A Kimi Brown Thanksgiving

so this year is my first year to not have Thanksgiving either with my family in Dallas or my surrogate family in Los Angeles. when i went to USC, i never went home for Thanksgiving, but have had Thanksgiving dinner and spend the night at my friend Sean's house for the past 4 years. it really became a tradition- his house truly became my home away from home while i was at SC, and his mom even introduced me as her surrogate daughter. it was always so wonderful to be surrounded by good home cooking and tons of family members (especially because my own family is pretty small). this year, as i am in Tokyo, i knew it would be different, and possibly very challenging.

but it was actually surprisingly wonderful. of course, Japan doesn't celebrate Thanksgiving so we still had a day of campus ministry before we could celebrate the holiday. and it was SUCH an encouraging day. i met up with a girl named Sehee, a first year Christian Korean student i had met at English Club a few weeks ago. we had only talked briefly -our conversation was literally
me: "i like your cross necklace"
Sehee: "thanks! i'm a Christian"
me: "really?? me too!!!"

and then we exchanged phone numbers and that was about it. so i knew very little about her and wanted to know more, so on a whim i texted her and asked if she wanted to meet for lunch and she immediately responded with Yes! it was such an amazing time, because i got to hear a lot of her life and share a good deal of my testimony with her, and encourage her to find a church and accountability. in many ways she's where i was until only a few years ago, feeling like if she doesn't read her Bible or go to church she is a "bad Christian" -- i told her that is not the way God intends for us to live our lives, He wants us to desire to know him so much that we eagerly seek his Word and church community, so that worship/learning more about God is an exciting opportunity, not a chore. i was able to explain what the body of Christ truly is, how we cannot grow unless we allow others to come into our lives and share our struggles and burdens, and how important community is to growth in our relationship with God. we were not created to be alone. then she told me, "i can see why God brought you to Japan, and i know God brought you here today to share this with me." it was possibly the most encouraging thing i've heard so far in Japan. the other encouraging thing- i'm basically going to start being her discipler; she wants to meet up every week and study the Bible and learn how to share the Gospel. i cannot express how excited i am to see how God uses her at Waseda University. after meeting with her, lyndsey and i met with Yumi, a girl i'd met a few weeks ago but hadn't seen in awhile. couldn't spend too much time with her, but it was wonderful to grow our friendship, introduce her to lydnsey and hopefully we'll be able to meet again soon.

after campus, we rushed home to begin preparations for our Thanksgiving dinner party. i wish i could have been with my friends and family back in the states (i did in fact have to change the music when Michael Buble's "Home" came on, but other than that i was fine), but it was really cool to celebrate Thanksgiving with good friends in a different country. we had a potluck dinner of chicken cor don bleu, chicken/stuffing/veggie casserole, mashed potatoes, rolls, kabocha soup (Japanese pumpkin), minestrone soup, daikon (Japanese vegetable) and pumpkin pie. the pumpkin pie was an adventure. since Japan doesn't do Thanksgiving, finding pumpkin pie ingredients is rather difficult. i spent about 2 hours online looking up international food stores, then it took about 2 hours to go to 2 different stores, but in the end, the quest was successful and i felt very accomplished. pie tins in Japan are about 1/3 the size of American pie pans, so i ended up having to make 3 pies, and bake them in our microwave/oven thing, but in the end it all worked out and turned out nicely. we ate lots of food, had great fellowship with all the PSW STINTers, 2 of the JCCC staff, and 2 students from the States, and watched A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving. fun fellowshipping
my pride and joy

Friday felt like it should be a holiday, but we had another day of campus. it seemed like everyone had a really hard time getting there, to the point that it felt like spiritual attack. michelle had a migraine, esther took a day off, ariel got stopped by the police, mike was late, henry was late, david was on a trip with ICU high school ministry...needless to say, we were praying hard against spiritual attack and that the Lord would show us what he wanted us to do. lyndsey and i met with Kanae, who accept Christ a couple weeks ago, and Yui, who has not yet accepted but is interested in studying the Bible. we were really nervous about how the meeting would go because they had invited a friend, so we couldn't really talk much about the Gospel because the friend wasn't too interested. but we ended up spending the whole day with them (4 hours) and still got to talk about some deep things that related to our faith, but also just grow our relationships with them so that was cool. we're going to start Bible study with them next Friday, and they want to come to church with us! so that was exciting.

today was wonderful. got to sleep in for the first time in awhile, then went to Cam's house for Thanksgiving dinner #2. it was huge- Cam and Kristen (his wife) have 4 children, then there were 9 STINTers (ariel couldn't make it), 6 JCCC staff, 2 more kids, 1 baby and a Christian teacher of one of Cam's kids. it was so cool to be in a house that looked like an American house (not a Japanese apartment), surrounded by wonderful American people and American food. if i couldn't be with my family or Sean's, there's no one else i'd rather be with than the people i was with tonight. i felt like my heart was just full of warm fuzzies the whole night.

STINTers, minus Mike and Ariel, plus Baby Selah, one of the JCCC Staff's daughters

food, glorious food!

in other news, tomorrow morning (my time) USC plays Notre Dame. unfortunately i won't be watching it because i will be at a Japanese tea ceremony with my roommate from junior year, but i'm really stoked about the tea ceremony (and i can watch the game online later). after that, my life gets exponentially more busy. JCCC will be having 4 different Christmas Outreach parties this month, 2 of which i will be extremely involved in, the other 2 i really just need to go to and support if they need it.

PRAYER REQUESTS:
- for Kanae: her growth as a new believer
- for Yui: that the Lord would grow her desire to learn about Him and she would accept Christ
- for Sehee: that the Lord would show her how to really live her life for Him
- for me: for focus, discipline and time to get everything done this week i need to do
- most importantly, that i would rely on God's strength and not get too focused on details and the little things that i take my focus off God and his work