Howdy partner, I've got a snake in my boots...

Well, for some reason, the boys like to teach Japanese people to say that. It's strange. Annnyway, this has been an EXTREMELY exciting week/end!!! Thursday night was BEST Club. It was the first week Meg could sit through it, praise the Lord for healing her stomach, just in time! E very week we have "Bible discussion, English practice"and this weekend we did "Sports, Travel" (BEST, get it?). During the Bible discussion time, Jun wanted me to share my testimony. For the second week in a row, he forgot. This week, we started talking about struggles we go through and what we turn to during those times. My story fit in perfectly, so I finally got to share it! As many of you know, I'm a bit of an independent girl; I have to question things and come to my own conclusions. If someone tells me something, I have to research it for myself. All throughout my life, I would do things to be good or right. My group of friends was the good kids, I didn't really date boys because it always caused trouble, my biggest rebellion was moving to CO for school just to prove I could do just fine away from my family. My freshman year at college, I had a lot of questions I had never really thought about before. I always thought I would grow up and be a physical therapist, get married, have kids, and live happily ever after. But my freshman year, I started doubting if that was the plan-- if that was it. My Bible study leader, Joy Teten (now Maschhoff), showed me how to live for Christ, and how you will be rewarded if you do. Later that year, I learned how to read the Bible for myself, and that started my personal relationship with God. I learned how to look in the Bible for the answers-- how to find TRUTH, facts that are absolutely, unconditionally true, especially when everyone else is giving mixed advice, selfish advice, or just stuff that isn't for me. Now I can know test and approve God's perfect will for my life; I can find the answers to my many questions, answers that will be true long after I'm gone. Pretty cool, aye? Kazu, one of the guys we met through our friend Ami, started coming to BEST Club last week and heard about the Bible for the first time. He says he still doesn't really know what it is, but the few things we've talked to him about seem true to him. After sharing my testimony, he asked if he could take the same class I took to learn that stuff. How exciting!! I had to tell him that it wasn't a class, but that I know of a few guys who would love to start checking out what the Bible says with him.

On another note... this weekend we headed off to Saga Prefecture (about 2 hrs by car) for BEST Camp. We stayed at a beautiful little center on the coast. We had a REALLY cool bbq, Japanese style (pictures to come), great many hours of different sports in their gym, and great discussions about the Bible and life and other things. Before the trip, Naoko had me help her translate "You are Special" by Max Lucado. It's a children's book, but I highly recommend it for any young person especially. That brought on some great discussion time, and we even had some one-on-one time to talk with a Japanese person. I got to talk with Shin-Young; I'm actually staying in her old room this summer (she moved out 3 days after I got here, and all her stuff is still in here), and she's crazy. I love it. She likes to pick fights and tease even though we can't understand each other. The first day when I was leaving the apartment for school, she said, "Nakanie-de", which means "don't cry". Since then we've been best buds ;) Anyway, it's so cool to see God using me. She doesn't really talk about Christ or her childhood or life to anyone here because she does a lot of things that are not accepted by CHristians (smoking, drinking, dancing, etc). It was really cool that even though Naoko, our very conservative roomie, was translating, she still opened up a ton and shared quite a bit during the "one-to-one" discussion time. By the end of the weekend, we had great fun, great bonding time, and great laughs. I made it through the whole weekend being able to run up and down the courts, jump and play games, which is quite a feat to those of you who know about my bad knees. About 45 minutes before we were supposed to be leaving, we were playing soccer and I went up against Meg, we landed, and I fell. I did something to it, and am writing this now from my bed with it propped up. Our nurse friend Megumi looked at it and put a magical cool patch on it. I guess we'll check the swelling tomorrow evening to see what to do. Praise the Lord for keeping my knees safe though! Haha don't worry, family and Michael and everyone else, God is sovereign and I'm still alive :) Really. Anyway, I'll probably wait a few days to post again because the last few have been so long. Until then, Ja Ne!

when the cat's away...

Haha I apologize for my blog post last night... I was just so excited about everything I've been doing lately! Oh, and Michael has been out of contact for about a week, that could be it too. Sometimes you just need someone (or something, apparently) to vent to. Please don't feel like you need to read all of it, or even most of it.

Krista, I don't know how you do it all alone, seriously. I have a team and I still feel like I need someone else to talk to sometimes. Praying for you in your last few WEEKS!!!

love and marriage, they go together like a horse and carriage...

No, I'm not singing about a raunchy TV show. This weekend we got the chance to go to a real Japanese WEDDING!!! (quick side note-- if anyone knows anything about html and would like to tell me how to add spaces between paragraphs, or how to add images NOT at the top of my post, please enlighten me) Hiromi is a woman who became a Christian in Indonesia and then started coming to the fellowship when she got back to Japan. Her long-time boyfriend, Go, is not a Christian but does not oppose her faith. About 3 weeks ago they decided they wanted to get married finally! So, we found out about it and they wanted us to sing in their wedding. We thought that quite a bit inappropriate considering we did NOT have the right attire and 2 of us are too big to wear Japanese clothes. Anyway, we ended up finding stuff to wear but didn't sing in the wedding. I, however, did make new friends with 2 four-year-olds and an eight year old. The wedding was very small, but beautiful. The reception was really fun, at a cool Italian restaurant (think small Olive Garden knock-off). But, when the bride and groom came down the stairs once we all got seated, she had an entirely new hair/makeup look, as well as dressed in a GORGEOUS flowing, purple and green gown, complete with purple bow gloves. He was dressed in a zoot suit with his own set of gloves. All throughout dinner I would play tickle with the little kids, and they would go off screaming. Kids are different here... I know when I think of Asians, I think of very studious, very disciplined, quiet kids. But kids under the age of 5 are a COMPLETELY different story!! They're nuts. They hit and yell and seem to do anything they'd like. Usually the parents just talk quietly to them sometimes, but usually just keep the kid away from their face. Pretty cool, I think. I sometimes wish Americans could let kids be kids more often, even if that means putting up with screaming or noise for a bit :)

On Saturday, the day BEFORE the wedding, our friend Ami took us to a mall about 10 mins away on bus, where I got to look in the "Plus-size" store for a sweater or something dressy to wear to the wedding. I know I'm bigger, but I've never had to shop at a plus-size store. That was kinda fun to go to their mall. We were especially impressed by their socks and female undergarments, surprisingly enough.

Monday we went back to Kyushu University to do more "evangelizing". Megumi and I had spiritual surveys for students to fill out, and I made friends with one dental hygene student named Rieko who speaks English VERY well! KyushuU is a more prestigious University, so the students there seem to speak English better. Some anyway. But she had been to New Zealand, so she had a really pretty accent when she spoke. I'm going to try and hang out with her again next monday; she said she doesn't study ever, and said she's really excited to get to know me and insisted we get food together next time. It's pretty exciting to see the Lord working and making students available to me. Meg and Naoko met a girl that they talked with for a few hours, so that's great to see as well :) It was good to break up so Meg could somewhat find her "nitch" in the ministry here as well. We've both been kind of frustrated.

Tuesday was our day off, so what did I do? I went to the salon! Naoko's sister is a hairstylist that we met a few weeks ago. I got the opportunity to go to the salon with her, and I got to sit right next to her and watch every minute. It was awesome! Salons here work differently, in that most only have the owner, maybe one or 2 hairstylists, and maybe an assistant or 2. In the US, for those of you who don't get out much, each hairstylist rents their own chair and then they share the wash stations, so there is usually 6-10 hairstylists per salon, and they don't directly work "for" the owner, or anyone but themselves. During the cut, I sat right next to Naoko's sister. She said she was nervous that I was watching, but that it was okay. Within the next 5 minutes, there were 5 of us sitting watching the cut, because they were interested that a Gai-jin (foreigner) was so interested. We talked about salons and cosmetology school, and other random things. There were cute little shops "traditional Japanese street style" around the salon, and REALLY cute clothes for cheap (don't worry mom and Michael, I didn't get any, even though they fit). Naoko knew of a great food place on our way back to our apartment, but on our way it started to rain. When we got to the place, it was closed. It wouldn't open for another 45 minutes, so we walked down the street and sat in a bakery shop. Talk about awkward. But anyway, we made it in and the ladies that worked there were SO sweet! The place is owned by a woman and her 2 daughters, who also work there. The older daughter went to a language school in, get this, Irvine Valley College, in Irvine, CA (right next to my church, less than 4 minutes from my house). She went to OCC for another 4 years, and is now back in Japan to work for her mom. Talk about small world. The mother decided she didn't want to serve us bar food, but she wanted to make us food that normally someone would eat in a Japanese home. She brought out things that tasted like crab cakes, salads, cabbage marinated in something, and THE most tasty treats ever! I forget what they're called, but it's like cheesy potatoes in an egg roll. Oh my word, heaven in a wonton. After a few more rounds of foods, we were quite full. They gave us their card, and we headed home.

Today, we had our 2 English classes and the English conversation cafe. Our second class was especially fun because some of us were in short skits that the students had made (and we edited). They watch Seinfeld in each class, and they had to make a skit based off a theme they saw. In one episode, I guess someone lies about being a marine biologist to impress a girl, and gets caught. So, all the skits had something to do with lying. One of my groups was a baseball team, the pitcher hurt his knee and they needed to find a back-up. Someone knew someone who said he was the best, but he really couldn't pitch at all. The other group had a kid who was no good at basketball, and would even score baskets for the wrong team. He transferred schools and told everyone he was the best. There was a game against their rivals (his old school), and he played and scored a basket for his old team. I was the student who called the kid "terrible" in the skit, so that was fun :P They were pretty funny though. I even got them to use sarcasm and say "good luck with that" and "my bad". After almost DYING in a bike accident on the way back to campus, I met up with Bunsho, Misato, some of their friends, and Rob and Kyle, and we went to Misato's apartment for dinner. Bunsho works at Pizza-la (where Rob and Kyle met him) and made us a pizza. His boss made it, and he told us it was new and spicy, so I decided to try it. BAD CALL!!! I ate half the slice before I realized my tongue was going to fall off. We made everyone try it, and apparently I got the only spicy slice, and they did that on purpose. Thanks, guys! I've eaten a lot of spicy food in my life, but this was seriously the worst ever. She made Tacoyaki, which is this amazing cooker thing. It looks like round muffin tins on a burner, you pour pancake batter in and put stuff on top, then rotate the cups and you make things that look like cream puffs. You're supposed to put cabbage and octopus in it, but by the end of the night I had them putting Reese's pieces in it for dessert ;) yum! Then we sampled Japanese desserts, something that's "healthy for you" that tastes like poop, and "chocochip cookies". It was great company, great food, and great fun. I invited them to our apartment for American food next Wednesday, so hopefully I'll find the time to prepare well for that.
Please pray for the women that we've been meeting with, and for Aiko and ChiHiro the rest of this week. Please also pray for BEST club summer camp this week. Please pray for healing from my accident, as well as some other health problems this week. People-sickness (not necessarily homesickness) is setting in, so please pray for comfort for that. Please pray for Hiromi and Go's new marriage :D Love you all!

rain rain i love you!

Well, the rainy season is here in full force! I'm learning a lot, especially today. I learned that I only have one "good" pair of shoes to wear in the rain, and they just soak up the water within the first 5 minutes so at least I'm expecting it. I learned I'm no good with umbrellas; I kept dumping the water on me. I think I get bored with holding it. I also learned that my umbrella has a hole in it... oh well. Good thing I like the rain! I also learned that rain is amazing and makes things very beautiful. It must be why Japan is so green! It is also amazing because it cools everything down. 2 days ago it was SO hot that we just wanted to go hangout in the cafeteria because it was air-conditioned, and now I just want to go outside instead of being in our apartment! It's funny how things workout. Guess the grass is always greener, aye?

Yesterday Rob and Kyle (my American teammates from Kansas) were invited to go bowling with their friend from the pizza place, Bunsho. He wanted to bring his girlfriend, Misato, so we were invited as well. SO fun!!! Misato prefers to walk than ride bikes, so I had a walking friend :) We bowled 3 games and it was really fun! Bunsho's 2 friends came, and they were just a hoot. One was rather shy, and the other guy kept calling him "serious". I think the translation is derogatory, because he would crack up and point and laugh whenever he called him serious. Finally we got him to say he wasn't serious, just warming up and practicing. After the games, we went in this big booth thing for fun pictures! I forget what they called it, but it was sort of like a carnival picture booth- all 8 of us crammed in and would rotate places, making different faces, with different backgrounds for each picture. Afterwards, you could draw and write on the pictures before they printed them. I'll have to show you once I get back to the States :) Then, we all went to an AMAZING Japanese bbq place! It was traditional-style seating (which means we 3 long-legged creatures were changing positions every 2 minutes). There were little grills in the middle of each table, and they would bring out places of raw chicken and pork, and you cook it yourself. You dip it in sauce before you eat it... oh my word, it was SO good! The 4 of them usually work part-time jobs on the weekends and Bunsho and his lady work Thursday nights, but hopefully we'll get to see more of them. Misato emailed me this morning inviting me to her apartment, so that's really exciting! I'm hoping she can find some time for me, but she is very busy, going to school full-time AND working 2 part-time jobs. That's how they do here in Japan. They're either crazy or just REALLY hardworking! Maybe both.
Anyway, did I mention that I rode a bike last week? Yeah, once. For those of you who don't know, I don't actually know how to ride a bicycle... I was a broken child who turned into a pre-teen with bad knees, then a teenagers post-knee surgery. I rode once when I was in Japan in 2005, but that was out in the mountain countryside (and I almost died the death of a sign, but that's another story). It scares me to ride here because it is so crowded, it is busy, and I have seen 4 accidents now! No one gets hurt, miraculously enough, but still! Knowing me, I would be the one person to get hurt. Haha anyway, I feel kind of left out because I still haven't been to the guys' apartment, and I can't go anywhere quickly. The walks are nice because I can work on memorizing my verses (we're doing one a day from the TMS, yayy), but I know Meg is getting frustrated with me for not knowing. Please pray that we would have wisdom, that I would have safety and courage (and knowledge of how to ride a bike!) but especially balance-- something I seem to be severely lacking. BEST club tonight, and Kazu and ChiHiro (the girl pictured above) are coming. Please pray for the discussion and their hearts!

Watashi no namae wa Kristin desu....

Konnichiwa! Watashi no namae wa Kristin desu. Amelika no Kalifolunia ni alu arenzi gun de sodachi mashita. Kodomo no koro ryoshinga kyokaini kayotte imashita ga, kyokaini kayou kotono imiya riyuni tsuite wa hanashima sen deshita.... and thus began my testimony yesterday at Fellowship. When we first got here, they asked us if we could take turns sharing our stories at Sunday Fellowship. I decided it would be a nice gesture to try and speak it in Japanese! Naoko helped me translate it to romanji (so I could read it quickly). I got really nervous about halfway through reading it, but they all seemed very appreciative that I made the attempt. The morning before I spoke, Naoko worked with me on pronunciation; I decided American mouths just are not made to move that quickly, or make some of those sounds. But after I read it, at least 4 Japanese people told me they could understand it perfectly, because in Japanese the pronunciation doesn't matter as much as the pitch and movement. Go figure.
On Saturday, we had "Sports Day". About 16 of us went to a big park area and played frisbee, baseball, volleyball, and soccer. It was really fun, and a great way to get to know some of the Japanese people in a non-threatening environment. ChiHiro, a girl Naoko has been meeting with for a few months, decided she would like to come hang out with us again on Friday, come practice English Wednesday, and go to BEST club Thursday! She also wants to come to the summer camp in 2 weeks for the weekend. It is absolutely amazing to see the relationships forming and God working through us.
Aiko, another girl we've been meeting with, pictured above, invited us to her concert the beginning of July. Hopefully we will be able to hang out with her again, maybe even go shopping with her (her favorite thing to do with friends).

learning Engrish

Well, today we had our first English class! The teacher is from Canada, and is a Christian who works closely with the Fukuoka Navigators. The first class was English Conversations2. They watch a clip from The Truman Show, and then pair off to do interview-style questions to practice their English. The teacher integrated us into the class for the interview portion, and it was really fun! They were asking all sorts of questions about what we like to do, and we got to know a few students. The girls I met with seemed pretty excited to talk, and learn that we are very similar to them, our taste in music, food, and EC activities. After the first class, one of the girls Meg interviewed came and ate lunch with us!! Apparently over her winter break she went to Kansas to study at Washburn University, about 20 minutes away from where Kyle and Rob live. She seemed very excited to be able to hang out with us, and Naoko talked to her a little bit and we found out she was intrigued by Americans' enthusiasm for religion. The host family she stayed with went to church, and she was amazed that Americans would wake up early on their weekend just to go to church.
On our way to the second English class, we bumped into teachers from Germany and the UK, and the man from the UK just emailed me and he wants us to feel free to come help in his class Mondays, Tuesdays, or Wednesdays. We already have classes Wednesdays and Thursdays, so we'll see what happens with that.
The picture above is from our first night of BEST club, last week. They had a welcome party for us, with lots of games and fun get-to-know-you quizzes and such.
Last weekend, Mr.Shin and Jun took us to the beach (about an hour drive). We were really close to Korea, and it was beautiful!! The only bad part is that there were jellyfish about every 10 feet, washed up on the sand. There was an island about 100m away that Kyle and I swam to. There were primitive steps that lead somewhere, but we were a little anxious about exploring by ourselves and having to swim back if something happened.
The rainy season officially started today! It has been raining steadily since at least 5am, and looks like it might continue until around Sunday. We're expecting it to be like this until July though. I love the rain, so it's pretty beautiful, but please pray that somehow Meg would find a way to either run in the rain, or a place she can run and not ruin her shoes.
All in all, it has been an absolutely great week!
Matt leaves tomorrow morning, so please pray for his flights back to Kansas, and for the ministry there. Please continue to pray for our team's health, safety, and hearts. Please continue to pray for open minds and hearts for our team and Japanese staff and students. Please also pray for communication, and that we would be sensitive and uplifting to one another.

first day of action

Well, we've been in Tokyo since June 1 doing orientation. I met a bunch of REALLY cool people, and got to know quite a bit about my team (and myself!). Yesterday we took a bunch of trains to an airport, and flew to Fukuoka. Upon arrival, we went to the Shins house for some food and the opportunity to get to know some of the key BEST members. Best is for Bookdiscussion English Sports Travel, what we will be doing here at Fukuoka University.
Today, we had a great feast of a breakfast with our roomie, Naoko, and then set out for a busy, busy day! We walked around the neighborhood, visited the grocery store, and then headed for the University. We were supposed to help in a classroom with an English teacher from the Canada Navigators, but he wasn't expecting us until Tuesday. While we were hanging out in the hallway, we met a Japanese man who was an English teacher who went to school in Kansas. We ended up visiting his class, speaking in front for about 20 minutes. We told the class who we were and that we were there for the next 2 months and we would love to chat with them sometime if they have the chance. Within the hour, we got 2 emails just saying hello. We met a student Jun meets with, and then Meg, Naoko, and I went to do some "cold turkey evangelising" they like to call it. We don't talk about anything spiritual (and probably won't for a long, long time, if at all), so it's really just walking up to people and starting conversations. We met one girl who was wanting to be friends and practice English, and talked for her for at least 35 minutes before she had to go practice. The next girl we talked to was a Philosophy major and told us she was interested in discussing the Bible, even before we mentioned anything about it! When we were walking out, some girls were sitting outside and started saying, "Hello!" really loudly. It turns out that one of the girls was in the class we spoke in front of, and really wanted to speak to us in a smaller setting. She and her friends are in a break-dancing club. The whole time we were walking around, Naoko was nervous about the guards kicking us out because she said they know her. After we left the 3 girls, 2 guards went up to them and looked at the contact information Naoko had given them. At this point she was almost hysterical. The girls had told me ways to find them in the next few weeks, so I'm not worried about finding them or them being interested in talking to us. There are signs all around the entrance to the school telling students to watch out for people talking about religion, and to stay away from them. One of the guards even came to the BEST club party tonight and asked what it was about. We said English conversation, so they said that was okay.
Please pray that 1)we will be allowed on campus for the next 2 months, 2) we will be welcomed with open arms by the students, and 3) that Naoko will gain wisdom with how to handle the guards, and peace about continuing mission work at Fukuoka University.

I'm pretty beat, but tomorrow I will have a lot of down-time since Naoko is working until noon and I cannot ride a bike, yet.

I hope you all are having a great summer (or last few weeks of school). Please keep me in your thoughts and prayers. Thank you, again, for all your support and encouragement for this trip!