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.