The First Day...

こんばんは (pronounced "konbanwa," or good evening) from Tokyo!

it's been an amazing journey so far, and Summer Project is just beginning!

God has already blessed us with 2 miracles- getting the rest of our support money and the finding of Jack's passport (that had been lost by the US Postal Service), and has been blessing us since with a safe plane flight and some awesome time together as a team.

speaking of, i should introduce them:

our leaders: gen nakamura and heather brainerd (both from USC - fight on!)
the students:
1. me
2. andrew guirguis
3. sammy cunningham
4. matt pfaff
5. josh jimenez
6. traci lawrimore
7. amy ledin
8. emily niemond
9. jessica jury
10. jack mitchell
11. jeremy barnekow
12. kylan schroeder
13. kyle pash
14. tim daugherty
15. joe gudobba

they are amazing. i can't wait to bond more with them and learn and grow together. we arrived in Tokyo about 5 pm on saturday, may 23 (Tokyo time- there's a 16 hour ahead time difference) and took the train to Koenji, our new home. there we were met by a few of the Student Impact Stinters (Student Impact= Japanese Campus Crusade, Stinters= international Cru interns) who took us to our new apartment building in Koenji, which is conveniently only a couple minute walk from the train station. all the girls are in one apartment, which is a bit snug but it's a lot of fun to all be together. once we get the apartment fully set up i'll take pictures and post them. once we got in the apartment, we crashed pretty quickly after a quick meal and some tips and reminders from the Student Impact stinters. this morning we got to sleep in a little bit (but the time change screwed us up- i woke up at 3:30 am, 6 am, 8:30 and 9:30 am, as did most of the other girls) then we met for a team meeting in our apartment. we were split into 2 campus teams so we can have people on more campuses simultaneously- my leaders are jessica and kylan. then we were split into other smaller teams for organizing outreach events, prayer/worship meetings, family nights, and recording all our activities while in Japan. kyle, josh and i are all on outreach team, so we went out to lunch together at a small tempura place and brainstormed ideas. then we got lost coming home, but it was a nice opportunity to explore Koenji. we found our way home though, and i spent the rest of the afternoon unpacking and organizing the apartment with the other girls. then we all went out to dinner as a whole team, then came back for a meeting where we discussed our theme Bible verse for the trip-

Jeremiah 17:7-8 -- "Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord, whose trust IS the Lord. he will be like a tree planted by the water that sends out its roots by the stream. it does not fear when heat comes, for its leaves remain green, and is not anxious in the year of drought, for it does not cease to bear fruit."

and now it's only almost 9 pm and half of us are already asleep b/c of jet lag. and we have to wait up at like 6:30 am tomorrow for orientation with the Japanese Campus Crusade staff, so i should stop typing. more to come soon!