Oops... A little late

Wow, I'm sorry it's taken so long to get this update out to you guys. I can't believe it's already been about two weeks since we've been here! It's been quite the experience adjusting to the culture, figuring out our schedules, learning our trains routes, and getting familiar with the college campuses. A brief overview of the week for the entire team looks something like:

Mondays: 10am Quiet times (QT); 11am get on the train with our campus teams to go to the specific university campus for that day, return about 5pm; Date night with Jesus 6pm-8pm (extended time to "go out" and spend with the Lord.)
Tuesdays: 9am group prayer/worship; 10am QT; 11-5pm leave for/minister to/come back from specific campus; 5-6pm Training; 7-9pm men's and women's time.
Wednesdays: 9am group breakfast; 10am QT; 11-5pm campus time; 7pm family night (there's a family team that decides what we do during this time)
Thursdays: 9am group prayer/worship; 10am QT; 11-5pm campus time; free night (although sometimes we'll be going to the Japanese Campus Crusade meetings here - called Student Impact).
Fridays: 10am QT; 11-5pm campus time; free night
Saturdays: Free!
Sundays: 11am team lunches (the group is broken up into smaller teams like the family team, prayer team, outreach team, etc... since I'm a campus team leader I meet with my partner, the other campus team's leaders, and the project directors to discuss how things are going on our campuses; 2pm Church; 7pm group meeting.

A week ago Tuesday was our first time to split up into our two campus teams to go to our respective campuses. My team went to the International Christan University (ICU) and spent most of the day prayer walking and getting familiar with the campus. (Even though this school is labeled Christian most of the students and faculty are not at all). On Wednesday we went to our second campus, Gaidai University, where we also prayer walked for most of the time. These are the two campuses that my team of 8 will be going to each week. Every Monday and Wednesday we'll be at Gaidai, and every Tuesday, Thursday and Friday we'll be at ICU. The other campus team is going to two different University campuses each week.

Ministry so far has been both challenging and encouraging. The first day on Gaidai campus my teammate Sammy and I were able to start a conversation with a student sitting at a table studying english. As we talked we were able to tell him why we were there and give him information on Student Impact (That's what they call Campus Crusade for Christ here). His response was "I don't have religion, but I like to practice my english, so can I come?" The next night he came to the Student Impact meeting and after the message asked what the gospel was. One of my teammates who speaks Japanese was then able to take him through the gospel with Student Impact staff members so that he could understand. Isn't that awesome?! Please pray that God would soften Hiroki's heart that he might come to know Him.

Thursday and Friday we went back to ICU and were able talk to students in the cafeteria, setup appointments, and even participate in an existing Bible study. Saturday was a free day and most of the team went to the heart of Tokyo to see the Imperial Palace. (Unfortunately we weren't able to go through the gates and see anything up close). Afterwards we went to the Asakusa district in Tokyo where we visited Senso-ji, Tokyo's oldest temple. Right as we walked in the sight was heartbreaking. People stood throwing their money into a big vat in front of an image of a dragon just before folding their hands to pray to it. I really felt weighed down just being there. My eyes fell on a woman who was so involved with what she was doing, and as I watched her go through multiple rituals my heart broke more and I just wanted to tell her that Jesus loves her. When she finally walked by me I asked her if she spoke english, but she didn't understand and kept walking. There is such a dark presence here in Japan, and I ask that you would continue to pray that our hearts would be broken for the Japanese, and that God would lead us to those whose hearts are being softened to hear His word.

The entire team is continuing to get along and work together really well. My campus team makes it pretty easy to be a leader, and my partner Emily is much more organized than I am and very encouraging. It's been a blessing to do ministry with all of them. Thank you for your prayers for unity for the entire team. Please continue to pray for that, as I'm sure the evil one isn't too happy and will try to bring discord.

My Campus Team: Guys Left to Right- Tim (Merced College), Jack (Arizona State), Kyle (Central Michigan), Sammy (USC), Me (USC) Girls Left to Right - Amy (Arizona State), Traci (University of South Carolina- the other USC), Emily (Eternity Bible College)


I think I'll stop here for now. There's much more to tell so I'll be sending another update very soon. Thank you for all your prayers. God Bless!

In Him,
Matt

Finally There! The process

We're Finally In JAPAN!!!! And it feels SO good to be overseas again. (I realized that before coming here it had been the longest amount of time that I had ever stayed in the US without going overseas...Two consecutive years!) I love experiencing different cultures and am so excited to have this opportunity for the next five weeks laboring for Christ. Thank you again to those who have partnered with me in order to make this trip possible! Let me share with you what's taken place up until now...

On Tuesday the 19th of May I arrived at Vanguard University in Costa Mesa, CA to meet up with the 16 other people (14 students 2 directors) that I would be spending the next month and a half with. Briefing lasted until the morning of Friday the 22nd, and while there we had team times to get to know one another and learn more about what we would be doing in country.

On the night of the 19th after adding up the support that had been received by everyone, we were told that as a team we had $19,000 yet to raise in order to be able to fly out on Friday. After hearing the news, we all hit our knees (in prayer), our emails, and our phones to see if God would provide the rest of the money in the following 48 hours. And guess what, HE DID!! (God's pretty amazing like that!) Each time we met the number decreased, reassuring us that God had hand picked every one of us to go on this trip and wasn't going to leave us hanging (If we hadn't received the money the people who hadn't raised full support wouldn't have been able to get on the plane, so we're thanking God that the whole team is here!!) On top of that a passport that had been shipped for one of the team members was not put in the right house's mail box by the mail man the day before we left, so nobody knew where it was. Yet the morning we left God answered our prayers and the passport was found and picked up with plenty of time to spare. Isn't God awesome!?!!

So we all headed to the airport around 8:30am, and everything from there went smoothly. After 11 hours on a plane (that I spent mostly reading project orientation materials and chatting with the two teammates next to me) we landed in Tokyo! From there it was hopping on two trains with all our luggage to finally get to our new home (Koenji). We were all dead tired from the long day, and so right after getting to our rooms and having a brief apartment orientation meeting we hit the sack.

Sunday was mostly a day of resting and taking things slow, getting settled into the apartments and having some team meetings to discuss more of what we would be doing while here. To fill you in a little, our group of 15 students has been split into two "campus teams," that will be doing outreach on separate universities five days a week. I've been paired with one of the girls here to lead one of those teams and am really excited. As leaders we will be helping to shepherd our team members, encouraging them in ministry and giving them some direction as we go to our campuses. Please pray for humility and guidance for me as I take on this role. Right now I don't feel extremely equipped, but I was reminded today that this is a perfect opportunity to trust God and let him do ALL the leading. I know God's not in the business of calling the equipped, but equipping the called, so I'm excited to see how he'll stretch and grow me these next five weeks.

Today (Monday) we went to the Campus Crusade headquarters here and met the staff team that we'll be working alongside. They took us through another orientation and then we had a very helpful Q&A time where we were able to ask a lot of clarifying questions. After we were done our directors broke us off into small groups of three or four and sent us on a scavenger hunt where we had to find certain shops or items in one of the "down towns" of Tokyo: Shibuya (this also required us to find our way to Shibuya on the trains on our own)...let's just say we were asking a lot of random people if they understood english and/or if they could direct us to the places we were suppposed to get to. The activity was a lot of fun and we found that most of the poeple we asked were very willing to give the foreigners directions. My group's favorite activity was posing for pictures in a Japanese-style photo booth, where you can chose different backgrounds and themes for your pictures and then, after taking them, edit the pictures by drawing/writing/inserting objects into the picture before printing them out. Lot's of fun!

That brings us to tonight. Tomorrow will be our first day going on the university campuses that we're assigned to. We will mostly be getting a feel for the campus, figuring out what times activities happen/students are available, and praying over the campus. The whole team is excited to finally get on the campuses and start talking with Japanese students.

Please pray that God would soften the hearts of the Japanese students that we will be talking to and allow us to build fruitful relationships with them. Pray that our team will continue to mesh together well and grow to love each other more. Pray for protection from the attacks of evil one and from his attempts to bring disunity to our team. Pray for strength and energy as we go share the good news in this dark place, and pray that in all this God would be glorified and our own relationships with Him would continue to grow.

Until next time,
Matt