Speedbumps...

TEAM PIC FROM BRIEFING!!!


So it's been more than three days since we arrived in Tokyo, and we feel very much settled down now, but some of you may already know, it was NOT an easy trip getting down here. We've been talking on our team about how exciting it is for us right now because it seems that the enemy really doesn't want us to be here. We kept experiencing speed bump after speed bump on our road to Tokyo, but through each one, the Lord provided crazy blessings and, PRAISE GOD!, we're here. Here's a recap of some of the hurdles God carried us through from our last few days in America to our arrival in Tokyo.

First, there was the financial hole we were in. I arrived at briefing in Costa Mesa on Tuesday afternoon, and that evening during our team time, our team leaders (Greg and Megan) told us that as a team, we were still needing $15,000!!!! $15,000! I mean, raising $5020 individually was a pretty crazy task, but after feeling collectively like we exhausted all our resources, it seemed like an impossible task for us to raise $15,000. But silly us, God was taking care of us. Since we wanted everyone to make it to Tokyo, we all worked hard to raise more money to cover for everyone's deficit (I was actually still about $360 in the hole). In less than 24 hours, our friends and family had committed more than $7500 and the deficit was sliced in half. We rejoiced and confessed that our faith had been weak. We thanked God for bringing us together as a team through allowing us to ALL fall on our knees and give it all up to Him. Over the next day, money still kept on coming in, though not as drastically. On Thursday afternoon, two of our teammates owed $5000 together, and it seemed they would have to go home the next day. But in the four hours between our team leaders talking to them about the possibility of going home and our last team time later that evening, God provided for the $5000 and then some! We were officially over the amount we needed! Can you believe it? By the grace of God, fifteen college students were able to raise over $75,000!

Second, our teammate David could not find his passport on Friday morning. We eventually decided he had probably packed it in his suitcase, and so we left for the airport. We got to the airport and David and I sat down in the terminal and started seaching through his belongings. Nothing. Greg called Vanguard to see if we had left it there. Nothing. I called Tracy and Sarah, my friends who had visited whom David had ridden to and from In-N-Out with the night before, to see if he had left his passport in their car. Nothing. I called In-N-Out. Nothing. Then Greg got a hold of the Crusade office and they found out that David had left his passport on their copy machine! Three girls from the staff immediately grabbed it and drove it up to us from Irvine! David was going to Japan too!

We arrived at Narita around 6pm after a VERY pleasant flight that had just one patch of intense turbulence. I mean intense. People screaming all over the place. It was fun! Really. But I digress. We all got together before going through immigration and went through together. But when we got through to the other side, we realized one our teammates, Maria, was missing. We freaked out because we couldn't find her anywhere. Eventually we found out that because she has a Malaysian passport, she needed a Visa to get in that none of the rest of us needed. She got pulled in to the office where the people very courteously had her fill out a Visa application. Maria made it through!

Greg and one of the guys working for Crusade here longterm went to buy our train tickets into the city. Our tickets were in our hands two minutes before the train departed, so we RAN! And we made it :-) But then a few minutes later, I heard my name from the back and my team was calling me over to translate what the conductor was saying to them. It turns out that Greg and Joe had left all seventeen of our passports at the airport train station! By this point, we all laughed at the absurdity of our trip so far. But Japanese culture pulled through, and when we got to Tokyo Eki (Station) a station manager was waiting for us and contacted Narita Station who had people bring our passports to us- in fact, they volunteered to bring it all the way to Koenji Station where our apartments were!

Honestly, it's ridiculous how many obstacles we had to go through to get here, but we know that the Lord wants us here. I'm sure He has big plans for us, and that's why the enemy is trying to stop our work. Just keep us in your prayers, please. :-D

-gen