Merry Christmas!!

Yay! The long awaited day is here.

Today I worked and it was amusing to me to watch the guys shopping... Looks of confusion, guesses on womens' sizes...

So, I've been crazy busy, as you can tell. It's the Christmas season-- the busiest retail time of the year. So, there's that.

Also, there was paperwork to do with Japan that I had to fill out and have other people fill out...

Oh, Japanese study... Adjectives that CHANGE with past tense verbs. Sigh.

You get the picture.

Well, I'm going to get off here and help my ma peel some potatoes. Hope to have interesting stuff for you soon.

But until then-- I wish you a very Merry Christmas!!

Tis the Season

... to write cards, to do shopping, to hang lights, to go to parties... etc. You know how Christmas is. But I'm pretty excited as I drive at night and see houses decorated for the season.

During the past few weeks, I've been looking at various things concerning Japan-- including the budget. As it turns out, we believe that a budget of $2200 will be more viable, and will enable me to pay everything from rent to schooling and pay bills like social security and buy a ticket home every once in a while.

I'm very excited about that, because while we heard from so many that the budget would be more expensive, we believe that this will be a good budget. Should I be lacking in funds, after the first year, I can teach some English classes on the side to make a bit of extra dough. :)

So, I'm excited, because that's not that far away!!

We're setting the date around March to head over there. That will give me a few weeks before I start Japanese classes, so I can figure out where I am. Kinda seems crazy when I think about it.

However, I'm still getting my head start while I'm here, studying Japanese. We've been working on things like counting in Japanese. There's so many ways to count! I know that seems crazy, because we count- one apple, two apples, three apples, etc. In Japanese, you add a suffix for the type of thing that you're counting-- thin, flat objects; time counting, and several other. We've done about 2 or 3 ways of counting, and learning the different patterns for each counting way.

Also, in the way of counting-- it's kinda crazy-- but, they change counting every 4 digits, not every three like we do. For instance, to say forty thousand, you say basically 4- 10 thousands. I'm not going to go too far into it, because right now, I can do it, but if I think too much about it, I think I may lose it. So, suffice it to say that this is harder than when I learned counting in kindergarten.

Well, I still have a few things to do. I've been on a roll getting things accomplished and I'd like to stick with it.

Talk to you later!

OH! PS- check this out! I learned how to get Japanese fonts on my computer last night! こんぼんわ．

Story from Japan

I'd like to share this with you all! It was posted by Christine Huber-- she and her husband Tim are the original missionaries there in Japan. I'll be working with them and another couple, Mark and Yuiko Blakely working at planting a young adult church. This is what's going on currently over there!
_______________________________

Our church was packed out--people everywhere, in the chairs, on the floor, standing--to witness the testimonies and baptisms of two teen boys today. They both told their stories that impacted everyone. Many tears of joy were shed today!

One of Yusuke's comments: "2009 years ago, Jesus Christ died for me, and so now I want to work for Jesus! So I decided to consecrate myself to Him!" He is an example of a kind, smiling boy who attends to the needs of the little children, and he wants to be a servant of Jesus Christ.

Naoto doesn't know his real father, and his mother abandoned him as a young boy. But Jesus was with him and protected him, and provided people who have loved him through all his trials. He is excited about servng God!

We are soooo THANKFUL beyond words for how God is saving the youth of our church. ALL our youth were present for this special event!! (This took special effort from each one--Japanese youth are super BUSY students!!) We took tons of pictures and it was quite a celebration!

We are praying and believing that NONE of our youth will leave God's path! It's not so difficult for the younger children to come faithfully to Sunday school and spend time alone with God. But at the junior high and high school age, the schools require them to participate in sports or music or other clubs on Saturdays and Sundays. The teens become sooooo busy and tired, it is VERY hard for these young people to continue to put God first. It takes a miracle for them not to fall away. That's why it is such a JOY to everyone to see a teenager making such a difficult stand for Christ!

We thank God sooooo much for our dedicated youth staff who treat these kids as if they were their own. This takes a a super amount of dedication and sacrifice! (Japanese are known for giving their all and their best, and the Christians do this for God! We love working with these amazing Christians!!)

When Japanese youth get baptized, it takes a lot of courage and self-denial. Two other teens were baptized last August, and now today, two more! May God continue to bring revival to our youth, in Jesus' Name!!!

Decisions and December

Today, driving home from dropping off my little big brother at work, I wondered... which day is it???

It took me a while to figure it out, and I did by remembering that Japanese class is Mondays, and I didn't do it last night-- so it had to have been two days ago, thus making today Wednesday.

A bit scary when it gets to that point, isn't it?

So, 2009 is just about over. In fact, right now, I'm watching Christmas in Rockefeller Plaza, which reminds me that Christmas (and thus, the New Year) is indeed right around the corner... even though yesterday it was 60 degrees.

It doesn't feel like December at all.

So, a couple of weeks ago, I made a decision to put off Japan for a little bit-- because I am not financially able to get there yet. As much as I'd like to head off in January, I realize that it would be irresponsible to leave without having my budget at least close to set.

So, I mentioned setting April as my next aim, and the team said, how about March?

February?

I said, ASAP. :)

On that note, please, please pray for me as I'm working on this. I'm taking a look at the budget again, to see where I can cut back, so to speak. There's a balance however between doing it yourself by budgeting and having faith for God to provide. Like I said, it would be irresponsible to go without sound backing.

So, please pray as I look for at least the next $1500 monthly support.

Running that Marathon

So this week it's been one speaking engagement after another. Sunday, Monday and today (Saturday). All were a bit different, but they all went well. It's cool, because I believe that God really ministered to various people.

Today I talked about what I mentioned a bit on Sunday-- giving thanks and being grateful. It went very well. God spoke, and He coordinated certain people so that it all flowed. It was great.

Yesterday was quite an interesting day. I got out of the shower and was cleaning my ears, when I hurt my ear with a q-tip! I know, I'm going to hear all about it with the qtips. But anyhow- there was a bit of blood later, and quite a bit of dizziness for a while. But I laid down and got over it. My ear was kinda throbby for the rest of the day and I went by Walgreens just to make sure that I didn't puncture my ear drum. I didn't know how much I would get charged, but she looked in and confirmed that I didn't puncture my ear dream and I didn't have an ear infection, and then, she didn't even charge me!

I was thankful.

So next week, I have friends coming in from Oklahoma City and Chicago to celebrate Thanksgiving. I'm really looking forward to their arrival and to celebrating Thanksgiving! Since I don't have to work until 10am on Black Friday, I think I'll have the opportunity to do a little Black Friday shopping too.

What are you thankful for?

Yo' Homework

Hey ya'll. I'm glad you had a great time this morning and I pray that you will continue seeking and pursuing after God with all your heart.

Once again, thank you SOOOO much to Courtney and Brian and Matt. I really appreciate your generosity with me and being flexible and getting the power point ready to go in an insanely short amount of time.

Anyway- here's your guys homework--

1- Pursue GodPursue on Your Own: Look for Joshua in Exodus 24 and 32. Compare where Joshua wanted to be and what were the consequences of that desire with what happened with those who were behind. Also check out Exodus 33:11.

2- Pursue the Vision God has given youPursue on your own: Pursue on Your Own: What was Joshua’s vision? Look in Deuteronomy 3:28. Read Joshua 1 to see what his course of action was.
3- Believe for the ImpossiblePursue on Your Own: Look at Numbers 13-14:9. Based on Joshua’s relationship with God and the promise/vision God gave him, compare his perspective of the situation with everyone else’s.

Well, there ya go. SO, i'm tired and I get to be at work at 5am tomorrow, so I'm going to get and start working on some stuff for an important presentation tomorrow.

Have a beautiful one and keep being persistent in pursuing God!

All those Juicy Details

If there has been a week that has been crazy, it's been this one. Beside working around 30 hours this week (where I got all kinds of cuts and bruises), I put together my newsletter*, finished the folders I had been working on, made a million copies of my dvd. I also did translation for parent teacher conferences at an elementary school, and continually tweaked the message I'll be giving tomorrow.

*Usually you put these in at the end. But, I would like to add an important detail to the newsletter that was supposed to make it in there. I'd also like to thank Connie S. for putting in a good word at Macy's. I'm going to try to mention that tomorrow morning. But she should be mentioned as well.

Ok, so, let's get to those details I won't have time to mention tomorrow morning:

When I was 15, a freshman in high school at North County Christian School, Kathy Pugh, who was my Spanish and Bible teacher at the time, showed our class a video right before Christmas break. I know at the time she had no idea what God was going to do through that video. It was from Teen Mania, and I can tell you that I’m pretty sure that not too many people were paying attention, but I was hooked. Everything was blurred around me as I watched about missions trips taken to Africa, Asia and Eastern Europe where God was changing the lives of countless souls.I left that class, almost with a hangover, and I said to a friend in the next class, I have to go on a missions trip next summer. She was like, ok, whatever.

Over the course of the next couple of evenings, I scoured, very intently through all of my materials. I had attended a couple of Teen Mania events called Acquire the Fire over the past couple of years. I eventually found them, and along with it, there was a magazine that I hadn't really gone through beforehand. It was about the summer Global Expeditions trips.

So, like a good 15 yr. old, I wrote a very nice letter addressed to Mr. Luce, and asked if it were possible, if I could go on a missions trip. I printed and signed it.

Before I could mail it, I got in the mail a magazine with that coming year's missions trip.

Imagine my surprise!

I looked through, read all of the details and carefully approached my mom about it. She kinda blew me off the first couple of times, but then I sat down and showed her the magazine and talked to her about wanting to go.

After talking for a while (she probably saw that I was insistent and wasn't going to let it go), she finally came to the conclusion- Fine, if you get the money, you can go. I was like, ok! That's all I needed. This was a huge step. I filled out all the paperwork, and got her signature and sent it in as quickly as possible.

Ok, everything is mailed in and then came the hard part. Waiting. I was up every single night in excitement thinking about going to India. I hoped, I prayed that they would accept me. I even called them to check on the status of my application! Ha!

I finally got the packet in the mail with the video about Teen Mania, a tshirt, brochures, and a series of notes about how to prepare for the trip.

I was SO excited, and by this time, my mom had become excited too.

Over the next couple of months, I went through so many fundraising events. People could pay a $1 an egg or $1 per cup of flour to pour over me. That was a mess, and I ended up with egg shell scratches all over. The next day I sported a hankerchief over my hair. Donna R., our youth pastor, if $200 was raised, volunteered to become a human burrito and then hosed off outside. The youth couldn't resist that offer.

What else did I do? Oh! I collected change in different classrooms and in gas stations! That made some money, and teachers would make kids add change to the bucket if they were late. Another teacher helped organize a baseball tournament where teams had to pay to enter. Kids could wear jeans and tshirts to school by paying $1. School was even changed to a half-day for the event! Looking back, I can't believe it!

We hosted a spaghetti dinner where entry was purely by donation.

My dad's employer paid me to clean his house and gave a $1000 donation.

Between it all, money was raised and I was so excited to go. As you know, it was an incredible trip, where many people got saved, many were dramatically and miraculously healed and the Spirit of God moved in India and in our lives.

It was a trip that changed us completely. It was a trip that changed me completely.

If I get responses, I'll post some of the miracles that we saw take place on the trip. But for now, I need to get to bed.

See ya'll tomorrow!