but i'm finally doing it! hurray!
Team Bonding Day in Tachikawa Park it's almost the end of May, which is insane because i feel like May just began. speaking of beginnings, the rainy season of Japan has officially begun and is now in full swing. in fact, there's apparently a typhoon going on..for Tokyo, it means lots of rain and wind. not the best combination when you have to bike everywhere. it's also tough because we can't plan any events outside or anything due to constant rain. and most students won't hang out outside (due to rain) so there are less places to meet students on campus.
but speaking of campus, i suppose i should update on that. May has been very busy and productive. i joined a futsal circle called Diente FC that has many students who speak english (futsal is basically soccer but the court is smaller and the ball is a bit smaller and heavier)- its a very relaxed circle though so basically i just go play whenever i have the time. i also started playing soccer on tuesday afternoons with some Paddy members- i'm discovering that sports are a great way to bond with students. of course, now that it's raining so much games are sometimes cancelled but that's life. i also officially joined Odori Samurai, a traditional Japanese dance group. they do a style of dance called Yosakoi, or Soran. here are a couple of videos from a couple years ago- we perform both stage versions and parades:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9kdBarfaFSE&NR=1
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OeeigpEXBm4&NR=1
there are about 150 students in the group, so it's an amazing place to meet students and build relationships. every practice i meet new people, and many of them speak english which is helpful. unfortunately practices are all run in Japanese so a lot of the time i have to ask for clarification, but everyone is really nice and supportive so it's encouraging. everyone goes by nicknames that the leaders give you- they gave me mine even before the first practice: Ninja. it makes me happy, not gonna lie. everyone thinks i'm cool because my nickname is Ninja. my first practice was so fun and i met some girls who spoke english really well, but my second practice was pretty difficult because they weren't there so i was pretty much on my own. on the way home i felt really frustrated and i actually skyped my mom and was considering dropping Samurai, but she talked me back into it and afterward i realized that i think a lot of the frustration was spiritual attack. my mom reminded me why i first wanted to join the group- because of how many people i can reach. she reminded me that it's been so easy for me so far because the clubs i've joined have many english speakers, so this will be more of a challenge, but it would be worth it in the end. the challenging part of being in Samurai is that they send out a ton of emails every day and of course they're all in Japanese so i have to get them all translated and so i often feel like a burden, but i think deep down it's my pride just not wanting to have to ask all the time. Samurai is definitely forcing me to practice Japanese more though- both speaking and listening, so while it's difficult, it's also good for my Japanese acquisition. we are performing in Hokkaido (northern Japan) at a huge festival in 2 weeks, so we have lots of practices but it's worth it. it's going to be such an amazing opportunity to grow relationships in the club- i'm really excited.
the first week back on campus we focused on just meeting new students. our goal was to make 4 separate conversation initiations with people we didn't know. Monday night i had a horrible dream about zombies and got one of the worst sleeps of my life- woke up feeling not only exhausted but sick as well and seriously contemplated staying home but i knew it wasn't coincidence that i woke up feeling so gross our first day back on campus, so i prayed that God would pull me out of bed and He did and we had an awesome hour of prayer on campus that was so refreshing and afterward i was not only feeling better but so excited to go and meet people- Henry and i paired up and we met 2 girls in the cafeteria- Miki and Akiko. they were freshmen and rather scared to speak english so the conversation didn't go that far but they were nice and it was an enjoyable lunch. afterward we sat on a bench outside and watched a guy attempt to pass out flyers- he was not having much luck but he was so energetic and entertaining, so once he'd handed out his last ones we clapped for him and he ran up and gave us high fives and we ended up talking to him and his friend for a long time- his friend even invited henry to go drinking haha. then we wandered to another part of campus and met 2 guys on the tennis team; one was also on a futsal circle (similar to soccer but the ball is a bit smaller and heavier, and the court is smaller than a soccer field). we gave them our contact info but they still haven't contacted us which is sad but oh well. then we went to Building 11 (or the SILS building as we call it- SILS = School of International Liberal Studies, so almost everyone in the department speaks english at least some). there we ran into our friend Suguru whom we met last semester- he knows literally everyone in the entire SILS department. hang around him and you meet 5 new people in 5 minutes. we played cards with him and 2 of his friends, Mizuha and Hiroki, then on our way out of the SILS lounge i met a girl named Tin who wants to hang out even though we didn't talk for long at all! so encouraging! later that afternoon as i was waiting for Paddy's meeting to begin i went to Building 14's "Sun Room" (we call it that because it's basically all windows so when it's sunny it's really warm) and sat at a table with a girl who looked kind of lonely. she ended up asking where i was from and we got into good conversation- turned out she's 1/2 Japanese and 1/2 Korean and also a Christian! i invited her to church but she's very wary about church in Japan because she had heard rumors about cults and churches that don't teach the Bible. hopefully she comes soon though. that night i got to meet 7 new people at Paddy's meeting and get into some awesome spiritual conversations with several of them! Wednesday lyndsey and i had lunch with 2 freshman girls named Shiomi and Achiko- they were nice but their english wasn't that great so the conversation didn't go too far. we went to the SILS lounge and i ran into my friend Miko who introduced me to 4 of her friends, then we met a group of people in a tennis circle in a different lounge, then 2 more girls in the law building. none of these conversations went too far but we were able to share about Student Impact and talk to them a bit. that night i had Samurai practice and got to meet a few more people who speak english. Thursday Ariel and i met 3 girls at lunch named Mimi, Satomi, and Yukie- their english level wasn't great but they were so sweet and Yukie actually had been to Paddy! we got their contact information and they want to meet up more! after that we met 2 girls named Mona and Yui- we were able to get into pretty deep conversation with them but they started getting uncomfortable so it didn't end that great so it was a bit discouraging but afterward we just prayed that God would work in their hearts and protect them from any lies Satan was putting in their minds. afterward was more encouraging- we met up with a Christian freshman student named Takuma who wanted to practice evangelism so he brought us to meet a ton of his friends. Friday i woke up feeling really sick so i didn't go to campus. Saturday i went to homeless church and MIke and i had Bible study with Yusuke, who has started to want to have Bible studies with us every Saturday. he's been coming to church every week as well- it's really exciting to see his enthusiasm to know more about God. Monday the 16th i had Samurai practice and met 3 more people who speak english- their nicknames are Rock, Pioneer and Galileo. Galileo is one of the sweetest people i've met in Japan-- sometimes she meets me at the station and we walk to practice together or we'll take the train back together.
the 2nd week of campus we decided to have picnics to bring together old and new friends and make 1,000 origami cranes for Tohoku, or senbazuru in Japanese. God blessed us with good weather all 3 days of the picnics, and brought more students than we ever imagined would show up.
many of the friends we had invited also invited their friends so we got to meet a ton of new students. in fact, at Thursday's picnic there were 3 girls sitting close by whom i invited to come sit with us and they turned out to be great english speakers and want to meet up more! at Friday's picnic i met a girl named Mari- she's friends with our old friend Atsushi who brought her to the picnic. she and i basically had everything in common and were calling each other "twin" by the end of lunch. but the best part- she used to go to church and wants to start coming to church with us! God is awesome! that Friday i went to Paddy and got to meet 5 new people, and Ariel led a discussion on joy- our group got into awesome deep conversation about joy vs. happiness, and i was able to share that my joy comes from relationship with God. i think the discussion really opened up a lot of minds. May 21st we had a huge welcome event we called New Start, a way to welcome new friends, see old ones and challenge them to think about what they're living for this year. Henry shared a message on purpose based on Ecclesiastes 1, and through that was able to share his testimony and the Gospel. many of the students who came were interested in learning more and afterward we got to have a ton of great spiritual conversations! i even got in a really deep conversation about heaven and hell with one student named Gosuke- his english is amazing and he is also in Paddy with me and Ariel. all in all the event was a success!
Henry talking about purpose 
spiritual conversations after the eventsorry this was such a long post- and i definitely left some things out- but it was quite a busy first month back on campus for us! i can't believe it's almost June though! we only have 2 more weeks left on campus now, and 4 in Japan!!!
PRAYER REQUESTS:
- i think i have bronchitis-- please pray that God heals me quickly so i can continue these last few weeks strong
- that God would provide lots of appointments these next two weeks with people who are interested in learning about the Gospel
- good time management, energy and strength!
- our first Summer Project team just got here last week-- please pray that God uses them in awesome ways in the 5 weeks they are in Tokyo and they would be able to have a ton of opportunities to share the Gospel!
