Last two weeks and beyond of SP: Tokyo

This is so unbelievably late it's ridiculous. But for those of you still around or that randomly come back to this, I will give you a taste of what my last two weeks in Tokyo were like. It's mostly for me and my memory, but I hope you enjoy it as well. It's really kind of crazy to think that Tokyo is starting to become just a memory. But even though it's becoming a memory, it will still be one of the biggest, most significant, life change experiences of my life. Simply put, God used summer project to change my life. I honestly feel like summer project was a big turning point in my life, if I was leaning one way or another, summer project definitely pushed towards seeing the world through God's eyes and just really seeing how big a God he really is and how much he really does love us. If you don't know yet, God-willing, I am committing a year of my life to go back to Tokyo right after I graduate. My heart goes out to those students...

My experience and time in Tokyo was amazing. I’m not going to lie, before I left and even while I was in Tokyo, I often wondered, “What am I doing?” Luckily for me, God knew what he was doing; what he was doing with me and my team; and more importantly he had a plan for the Japanese students we met. Looking back on it now, I’ve realized that even though I had thought I was going to share the good news of Jesus and his life to help change the lives of Japanese students for the better, I also found my life changed forever.

It’s interesting, Tokyo is really spiritually dark place. A city where there are shrines and idols at the corner of every block; and where suicide is the highest amongst 14-24 year olds. It all really begins to take a toll you. I think this really helped foster our team’s necessity and desire for prayer and for preaching the gospel not only to our Japanese friends, but to ourselves and each other as family as well. We were challenged daily by our worth, identity, and purpose in Tokyo. And if we did not preach the gospel to each other; that God desired a relationship with us so much that he sent his son for us, that Jesus came and died on the cross for us, that He fought for us and took us from our enemy’s hand by rising from the dead and conquering all sin and evil, so that we might have a relationship with Him. Then well we’d be done for. Because ultimately, what we found out and what I found out was that in order to deal with the daily spiritual battle, the daily struggles and hardship of ministry, we needed to be sure of our worth, our identity, and our purpose. We needed to be sure that we found all of at the cross.

I have many stories and experiences from Japan, which I would love to share more with you all about, but I feel this one story summarizes our team’s trip in Tokyo, why we were there, and most of all had one of the greatest impacts on my heart as well...

Tokyo’s suicide rate is something that really hits home to me, and because of it really breaks my heart, and is a big reason why I believed God called me to this city... Our story begins in our last week in Tokyo. My friend Christine and I were the “outreach team,” so we put on events and parties, outreaches, so the Japanese students can meet each other, rest of the team, and the Japanese staff. So we had this one outreach on tuesday, it was like the big outreach because our Japanese Christian friends were all done with finals, and most of our Japanese friends were done with finals as well. Okay well first of all, this outreach was seriously all God. We were a mess, didn’t quite know what we were doing... we had planned on having a Japanese student give his testimony, and we were going to have like these baked goods and stuff, but as it turns out, japanese kitchens just like dont’ have ovens for some reason, and the Japanese Campus Crusade Center also had a gospel choir group that was going to be practicing, so we didn’t even know if we could get the place. So literally, like 20mins before all our friends arrived we just prayed. We prayed hard; and I was just like God you know what you really need to show up tonight, because this is sucking really bad right now. And what happened? God provided. We ended up making these no-bake cookie pazookies (which were really good), the gospel choir ended up coming and doing a performance for us, and one of our good japanese friends Jiko ended up sharing his testimony with all our friends and his own gospel choir, whom like half of them weren’t even Christian; and we ended up doing these things called cardboard testimonies where most of the team wrote a short sentence of their life before Christ on the front, and after accepting Christ on the back. Best part it was all in Japanese. It’s great because it becomes this thing where God is like speaking to them, in their own language.

And God really used all of this, we broke up into groups and had two discussion questions after our stories/skits:

1. What did you think of these stories?

2. Which story stood out to you the most and why?

The results were seriously just so humbling. This one girl Haruka, who became a dear friend to the entire team, told the small group that we were in how she related to Jiko’s story. You could see that it was hard for her to tell, she was taking long pauses between words, deep breaths, fighting back the tears, trying to hold her composure. She was putting herself out there and being vulnerable. She told us through her tears how she related to striving to seek for her father’s approval and how she never found out, she told us through here tears how she related to losing so much hope in life, and she told us how she related to wanting to end her life, like so many other Japanese people. But then she met some of the girls on our team. She also told us through her tears, how grateful she was that she met us. She talked about how grateful she was that we shared with her the Gospel of the Jesus; that he came, not just for us Americans, but for her. She told us how she found just enough more hope in story of Jesus; that he came for us and fought for us and died for us, that she wanted to find out how real the father’s love for us is. Isn’t that amazing?! Like that whole evening was 100% I’m so thankful God doesn’t call perfect, event-planning, well-spoken, people to be on mission for him. But merely, he calls us, us broken people, changed forever by the love and life of Jesus.

And do you want to know how faithful God is to his children those he calls beloved?

Almost two months later of searching and seeking, our good friend Haruka prayed to receive Jesus into her life. Despite opposition from parents and boyfriend, the love of Jesus overcame her fears. No longer bound by the slavery of her fears and fear of acceptance, but rather rescued by the God that loves, set free, and made new. Haruka, we love you, and we care for you so much.

Thank you for using your resources to bringing the good news of Jesus to Tokyo, to my team, and to myself.

What my last two weeks looked like:

Week 4

mon: Hang out with Teppei in Shinjuku. Takashima Time Square Mall

tues:

wed:

thurs: lunch with Ayumi and Christine at Ayumi's favorite restaurant in Waseda

fri: sundae outreach

Sat: Hanging out with Shintaro and Keiko, then party at Cam's place

sun: church

Week 5

mon: appointment with Layla, Alexis, and Christine

tues: general large outreach

wed:

thurs:

fri: Shinjuku with Ada and Christine, shopping for pens and shopping at uni qlo, prayer walk over waseda

sat: tokyo disney sea

sun: met with Jordan and Christine for lunch, New Hope service, sayonara party

Week 3: Midproject retreat

Monday July 12

The beginning of week 3 was about the time the "team honeymoon" ended. We encountered some team conflicts so it put to test our ability to live out as a biblical community. It was good though. We definitely had good communication and handled the conflict resolution well. One of our team norms was to keep short accounts so that bitterness would not arise, but rather to be able to communicate with truth and grace (probably one of the biggest things I've been learning about being on a team and living in a biblical community centered on Jesus).

[Ephesians 4:31-32]

³¹Get rid of all bitterness, rage and anger, brawling and slander, along with every form of malice.³²Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you.

Nevertheless, because of how well the conflict was dealt with, (in part due to good leadership by our leaders) our team actually handled the conflict well, became more vulnerable with each other, and grew closer to each other.

On another note, Jordan and I met some really cool people earlier Monday, and just got to hang out with them and get to know their life. Here is a picture with two of our new friends: Yuka and Youske.

Thursday July 15th

From thursday morning to Saturday afternoon, our team had our

mid-project retreat. We spent three days two nights in the beautiful mountains of Hakone. Being in Hakone was just really refreshing. The change of scenery and just spending more time with God and getting to know the team was really encouraging. For me, the break was much needed. I don't think I ever really realized how much stress the first two weeks were on me. Not that I was stressed out, but just trying to be intentionally with all my conversations and trying to meet new students took a little toll on me emotionally, mentally, and spiritually. So it was just nice soaking in the onsen baths, and doing a little sight seeing with the team.

Onsen baths are traditional Japanese bath houses, and our team went this fancy onsen that actually had coffee, tea, and wine baths! We also visited the Hakone Air Museum, which was filled with a bunch interactive sculptures and architecture art. Pictures below! Enjoi!

Mt. Fuji is supposed to be behind us, but our tough attitudes scared Mt. Fuji away.

Team fan

Entering the Hakone Air Musuem

Our awesome project leaders

me

Ada

stephanie

Alexis

Alexis and Dean

(back to front)

Ada, Christine, Jordan

our team fascinated by the art

Finishing off week two!

The Team

in Shinjuku

Thursday July 8

Christine and I got to hang out with our new friend Ayumi! It was really nice and just refreshing. Ayumi introduced us to two of her friends Yuto and Maria. It was really cool just building friendships and getting to know them better. I think one of the cool things, is that in Japanese culture, you don't really "go deep" in conversations; and one thing Christine and I like to do is "go deep." After eating lunch with the three of them, Christine and I spent most of out time with Ayumi and Mariet at the university park (which was this gorgeous Japanese garden). It was funny because we asked them questions they they didn't even know about each other, so it actually seemed like Ayumi and Mariet got to grow closer together at the same time we got to just enter into their lives.

Friday July 9

Dean and I met some cool guys and got to talk with them for a while learn more japanese culture, religion, and share with them how Jesus has impacted our lives. I think it's a little funny when we get to meet new Japanese students and just share life together, because I feel like a lot of Japanese people just don't really share much or think to much about life. So when I meet them and am like "Tell me your life story" they're really shocked, but put up with it because I'm just an American. Maybe I am a sucker for stories, but I just love hearing people's stories. So for all you guys back at the States, I'd love to hear yours.

Saturday July 10

So Saturday is our "sabbath." It is just a time for us individually as people to get away, relax, and spend time with God. Some of us went to kichioji park to spend time with the Lord and just explore. Jordan, Sarah, Stephanie, Ada and I all took the train to Kichioji and kinda just split up to have time with Jesus. It was kind of difficult at first because the mosquitos were relentless and would not stop attacking me. Eventually, I found Ada again and we went to this coffee shop so we had our "quiet time" (time with Jesus) there. I had this really good ice coffee with vanilla ice cream in it, like so good. So all you back home should really try creating something like it. I started reading Death by Love, by Pastor Mark Driscoll. It is a gnarly book. It's a book about real people, their real problems, and how Jesus is their victory in whatever deal of life they're in. It's essentially a collection of letter Pastor Driscoll has written to these people and friends who are apart of his church, and followed up by some solid theology in normal people terms.

After my little coffee date with Jesus, Ada and I we're leaving to meet up with the other people on our team we saw this crazy guy that made a goofy out of balloons and a pikachu. So insane, and there was like a crowd of 20 of us playing rock paper scissors in Japanese (so Ada and I had no idea what was going on) but somehow Ada ended up winning the Goofy ballon animal... Check out this picture of Ada with Goofy.

Sunday July 11

Our team went back to Tokyo Baptist Church and then straight up went to the best Ramen place ever... located in the heart of Shibuya (aka.. shi BOOYA). I took the chopsticks with me after we left haha. Got to hang out with Christine and we did a little exploring searching for the great Moleskin Journals. So much fun.

Half way through week 2

So the today [wednesday] and the past 2 days were mostly spent at Waseda University. On Monday, I went sharing with fellow UCSB 'er, Ada. We talked with a couple people, but nothing super fruitful. On the bright side, Ada and I got to pray a bit and got to know each other better. But even more on the bright side, praise the Lord, because our new sister Ai [which means love in Japanese and Chinese], prayed to accept Christ into her life as her personal savior. Sarah and Stephanie met Ai on Monday, and apparently her grandfather had given her a bible, and she had been reading it and believed in God but didn't know how to have a relationship with God. So they told her how she could, and went through some verses with Ai showing her how. The thing that livened my heart was that Sarah and Steph told me that Ai thought she had to always pray out loud, so she got really excited when she heard that she could pray silently on the train and stuff. It was such a blessing to hear how God has worked in her life up to the point where she met Sarah and Steph. Tuesday was similar, I went sharing with Quinn, conversations weren't very fruitful, but we prayed a lot which was really nice. Quinn and I did a little exploring on campus and we went into two of these really modern, tall buildings; and just took the elevator to like the 12th floor, overlooked the campus and Tokyo, and just prayed for the city and gave praise and thanks to God. It was really refreshing for me, because I got to reflect on God's faithfulness, providence, and just grace.

What's been such a blessing on this trip so far is just building relationships with people on my team. Most of my team is from UCSB [6 people including me] and we have 2 people from UCLA and 1 from Ohio State and 1 from Henderson University [Arkansas]; but the thing is, I don't actually know anyone from UCSB that well. So I'm really looking forward to further developing relationships with my new friends.

One thing that I've been learning a lot so far this week is just about how we has a team should live together as a community, and not just any community but a biblical community. On Monday morning, we as a team talked about our strengths and weaknesses. It was good because as a team we got to see everyone's perspective on how the team was. We even addressed matters like how sometimes we individually may tease each other a little too much, where some people actually get hurt. So we as a team got to address different issues of conflict and resolution, which is awesome because how many times do you see matters of conflict not dealt with well in truth, love, and grace and ending in just pure bitterness?

On Tuesday morning at our team meeting we actually had a bible study on biblical community. We took a look at Philippians 2:1-11:

¹So if there is any encouragement in Christ, any comfort from love, any participation in the Spirit, any affection and sympathy, ²complete my joy by being of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind. ³Do nothing from rivalry or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. ⁴Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others. ⁵ Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, ⁶who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, ⁷but made himself nothing, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. ⁸And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. ⁹ Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, ¹⁰so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, ¹¹and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

I love the way C.S. Lewis puts humility... "humility is not thinking less of yourself, but thinking of yourself less."

I think there is something powerful in living in the manner portrayed in the Philippians passage. And the crazy thing, its not like we have to try to live in this way, but it almost seems to become an effect a result when we fully let God's extension of grace into our lives. Like when I think about Jesus, the one who raised the dead, who shut up the morally righteous religious [pharisees], gave sight to the blind, and I think about the way he served the "sinners," the taxpayers, the adulteresses, the broken people, and the way he served me in my brokenness by humbling himself to point of death on the cross and in that conquering evil to give us a new righteous life because he loves us and desires us... man I can't help but desire to extend this love and grace to everyone else. Not because I feel the need to "pay back" God, but rather because I experience this love and grace and realize how awesome it is. The best thing is that this gospel, this good news is it is something everyone always needs, something my team needs to experience daily, and I need to experience daily. This is humbling, can you imagine a community that serves each other in way that puts others interest above their own? and not by trying to do it, but letting it overflow naturally by the love and grace of God?

God of this City

4th of July! Happy Birthday America!

So today we had an American Independence day/Swing dance Party for our new japanese friends! It was lots of fun. We at the even at the Japanese Campus Crusade for Christ student center, where Robin Carr taught us and the Japanese students how to swing dance. Afterwards we had some good curry dinner that Quinn and I helped make (so it was obviously really good haha). But it was cool because Alexis got to share her story and how she came to know what it really meant to have a relationship with God. Afterwards, we danced some more and then headed off to a park to have a more traditional American Independence day...

Our team on 4th of July with sparklers!

So I realize I never really formally introduced my team so here it is (left to right):

Dean, Jennie, Alexis, Quinn, Sarah, Jordan, Stephanie, Christine, Quinn, Ada, Me

Me and Ada admiring a sparkler

The team with some of the Japanese students and Robin Carr! (my bible study leader my first two years in college)

Hi friends!

Sorry it's taken me a while to finally update about my trip! Briefing at Vanguard University in Costa Mesa was crazy, and the first week here in Tokyo was just as much a flurry of trying to get a good sleeping pattern, trying to find a way to get a consistent hold of interent, and getting in to a rhythm of what our days will look like in Tokyo. But I finished my first week here and have lots to tell! I have a Pages document that I've been working on that talks about briefing and our travels and will email that out to everyone's email that I have, so if you want one and never gave me your email, send it over to me via facebook, email, or here and I'll be sure to send one your way!

This is my team and our project coaches!

Our coaches: Jeff Wood (staff at UCSB!) and Christina (she spent the past 8 years in Japan working with the Japanese Campus Crusade for Christ)

Our project leaders:

Dean and Jennie

First week in Tokyo

The first week has been fun and I don't think I realized it before, but it was a bit overwhelming too. When I first got here I was jet-lagged out of my mind, getting up at like 3am and not being able to fall back asleep. It was good though because I got to spend a lot of time with Jesus and just be in the word (bible). One of the cool things about jet-lag though is you can totally pick whatever sleeping pattern you desire! I decided I really want to be a morning person, so I've adjusted myself to going to bed around 10-11pm and getting up at 6-7am. Since our team meeting isn't until 10am each morning, I've been taking the train around Tokyo, exploring the different places, and just spending time with Jesus. It's honestly has been really refreshing. I even got to go running yesterday. 40 mins in Mitaka. It was crazy seeing all these Japanese people going to work and school, it was going to class on campus at UCSB at the busiest time of the day only magnified by like 1000 and there are cars thrown in the mix.

Besides those little fun adventures, our team has been spending a good deal of time in Waseda University. My experience at Waseda has been encouraging and discouraging, exciting and scary, but above all else it's been amazing to see how God moves and works. For me, the first few days were hard, trying to meet people, but the last two days (thurs and fri) were much more encouraging.

On Thursday, Christine and I met this girl and guy, Lam and Kao at lunch in the cafeteria. They were just super friendly and nice. Kao, he lived in England for 6 years so he's this Japanese guy with a british accent, cool much? Christine and I also met this girl Ayumi and we practically just hung out with her for a few hours. We talked about Japanese culture, American culture, our lives, and I even got to share how the gospel of Jesus has affected my life which was really awesome. Praise the Lord for sweet conversations. But she also showed us around Waseda the town which was fun. We went to this shinto shrine which was really interesting and pretty, so that was awesome. Cool thing is too, next week we're going hang out with her again meet some of her friends.

On Friday, Dean and I went out around campus and met a couple of guys who were pretty cool and open. We talked about all sorts of things from basketball to what they wanted to do when they graduate to religion. One of the guys we met was actually really interested in Christianity, so hopefully we're going to meet up with him again next Friday and share with the Gospel of Jesus.

One thing I learned about Japanese students at Waseda, was that most people have pretty positive view of Christianity, but are reserved or apathetic towards all religion in general because of all the recent cults in Japan. Also most Japanese grow up with many buddhist and shinto customs and do them just because it's tradition. Yet many do things like pray and burn incents in hopes of changing their lives.

Pray that:

- students and their lives, that God would show up in miraculous ways

- we would continue to build good relationships with students

- continued team unity

- our team individually would be growing closer to and falling more in love with Jesus each day