Friday, May 29, 2009

End of the First Week...

hello all who happen to be reading this

update of the rest of the week:

wednesday was hard. woke up early to get donuts and milk for the guys as a thank you for bringing us extra blankets and mattresses, so i was kind of tired but really excited to go to campus. we got to campus and jess and i were so ready to go and meet students and hopefully share some of the Gospel,but when we got to the cafeteria there were like no seats available to sit next to girls (hitotsubashi university has very few girls- like, the percentage of guys over girls is huge) so we decided to sit at a small table and pray for the guys on our team who were already in conversations. while we were praying one of the JCCC (Japan Campus Crusade for Christ) staff came over and talked to us and we ran some ideas by him about maybe starting an "English Lunch" once a week on campus (it used to be a major draw for students who wanted to come practice their English, then you can just have conversations with them) and he wasn't discouraging about it, but told us that Student Impact had started cutting down on those kinds of things because it was really draining on the staff to keep up weekly and they weren't seeing much fruit come of it, but we were welcome to try it. the weird thing is that it made me really discouraged and defeated though for some reason. i just got hit with this wave of downer-ness. after he left, jess asked me how i was feeling and i was just like "i feel really really discouraged right now" - literally to the point where i was about to burst into tears. thankfully i have pretty good will power and knew it wouldn't be the best idea to burst out crying in the middle of a japanese cafeteria, but it was so bizarre because a) he really wasn't discouraging at all b) i'm one of those people where if someone tells me i can't do something my stubbornness immediately flares up and i'll do everything in my power to prove them wrong and c) i don't cry. especially in front of people. so all of this was really bizarre and i felt really spiritually attacked, so Jess just started speaking truth to me and spewing Bible and it was awesome- it was totally the Holy Spirit because she didn't even remember what she said afterward, but it made me feel better and i got out my Bible and turned to Matthew 19:26 where it says "...with men this is impossible, but with God all things are possible" and i just kept going over that in my head over and over until i felt renewed and the discouragement had gone away. interestingly enough, i got an email that morning from my mom saying that she had had an overwhelming urge to pray for spiritual protection for that day. now i know why. anyway, i started feeling a lot better, and afterward we prayer walked and then joe and i met some freshmen guys and talked to them for a bit which was cool. wednesday night was family night, so our campus team went to dinner together, then everyone came over to the girls' apartment and we played Signs for awhile. the hardest part was not being too loud to annoy our neighbors. it was a ton of fun though.

thursday was much better. we had prayer and worship time from 9-10 am, then quiet time, then went to hitotsubashi again. jess was feeling sick so she didn't go, but heather came so i wasn't the only girl on our team, and for some spiritual protection. we prayer walked then just sat down in the cafeteria and waited for people to come to us. eventually 2 girls came and sat down next to us. they were really sweet and talked to us for a good while til they had class. i've begun to realize that any time a japanese student engages with us in conversation, that itself is a victory. of course, the goal is to get a second meeting to actually get to know them better and at some point share the Gospel, but still, just the fact that they don't ignore you or run away is awesome. so after they left, we prayed and then got coffee and had some discipling time which was definitely good for me since my disclipler is back in LA, then we met up with the guys at Starbucks- our official meeting place for hitotsubashi university. thursday night we went to Mitaka for the weekly West Side Student Impact meeting. at the train station we met up with some of the staff as well as a japanese Christian girl who goes to USC! her name is taka and it was really cool to talk to her- hopefully we'll be able to hang out soon. the meeting was a lot of fun- they introduced all of us to the japanese students, and we played some "getting to know you games" and then had worship (in japanese) and a message about God's love and how to show that to others, that we ourselves are incapable of loving people as God does (i mean think about it, He sent his Son to be tortured and die for the sins of all of us) and in order to do so, we must admit our weakness and ask God to overflow us with his love so we may pour it into others. after the meeting, i was able to meet some of the girls who are at the campuses i am/will be going to- hitotsubashi, gakugei and tsuda (an all girls campus). that was really encouraging just to meet Christians who i know are on those campuses, and they can introduce us to their friends and hopefully we can work together to evangelize.

today we all woke up late. it was also our first day at gakugei university. jess was still sick, so i was the only girl on my team to go to gakugei. they had an established English Lunch in a classroom though so that was good b/c we got to just sit and chill and talk to people who came to us. when we got on campus, i also realized i had been to gakugei last summer so that was exciting. got to talk to one girl in particular for awhile, then talked with 2 other girls til they had to go to class, then nosuke, josh and i went to the cafeteria to meet people and i spotted a girl eating by herself so i went and asked to sit down. she said yes and i began talking to her. her name is eri and she was so nice and put up with all my questions and seemed to actually enjoy talking to me which was nice. it was a bit harder talking just by myself but it wasn't too bad, and she seemed to genuinely hope to see me again (i didn't set up anything though b/c i thought it would be awkward) but when she left i went to join josh and nosuke and met 5 japanese students (2 girls, 3 guys) and they all want to have lunch with us next monday when we go back, which is really exciting! tonight we had a free night, so most of us went to dinner and then explored koenji. jess and i read some from shane claiborne's The Irresistible Revolution, now she's asleep and i'm exhausted, and hopefully can sleep in some tomorrow.

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