ANNNNNND WE'RE BACK!

thursday was our first day back on campus after winter break.

i woke up late, and with a horrible stomach ache, not a great way to start the morning. but i still made it to campus and ate lunch with the girl i'm pseudo-discipling, Sehee. it was good to reconnect with her after the break and encourage her- she's entering finals and is really stressed, so i challenged her not to let this be a time when she pushes God to the side, but a time where she would focus on God even more. so often, when we are really busy and stressed we allow our own "things we HAVE to do" take precedent over God; however, these are the times when we need God the MOST. we need to rely on HIS strength and give our anxieties and worries to Him.

after meeting with Sehee, i had about 1 1/2 hours to kill before my next appointment, so i called other team members to see what they were doing. everyone seemed to be meeting with people though, so i went to the international studies building (SILS) and sat on a bench outside the lounge (a huge room with tables that is a fabulous place to meet people). i got an text from my 2:30 appointment that she wanted to meet at Building 11 (all the buildings at Waseda U. are numbered); however, i had no idea which building was Building 11. i saw a Japanese girl sitting on the bench next to me, so i went over to her and asked if she spoke English. she said yes (which is always really exciting- most Japanese are really humble so they always say "no" even if they can) and so i asked her which was Building 11 and she said "this one." well, that was convenient. she asked if i was new, i explained what i was doing and we got into a good conversation. she was waiting for a friend who called her and pushed the meeting back til 2:30- i said "wow i'm meeting a friend at 2:30 too!" so she said "oh well do you want to get a snack and talk until then?" and i said "sure!" in my head thinking "OMG GOD YOU ARE AWESOME." it was so cool to make a new friend, and she has lots of friends in the dance clubs at Waseda so she's going to introduce me.

at 2:30 we parted ways and i met with Claudine, a girl from the Philippines i met at English club. she's Catholic, but we've never really had a chance to really sit down and talk, so it was great to just catch up with her and see what's going on in her life, and i was able to share with her a good deal of my testimony and what God's done in my life, and encourage her in that because she and i seem to be very similar. like me, she's also a perfectionist, but just hasn't quite learned how to surrender that to God, so i encouraged her to trust God and allow Him to take control of her life and situations. we were about to leave when she saw a friend of hers, so she introduced me to her friend Miko, who then dragged me over to introduce me to two of her friends, which was very exciting. i love meeting new students, especially students who want to introduce me to other students.

friday was equally awesome. i got two last minute appointments with students, so that's always exciting. i started off the day with a lunch appointment with Kaori. she, Michelle and i went to a restaurant off campus and had an awesome time catching up, but also getting to talk about Christmas and spiritual things. before Christmas i had given her a Christian manga called The Search, in Japanese manga style so it's interesting to Japanese, about a guy who goes in search of meaning and finds Jesus (it explains the Four Spiritual Laws as well), so we got to talk about that a bit and she said she was going to re-read it so we could discuss it further, so that was encouraging. after lunch Michelle and i met with Iphie, a Chinese student who we've been able to share the Gospel with on several occasions and has even gone to church a couple times. she took us to a cute cafe and we got into a fabulous conversation about non-profits and humanitarian organizations- her dream is to maybe start her own, so we were able to talk a lot about love and her heart for people. then Michelle had to leave, but Iphie and i started talking about Christmas and i was able share the Gospel again with her- she said she thought Christmas was a more romantic holiday than Valentine's so i shared about how i agreed because it's God showing His indescribable love for us through Jesus, that God's love is beyond any human love and how He just wants to share that with us. she and i are going to meet up again soon :)

friday night there was a welcome back party at Paddy, the Waseda English Club, so AJ, Ariel and i went together. it was wonderful to be able to see so many people again. i not only got to grow relationships with people i'd already met, i set up a lunch appointment for next week and made 3 new friends- Watabe, William and Saori! it was even cooler, because AJ and i had both been feeling really tired and kind of under the weather, and really didn't want to go, and both of us realized (separately) that there must be a reason we didn't want to go so badly, and that probably meant that we SHOULD go, so we did, and God gave us so many blessings!

today i slept in, which was lovely. then i decided to clean the stove, which looked like it hadn't been cleaned for a century, and i'm pretty sure it actually hasn't. have you ever cleaned a stove like that? there was black stuff in every nook and cranny. there was petrified grease and food behind, underneath, even inside the stove. i used up almost an entire roll of paper towels. i had to take the top off to clean the inside, and even then there was so much stuff that just wouldn't come off, no matter how long i soaked it in cleaner. i finally just had to give up and be content that it was at least cleaner than before. to some this may seem like a normal household chore, but after i was finished, God revealed to me the similarities between cleaning a disgusting stove and our hearts. we can sense when our hearts are dirty. so we get out our trusty cleaner and try to spray it down. but it doesn't work. we realize the dried grease and oil is tougher and deeper than we thought. so we start scrubbing. we scrub and scrub, and it helps, but there's still so much that won't come off. so what do we do? do we give up, and allow ourselves to be content with a half-finished job? or do we surrender our heart to Jesus and let HIM take over? if we look into our hearts, we realize that there is way more grime than we expected, and the deeper we go, the more there is, and the harder to clean. we can't do it by ourselves, no matter how hard we try. we have to let Jesus do it for us. He is the ONLY one who can make our hearts truly clean and pure. you know that wonderful feeling when you clean something really dirty and then you step back and it's all squeaky clean and shiny? that's how God wants our hearts to be, and that's the feeling we will feel if we let Jesus do the work for us. in the book/ Bible study Breaking Free by Beth Moore, she talks about how there are many ancient foundations for our chains, and we've got to allow God to break those so we can truly be free in Christ. lately, i've been praying a lot that the Lord would reveal to me anything that is preventing me from experiencing Him fully. i've also started praying more for humility, which is a scary prayer because, well, God doesn't really ever seem to hesitate to give humility when i ask for it. He knows i can always use more. but i like to be independent, i like to think i'm strong, that i can do things on my own. so often in a situation God will say, "kimi let Me help you" and i'll be like "God- i got it! i know what i'm doing!" and He'll sigh and love me and let me try to do it my way, and when the dust clears from the explosion of my mistakes He'll pick me up and say, "now will you trust Me?" i love God- He never says "I told you so." but seriously- have you ever done that with God? why do we have such a tendency to think we're right, that we know what we're doing, that we can clean our own hearts, when we really have no idea? if you think about it, that's kind of the underlying cause of every problem in the world. C.S. Lewis says in Mere Christianity that Pride is the ultimate sin, the sin that leads to all other sins. may God save us from our pride and humble us enough that we do HIS work and look for HIS guidance, which is completely perfect and will always lead us in triumphal procession!

in other news, tonight Ariel and Mike hosted me, Lyndsey and 2 Chinese students, Jane and Tao, both who are interested in learning more about God. Ariel made Chinese food and we had an awesome dinner and hang out time. again, tonight, i was feeling not that great and really not wanting to go out, and i was like, "why am i feeling like this? there's no reason!" so i was like "ok i'm going!" and i am SO glad i did! because on the way out the door, i decided to randomly grab The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe dvd and bring it. so after dinner we all watched it together. and when the movie was over, the next bus didn't come for another hour, so the girls were basically stuck hanging out with us til their bus came, so we then had an hour long conversation about how Aslan represents Jesus and got to really explain the gospel through the movie. it was so cool because we started out by asking what was their favorite part of the movie, and both said their favorite scene was when Aslan dies and then comes back to life! and we got to share that Jesus actually DID THAT! and i asked how would you feel if you were Edmund, and Tao said she'd feel undeserving, and so we got to share that we are all actually like Edmunds, and we are all undeserving, and that's the beauty of grace, because God's love saves us from death, God's love conquers death, and God's love allows us to live free of sin. and they got it! and it was so cool! and they are so close to accepting Christ! please be praying for their hearts!

PRAYER REQUESTS:
- humility :)
- for Claudine and Sehee's growth in their relationships with God
- for my new friends Miko, Natalie, Watabe, William and Saori, that i will have the opportunity to meet with them more in the future
- for Iphie and Kaori's hearts to be open to the Gospel
- for Jane and Tao to allow Jesus to enter their hearts
- for the students as they enter into exams-- that they would not be stressed and that God would open their schedules and allow us time to meet together before we go to Thailand


COUNTDOWN TO THAILAND AND MIDYEAR CONFERENCE: 14 DAYS!!!