Pray for Yoshi's Uncle

#90
My buddy Yoshi told me at weekly gathering today that he is flying out to Japan tomorrow. It's a fairly spur-of-the-moment trip. See, his uncle is close to dying of cancer... like, the uncle himself doesn't plan on making it two weeks. And in their entire extended family, Yoshi and his sister are the only believers. So the two of them are flying out tomorrow, hopefully getting to his uncle's place by Sunday, and they're hoping that the Spirit would lead them to be able to share the Gospel with him. Before he heads to the airport, Yoshi's going out to buy a Japanese Bible in which he wants to highlight some key passages in Luke for his uncle to look through. Yoshi's prayer is that the Spirit would speak through him and his sister, and that his uncle would come to give his life to Christ, even if it's just moments he passes on, much like the thief on the cross. Would you join me (and Yoshi) in praying for his uncle (his salvation, and perhaps, if the Lord wills, even miraculous healing), and the rest of their family?

NOT Birds of a Feather

#89
Josh is a tall, super fit black guy from South Carolina who walked on to the UH football team as a DB. Steven is a 5'7" Asian guy who's all about music, leads worship at Cru, and has a super refined, quirky taste in everything. I'm a half-Japanese, half-Mexican former figure skater who was in a fraternity at USC and loves food, Disneyland, and everything Trojan. Honestly, the three of us should not be friends. And yet just because we share one thing- that we are children of God, redeemed by the saving work of Jesus Christ- we have a deep bond and end up having an awesome time of growth and fellowship every Wednesday during discipleship group. Love it!

Inexplicably Strong

#88
I don't remember the last time I struggled to get up as much as I did this morning. I was just completely beat. Could barely move. And Tuesdays are one of my longest days so I was really dreading it. But a little time in prayer and the Word to start my day off, and seriously, God gave me supernatural strength. We had a sweet time at KCC today- 13 students showed up (maybe most ever since I've been there?), God really blessed the Bible study/discussion that I led, JR/Dylan and I had a great time in d-pod, and it was one of the most gorgeous days I've seen... cool, breezy, sunny, no humidity. Just beautiful.

Then the afternoon hit and Jamie and I both hit a wall right as we were about to start some summer project planning... but right when we started we both were given strength and clarity of mind out of nowhere and had a super productive, Spirit-led time! Then I hit another wall. But I got to chill at home for a little bit, then I got to stand outside looking at the stars and talking to Jesus about His creation for like 40 minutes (SO powerful, SO refreshing), and then had a fantastic workout... had no strength whatsoever going into it, but I felt like I could've kept going a lot longer with my running, stretching, and lifting! Plus, I got to talk to a couple of the regulars that I see a lot. I'm really hoping to make 24hr Fitness a place where I can witness. And Jamie and I have been able to start planting seeds here and there with a worker, so it's exciting.

Ok that was a bit long for a post-a-day... sorry. But it's just really cool. Seriously guys, I can't even tell you how tired I am today, physically, mentally... And I really, really felt it in the morning, right after ministry at KCC, and again after summer project planning. But for some reason, I had so much strength during KCC, during project planning, and during my gym time. The title of the post is slightly misleading... it seems like I was "inexplicably" strong, but I can explain it just fine- God allowed me to be physically beat today, and then led me to surrender to Him, and then faithfully, supernaturally, lovingly gave me His strength to do His work. I love that I can't take any credit for anything awesome that happened today! All glory to God :)

Ready for a New Week of Ministry? Uhh...

#87
In case anyone was wondering, doing 6 hours straight of summer project planning is NOT what I would call "easing back into a full ministry schedule", even if it's fewer hours than a normal Monday, and even if it's not campus work. Haha. What were we thinking?? Oh well- God allowed us to be super productive, and we got a lot done!

Faith-Stretching

#86
(86 is my favorite number! yay!)

I've directed a summer project before. In fact, I've directed this summer project before. So I thought I had a pretty good idea of what I was doing. But boy was I unprepared for directing a summer project in a location where there has recently been a huge earthquake, devastating tsunami, and lingering radiation issues! Haha. Figuring out what to do about it all, fielding questions from participants and especially parents... it's all just kinda crazy and totally not a job I thought I would have to do. But God sure is using it to grow us all! Here is an excerpt from a text conversation I had today with Laura, who is leading the "B" team to Tokyo that goes in the second half of the summer (Laura in bold):

"Are you getting any concerned parents/participants?"
"Haha yes and one girl already dropped"
"Oh the sides of being a Project Director you don't think about til they happen! Hah"
"Yeah and you guys go a lot sooner than we do. We have more time to let them sort it out."
"Laura! This is so faith-stretching! I'll love it later but right now it's hard hahahahah"
"I think that's what the rest of life is going 2b like:)just have more oppt. to realize it now than we did as kids.and ur right...in the end its all going 2b fine"
"Yeah...Good thing it's worth it! Let's keep praying for both our teams eh?"
"Right?! K we will!"

I Left My Heart in Santo Domingo

#85
Got to skype with my buddy Nick tonight. He's a guy at USC that I discipled for a couple of years. A highlight for us was getting to lead a spring break mission trip to the Dominican Republic together last year, and this year, he got to take a few SC kids over for a trip again! So I got to hear all about it tonight. It made me a little sad hearing the awesome stories, because I couldn't help but wish that I was there with them (the DR is AWESOME... just AWESOME). But the stories were just so encouraging and I love that Nick, Andrew and Jared (three Trojans I had the privilege of pouring into a lot in my last year at SC) all got to go together.

They worked as a team of 60 people representing USC, Arizona, Northern Arizona, and some schools in the Red River Region. In their four or five days on campus, God allowed them to have:

497 Spiritual conversations

229 Full Gospel presentation

and they got to see 30 people accept Christ!
SO COOL!!!!

Physically Sick, Spiritually Refreshed

#84
Today was a quiet, productive, blessed day. My cold from yesterday is already getting significantly better (thank God!). And after a sweet talk with Auntie Linda (from whom I rent a room) last night that really pushed and encouraged me in my walk with God, I had an awesome evening tonight of spending a few hours just hanging out with Jesus- reading James over dinner, listening to two fantastic New Testament Survey lectures, and walking by the marina in Hawaii Kai listening to worship on my iPod. And in-between last night and tonight was a day full of catching up on rest, work, emails, etc. Hoping to continue enjoying some sweet refreshment in the Lord this weekend to gear up for the homestretch of the ministry year.

Right now, I'm just soaking in the crazy idea that I am God's child, and that He is desperately in love with me, and that He thinks I'm super valuable. It's WILD!

Called OUT

#83
"Yeah... ever since that first time that you missed it, it's been downhill." My SC friend Andrew called me out tonight on how I've had a good number of post-a-days that have been a few minutes late. Sorry folks! I'll try to be better about it :)

I'm SO tired from Spring Break Project. In fact, I'm so tired that I woke up sick this morning! So I'm not only exhausted from an intense (and AWESOME) few days with our students, but I'm also fighting a head cold. Needless to say, I'm out of it. Proof, you ask? Well, I just rushed over to Jamba Juice to get an Acai Primo Bowl (BEST!) for dinner, and made it into the store at 6:56. I apologized to the lady for coming in so close to closing, and she gave me a weird look and said "We don't close for another two hours." Yeah, Gen was so out of it, that he definitely thought it was Sunday today, meaning Jamba closes at 7. It's most certainly not Sunday. It's not even close. Wow. Definitely looking forward to a few days of rest and recovery before jumping right back into campus ministry on Monday!

Sun, Beach, Jesus

#82
I've only heard just a few of the stories from today but they've all been exciting. Our last full day of Spring Break Project was spent going out onto different beaches in Honolulu (our team got assigned to Waikiki), meeting people and having spiritual conversations with them. A good number of us actually got to share the Gospel with some people. What a great day of going out of our comfort zones, being stretched in our faith, and helping others learn about the great gift of life found in Christ!

Ladies' Night

#81
tonight was a blast. After a full day of doing community service projects around Honolulu, it was time for the guys to cook dinner for the girls. I had a great time serving as "head chef" for the night, coaching and overseeing everyone as they each worked hard at their assigned cooking roles. We set the tables beautifully and even hadguys serve as hosts and waiters for the ladies. AND, I also got to sit at the piano and play Clair de Lune as background music! :) What a fun way to bless the girls after a full day of work!

Fun on the Bus!

#80
what a fun day!! For our first day of adventures for spring break project, each team got on the bus and was sent to different parts of town with $50, with the assignment to multiply the money to bless people in the area with God's heart of compassion modeled in Jesus' feeding of the 5000. Our team was sent to a park with a lot of homeless people. It was a hot day so we decided to just make root beer floats and hand them out to whomever wanted them- whether they were homeless or not. That let us have some awesome conversations with people that allowed us to love them by listening to their stories and in some cases een getting to share Christ with them! Then we wrote Bible verses and notes of encouragement on post-it's which we left on people's cars. :) It was extra fun for me to be on the team, as students completely led out and came up with the ideas! And the best part was that all the students on my team came away from the day saying that it wasn't very difficult and that they want rp make acts of service and compassion to strangers and the needy a more regular par of their everyday lives!

Priorities

#79
I'm here on our first night of spring break project. We've briefed our students on the week, done a few activities/games, and now we're just chillin (or as they say here in Hawaii, "cruising"). But it' so cool cuz some guys have pulled out their guitars and now there is an impromptu worship sesh going on! So fun! I love that this is how they want to spend their free time! It's a great way to start things off before jumping into our adventures tomorrow morning :)

Pre-Spring Break Break

#78
Had some major insomnia last night, unfortunately. But I got to have a pretty restful day today- spent some good time reading Hebrews, relaxed at the beach by myself for a little bit, did some laundry, worked on some New Testament Survey... It's good that today was so low-key, because tomorrow, we start our Spring Break Project! It's gonna be a tiring four days, but I'm sure it's gonna be full of fun, bonding, and faith-building with our students so I'm looking forward to it :)

Pooped

#77
Guys, I'm SO tired. This was a fast but packed week... between preparing my talk for last night, finishing up putting together our Summer Project team, figuring out how the disaster affects out Project plans, all our usual ministry stuff, our directors being gone to get married, and gearing up for our Spring Break trip- I'm BEAT. Hoping to have a super restful tonight and tomorrow with Jesus... Twas a good week though!

Fun Evening, Fun Night

#76
I had a great time speaking at our weekly gathering this evening. Following up with Shaun's talk from last week about the treasure in the field, I got to talk about how even though the life of surrender and giving up everything to gain Christ is a scary leap of faith, it's totally worth doing because the One calling us is faithful and trustworthy and good. It's a lesson I've been having to learn lately too so it hit home for me as I spoke...

Then tonight I had a special surprise treat of getting to have a 1-hour skype chat with my dear friend and fellow Trojan Kimiyo who is STINTing in Tokyo! She was on the Project that I led in '09 and now she's there for a year and I got to hear some pretty exciting stories about what God is doing in her life and in ministry in Tokyo in general!

Two Prayer Requests

#75
1) I'm speaking at our weekly gathering tomorrow, so please pray that God would give me wisdom- that He would give me the words to speak and that it would be Him and not me.
2) Please pray for our project. Countries are starting to get their citizens out of Japan because of the radiation issues. We're hoping that the situation doesn't keep getting worse and that by the time we're leaving for Japan, the situation's completely fine.

Providence... It's AWESOME

#74
You know those times when you just see a bunch of things work out seamlessly to have something awesome happen? We call it God's providence, and I absolutely love it. Today, JR had a performance for his synthesizer ensemble, and so he asked if we could move our discipleship group to 9:15am... which is early. So I asked Dylan if he was willing to come to campus early to have d-group then, and he said yes with no hesitation! So we met this morning at 9:15, and Mitch (another guy in KCC Cru) stopped by and decided to sit down and say hi. We told him to please stay, and he did. Turns out that Mitch was on campus more than an hour earlier than usual because he woke up early and couldn't fall back asleep, and so he took it as a hint from God and came to campus. He ended up joining our d-time today, and it ended up being awesome. All three guys had a lot to share- especially Mitch- about hardships they were experiencing, and we were all able to encourage each other. As Mitch left at the end, he turned to us and said, "Well, now I know why God woke me up!"

:)

Hawaii's Sweet Mornings

#73
Today was another one of our every-other-monday-Core-team-meeting-at-630-am days. Waking up to my alarm at 5am is always painful... but every time, I completely forget the pain of it all when I step outside and feel the semi-cool, still morning air, hear the birds singing, and see the stars shining bright as they prepare to be overshadowed by the sun in less than an hour. It's REALLY, REALLY beautiful. God the Artist.

Travel = NOT a Big Deal

#72
Being gone a lot is just a part of my job. Conferences, retreats, mission trips, summer assignments etc... we really don't ever stay in one place for very long. This is VERY different from local culture here in Hawaii. People rarely ever leave the island, so when someone's gone for like 2 weeks (which, to me, is a SHORT trip... and being gone for a weekend doesn't even count), it's a big deal. It's rather sweet and endearing how much people make a big deal about it... I just don't get it, I guess. Between having moved around a lot as a kid and having the job that I do and loving travel as much as I do, I think being gone for periods of time is a natural, healthy part of life. But now I'm seeing that mindset as a product of my culture and up-bringing and not a universal truth. Hm...

(I had a conversation with someone today about this because they were expecting me to be missing Jamie a lot. Hahaha. Jamie, don't worry I do miss you. It's just not a big deal- that's all!)

I Look Crazy

#71
I think one of the most underrated parts of being on staff is having to take seminary classes... of course, I'm only on my third one out of eleven, so maybe if you ask me in a few years I'll have changed my mind. But so far, I've loved every single one of the classes I've taken. The one I'm taking right now is New Testament Survey and it's an online course. I just finished listening to the lecture on 1 and 2 Peter at Starbucks. In fact, Starbucks is where I do most of my NTS work- reading, quizzes, lectures... And I think I look ridiculous, because Gary Stanley (the professor) is awesome and always makes me laugh, nod/grunt in agreement, tear up as I listen to lecture in the middle of a crowded coffee shop! Haha. Today was no exception- definitely laughed out loud multiple times, and the thing is, all people see is me looking down at a piece of paper (lecture notes) with ear phones in (people probably think it's just music), chuckling/giggling. I must look like a crazy. Oh well.

We're Fine

#70
Hawaii got through the Tsunamis relatively untouched. I mean, a few wet hotel lobbies, a few hundred damaged boats in harbors, and one house washed away on the Big Island sounds like a lot... until you compare it to the damage in Japan. So yeah, praise God that there were no reports of major damage, injury or death here! Thanks everyone for all the texts/tweets/calls/messages of prayer and concern.

But PLEASE don't stop praying for Japan. In fact, I'd say pray even more!

Pray for Japan

#69
Wow I'm getting really bad at posting on time. 7 minutes late this time. But with good reason. Guys, what's on my mind right now is Japan. If you haven't heard, the northeast coast of Japan got slammed with a tsunami following an 8.9 earthquake. Yup, 8.9. Tokyo mega felt it too and plenty of damage reported in the capital.

Praying for Japan, especially as today I accepted probably my last two guys onto the Project. Depending on just how bad this earthquake was, it could really affect ministry for our team this summer. Praying that people's hearts would be softened so that they might be more open to the Lord calling out to them. Praying for the CCC staff and STINTers, as well as other believers in Japan, that they would be used to bring hope and peace to the Japanese people in this time.

"Jesus Wept"

#68
We had a GREAT time at our "Jesus Wept" event today. We haven't had a chance to debrief what happened yet, but our graffiti wall asking people to write their answers to the questions "What is injustice?", "What breaks your heart?", "How would Jesus respond to injustice?", and "Who is/was Jesus?" got a lot of traffic... by the end of the four hours, most of the boards were covered with thoughts ranging from "Injustice is women being paid less than men" to "My heart breaks for gay bashing" to "Jesus was just another nice Jew" to "If Jesus did exist, he probably wouldn't know what was going on in the world today." It made for some great conversations, and many of us got to share how Jesus really does care about injustice and that His heart breaks for many of the same things that break our hearts. And it was a great way for us to show that, contrary to unfortunate popular belief, followers of Christ should (and if they are true followers, DO) care about injustice in the world!

Our graffiti boards right after we set them up


We also had people be "walking graffiti boards" wearing t-shirts with similar questions and getting people to answer on video


Baptist Campus Ministry used Soularium (one of our cool tools I've talked about in a semi-recent post) to engage people in conversation. They also invited people to help out in a homeless feeding event


Intervarsity set up a board with some graphic images of different forms of injustice and asked people to write the injustices that break their heart on a ribbon and stick it on Jesus. Great for starting conversations

Sometimes, Less IS More

#67
Our meeting at KCC was awesome today! Only 4 students showed up, but 3 of those 4 were some of our most consistent students who happen to be super shy and don't really talk... and because there were only 6 people total, they felt a lot more comfortable and each one of them got super into the discussion, which was a huge blessing!

Also, tomorrow we have a huge outreach event on campus at UH- all the different Christian groups are working together to put on something called "Jesus Wept", which is basically and event that will use different platforms for discussion to strike up conversation about injustice, which is a pretty hot topic on college campuses like this one. And the hope is to point them to God and show them that Jesus cares about injustice (and thus His followers do/should too) and that His heart breaks for the oppressed too. Please be praying for us, that we may have a lot of sweet spiritual conversations that push people closer to Jesus, and that people might even come to know Christ tomorrow!

Physically Blegh

#66
Ah... Missed it again. This time by 7 minutes.

You know those days when your body just doesn't feel right? Yeah, today was one of those for me. Headache, tummy feeling funny, no strength, a bit achy. Fortunately, it doesn't seem like it's a flu. It might've been hunger, dehydration, and lack of sleep all put together. But the point is, God knew- and today was a day that required very little interaction with students, which was good considering how poopy I was feeling. But I did have a great time at SoulCare with staff, discipleship with Shaun, and doing some Summer Project application stuff. So yeah, productive day, but looking forward to a GOOOOOD night's sleep to get refreshed for tomorrow.

How to Grow

#65
NOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!! I missed it by 3 minutes... oh well. I haven't gone to bed yet so I cant count it as still "today, right? haha.

Church was just fantastic this morning. The sermon was so convicting, and I'm really praying through how I can legitimately apply the concepts to my life long-term. It's always the trickiest part... In other news, I also got to go to a small group tonight! First one since moving to Hawaii, so I'm pretty excited. The guys were great, the Bible study was legit, the food was yummy... It really felt like an answer to prayer. We'll see what God has in store for me with these guys!

Wisdom Needed

#64
Jamie left for India on a mission trip with her church yesterday. She'll be back in a week and a half. Which is great- I'm super excited for her. Except that now, all of a sudden, as of today, there are developments with our Project team and some decisions have to be made soon... and my APD is on the other side of the world! haha. So I'm gonna need some wisdom from the Lord to make a big decision or two, and trust that it works out. Good thing the Word tells us that He gives wisdom freely and without reproach to those who need it and ask for it. Prayer is appreciated!

The Gospel is a Universal Truth

Just looked up the Four Laws (CCC founder Bill Bright's four-point presentation of the Gospel) in all the languages that I speak. I just read through each one and almost teared up each time... The truth of the Gospel is just SO powerful, stunning, wild. And reading/hearing it in different languages with each tongue's nuances is breath-taking! I so want to experience hearing people accept Jesus into their hearts in their own language in Japanese, Spanish, and French speaking countries...

Check it out in your mother tongue HERE!

(No, this is not part of my post-a-days... I just felt like sharing this!)

Growth

#63
I have very strong opinions. And I have a tendency to present them strongly. But God is definitely working on me. Today was a great day of meetings as a staff team, planning out our weekly gatherings for the next month and talking strategy in terms of leadership structure and student ownership. Normally, this is the kind of meeting where I either completely shut down or completely shut others down, but today went GREAT! Knowing my weakness, I prayed before every single discussion and asked God to keep my heart soft and to only speak as He led me, and He really answered! We had some reaaaally productive discussions about how to best reach our campus, and today might have been the most tension-free staff meeting we've had since I've been here. Praise God that He sanctifies us (even though it's an uncomfortable process, the results are pretty sweet!) day by day and is in the process of making us more like Jesus :)

Truckin' Through Roadblocks... as a Team

#62
Our dear fellow UH staff member Ed got really sick a few days ago- bad fever, up to like 104- and coughing up brown gunk and everything... so he went to the hospital today and the docs diagnosed it as some sort of nasty infection. So they lowered his fever and he's on meds and resting at home. Thank God he's ok.

But this made for a crazy day of ministry today. Thursdays are our Weekly Gathering days, and Ed is in charge of driving all of the equipment over to campus, unloading it, setting it up, coaching/helping lead worship, tearing it all down, loading it back into his car, and taking it back to storage. With Ed gone, it was a day of true teamwork as the rest of us all pitched in to make today work. By the grace of God, it all happened beautifully. It was a weird day though- from beginning to end, there were little hiccups and glitches that really seemed like the enemy trying to push us into discouragement, and we got close to discouragement/frustration/anxiety/freakout/etc a few times, but the Lord led us through the whole day in joy and faith! Glory be to God our caring Father.

Can't Beat the Maui Burger

#61
Tonight, Jamie, Karisa and I took our UH discipleship groups out to dinner together just for a fun evening of fellowship in a bigger setting than just our 3 or 4-person d-pods. We went to Islands at Ala Moana... Oh man I'd missed it. Islands is one of my favorite restaurants and when I found out that Hawaii actually had one, I was like "YES!" We had a sweet time of relaxation and fun as the 11 of us got to enjoy some yummy food and great conversation. I'd been especially tired lately, so it was nice to have a more laid-back discipleship time tonight :)

"A Movement of Discipleship and Evangelism"

#60
Jamie got to take a girl she disciples out for her first time doing campus evangelism, Natalie got to meet with a few Christian international students from Korea to encourage them, I got to have a really rich discipleship time with JR where we explored some deep issues, and our meeting, though small in number today, was a blessed time of doing Soularium (see post-a-day #39) as a group and using that to get to know each other more deeply... which was perfect because a girl who is a friend of one of our Cru guys decided to join us today for the first time, and she's not a Christian at all, so it was the perfect way to introduce a community of people seeking deeper spiritual understanding to her without intimidating her too much (she knows that we're Christian and that we usually study the Bible, and she came anyway!).

Campus Crusade for Christ calls itself "a movement of discipleship and evangelism", and today was a full, productive, blessed day of living up to our aim at Kapiolani Community College :)