A Slower Week...

Last week was a different kind of week.
We had Monday off and then we went on campus for the next four days.
But the focus was more on team unity, and I think God agreed with that.
He definitely made it so that the team would be where our focus and energy would go.
Of course, the enemy took notice, and also decided that team unity is where he would work.
We had a pretty intense share of little conflicts, bits of strife, petty dissentions within the group, every one of which God guided us through! It was glorious, and I know for a fact that we are a ton closer to each other and to God because of what happened last week.

In terms of on campus ministry, no one came to Christ on our two campuses, and all five of us had VERY few chances to share the Gospel. But we had great times of following up with our new believers (ex: Kouhei and I got to read through some more of the Bible last week too!). Kasumi and Christina got to meet, along with a staffer from JCCC. We also focused a lot on our discipleship relationships within the whole project team. So we were all enriched by our Father's love through our relationships with each other, and through great times in the Word individually. The week's theme was "He is our Father." Our attitude definitely reflected it.

Of course, it wasn't an easy week. Like I said, Satan hated our unity focus, and we got so attacked and discouraged by little conflicts. But after the week was over, we went to church on Sunday and the words of the main song sung by the Gospel Choir were "Make us one, Lord... Let your love flow so the world will know we are one in You." :) God definitely wanted our unity week. "By this all men will know..." I know that students have been touched by our Christ-centered love for each other.

Necessary Relaxation...

Clarification: I've been behind on posting, so my last post talks about things that happened on "Friday" but it's Friday June 15, not the 22.

Saturday June 16, the whole crew left to go on our Mid-Project Retreat. After an exhausting week and an intense Discover Friends party, we were excited to have a relaxing weekend. So Saturday we took the train out to Hakone in the gorgeous mountains of Japan. The first day we went on an excursion, taking the crazy cable car up to near the peak,



then taking an AWESOME ropeway thingy...



...from which we could see Mt. Fuji (looking much like Mt. Olympus)



...and the Lake,



then riding a Pirate Ship across the Lake.



Once we got to the town on the other end of the Lake, everyone went for a little hike over to a shrine in the forest next to the water. Christina and Heather and I decided that we'd go on one of these:



Turns out, they're a lot more work than one might expect, but SO fun!



Then we ran into Chad and Maria!



That night we split into guys and girls and relaxed in the onsen (public baths). It was a chill night of just chattin, watchin "Heroes", sleeping... Sunday we packed our little backpacks and went over to Yunessun (The Disneyland of Spas- NO JOKE).



This place was CRAZY! They had little spa playgrounds for kids, caves of hot baths,



water slides with hot water,




crazy baths of water mixed with:
-red wine
-curry
-green tea
-coffee
-flowers
-charcoal
-sake

and one of my favorites, HONEY



There was also a Dead Sea bath that you could float in! :)



But my definite highlight was "Dr. Fish". You go into a room and everyone puts their feet in the water at the same time. Then there are hundreds of little fishies that come up to your feet and start sucking/eating the dead skin off your feet! It tickles so much! It was ridiculous!



It's creepy... everyone wears these matching robes and walks around barefoot. I was thinking, "where's the kool-aid?"



Anyway we ended the weekend with a nice Italian dinner and then went home. You're right... we were kinda spoiled. :) Honestly, though, we needed it pretty bad at that point.

"My power is made perfect..."

Friday night was a GREAT second Discover Friends party. Beau was the emcee this time (in a cowboy hat like Steve last week)



except this time I got to be the Japanese emcee! :)



Us announcing together



The hall was PACKED! Sooo many people showed up to the party and we all had a fantastic time.




David playing a game with some college students



Crazy story:
Steve was at Rikkyo (his secondary campus) on Wednesday and he ran into a Christian who goes to Sophia (his primary campus). He found out that the guy goes to a Hillsong church plant, so he and a few others from our team joined him at the Wednesday night service. There, he was introduced to a few Sophia students, and one of them was Seiya. Seiya came to Discover Friends to help out with the ministry. Well, he sees the Japanese emcee and thinks "hmm... he looks familiar. Gen, huh?" So he asked Joe from our team what my last name was. "Nakamura." Seiya comes over to me, taps me, waves and says, "Sakuma Seiya desu." I went crazy. Here standing in front of me was my friend from pretty much infancy... Our dads were both pastors in Tokyo a good twenty years ago!

Seiya



I had been kind of discouraged because that was our big evangelism week where we were supposed to be as intentional as possible about sharing with students on campus. I hadn't gotten too many chances to share... Other great things had happened between me and God, which was awesome. But I felt discouraged. But that night, I just sensed the Holy Spirit being present in that hall and very alive in my heart, and I went out there and intensely shared the Gospel with four different guys. The first guy really didn't want to hear it, but God wasn't having any of that, and I got to share with him. Then I sat down with three guys who were having a few laughs. We started talking and I found out that all three were freshmen at an education University- they were all gonna be science teachers: one bio, one physics, and one earth sciences. SMART guys. All three seemed really excited to talk to me, and we just had a great time talking about some pretty deep stuff, actually. We talked about why they wanted to be teachers... I didn't accept any textbook answers- I asked them why they REALLY wanted to be teachers. I got to talk about my fraternity and my semester as Pledge Master because some of what they said seemed to relate a lot to how I felt about that period of my life. So I got to talk about God and the community of His followers and how we help each other become the righteous men we were designed to be. I asked them why they liked each of their subjects- the bio guys said it was cuz he liked nature, so I asked why he liked nature. "YOU ASK HARD QUESTIONS!" said all three. He asked me why I like nature so I got to talk about the beauty of God's creation and seeing His artful masterpiece. Then the announcement came on saying we had to clean up in five minutes. So I hurried and said, "Do you guys know about Jesus?" One of them had a KGP booklet, but he said he really didn't understand. So I offered to tell them about it- the bio guy and the physics guy didn't wanna hear it, but earth sciences guy said, "Okay, but really quickly." So I powered through the ENTIRE Gospel. From God's sovereign nature to His undying love for each of us, to our sinful nature, to the crucifixion, to our reconciliation, to the opportunity for each of us to accept... I finished a schpiel that was definitely the Holy Spirit giving me the words to speak, and as soon as I was done, the bio guy who most fervently didn't want to hear it leaned back from his attentively listening position and said, "IT'S SO EASY TO UNDERSTAND!" I gave them all my email addresses, and they didn't wanna give me their contact, so I have no idea what's going to happen... all I know is that it's completely in God's hands and that I got to plant a seed in each of their hearts. They were soaking it all in like sponges!

I didn't see any of the four pray to receive Christ... But four guys got to hear the Good News of God's salvation through Jesus Christ His Son! I was feeling so discouraged and so useless... I was in a point of weakness, recognizing my inadequecies and also not being satisfied with God's plan for my week those few days... God, in His abundant mercy, let me feel productive. He didn't need to do that- He had been doing plenty of work in my heart and in the team, but He knew how much I wanted to share Him with a few more people, and His power was made perfect in my weakness... I spoke with supernatural confidence and clarity- it was amazing! I finished talking and looked back on the conversation with a "WOW! WHAT JUST HAPPENED??"

Thank you for your prayers...

A new sister! :-D

Tuesday morning, Cherie wasn't at Prayer and Worship Time (our team gets together every Tuesday and Thursday an hour early to have prayer and worship time. normally at 9, but this week-the most intense week of the trip-it was at 8!). As we were getting started, Megan let us know that Cherie wasn't joining us because earlier that morning she had just found out that one of the girls in her small group Bible study had died in a car accident last Friday. She was spending the morning calling her family and friends, trying to figure out what exactly was going on...

Needless to say, it was a tough week for her. Actually, it was a pretty intense and tough week for all of us. It was an exhausting schedule, we felt a lot of pressure to share with as many people as possible (put on us BY us), the weather was very much up and down, and each of the different teams had pretty discouraging times throughout the week. The great thing was, though, that at the end of the day, we'd all be together to encourage each other and build each other up.

On Wednesday, our team had our most discouraging day yet. At Gakushuin, we had our English lunch where a LOT of students came to chat, but we had about two spiritual conversations TOTAL, and after that, pretty much none of us got to have a real conversation with anyone. It was just a dry day of nothing happening and all of us feeling really really down about it all... But the other two teams had GREAT days and were able to encourage us. :)

Thursday, we had a FANTASTIC day! Chika and Kasumi are two girls that Christina and Cherie had met on our very first day on campus so long ago, and Christina had gotten to share the Gospel with both of them at some point. On Wednesday, Cherie had done some following up with both of them, going through the decision making part of the Gospel again, seeing what they thought. Thursday, we found out that Kasumi had decided to accept Christ into her heart! It was amazing! Christina got to give her a Bible and point out her favorite verses (all of which Kasumi was LOVING) and got to talk with her about a relationship with Jesus. Kasumi was SO excited about it all! Then, the three of us went outside, and I got to pray with her in Japanese- I got to pray, and then I got to hear her pray her first prayer ever- the simplest, most beautiful prayer ever. It really nearly moved me to tears. You can read Christina's blog for a more detailed account of this story, but it really was a powerful experience.

Woot.

Thy word...

Sunday, we had our weekly campus team leaders lunch meeting with Greg and Megan. This week we did it at Little Spoon (our favorite little curry house), where they have like seven levels of spicy- the first three (bunny, boy and dog) are free (the dog is PRETTY spicy). Then it gets ridiculous with bears and such until the last level which is a dragon. Greg dared Steve to try the dragon, and challenged him by offering to pay for the meal if he finished it. Of course, Steve being Steve, took him up on the challenge. "That's pretty spicy..." "Breathing hurts" a couple of the things he said during his meal.



He was allowed to give me and Beau a bite each, and WOW it burned! But ridiculous Steve didn't let himself feel the spiciness through the meal and just PLOWED through it! It was ridiculous. I have to say, I was pretty impressed. His eyes DID get watery though... haha.



Church was GREAT as usual. One of the girls Sarah got to lead to Christ at Sophia University (Nami) came with her non-believing friend, and Nami has just been bringing friend after friend to talk with Sarah and co to hear about Jesus. She is SO our woman at the well! It's so exciting!

Sunday night was our weekly team debrief meeting, so the seventeen of us went over to the Mitaka Center for an evening of worship, Bible study, clearing the air, and briefing for the new week. This week is our most intense week- we start everything an hour earlier, we're on campus one hour more than usual, and we are strongly focused on taking steps of faith in spreading the Gospel. It was scary but really exciting to pray about it individually and as a team that night. Anyway, we were done with what was planned, but Greg and the band got up there and started playing again so we ended up having another impromptu worship service for a good 45 minutes or so. It was amazing!



Monday was a very special day for me. We went about our day, starting an hour earlier, having some quiet time on campus individually, getting together for lunch evangelism, and then splitting into pairs-ish. Well, at 215 it was time for me to switch partners from Cherie to Christina, so I went to meet Christina. We were debriefing a bit about what had happened up to that point in the day, because great things happened (Christina got to share the Gospel with 2 or 3 girls, and Cherie and I got to share the Gospel with two girls too). Well, the whole day I'd had Kohei on my mind, thinking, "Man, I introduce this guy to Jesus, he accepts Him, and then I don't contact him. Weaksauce! I better email/call him tonight!" But then Kohei ran right into us right there where we were sitting! So Christina left us alone to have some quality time, and it was awesome! I got to talk to him about his decision a bit, and then we pulled out our Bibles (Christina had given him one Friday prior) and read together! We pretty much ran through Matthew, reading a couple of Christ's sermons, reading about his disciples, then the betrayal and crucifixion, and finished with the resurrection. I moved on to tell him about the different epistles and I explained Revelation to him, showing him different verses at each book. He LOVED it! He asked questions, responded a lot, and just soaked it all in. It was my first Bible study that I'd ever had with a brand-new believer... it was pretty exciting! You really sometimes have to see the Bible from the perspective of a new believer to see just how beautiful the Word of God is.

Thy word is a lamp unto my feet,
and a light unto my path

Les Poissons, Les Poissons, oh J'adore Les Poissons!

Friday night, Student Impact (JCCC's College Ministry) put on a big party at a banquet hall a little past Mitaka. All the Project Teams and all the STInters and all the staff had invited a bunch of students from all the campuses to come out for a night of food, games, and DISCOVERING FRIENDS (the name of the party). Not a blatant outreach- we just got to know a lot of students from different campuses, and started developing relationships with them. It was a blast! Our team put on a huge game of Signs which they seemed to love. Some pictures...



Saturday morning (even though I'd gotten to bed really really late), we met in front of the apartment building at 4 o'clock to go to the Tsutsuki Fish Market! Well... Maria and I met in front of the apt building at 4 o'clock. Some others needed some persuading ::cough:: Chad ::cough:: But eventually, nine of us were up and ready to go around 445. It wasn't even dark! It was so weird! I didn't know what 4AM looked like during the summer... See how gloriously awake we looked?? :-D




Especially Chad...



So we get on the train, get to our stop and start our twenty minute walk to the market. I saw a clock, and realized how ridiculous it was that I'd already been traveling for about an hour and the time on the clock was AM!



Once we got to the spot, we had a little trouble finding exactly where to go but eventually we found it. IT WAS AMAZING! Some samples (Warning: These images may be too disturbing for some audiences... they were for some members of the team who may or may not have gone quite pale... the poor things)




WHALE!





On the way back, we stopped at Denny's and had a wonderful American breakfast. My Caramel Pecan Pancakes A La Mode were FANTASTIC!!!



Saturday afternoon, (after a nap, of course- though mine was very short due to a SKYPE conversation with my buddy Steve and his parents and his dog Lance) most of us went out to Asakusa to do some souvenir shopping and some sightseeing. Chad, Heather, David and I fell behind due to money exchange difficulties, and so we pretty much did Asakusa as just the four of us. But we were all VERY tired. Chad shopped like mad and Heather and I kinda moped. Bought nothing but had great chats! The shrine/temple there was uber cool!



But definitely sad considering they replace our LORD with this stuff... Seeing the people throwing in money and saying their prayers to gods they probably don't even know names of made me kinda sad...




I got to give a KGP booklet to a candy vendor... I dunno how I feel about that. I'm usually so againt such types of evangelism, but really, in a place like Japan, it's SO urgent. No one talks about God, most Westerners who live there don't love God, and VERY few people (us included) are there to talk to them about His perfect Love. My heart just broke for the people and I HAD to give this girl a booklet... All I can do now is pray.

That night, Heather, Chad and I went out to Inokashira (town where my grandma lives) to hang out. We just walked around the park in the rain, then sat in front of Inokashira Koen Station for a WHILE just talking, trying to get seats at Restaurant Sopra (awesome Italian place my grandma once took me) but failing cuz it's a tiny place... but then the girl recognized me from the ONE time I went there last year and she had me give her my number so she could call me when a table opened up, so we went back to sitting and chatting outside, then had a FANTASTIC dinner with FANSTASTIC conversation and some of the best dessert EVER! (ugh) :-D



Honestly, I needed that night. All week it's just GO GO GO GO GO and it gets really tiring. The weekend is "relaxation time" but when you're doing touristic stuff with the whole group, I just can't really be refreshed or rejuvenated. Quality time with two of my closest and dearest friends was what did it for me. God really blessed me through that time, of being able to share our spiritual triumphs and struggles from the week, and encouraging each other in our different roles, always centering on glorifying God with our work. I sometimes do miss home, because home is so much easier, and I miss the people back there because they're a comfort to me. But this life of living by the Spirit is so incredibly fulfilling that I wouldn't trade it for the world. God just spoils me and was able to give me a taste of home and comfort through this time with my friends. :)



To my family and friends at home, I miss you all, but I'm much more excited to be here, participating in the work God's doing here. I can't thank you enough for your encouragement and support. My mom told me the other day on the phone that we're being silly when we worry here, because we have people at home praying for us, so the enemy's got nothin on us! Hallelujah!

A new brother

First of all, here's a picture of Beau outside the hospital right after getting off his crutches! :-D



Friday morning during my quiet time I got to read Haggai 2. Wednesday was Haggai 1 and that was some really heavy convicting scripture reading... Then Thursday's smiles happened, and then Friday morning I read Ch 2. Here are some exerpts:
"Be strong, all you people of the land,' declares the LORD, 'and work. For I am with you,' declares the LORD Almighty."
"'The glory of this present house will be greater than the glory of the former house,' says the LORD Almighty. 'And in this place I will grant peace,' declares the LORD Almighty."
"'From this day on, from this twenty-fourth day of the ninth month, give careful thought to the day when the foundation of the LORD's temple was laid. Give careful thought: Is there yet any seed left in the barn? Until now, the vine and the fig tree, the pomegranate and the olive tree have not borne fruit.
" 'From this day on I will bless you.' "

We were feeling very dry here. I mean, spiritually speaking, God was working on us... HARD! And we were being blessed beyond measure all over the place. But in terms of fruit, we were getting a little discouraged. We felt like we were sowing and sowing and not reaping all that much- not seeing much fruit at all. I guess we were failing to realize that the point is to love on the people, share Christ with them, and then trust God to do the rest. It's HIS work... How silly were we?? But God spoils us. Thursday, as you know, we saw two girls come to Christ! They'll be joining us at church on Sunday. Friday I read in Haggai about how dry the people's land has been- that they've been sowing and not reaping, eating and not being filled, drinking and not being quenched. BUT FROM THIS DAY FORWARD, I WILL BLESS YOU (in a different version). I felt so spoken to by that. I was so excited to go out and WORK for God.

So we get to campus, and find out that no staff or STInters would be joining us for English lunch. Oh well. We like time with just our team anyway. But we got there twenty minutes early as usual so we went to the garden to find a place where we could sit and pray together. But Kohei was standing there, already waiting for us. Twenty minutes early...

...Kohei was a guy that I had shared the Gospel with on Tuesday. The thing is, I had been very discouraged about how the conversation went. I shared with him the Gospel, but suddenly I felt like it wasn't enough with just my words, so I pulled out the "Knowing God Personally booklet" and went through it with him, and as he left to take an exam, I handed it to him to keep. I really wished that I could be confident enough in God speaking through me to be able to share the Gospel without any written help...

...So we're taken aback cuz we weren't expecting anyone yet, and so we had to change our schedule- we weren't gonna have our team meeting, and so we left Kohei to wait with Christina while Kris, Russell, Cherie and I went to HokkaHokka to buy some bento (box lunch). We get back a few minutes later and Christina JUMPS up and comes running up to us, and Kohei comes running behind her. Christina says, "Can I tell them??" He consents and she blurts out, "He received Christ!" and I'm like... "WHAT?!" I ask him, and he's like, "I believe in God now. I am a Christian!" He told Christina that he'd accepted the gift of salvation and received Christ into his heart right after my conversation with him. I could not believe it! What a humbling experience! To put a limit on God, worrying that I'd used the KGP booklet in sharing my faith with him... silly Gen!!

What a joyous occasion it was for me. Sarah got to lead another girl to receive Christ that day at Rikkyo too.

The rest of the day, I got to hang out with Ryo (the guy I shared the Gospel with two Tuesdays ago) and Mei (a guy Russell's been hangin out with whom he's gotten to share the Gospel with as well). Here are some pictures!






"FROM THIS DAY ON, I WILL BLESS YOU..."

A Day of Smiles...

Yesterday was a rough day for Beau. Three hours of walking around parks and campuses, up and down huge flights of stairs... ALL ON CRUTCHES. He seemed to be pretty fed up with the whole, not-being-able-to-walk-on-his-two-feet thing. I felt bad...

Last night was family night. We all went to the CCC Center in Mitaka to play signs for a couple of hours. It was a ton of fun! When we got to bed, I got to pray for Beau because he'd been having a hard time sleeping the three nights prior. It was looking like history would repeat itself last night, but we prayed earnestly for God to grant Beau a good night's sleep. I prayed for him and fell asleep within a couple of minutes (I'm really really good at falling asleep :D). This morning, I asked him how he felt and he said, "I slept! Praise God!" Good start. Big smile number 1.

Well, this morning was also his appointment with the orthopedist to see his progress, and so last night, we'd also prayed for healing for his ankle... pretty earnestly again. This morning, I accompanied him to the hospital so I could translate, and as we were walking, my heart absolutely broke for the guy because his arms were so tired from yesterday that he had to stop once in a while and rest his arms before carrying his weight on the crutches. He's such an active guy, normally, and to see him so... trapped by his injury and seeing him so out of his element and so sad just hurt me. I kept praying silent prayers, asking for freedom from the crutches for Beau. We eventually got to the hospital (the trains were SO crowded due to rush hour so we couldn't even get on one of our trains). We found a very helpful receptionist who checked in for us and walked us back to where we were supposed to go, then it was time to wait...

...Sitting in the waiting room, the two of us were able to have some great conversation (big surprise) and it was just your typical Gen-Beau-having-deep-spiritual-talk hangout. It was a great blessing, because God's stretching us both a LOT here and though it's been pretty painful for both of us, we were able to encourage each other in the growth we were going through...

[Side note: honestly, having Beau here has been such a great blessing. I mean, I've always been so humbled by the gift that has been our friendship, but I see more and more everyday that we both definitely WERE supposed to come to Tokyo, and part of the reason was so that we could support each other. Being roommates means we lose sleep sometimes cuz we won't hush, but still... heh.]

...Beau got called in after about an hour, and it was silent prayer time for both of us. I saw him in to the exam room and I went back out to the waiting room where I pulled out my travel journal (thanks Krista- I still use it LOTS). I started writing about how God granted Beau sleep the night before, about how He's trying to heal me of some emotional and spiritual wounds, about how we prayed for healing for Beau's ankle. It was a healing-themed entry all around. I really felt like praying that he would get off the crutches. I'm usually not one to pray for miracles and stuff like that, but being in a position of total weakness and desperation for kinda makes you think differently :) I prayed again that he would be healed and in my entry I wrote, "I'm waiting right now, hoping he'll come out walking on both feet with a smile on his face. God, it's all You."...

...A few minutes later, I looked up and there was Beau, standing in front of me on his two feet, CARRYING his crutches with a huuuuge smile on his face. I was absolutely speechless! I freaked out and asked something to the effect of "what happened??" and he told me that the doctor had given him an ankle brace to walk on. HE WAS OFF THE CRUTCHES! Hallelujah! I teared up a little... what a humbling experience! God is so good... Big smile number 2.

I met up with my team at Gakushuin (our secondary campus). Waseda is a much more social school and CCC's been there a lot longer, so it's a lot easier to go around, meet people, and share at Waseda. Yesterday and today were both fairly rough days in terms of being productive. But at the end of the day, Cherie came running over with a girl and introduced her to all of us. Arisa, it turns out, is a Christian! Now there are TWO known Christians on campus! Toshi (the guy who so far was the only one) was overjoyed! Big smile number 3.

Then as we were finishing the day by sharing our experiences from the day with each other, I got a phone call from Steve (our teammate who's co-leading the Sophia/Rikkyo team). He excitedly told me that Sarah (his co-leader) and Megan (our project girl director) had been hanging out with two girls at Sophia this afternoon, and eventually got to share the Gospel with them, which they both VERY excitedly listened to, and then they both immediately said that they wanted it, and decided there to give their lives to Christ! The first students to accept Jesus since we got here! We really can't describe our joy! I just kept yelling "ARE YOU SERIOUS?!" and when I told my exhausted and somewhat discouraged team, it just put the biggest smiles on their faces. It's such a beautiful story, and Megan tells a much better 1st hand account on her blog (atokyosummer.blogspot.com- i also have a link on the right column of my page), so you should definitely check it out! Big smile number 4.

So Beau's walking, Toshi's not alone at Gakushuin, and two girls will be coming with us on Sunday to their very first church experience... now as fellow believers! :-D

Please take some time to praise God for what He's done! It's a celebration, friends! I want to thank you, and hope you're blessed by these stories, because it's through your support (in every form) that helped get us here to begin with. Pray, please. PRAY LOTS. Pray for a total healing for Beau's ankle, for protection against discouragement which could easily come in a joyous time like this, for Ayaka and Nami that they would grow in their newfound love for Christ, for the MANY other students we've all been able to share the Gospel with, that they too would accept Christ's sacrifice soon.

Date Night

So Sunday night after we had our worship session that got shut down (:-D), the team FINALLY ventured out to the local McDonald's! The food was surprisingly similar to, and in some cases better than, the American counterparts! But we goofed around a lot, and just had some great, joyful bonding times as a family. Here are some pictures from that night.





Monday was another great day at Waseda. Our Project co-leader Megan went with us to campus this time, and the six of us sat down to have lunch together to see who we could have conversation with. It was a little slow, but we got a few conversations in here and there. But these two girls sat down by us, and Christina immediately started talking with them. One was a Japanese girl named Junko who seemed not-too-excited to talk. The other was a Chinese girl named Cecilia. She spoke fairly good English, and she was very excited to talk with Christina. Turns out, she wants to study abroad in America, and is going to LA in July to check out USC cuz that's where she wants to go!!! SMALL WORLD. Or divine appointments. :) So we got super excited, and I told her that I'd show her around when she came. Well, the four of us kept on talking about different things, and one thing led to another, and somehow it transitioned to me pulling out two tracts for them to look at, and then we both got to share the gospel with them- Christina with Cece and I with Junko. It was pretty awesome double sharing! Junko was VERY closed off, and seemed to be rejecting what I was saying, but she definitely listened to everything, and now there's one more soul who's heard the Gospel! We prayed for her, now that the seed has been planted. Cece, on the other hand, was LOVING it! She said, "That's beautiful!" when Christina explained the Father's love, and when talking about the sacrifice, Cece replied, "I think I want to learn to forgive." She was very moved by the Gospel's message and asked lots and heard lots. She didn't accept on the spot, but we are definitely praying hard for her and pursuing a continued relationship with her. Ryo (the guy I shared the Gospel with last Thursday) and Cece are both coming back to English lunch on Friday to hang out with me and Christina, and Ryo's even coming to a CCC-sponsored social event on Friday night with me- we're planning on having dinner together first. Both of them sent us encouraging emails today telling us about how much they enjoyed getting to know us, and that they want to keep being friends. PLEASE PRAY FOR THESE STUDENTS! They are so ready! And pray that Christina and I and everyone else on the Project would love on all the students we meet, persistently showing them Christ's love.

Monday night was probably one of my highlights of Project so far. It was called Date Night with Jesus, and each of the 17 kids on Project spent two hours of the night on a Date with Jesus. We all went our separate ways with our Bibles, Journals, iPods, whatever we wanted to take on our one-on-one, special time with Jesus. I went to MisterDonut (my favorite donuts EVER) and bought a donut, a cup of coffee, and sat down at the counter to read and journal. I asked to hear Jesus' words from the Holy Spirit, and God answered! I was led to read Isaiah 59, which was POWERFUL. God spoke to me and convicted me so much through His words there, and I ended up journaling 11 pages on the one chapter! It was painful to hear some of what He had to say to me, but the quality time we got to spend together was just amazing and I learned so much from that time! I went home, relaxed, rejoicing, singing songs of praise to God for a while, and then Beau and I stayed up til around 4am talking in our beds after I'd talked on Skype with Matt (dirtyharry) and my mom.

Tuesday, we got on Waseda's campus, and on the train-ride there, I was inspired to challenge our team to step out in faith like never before. So when we had our team time at the beginning, I suggested that we all split up and go out sharing ALONE for the first time! It was such a scary idea, but everyone was so excited! The five of us had shared with each other our frustrations of feeling too shy to approach people, of allowing ourselves to just play wingman and mostly just watch their sharing partner talk to the students, of having a hard time transitioning from social conversation to spiritual. So we prayed for each other and went our separate ways. Two and a half hours later we met again to share our experiences. Turns out that every one of us had some really rough times and discouraging moments of not finding anyone to talk to and running into people who were very unwilling to talk. BUT, it also turned out that EVERYONE ONE OF US, Christina, Cherie, Russell, Kris and myself, ALL got to talk about our God with someone, and most of us even got to share the Gospel with at least one person! It was so encouraging! It was so difficult for all five of us, having no security blankets. But we laid it all into God's hands and He provided!

Today was a rough day of not much sharing with the students at Gakushuin (we went back there for the first time since last Tuesday), but we weren't too discouraged. We're doing more scouting of the land ;-)

God's definitely been stretching all of us in our time here, and it's been awesome! It hurts a lot when He grows us, especially when you see His holiness and realize how disgusting you are. But it's still been a powerful few days.