Christmas Countdown

so i realized today-

there are only 10 DAYS until Christmas. 10 DAYS. where did December go??? to be honest, even though there have been Christmas lights on the trees here since November 1 (since they don't celebrate Thanksgiving), it hasn't really felt much like Christmas. maybe there's just a lack of Christmas spirit here since the only things Christmas is about here is KFC, cake and presents. and you thought materialism in America was bad. the majority of Japan has no idea why they celebrate Christmas. but at the same time, they really have no idea why they celebrate most of the holidays they do, nor do they really know why they have the traditions they do. granted, many Americans don't know what Christmas trees or candy canes symbolize (for the record, evergreen trees have been said to not only represent the Tree of Life in the Garden of Eden but also God's everlasting love for us, and for candy canes, the shape is the same as a shepherd's crook, the color white represents Christ's purity, the red the blood he shed, and the presence of three red stripes the Holy Trinity) but at least most have a general basis for why we celebrate Christmas. the encouraging thing about Japan is that Christmas is a fantastic time to do outreach. but there's also a strong sense of urgency during Christmastime because so many people commit suicide around this time because they are so depressed and without hope.

SOME SCARY STATISTICS OF JAPAN:
76% of teenagers feel like their lives have no purpose
11% of teenagers wish they had never been born
32,845 people committed suicide last year

approximately 1 person commits suicide every 15 minutes -- in the time it took you to drink a cup of coffee this morning, someone took their life. please pray for the healing of this country.

sorry to pull the serious card, but hopefully you now have a better sense of why i'm here and what my purpose is in being in Japan. these are my people, and it breaks my heart that so many of them have no hope, no purpose, and no reason to live.

in other news, our Christmas concert last Saturday went amazingly well. we had a joint concert of Student Impact's Gospel choir (Free) and our dance team (Holy Spirit). Saturday we spent from 11 am- 5:15 pm rehearsing, preparing, decorating and praying, then we had 15 minutes to get ready and it was time to start the show! it went really smoothly, and it was so fun to perform again in front of an audience, and really just dance for God and worship Him through dance. the coolest part of the night- one of the guys who sings in Free decided to accept Christ! he had been singing Gospel music for awhile but it never really clicked until he heard one of the other guys' testimonies. praise God! here are a few photos from the concert:
the hula girls- hopefully someone took a video i can put up soon, but for now, we danced to the song "My Saving Grace" by Hillsong - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hCkfu4nzBtk
skit about Jesus by some of the Student Impact guys
combined Sign and Jazz dance
the entire Free and Holy Spirit ministries

it was an awesome and rewarding experience, but not gonna lie, it was a lot of work. however, this is also a rather busy week for the STINTers. this Saturday we're having our own Christmas outreach party for all our friends we've met on campus. we're preparing dinner, a Christmas song, games and a short musical about the true meaning of Christmas, complete with songs and dances. i'm excited, but also nervous about all the preparations, especially because we aren't sure how many students will come. please pray that many, many students come and are able to hear and understand the Gospel! we only have 2 more days on campus to get the word out, so that ups the pressure a bit too.

in fact, we only have 5 more days of campus until Christmas. that in itself puts a ton of urgency into how i spend my day on campus. not too much other news for now, just preparing frantically for our party!

PRAYER REQUESTS:
- for energy and strength: we're all really run down, and it's hard to be motivated to press on
- for spiritual protection: the Enemy has been working hard this month to specifically discourage and weigh down each one of us in different ways- he knows this is an important month, and is trying to hinder us in every way he can
- for our Christmas party: that the Lord would lead many many students to us, and they would hear the Gospel
- for boldness in sharing the Gospel this month
- for kanae and yui: lyndsey and i haven't been able to meet them for the past few weeks, and it's getting frustrating that we still haven't been able to have Bible study with them
- for yuki and kaori: that we'd be able to share the Gospel with them and their hearts would be open
- for Hitotsubashi University: we're still struggling to see exactly what God wants us to do there; it's also a very hard campus and we have to fight off discouragement and other spiritual attacks every time we are there

God bless you this Christmas season! ps it's not too late to decide to send me presents in the form of puppies, chocolate or anything else ;)