sit and a swing I think. I’m glad it’s time to just stop and regenerate. Cecilia says I was talking fluent Japanese in my sleep last night (which is probably why my voice is so raw – it never gets a rest).


Sunday 02-12-07

Yesterday was a good slow paced day. I’m still feeling pretty exhausted, but it’s ok. I don’t really want to talk at all, but I know eventually I’ll have to :P *sigh* I walked to a park yesterday, where there were some kids playing soccer and just spent some time with God. Then I came back home and did a few things, had a sleep and talked to Steve.

Dinner was giyousa made by Cecilia and Esther which was really nice. Andy ate like 2 bowls of rice. He’s figured out how he can pull himself up to the loft now too, so I won’t be going up there much any more.

Later on we did a debrief, and just talked about things that have happened and worked out more things for next week. I can’t believe the amazing things God has done so far. Just seeing people want to know about Jesus is more than amazing. Hooray!

Anyway this day is really short because now it’s 9:22 and I’m going to church soon! Ibuki is picking us up – she’s such a sweet heart. I hope we stay in contact after I go back.

Here is a photo for all you craving visual images. From the back the people are:

Kaji, Andy, George, Esther,
Kahori, Pamela, Sachie, Ibuki, Shiho,
Cecilia, Wai Ling, Paula


To help you remember,
The people on the team are:
Andy, George, Esther, Shiho, Wai ling, Cecilia, Paula
The Japanese Christian Students are:
Kaji, Kahori, Sachie, Ibuki
And the Japanese Staff worker is:
Pamela

Wednesday 28-11-07

So there were some major communication issues with letting Andy know there was a prayer meeting on – Cecilia didn’t give him the note, and then I messaged the phone, but George had it and didn’t realise that it was from me (despite the message saying “Prayer meeting, please bring laptop” :P) and so didn't even know to give it to Andy. So when I realised all of that, I had an hour to spare and ended up lying on Shiho’s bed while Esther and George made us dinner.

Dinner was really yum – fancy stir fry and rice. And then we washed up and had a quick team meeting about the week. It was here that everything changed because of all the things that are happening. Monday was just a ministry day at Gaidai, Tuesday was prayer meeting and team prayer and then team fun night. Wednesday we are at Nanzan – so because of Jody not being able to make Kaji’s discipleship, the boys were going to take care of that and come back to Gaidai for Frisbee club and then dinner and karaoke with them too. Then Thursday we have the day at Gaidai and then head over to Aichiu Med School for ESS club and Yakiniku dinner. Problems here because we usually ride to Gaidai, and the bus to get to Aichiu is in the other direction? Andy was in charge of how to sort that one out. Friday was just a day at Gaidai and then the Music Live at night, and Saturday is our personal retreat. – looking forward to all that?

Just before our meeting started, we got a text from Ibuki (which she had sent to all her Christian friends (Japanese and Aus alike) asking everyone to pray for Jody from 8:00 to 8:20 that night. What a great prayer warrior!! So excellent to know that when trouble strikes – the first thing Ibuki does is take it to God in prayer and encourages others to do so!! Praise God!

That night after our meeting we prayer for the campus and our outreach times and then we just kept praying – for Jody, for anything that sprang to mind. It was awesome to know that after a long week, and at the start of another one, we were united and talking to God together.

Monday on campus, I left home at 9 and rode there myself. It was a good ride, though I think I go slower with no other people :P then I did a quiet time and sorted out prayer stuff for Tuesday. Then the other girls turned up (boys were running late) and we prayed together and talked about what to do. Ester left for a quiet time and I went down to buy a pen.

Michael and I have been writing a story, (he’s in London, I’m in Japan, and we are writing a story about Brisbane – go figure) and he’s got to print out the form and story for us, but we both have to sign in. So I had to get the address so he can send it here so I can send it on to Australia. So I asked Shiho for the address and she pulls out a piece of paper but we can’t read the Kanji!

No good because I can’t get Michael to draw kanji, so I was like “great, I can use this as a ministry tool and ask someone to help me and then have a good conversation!” hooray! So I went down to buy a pen after chatting to the girls, praying that God would show me who would be good to talk to, and when I came out, I felt like “yep – go talk to her!” so I did.

Her name was Seiko and she was just sitting by herself eating and I came up and asked how to read the Kanji and she said she didn’t know, and just when I thought it was all over, she says, “lets go ask the people in the book store!” so we did!

The people in the book store didn't know how to read it either, but they pulled out the phone book and gave it a shot, got me the Post Code, which was handy ☺ then Seiko and I went back to where she was sitting and I asked her if she spoke English and would she like to chat? She said yes! Hooray!

I ended up talking to her for a good 40 mins or so, she was really surprised I would come to Japan just to talk to people, but it was cool. I gave her my number at the end, but she didn’t offer hers, so I hope she calls. It would be good to see her again.

After that I went and had lunch with Esther and Sachie (Christian) and Remi (not Christian yet). Sachie had gone to Universal Studios on the public holiday last Friday and had gotten everyone on the team “omiage” or souvenirs. We had a pretty good lunch and then just chilled for a while. Kahori, Shiho, Wai Ling and Mika were having lunch together and at the end, they did a Knowing God Personally booklet with Mika! Yay for spreading the gospel. (Kahori even skipped class to stay, she’s like; “this is more important than class”.) The Evangelism Team had a meeting and Andy and I talked through Romans 7 a bit.

That afternoon, Sawako (Christian) wanted us to talk to two of her friends who were not Christian, but wanting to make friends with foreigners. So we waited around for that, but when we met them, they were giggly Japanese girls who were too shy to speak Japanese, so it was a bit hard to talk to them. We ended up instigating a huge Scissors Paper Rock game and giving a serviette to the winner. ☺ weee fun!

After trying to fold the serviette into a plane (unsuccessfully) I changed it into a little origami book and gave it to one of the girls, who said she wanted to be a fantasy writer. Then we wrote a book. Andy and Shiho translated and the story went something like this (it was fantasy)

“Once apon a time, there were 2 girls. They went to uni and met new friends and laughed a lot. Then some crazy people came in with swords and started being crazy. Thankfully, one of the girls knew Karate and saved the day! Hooray! The End.”

Good times good times. ☺ Soon after Andy, Cecilia and I left to go home. C and Andy were on dinner and I was there to make sure no one made any “purple” and I had prayer stuff to do anyway. Dinner was Nachos – which was pretty yum. There was a moment where we thought “humm not enough meat” and then “humm too much salsa,” and “humm not enough corn chips” (and I had the moment “humm not enough cheese”) but it was really good. A bit of a challenge with no oven (mum if you’ve got any recipes that don’t include ovens or rice please send them on – we need variety!) but we just microwaved everyone’s separately to melt the cheese and it worked out well.

Monday night was our last team building session – we worked through some conflict resolution stuff and then “value cards”, which talked about what we value most when working in a team. My values were just “get the job done” (no surprise there). George really values “inclusion” where everyone gets a say (something that none of our other team members valued). It was interesting to see where things fell for everyone and how we worked differently. Wai Ling said that because she’s worked in Australia, now “Direction and structure” aren’t high priorities, because we are all laid back. Heheh.

Tuesday I slept in. It’s hard to get up when it’s still dark and it’s staying darker longer these days. We left home at 9:00 to go to the prayer meeting (which this time was only down the road at Kamiyashiro Church (where we have the Immanuel meeting). We got there and then started to walk to the convince store to buy lunch, when Shiho dropped her contact lenes. So we all stopped and had a look, and then some of us went on to the store and came back and kept looking while others went on. We ended up finding it, but it was cracked (after the long fall to the ground) so Shiho couldn’t wear it.

Prayer was led by Joyce, who’s theme was to pray for the world. It was really cool prayer time. When ever I do extended prayer I think back to the first Mid Year Conference I went to, when the LINC campuses were in charge of prayer time. My first reaction there was “We are going to pray for 2 hours? Are you crazy?” but now I’m like “Prayer time? Awesome!”. I think praying is something that all Christians struggle with doing, and especially when you are leading other people to do it, it’s like “ahh they are going to hate me!”. I think it’s because we find it so easy to just shoot up a prayer in the middle of the day saying “oh, God, thanks for that, and btw I need help with this…”, but when it comes to concentrated prayer – we don’t know what we are going to say.

In any case, prayer is awesome! Hooray! We read through Psalm 18:1-19 and just went around the room and read a verse each – in whatever language you had available. It is so cool to know that God understands every word we say, no matter what language we say it in.

When we came back to home after having lunch, Andy and I finally had our prayer team meeting, and then started group prayer. Esther and George were late – off talking again - but they came. We had a really good time praying for different things for campus, students, each other – yay! Then Shiho and I did some shopping for our fabulous dinner and just chilled together.

It was very cool to talk to Shiho one on one – we talked a lot about being missionaries and music and Student Life. She is very open to the idea that she wants to become a missionary one day. We made scrambled eggs for dinner. I even toasted the bread so that we had toast! Hooray! We also had mushrooms and sausages (the sweet Japanese kind) and cheese! Yum! I’m having left over toast and cheese and tomato sauce for breakfast – weee!!

Then we went up to Wai Lings room and played a few more games of take two – they are addicted! And a game of Signs (which was confusing, but fun) and then settled down to watch Speed. Pretty funny movie, I was commenting the whole way through – so was George – I think because they get together at the end and I’m trying not to think about people being together because I just miss Steve.

Tuesday was our 2 year anniversary! Wee!! I had arranged for Wade to leave Steve’s present on the kitchen table for him, but Wade thought it was the 29th and hadn’t so I was really disappointed. But Steve got it in the end. The night before, he and Andy stayed up late making me a Video message, which Andy managed to get me to watch while at Prayer. He was supposed to be getting Jeremy Camp fro me to listen to and he says “oh I’ve got a video for you to watch first” and I was thinking it was some great video of MercyMe live or something that I’d be so jealous about and I’m like “I don't’ want to watch it!” and he says “just press play!” so I did and it was Steve!! Weee!!

I got to call him after Speed and we talked for an hour. ☺ It was really good to talk to him, though I knew he was staying up late and he was already tired from last night’s efforts :P. Yay hooray God is fantastic.

Now it’s Wednesday morning. We don’t have to leave until 10:00 and I’ve been typing this since a quarter past 7. I’m starving. I had a really strange dream about 2 brothers who got super powers, except I was one of the brothers. And we were escaping the police and my brother who could walk through walls, too me through to the homework room at Wishart (where we were hiding) and there were all these birds with golden feathers and blue tips and 2 beaks (one where it’s supposed to be and the other half way down the neck) it was strange. They were really intelligent birds though. I can’t remember my other powers, but we managed to transport ourselves back before Dad (not my dad someone else’s dad – probably the brothers dad (one of whom’s body I was inhabiting) realised we were gone. It was a great dream – running from the police, getting super powers… being a boy… I dunno where that comes in but meh! Time to go write the last part of the story that I need to write and then eat breakfast and then get onto emails!

Sunday 25-11-07

So yesterday, I got ready to go up for our team meeting at 11:00 at about 10:50 and climbing down from the loft, I see Cecilia madly grabbing stuff and running to the shower. Honestly that girl is quite disorganised. Everyone else was relitivley on time and we just chatted until C made it.

At team time we worked through conflict resolution and what to do when we feel conflict or hurt and how to respond and stuff. Pretty standard and easy to get through. We wrapped up at about 1 and had free time until 5:00 Karaoke! Because we were going to the same place that we were at on Friday and there was a kimono place near by, Cecilia and I trained in earlier than everyone else and went to check it out.

The street we went to find Kimono in had heaps of shops and second hand kimono places. The first place we went to had a kimono that I liked for about 6800Yen (68$) but it was about the same colour as one I already have, so I was hesitant about getting it. We kept looking and eventually found a yellow one which will go nicely. It was only 6800 yen too so that’s a bargin for Kimono. ☺ hooray! I also found a Yuchikake, which is worn at a wedding ceremony and is the outer robe (worn over the white kimono) which is brightly coloured and has cranes all over it.

It was only 8500Yen ($85) which was amazing considering the work that goes into them. I love it so much and I’m so glad I got it. It weighs at least 3 kilos, so I’m going to have to squeeze it into my bags somewhere to get it home, but it’s beautiful. It’s different to a normal kimono because it has longer sleeves and a padded hem to make it fall in a certain way.

After grabbing that Cecilia and I headed back to the station and caught a train the 3 min ride to Sakae again and met everyone for Karaoke. Kahori, Yuhei and a girl called Misaki (I think) were there and later on Ibuki and Kaji joined us. The Karaoke room was pretty cool, it had black lights to make everything fluro and white and the walls were a brown/tan colour to start with, but when the lights changed, you could see they were painted in colours to have the most insane bright forest scenery on the walls.

We sang like crazy until 7:00 when we headed out before everything got too expensive, and walked down the street to Denny’s for dinner. For dinner I shared a salad with Shiho and then we had some “homuraisu” which is like rice with tomato sauce and egg. George, who found the only Ramen dish on the menu to have, also got me some giyousa, which were delicious.

On the way to the train station after dinner, Andy told me that he’d been coming round the corner on his bike on the way here, and had crashed into another guy who was coming the other way. He said he had smashed up the basket on his bike and broken his light – which I had only just put on his bike that morning! I gave him a talking to about breaking things and not deserving to get new ones and it’s funny that I did.

We left the train station on our bikes and I was trying to avoid the bumps by cutting close to the sides of the footpath when I misjudged a turn and I smashed straight into someone’s brick garden wall. Not only did I break my light – it shattered into quite a few pieces. At least Andy’s is still usable, mine is gone for good. Ops! I came out of it with only a scrape on my hand (which doesn’t even hurt (except when people shake it :P)) and aside from the chains on my bike being off their tracks (soon fixed in the light of the 7/11 Store) everything was alright.

I made it home in time to have a chat to Steve before he went to bed. I’d kept him up by not being home and he was pretty tired – sounds like Schoolies was pretty mad this year and there was a lot of work to do, but I’m really glad everyone went and it sounds like despite misgivings, things went well and everyone enjoyed being there! Yay!

This morning I slept in (I don’t know where Cecilia has stashed her phone, but oh well – maybe I need to get a cheep alarm clock from the 100Yen store) a bit and then got up and got ready for church. Ibuki was giving us a lift this morning so we didn't have to leave until 9:15, and then George was late, so we didn't leave until 9:20, even so we made good time and were ready at the station for Ibuki. We ended up being pretty early to church.

Same faces there this week, thankfully we were less of an item this week. I chatted with the same small people and made more origami during the sermon. Jody has put out his back and can’t move, so that’s not good and it meant that the English sermon was interpreted by a Japanese guy who had a lot of pauses and “Hang on, I’m lost” phrases interested. It was generally about Ephesians 3:16 – 17 which was good to get into.

One of the guys at the church said that he saw me at the Christian book store the other day getting the bible ☺ hehehe. I also talked a bit to the guitar music guys and another guy called Macenzi… is that how you spell it? He’s from Canada and is only in grade 12, his parents are Missionaries, and that’s why he’s in Japan.

Something interesting though, at Karaoke, Ibuki didn't sing at all. Didn’t put in songs, didn’t take a mike to sing along – nothing! But then, she was singing at church this morning! I was like, why? And she said that she wanted to serve at church, so she asked the pastor, and he said “we need singers – can you serve there?” and she said yes, because it was serving God.

I wonder if I would have the same reaction, or weather I would say, I think I can serve God better somewhere else.

Jody wasn’t at church because he was putting a towel away and threw his back out of joint. Lois (his wife) said he can’t move, but he’d be seeing the chiropractor tomorrow, so hopefully he will be better in no time.

After church we had lunch again – curry rice – and then Ibuki was staying for a bible study, but we decided to go home so she gave us a lift to the station.

Coming back on the train took about an hr, including the bike ride – which would have been at least 5 mins shorter with out the waiting for the slower people. Patience God – give me patience!! Then we just split up for some hanging out time until dinner!

Better get going, Cecilia forgot to put the washing on and now it looks like she’s forgotten to hang it out too :P I’m going to do that and then head up to Wai Ling’s for some chill time until Andy turns up (which I hope he does, because I’d like to work through prayer stuff with him!).

Saturday 24-11-07

Well that was Wednesday and now I’ve got quite a few days to catch up on. Thankfully today we aren’t doing anything till 10:30, so I’ve got a while. ☺

On Thursday, we didn’t leave home till 10:30 because we were going for lunch at Aichiu Medical School. We managed to get there at by 12 for Lunch (rode to the train station (Kamiyashiro), trained to Fujigaoka, and then took a bus from there to the Hospitial which is right beside the university. Wai Ling and Shiho left earlier to try to bank the money for our apartments, but Wai Ling forgot her passport, they didn't’ want money from gaijin and Shiho didn’t have anything to prove she was from Japan (except her passport which si not proof because it has no address on it :P). Oh Well.

We had lunch with the students who are involved in the English Club, which was pretty fun. I was a bit worried because on Gaidai, we have to be subtle about going in and walking around in big groups, but at Aichiu we just waltzed in together looking like a big group of gaijin. Jody (who meet us there) said that because we were invited (for lunch and ESS) it meant that we had a reason to be on campus, where as at Gaidai, we aren’t strictly invited on.

So after lunch we had a quick team meeting – tyring to come up with themes for the “Friendship Party”. It turns out the Christmas party isn’t done by us – but it’s done by the Immanuel people. So we only have to organise a “Friendship party” and then the “Farewell Party”. I’m not on the outreach team, so I don’t have to organise much there. After that the Newsletter team (which I am on) had a meeting, just talking about what we want in the newsletter. Wai Ling also wants us to do a video to advertise megumi for next year, but none of us know anything about viedo editing. :P Pretty much we’ve decided that since someone in Melbourne is lined up to do that, we will just get raw footage and he can go wild with it. I don’t think it’s something we need to be focused on though.

Then we just hung out for a bit before going to ESS. Aichiu is pretty much one main building with a few others just next to a hospital. Everyone goes through their classes together for the whole 6 years, so they are pretty tight. The ESS club was really open, lots of good conversations there. Jody does a good job of leading it. We talked about stress and what makes us stressed and how we get relaxed. Ibuki mentioned that she really likes to go to the onsen (yay!) so we were thinking of going today, but more on that later. After ESS, we drove to Immanuel Meeting, which is the Nagoya version of a Tuesday Night Social.

Ibuki is ususally the only one that goes, but after ESS, six of the other students wanted to come too! (Masato, Chisato, Mayu, Midori, Nobu and Shu-Chan) Pretty exciting. In the car there, I was with Shu-chan and Nobu, I asked if they had ever been to church before and what they thought of church. Nobu said he had never been but thought it was a serious place where everyone prayed and no one smiled.

When we got there, there was worship time (3 songs) and then we jumped into the message by Jung (Korean student life missionary) who talked about like and love and how guys and girls think differently. We divided up into groups of 4 and talked about it and shouted out answers to questions. It was really fun, if a bit long. There was so much Japanese though! Jody, Shiho and Pamela were all translating for the English speakers in their groups, but I wasn’t sitting near them and I was getting most of it anyway. Still it was really tyring. Sometimes I just tunned out and then I was like “what was that joke?”

After that, we did a Mission Megumi introduction. Earlier in the day Shoubu (who had been to Austraila with the J-team last year (strongly bonded with Andy) had called and asked for a strange fact about each of us. They put these up on the powerpoint and the students had to guess which one of us matched the fact.

Andy: I have been to ten countries – this confused a lot of people who stood in front of Wai Ling

George: I have the oldest father in the group (his dad is 75!!) – again, most people were in front of Wai Ling.

Cecilia: I work in an ice cream store – pretty evenly spaced, though some people thought it might be a trick question and stood in front of me, incase the donut shop sold ice cream.

Shiho: I fainted at work at was taken to hospital in an ambulance – evenly spaced again, though I didn’t get many people except the students I’d talked to about my scars. :D

Esther: I don't travel to uni any more - again got things confused, She's graduated, so she doenst' go to uni any more - Wai Ling does becuase she's at worker!!

Wai Ling: I am an only child – Wai Ling and I were the only ones left at this stage, and we were pretty well split, except that all the people who had already talked to me were infront of her and everyone else was infront of me :D

Paula: I had my appendix out on Christmas Day – I was the last one, so there was no real challenge here :P

Then there were advertisements for upcoming events and we all went downstairs to have dinner.

The church is actually on our way to Kamiyashiro Station! It is a little building which has a fluro light cross out the front. When you go in – shoes off and slippers on. Then we headed upstairs to a small room where the main meeting took place – when you get into the room, it’s slippers off to sit on the mats on the floor. The room is set up with music and sound equipment, but is pretty small. I doubt you could put many chairs so it’s good we were sitting on the floor. When you come downstairs for dinner, there is a kitchen and then a room to eat in. There was a bookshelf against one wall, and we put low tables out on the floor to eat off. Everyone helped washing up, Seiji took the lead here – I think he sets a good example of leading the men in the movement to be like Christ as opposed to being like Japanese males.

Dinner was rice and soupy stuff, I was at a table with Chisato from ESS and a guy called Yuhei, from I don’t know where. Esther and Shiho were next to me. I noticed that Yuhei had a WDJD braclet on and I asked what it meant – “Why did Jesus die?”. After that Chisato asked what it was and I said it was an English question, and she asked if we have the answer! I prompted Yuhei to have a go at explaining it, which he did. Gospel presentation number 1! High five for Jesus! He ended by hitting home the line that once you are saved you have no fear of death.

Then I asked Chisato what she thought of church. This was her first time at one, and she said that before hand she thought it was boring and praying and no smiles, but now she saw it was interesting. Shiho commented that she felt the same way, so I was like “Tell us about how you feel now and why you feel differently?” so Shiho shared her testimony with Chisato – Gospel presentation number 2 – High five for Jesus! It was really good. Later on Wai Ling and Esther got into some more good conversation with Chisato, and I know she took home a gospel tract, so yay!

I was really spaced out by the time we left – at 11:00. We walked down to Kamiyashiro and then rode home, Wai Ling’s bike light bulb was still not fixed – ops! But we got home safely.

Friday morning I didn’t set an alarm. It was a public holiday, so we didn’t need to get up to go anywhere. I was still sleeping (dreaming about our team being in a band, a musical and then someone’s dad being taken hostage by someone else…) at 10:30 when Cecilia was in the shower and Wai Ling rang the doorbell to be let in. My head was all stuffed up from over sleep, but it was good.

We had an early ish lunch at about 11:45 of pasta and then headed down to the station to take a train into town for shopping. *sigh* I don’t really like shopping, but I knew I had to do some. When we got in to Sakae, we did a bit of a group split again. :P I got a few things from the 100Yen shop for home and then Andy and I went over to the Christian bookstore to see if they had any good CD’s. We both ended up getting English/Japanese New Testaments (he had given his away Thursday night to Masato who wanted to read the bible more). It was only $17.85, which was really good price and the Japanese had all furigana (pronunciation) above the Kanji – which is really good for me! Also the Japanese is “wakari yasui” – easy to understand. Hooray!

I kept looking in stores for kimono’s on sale, but no luck. We asked a information chick, but apparently there is a second hand area, but it would be a train trip away, so we didn’t bother go there. Maybe another day I’ll be able to go. I also looked around for a cool trench coat for Steve, but no luck there either. Pretty much my looking is go in, walk walk walk, walk out. :D Andy and I were sick of shopping by then so we found a macca’s and had some food and then started to do our quiet times, but then Andy wanted to leave instead of sit around in maccas, so we did :P. We were on our way to find a place for dinner (because we are organised (no one else on the team is)) when we ran into Masayoshi (Japanese Missionary) and Shubo. They were on their way to an Electric Store, and considering Andy was looking for an Electric dictionary, we went with them. It was about a 20 min walk and then in the store Andy spent 40 mins looking at dictionaries. I was REALLY bored. I hate that kind of indecisive shopping, though I can understand he wanted to get a good one and he had a budget to consider and what not. :P I looked around at games, thinking of getting one for Steve, but they didn't’ have bio shock and though the Japanese games looked cool, it might not be as fun to play them because they would just be in Japanese :P. I also looked at headphones, because the ones I have seem to not be working :P too bad I have 3 other sets at home, but I didn’t get any anyway.

After hurrying the dictionary buying along slightly, they went to buy the Black one and it came up 4000Yen more expensive than the price tag. We asked about it, they said the silver is the inexpensive, but then they agreed that didn’t make sense, so they made a phone call to their superiors and it was ok, then they discounted it even further because of the wait, so it only ended up costing $210 (21000Yen) instead of $280 (28000Yen). Pretty handy. ☺

Then we headed back to have dinner with the team. It was George’s birthday so we had ramen – yum! There was a “Ramen Street” in one of the buildings with all these different ramen stores, we took a few photos there later ☺ After dinner we headed home and made it back by 8:00. Then we sang George a Happy Birthday Song and asked him to make a speech (in the doorway of Esther and Shiho’s place :P). He started off in a traditional birthday speech way “Thanks for being here, and the ramen…” and then he said; “Well I have your attention, what do I want to say? I think we should pray more.”

It was a really good point, he said we have been putting it off and finding it hard to get into and our excuses have been tiredness and fatigue and busyness, but really, we have been getting enough sleep now, and we are settled in. We all have room buddies we can share with, and encourage each other, so lets pray!

After that, the boys headed home and the girls went to their rooms. Cecilia and Shiho had hit the shops hard and so C showed me her buys – some really nice shoes. After that, she and I went upstairs to hang out with Wai Ling, and we ended up watching a movie about a famous Geisha – it was pretty funny translating all the emotional looks. I left about half way and had a shower and did a quiet time before going to bed at about 11:30.

I had another dream about our team being a band last night. I think the Friday night Live is on my mind too much – when I woke up I had both of my songs stuck in my head. What to do!? I got up about 7:30 I guess, which was good. Now It’s nearly 10 and I’ve caught up on daily stuff! Hooray!

I don’t know what to do with our prayer time next Tuesday – probably pray through our bible verse and I also want us to try do conversational prayer, so that we get into the practice of praying wherever we are.

My throat is a lot better now, though I’m still sniffly. It’s been going round and breathing in recycled air from the heater is probably not helping :P I only turn it on in the morning to heat up the room and then we switch ours off.

Today we have a team meeting at 10:45 and then lunch at about 1. After that we are free until 5, when we are going to Karoke until 7. Then we have dinner and then coming home – and I get to talk to STEVE!! HOORAY!!

Hip hip hooray I’m in Japan!

Hello everyone from Nagoya!

After so much time planning it’s hard to believe the time has finally come and I’m here! The plane flight over on Singapore Air was long, and when I met up with the team in Singapore Airport, I was ready to collapse with exhaustion already. We all arrived in Nagoya at around 8:30am Nagoya time (9:30am in the sunny town of Brisbane) and managed to successfully navigate our way through customs with only one small problem of Andy leaving his passport on the plane. Luckily they managed to find it no worries and Jody, our Staff missionary contact helped pile all of our luggage into his tarago and take us away.

That first day we met the Nagoya area director, Sejii and his wife, as well as Jody’s wife and the pastor of the local church where the Christian students of Gaidai University attend. I can’t vouch for the intelligence of the conversation that day, as 7 of us had only just stepped off some very long plane flights with very little sleep, but it was a warm welcome from everyone who was happy to have us here.

Our apartments are the size of a standard living room in Australia… maybe a bit smaller. The entrance way (about 1m across by a 1.5 long) has a stove on the right and a door to the left which opens to a bathroom with just enough room to stand in, and be right next to the bath and toilet. When you sit on the toilet, there is about … 15 or 20 centimeters in front of your knees before the door. That’s how small it is… and I’m a short person. I imagine those with longer legs have much more difficulty in there!

Continuing forward in the room, you have one room which is about 6m by 3.5 with a bed, a TV, fridge, a small table and a ladder, which takes you to the “loft” which is some planks of wood stretched across the ceiling. When sitting in the “loft” it’s probably only a meter away from the roof and about 2 meters wide.

In the apartment I share with Cecilia, the loft is my home. I’ve dragged my luggage up and placed it all along the wall and then my futon rolls out next to it. Don’t worry I won’t be rolling out and falling 2 meters to the floor, there are handy steal bars preventing that. The boys share an apartment that is in a different building about 5 mins bike ride away. Wai Ling, our missionary has her own room which we use for group meetings and ministry time. All the cooking for our meals is done in the other 2 apartments (mine and Cecilia’s and Shiho and Esthers) where we also cram in (around luggage, the ladder and beds) to eat dinner every night. When this happens Andy and I have found a great way of making more space by climbing up to the loft, pulling the ladder up after us and then jumping down. After our dinner Andy hoists me up on his shoulders and I climb up to the loft and pass the ladder back down. It’s worth it for the extra room we get when the ladder is not in our way.

Anyway, I hope I’ve given you a good idea of how things are here, I don’t want to make this too long or I’ll loose you before I get on to the important stuff!

Every day we bike 40mins to uni. On our second day we met the young Japanese Christian students who are part of the movement here. It was so cool to meet these baby Christians (as they described themselves!) who just wanted to learn and be encouraged by us. They were such an encouragement to us, sharing their faith and their hearts for their friends who don’t know Jesus yet.

Together we went on a prayer walk around Gaidai University, and then headed over the Aichiu Medical University where we also prayed.

Our first day on Campus was Monday and we were just finding our feet for most of it. Jody had messaged his student contacts, telling them we would be on campus to have lunch, but many of them replied saying they couldn’t make it. Because of this, Jody wasn’t expecting many people at all, but then Kahori (one of the Christian students) turned up with two of her friends! Following that Kaji (another Japanese Christian student) arrived with Kenji (a student who accepted Christ around 5 months ago, but had family circumstances which prevented him from following through with his decision) and from then on more and more friends of friends just arrived.

We had some great talks with the students, just getting to know them and making friends. Praise God for good contact! Jody explained that getting to know the students as friends and building trust relationships works much better as an effective ministry tool than the gungho method, so just having lunch and talking about the differences between Australia and Japan was fantastic!

I had better head to bed now, it’s been a long week and I hope I haven’t lost you with the length of this email – so much has happened!!

Please pray for our team, for unity and strength. Pray that we will be filled with the holy spirit and that God will protect us from sickness so we can work to the best of our ability.

Please pray for the Christian students who are sharing their faith with their friends! Pray that God continues to encourage them in their work.

Also pray for the students we are meeting who are open and interested in the gospel. Pray that their hearts would be softened to receive God’s word and they would come to know Jesus as their Lord and Saviour.

Finally, we had a small accident when Andy slammed the car door shut on George’s finger, so please pray for healing of his finger. It’s not broken, but it is still quite painful. Pray that God would heal George’s hand so that he can enjoy his time working in Japan.

Thank you!

Saturday 17-11-07

Well, disaster has struck and we have no internet. Well we do now (when I’m posting this) but right now – when I’m typing this – no internet. *Sigh* this is slightly frustrating, but such is life.

Today is Saturday. The long long long plane flight of Thursday and Friday are over (yay!) and we are almost officially settled in our apartments. Flight one left at 2:45 from Brisbane and I arrived at 8:30 Singapore time (10:30pm in Bris) in Singapore. Then I waited about an hour and a half (used the free internet at the airport) until Wai Ling, Cecilia and Shiho turned up from Melbourne. Then we waited another half hour for the Sydney crew, Andy, George and Esther, to arrive. Then all of us waited (Andy and I had a sleep (about half an hrs worth)) for our 1:05 (Singapore time, 3:05am Australia time) flight to Nagoya. We arrived in Nagoya at 8:30 Japan time (9:30am Aus time). And on the flight I probably had about 2.5 hrs of dozing sleep.

Needless to say everyone else had about the same. We were all very tired and not talkative. Except maybe Andy, who was over the moon to be in Japan again for the first time in 6 years.

I sorta wish people had heeded my warnings about flying badly and not functioning on less than 6 hours sleep. It was a struggle to be polite and interested in the new people we met on that first day. I feel like there must have been a better way of doing it – all of us meeting in a Australian city seemed to be the obvious solution (would have provided at least much shorter plane flights and wait over times) but that was the way we did it.

Jody picked us up from the airport and took us to our apartments, we loaded our stuff into the one which was open (Cecilia’s and mine) and then went for a drive and lunch with Pastor Wayne, Lois (Jody’s wife), Pamela (a staff worker), Seiji (Nagoya staff leader) and his wife. After lunch, which was some delicious katsu don, we headed back to our apartments and opened the other two. Then Jody ran us through some things, discovered the internet didn’t work, realised part of the bike pump was missing, and noticed that we needed extra beds for the night (the guys apartment isn’t available until Sunday, so the girls are all jammed in together and the boys are in Wai-Ling’s apartment until then).

After a harrowing experience, we finally sorted out shopping and came back to our places for some sleep and rest before dinner.


Monday 19-11-07

Yay! Internet!! You’ve no idea how much I’ve been hanging out for it! Also, I think the chance to sit down and type and generally catch up has been fantastic. A lot of the things we are supposed to do have been pushed back continually because of things running over time and sleepiness etc. it’s awful. It means that we don’t have personal time at all – everything is just go go go and then sleep. And then when you wake up it’s go go go again. *sigh* thankfully today we have done a bit more catch up! Hooray!

Where was i? Saturday we sorted out bikes and took a ride to Nishin Church – which is just across the road from Gaidai – our main university. The bikes we have are all borrowed from people, some have gears, some don’t, some have baskets, some don’t. I chose a black one and when we got the tires pumped we were good to go. Andy took the lead and I followed up with the girls and George bringing up the rear. It took us about 40 mins to get there that first day – there is an up hill (very slight gradient) the whole way with a few big ones in the middle.

When we got to Nishin, Pamela (a Staff worker) and the Christian students from Gaidai and Aichiu Medical School were also there. It was great to meet them and share with each other. From the church we walked to Gaidai and spent a bit of time walking through the campus and praying for the buildings and what happens in each one. 3 of them have nicknames – the Atrium is known as “Jody’s Office” because that’s where he does a lot of his CE’s and bible studies. It’s a cafeteria like place that a lot of guys hang out at.

The next building was “Haori’s office”. Haori is a student leader who became Christian in Canada. She is fairly new at sharing her faith but is a great encouragement because she is always bringing new friends to meet the Christian ones. We stopped and prayed at “the Benches” which are right in front of the Admin (who we are not thinking of as the enemy but as people with a job to do) which is where Student Impact (as they are known here) have a fun communal lunch on Fridays where you can bring any friends.

The last building we couldn’t go near because the grade 12 students were taking entrance exams for next year in them. (All the mothers and fathers were waiting around outside looking worried – it was scary! We prayed for them too). That building was called “Pamela’s Office” because it’s where Pamela does a lot of her bible studies and CE’s with the girls.

After this we split up and the guys rode bikes to Aichiu Medical School and Ibuki (the only known Christian on campus there) drove the girls in 2 lots in her car. When we got there we prayed for the campus and the students who study there. About half are studying to be doctors and half nurses.

We rode back home in the freezing Nagoya wind and dark sky. 4 of the 7 bikes had working lights – one didn’t have one and the other 2 had blown bulbs. We got back alright, but Ester and George got lost. Because Esther had the key to the girls apartment, Cecilia and I couldn’t get in to get the food to cook, so we played cards and wasted time waiting for George and Esther to be found. Andy waited at the Pharmacy for them, just in case they found their way back there and Wailing and Shiho walked around the local streets.

Esther and George had the only phone and ended up calling Jody to get them back home. They were back at 8:40pm. We were starving. Cecilia and I made a mixed up dinner of beef, capsicum and onion stir fired with udon noodles and soy sauce and while eating it at 9:15pm Wai Ling asked if I still wanted to run the hour and a half of prayer that we had planned. I clued her in on a little policy that keeps me sane during uni: “If it’s not done by bed time, it doesn’t’ really need to be done.”

10:00 is bed time and I just don’t function after that. Especially after a lot of long days with little sleep. (The first morning we used Cecilia’s phone for an alarm which was still on Aus time. Brisbane is only and hour behind, but what I failed to realise when I set the alarm for 8:00 intending for it to go off at 7:00 here, was that Melbourne is 2 hours behind, so when the alarm went off – it was 6:00am. And I didn’t realise until 20 to 7 :P)

Got to go cook dinner now, hopefully will get a chance to type more tonight – other wise I might get up early tomorrow morning :D


BACK!

I’ve got as long as it takes Esther and Andy to wash up to type some more! Yay!!

On Sunday, We did the church split and I went with Esther and George to Parkside Church which is where Jody usually goes. We also had Andy with us this Sunday because after Church we had a soccer match and he wanted to play. It was a bike ride to the station, a train and then a bus to the church. We thought the bus was 9:50 but it was 9:10 so we had a rush departure at around 8:20am. When we got off the bus it turned out that the directions to the church Jody gave us were… wrong. So we walked around for a while and then eventually asked some local guy a few times and got there! Hooray!

Church was an experience and a half. Everything in Japanese – including songs. V. cool, but also not so filling. The sermon was in Japanese, but the English speakers (there are a few Americans and Canadians at the church) sat at the back and Jody translated for us. It was fairly cool, I sat on the side with Jody’s 4 children who were pretty much not interested in the sermon on keeping the Sabbath and the 10 commandments. I made them an origami emu (spreading the knowledge of Australian animals :D) but then they got even more distracted by making it dance and do the cancan and jump and flap… it was interesting.

I also made friends with a small girl called Rhianna and saved another small child from running on the road outside. It was fun. :D Ibuki, our Aichiu Med, School Student was there and it was funky to see her again.

The day was cloudy and started raining at one point and all of that combinded with the wind made for some very cold soccer playing. I went and kept warm in the office with Esther while the boys played (george in soccer shorts and a t-shirt). We had a good time playing cards with the kids and just talking.

It turns out Esther didn’t know about Student Life’s “relationship policey” about girlfriends and boyfriends not going on the same project and was pretty shocked when I told her. She’s really unsure about why she’s in Japan – she dosen’t have a storng interest in the place and can’t speak the language, so she really feels like she’s wondering how she fits and if God will use her. It was good to talk through that with her, and encourage her that God will use whatever he has!

A bit after that, the mums and wives of the soccer stars came in a bought us donuts which were yum yum yum! The Mister Donught people still have a piece of sticky tape closing each bag that says “Thanks, you beautiful people.” :D:D weee!!

When we got home that afternoon, jody moved the boys into their apartment, so that meant Wai Ling could move out of the girls and everyone got a lot more settled in. After dinner we had our first Team time (where Andy gave us the rules about not making Purple) which was great. It consisted of a bit of fairly bad guitar playing (on a guitar that had gone out of tune) and everyone having some good prayer time with God. Then we talked through some questions about how we are all feeling about project and where we are with God. Things we expect God or want God to do on the project was also discussed. Everyone is asking for guidance for the future (Andy even shared that he told Jody to pressure him about coming back full time) and I was one of those too. The final question was how do we want to be different after the project, and I miss read the question and thought it said “how do you want to be different on the project” and when it came to answering I still didn't have an answer.

I think that I just want God to work in me. I can’t imagine how he’s going to change me, and I don’t know what I want changed, but however God changes me, or doesn't change me will be good because it’s of God. So that’s what I’m hoping for. :D if that made sense.

And that was pretty much Sunday. So the trip until then is about that much. It’s been really fun, lots of crying and laughing, and learning. I feel like I’ve gotten very much into just listing the things we did instead of reflecting, but oh well, I don’t have time. I guess I’ll talk about Monday and other things later. :D I hope you are liking the updates!

This will be my final letter from Australia because we leave tomorrow!! Now that my exams are done, preparation is in full swing and everyone on the team are busy getting things together for when we leave tomorrow. I can’t tell you how excited I am to be going back to Japan to share God’s word with Japanese students for 5 weeks! Hooray!

Wai Ling, our team missionary, has delegated jobs for all of us to do while on mission and I’ll be heading up the Prayer and Praise Team for the time we are in Japan. It will be a challenge for me to get my guitar skills in working order so I can effectively lead worship time!

Thanks again for wanting to support Megumi, I can’t describe how great it is to know I am going to do God’s work with so many faithful people wanting to encourage me!

Please pray for safe travel tomorrow and that when we get to Japan, the students will be ready to hear and receive the good news of Jesus!

Thank you for Supporting us!

Hello, or as they’d say in Japan こんにちわ！ (konnichiwa)

Only 2 and a bit weeks to go so the count down is on! I can’t believe that the time has gone by so fast! I have officially finished classes at Uni now, so I’m just hitting the books and learning what I need for the final exams.

It’s a hectic time for everyone on the team, so please pray this week that we continue to have clear minds and focus as we study. Pray that we would work as if working for the Lord, as Paul challenges us in Col. 3 to do.

I’ve also come to realise that as I’m trying to prepare for Megumi, I’m still stuck in my university mentality of study and work. When I go to Japan, this is going to have to be left behind and my focus will need to be the students on campus, and being completely determined to work for God. Please pray that this shift is easy so I can be effective from the moment I am in Japan.

Finally, let’s praise God for everything he has done so far with Mission Megumi!

- Building a team who are dedicated servants of Christ to go and spread his word.
- Enabling us all to attend training to get to know each other and become better equipped to share the gospel in Japan.
- Giving us missionaries who have experienced living and working in Japan before to guide us.
- Gathering together teams of prayerful and financial supporters to encourage us and give us the opportunity to see more of God’s kingdom in this world.
- That our accommodation, flights and finances have all been finalised.
- That he is going to use us to share his message of Love and Hope to the Students at Nagoya East University!

Hi Everyone!!

It’s been a hectic couple of weeks, only a few assignments left and my three exams to look forward to and then I’m off!

I had a few complications with my exam timetable – the exam timetabling people forgot to put in one of my exams and when they did schedual it, it was on the 16th – disaster because we are due to leave on the 15th of November!!

After checking with my lecturer and the timetabling people though, everything was fine for me to take an alternate sitting on the 9th so no worries there! Praise God!

Also, we have had an update from our missionary contact in Japan, Judy. He has arranged accommodation for us with broadband internet so that is finalized. Thanks for your prayers! Also, 2 more Japanese students became Christians last week! Praise God!!

Please continue to pray for the whole team as we approach our exams and assignment deadlines. Also as we continue to support raise, that God would bless us and provide for our needs.

Finally if you could please pray that any worries or anxiety we have about the upcoming mission will be replaced by God’s peace in our lives as we trust him completely with our lives.

Hello

Thanks so much for joining with me in Megumi! I almost can't believe it's happening! The orientation last week was fairly full on but it was a blessing to get to know some of the people going and see what kind of a team God has put together.

I've attached a photo of everyone for you, From Back to Front and Left to Right, there is: Jody (A missionary who currently works in Japan), Paula (that's me!), Andy (from Sydney Uni), George (from The University of NSW), Cecilia (from Monash Uni), Shiho (also from Monash), Wai Ling (our team missionary (currently working at Monash Uni) and Ester (Uni of NSW).



It was excellent to meet these people and see their heart for God. I can't wait to do big things in Japan for his Kingdom!

Prayer Points:

1) That the training we did in Sydney for our orientation would remain in our heads, especially the conflict resolution training which will no doubt come in handy as we will be living in very close quarters in Japan together for 5 weeks.

2) For accommodation to be found in an area close to the university or the bus stations so we are able to work efficiently.

3) For the campus to be prepared to hear God's word, especially in the administration levels, who notoriously are opposed to anything new.

Hi!

Thanks so much for getting back to me and letting me know you are on board to support! It means so much that you can be a partner with me as we work for God in Japan.

I’m heading down to Sydney for my orientation for Megumi tomorrow morning and I’ll be gone until Thursday night. When I’m down there I will meet the seven other people joining me in Japan. Three of them are from Sydney Universities and four are from Melbourne Universities. I will be the only member of our team from Brisbane!

Please pray that all the students wanting to serve in Japan are united and build strong fellowship over the next few days. Also pray for my support raising to continue being blessed. God has amazed me so much by the response he has given me in people’s generosity already.

Finally please pray as I prepare for mission as well as endeavour to finish my final assignments and study for exams that I will continue to set aside time to spend with God and not get too busy.

Thanks again! Hope to update you more soon!

Dear Family in Christ

As you know, for the last two years I’ve been working with a Christian group at University called Student Life. They are a world wide organisation committed to sharing the gospel and building students to live as Christ did. At Griffith, I have been a part of leading bible studies, organising socials and attending outreaches to help this movement grow because I share the same vision that they are trying to achieve; turning lost students into Christ-centred labourers.

To this end, every year Student life orginises mission trips commonly known as “Summer Projects”. During the Australian Summer, Student Life members take two or three weeks out of their lives to devote their time to sharing the gospel through their actions and words at events like Schoolies and at Universities where International Students are taking Summer Courses. Last year, I was part of one of these mission trips. I spent three weeks at QUT sharing the gospel with the International Students there, many of whom had never encountered Christianity before.

This year, I have the chance to combine two of my greatest passions; Sharing God’s word and Japan. I lived in Japan for one year and for the last three years I have been studying Japanese as one of my Majors at Uni. Japan is one of the most beautiful countries I have ever been to, and is filled with some of the most sincere people. It is almost a shock to think that it has one of the highest youth suicide rates in the world. As well as that, less than 1% of the population claim to be Christian and the running joke about Japan is that the people are born Shinto, die Buddhist and in between have a Christian-style marriage. The Japanese people are searching for the real meaning to their lives.

I am so excited to have the chance to share that meaning with them; that there is a God who created and loves them, and who went through death on a cross to make a relationship with him possible.

This Summer Student Life is running a mission trip to Japan called “Megumi” which means Grace in Japanese. It will run for four weeks from the 17th of November to 17th December. I am planning to join a team of seven other Australian students at University in Nagoya to befriend the students there and share my faith with them.

It will be an unbelievable challenge to minister to such a culturally different nation but I believe that God calls us to go to the nations with his message of reconciliation. In response to that call, I am eager to go and I am asking if you would be able to partner with me in this. If you are able to support me by prayer, please let me know so I can update you with our prayer needs. This is one of the most important ways you can help and I would be honoured if you would join with me this way. I also need to raise $4000 by the beginning of November, so if you feel that God is calling you to support this mission financially that would be a blessing too.

I look forward to talking with you more about this soon and if you have any questions please don’t hesitate to call me.

Thank you and God Bless.
In Christ

Expectations

The Gospel, the good news of God, which I am going to represent to those in Japan, is what we read from every Sunday here in Church. The life of Jesus, as told in the first four books of the new testament in the bible, is what we as a Christian community know as the Gospel.

Today’s gospel reading came from the book of Luke. Just to recap what was read from Luke 16: 19- 31, it is Jesus telling a story. He tells of a rich man and a poor sick guy called Lazarus. Now in this story, the rich guy does his thing, the poor sick guy does his thing and when they both die, the rich guy ends up in hell and it’s the poor guy who is enjoying the luxuries of heaven.

We don’t know much about the rich man, but from what he says to Abraham, who is evidently showing Lazarus a good time in heaven for all to see, he’s pretty shocked to be where he is. Verse 27 – 28 shows that he is worried for his brother and father, who are living the same life as he did. He is worried that without someone to warn them, they will end up somewhere they didn’t expect either.

So why was this man so shocked at where he ended up? He was a rich man, he probably gave his 10% at the Synagogue, probably did say his prayers and observe the Sabbath. He was expecting heaven; and yet he ended up in hell.

What was he missing? What went wrong in his life? Was there somewhere that he missed dotting an i? or crossing a t?

Verse 30 shows us that even he knew what went wrong. He says “if someone would go to them from the dead, they would repent” This rich man in Jesus story finally realises that all his actions were for nothing, because his heart was not in the right place. He had not repented and turned to God.

So what is the point of Jesus telling us this story? Why is he stopped in the middle of wherever to make this point? If you read all of chapter 16, you will notice what’s going on. Firstly Jesus is talking to his disciples. This could have been any of the “special 12” to the 50 or so people that genrally followed people around. Also notice that he isn’t far away somewhere doing this, Jesus is out in the open possibly on a street, possibly in the synagoguge, maybe in a house, either way, he is somewhere there are more than just a select few can hear his message.

Verse 14 says “The Pharisees, who loved money, heard all this and were sneering at Jesus.” The Pharisees – they were listening in!

After they start to make a scene and try to mock Jesus, he goes on to tell this story. So who is this story for? Who is it directed to? I'd say that all the poor people around Jesus would have been thinking – YES! I’m going to heaven! But there is a huge point here that Jesus is making to the Pharisees.

What did the Pharisees expect to get out of life? We know they considered themselves righteous, they thought “we give our 10%, we wash our hands before we eat, we make sure we are nice and clean – we are set for heaven”. The Pharisees knew the law and were so intent on keeping it, they thought that was all there was to it.

What do we in hindsight know about the Pharisees? All they were doing was a show, their hearts were not right with God. They were so caught up in working their way to God that they had forgotten that God didn’t want our sacrifices and our works, but our hearts and our lives.

Sounds fimilliar: the rich man, doing all his good things expecting heaven and getting hell; and there is Jesus laying it out for the Pharisees: if you keep doing “stuff” expecting heaven – you are only headed down.

So what does this mean for us. Who are we in this story? Are we the self righteous rich man, doing our Sunday worship and expecting heaven?

If we are true followers of Christ, the bible gives us great promises about what to expect. John 3:16, so well known and yet so elequonte, says “For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son, that whoever believes in him, shall not perish, but have eternal life.”

What are we expecting as believers of God’s son? Eternal Life! John 17:3 explains it more for us: “Now this is eternal life: that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent.”

John 1:12 says “But to all who believed him and accepted him, he gave the right to become children of God” As Children of God we can expect eternal life – God’s inheritance for his Children.

Now, how can we be 100% assured that this is going to happen for us. Even the Pharisees thought they had it good to go - they were set to see God’s kingdom.

Looking back at the gospel, in Luke 16: verse 30 it’s laid out right there for us. Not only does Jesus tell his story to people to show them what’s going on, the real extent of their condition and their lives, he also gives them the answers to their “what now?” questions.

Verse 30 reads: 'No, father Abraham,' he said, 'but if someone from the dead goes to them, they will repent.'

That key word there – the last word in that sentence: Repent. That’s all that is needed. Now maybe the Pharisees were thinking “I’ve repented twice today already, this Jesus guy knows nothing,” but what does repentance actually entail?

Repentance is the feeling and act in which one recognizes and tries to right a wrong, or gain forgiveness from someone that they wronged. In religious contexts it usually refers to repenting for a sin against God. It always includes an admission of guilt, and also includes at least one of: a solemn promise or resolve not to repeat the offense; an attempt to make restitution for the wrong, or in some way to reverse the harmful effects of the wrong where possible

Repenting is not just saying you are sorry – it is the act of realising you have done something wrong and are turning away from it. It is a 180 in the other direction. It is sorry this way – and then hello to this way!

This is the good news: Jesus called us to a relationship with with him by admitting our sins and turning to him!

To know God, to become his children, to receive his promises, we need to repent: acknowledge our sin and turn to God.

How can we put this into practice? What does it mean for us?

When was the last time we knew that assurance? That 100% feeling – I’m walking toward God today. When was the last time you weren't just doing the right thing not just coming to church on a Sunday and not just giving your 10%, but were actually doing it for the right reasons? When was the last time you realised that you can’t get to heaven on your own, and you need to turn to God to even take a step in the right direction?

God doesn't’ want things, acts, money or attendance – he wants our lives. Have you given him yours today?

my sisters and i haven't been getting along lately. I think it's because my younger sister recently gave her life to Christ and the devil is mad and is trying to divided and conqour us one by one so we don't have unity in Christ. Please pray that this is just bound up and taken away by Jesus so we can love each other and not have devision.

I feel like i haven't posted in ages, and that's probably true :P and now i'm posting when i should be starting to read my books on the German and Romantic Lied. :P

Mostly though, i feel like recently, i've been so busy, but i've been seeing God's work in my life like never before. So many things have happened recently that all i can say is "Praise God!" because that's what it is. Things i've been praying for (and i know others have been too) are happening and it's exciting to be in a time where you can see God answer prayers.

Answered Prayer - my list is getting longer - Allie and Bruce, their relationship; Fiona, accepting Jesus!! Student Life, it's growing so big and our leadership team is so committed to growing and winning people to Christ; Church, the Youth Movie night went of with a bang, "big group" Sunday School discussion runs well, there is so much support for what i'm trying to do, I'm preaching again in 6 weeks, what a great opportunity to talk to people about Jesus! David, every Monday a new spiritual conversation! and he is thinking about things more than dismissing them as before; Ricky, saying himself that all it would take is a mirical for him to become Christian. Wow - the amount of time i spend discussing the bible with him, and then that he spends discussing the bible with others as well as "eavesdropping" on our bible study... the list goes on.

I am so in awe that God would use me. I am so privileged to be apart of God's plan for his world. He doesn't need to use me, i have no reason to boast, because i'm little more than a servant, but God has raised me to a place of honor so i can boast in him and tell of his Glory all day long.

Weee it's exciting to be apart of God's plan. And to go from servant to beloved Daughter. :D woo hoo for God!

Colossians 2:6&7
"So then, just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live in him, rooted and built up in him, strengthened in the faith as you were taught, and overflowing with thankfulness."