Answers!

Alrighty, so first I want to apologize to all those who have emailed me recently... most of you, I haven't been able to reply to. I'm really sorry!! I've been thankful for your emails, but I've been barely able to keep up with myself lately. I'm working on that, and I hope to have a full day on Sunday.. maybe.. to do that and things like study and write thank ya cards.

Speaking of that, I sat down the other day to start on them and as I was making the list of people to send cards to, I was overwhelmed at the list of names! Wow, thank you so much to all of you who have contributed financially and who have made it possible for me to come here and share the Gospel with people who have never heard it before, and for those who have recently become children of God, to be able to build them up and point them to Jesus as they walk out their faith. Thank you-- it's because of you that I have this opportunity to fulfill the calling of God on my life, and I am so, so grateful.

You are a part of taking the Gospel to Japan.

So, let me just give you a few clips of some things that have been going on this week and lately in general. I don't have time to talk about everything, because there's so much and I could spend paragraphs just talking about various conversations with people and new people I meet and street performances, outreaches, etc. You get the picture.

Anyway, last Sunday, I went to the church because I was going to pick Aaron up and take him to Shibuya and Harajuku to explore and see Japan... well, Tokyo... because probably when you think of Tokyo, you think of super urban jungle with lots of kanji and vertical signs all over the place. That's definitely Shibuya. But Japan has many facets, including the vary traditional and beautiful culture that can be seen in many places, particularly in Kyoto, which is lovely. But when I took him to see Tokyo, I mean the urban crowds and famous spots and things of Japan. This Sunday, I hope to take him or have someone take him to a more traditional spot on Sunday. While I really, really want to be the one who takes him and spends time with him, I have sooo much stuff to get done that I just don't have the energy to accomplish during the week.

Back to the story. So I stopped in at the church and went to Sally's room and found Aaron, Kengo and Saki-chan. Kengo was talking on the phone, Aaron on Sally's computer and we were just hanging out. Afterward, Kengo told me that he was sad because his ipod that he just got had broken. I was sad for him and when he showed it to me, I just laid hands on it, and said, God, we know that You can do all things and so please fix Kengo's ipod. And I kid you not, I just pressed a button with faith, and it worked.

Oh, to have SEEN the look on his face. He was laughing and like, WOW! I was like, Kengo, Jesus loves you a lot. He called Yuiko and was like, my ipod is healed!! It was so cute and just like, wow!! Saki was really impressed that God done it too, and still today (Friday), they were talking about it. Later on in the day, it wanted not to work again, and Kengo was a little like, what? though he didn't say anything. I just prayed again, Lord, please fix it all the way.

And he hasn't had a problem since.

It might seem like a little thing, but God also can take care of the little things. In fact, last week, I believe... or maybe two weeks ago, I was soooo tired, and I prayed in the morning or the night before, Lord, it would be really nice to get a seat on the train. Then I was like, what? Why am I praying this for? And anyway, the next morning, I got on the train and stood by the door on the other side and at the next stop, the guy sitting on the end seat (the best seat to have, by the way), got up and got off the stop. My jaw DROPPED. But at that very moment, I was reminded that I prayed that prayer and though I threw it off to the side, because it was more a comment to God, God reminded me that He can take care of the little things too.

Even tonight, we wanted to do street performance, and it was sprinkling outside (which means we can't do street performance because it will destroy our equipment), and also a "squall"? was possible in the forecast. Like a sudden, strong and fast storm that just drops over. So we prayed and... no rain during street performance, though right now it is raining. Praise God.

Little things, but we are also seeing how God is answering our prayers in the lives of the young people that are attending Fuse. So many in this last month have come a step up (gone to the next level) in their faith and God is doing things in the life.

We are praying for more passion and vision in their lives and also to see many more lives changed by His love and the knowledge of His saving grace.

School is going well-- I feel like I can understand a lot of conversations that I hear going on around me. My friends are so happy that I'm learning Japanese and a few of them are really, really good about practicing it with me. The thing is that I learn polite Japanese in school, and then they teach me everyday Japanese that is not so formal. So, they tell me, yes, what you say is right, but that's what you say at school or at church. With us, say this. Saki-chan is particularly good and patient with me. Tonight we were talking... and I was trying to get something out about asking her a question about tomorrow night and what eventually came out after repeating myself a few times was...
Ashita (tomorrow) in the noche (Spanish- night)!

Everyone got a kick out of that. :)

So, anyway, yeah this week I've done much else- English class, meetings, outreach, street performances, beside school, and all those things have gone well and continue to go well. Hopefully maybe this weekend I can post again about some of those things, and I have pictures too, but we'll see how it goes.

Thank you for your continued prayer support!! We need it and we're excited to see what God is going to do with the FUSE and how He is going to change Machida, Tokyo and the lives of many, many Japanese people! We need your prayers, so please continue lifting up Japan and our team and the different activities and things going on, and that we can be a bright light that shares the love of Jesus to those who have never heard!

Can't wait to see what God is going to do at FUSE tomorrow!!

With much love to you- and thank you for your patience with me! It's so busy, but I do not forget about you and I do not forget to thank God for you and pray for Him to bless you!