Awesomeness

Hello supporters and ppl interested in our mission. Kevin here, updating the blog at 2-3 in the morning. This is our latest night so far, but anyway.

We've been having an awesome time meeting Christian students at many different universities, joining in their bible studies and 'block' (group of uni's that Staffworkers look after) prayer meetings. It's really encouraging to hear and see the faith of the uni Christian students here, especially the leaders and staffworkers who do a lot for the students they look after.

I'll try and continue on from where Fi left off - keep in mind that we've been visiting more than 1 uni group or block at any one time in small teams.
Thursday morning Kat, Fi and I left for the KGK office in Ochanomizu (water of the tea :p) to help with making testimony booklets which contained testimonies as a result of the national conference held earlier in the year - Alen joined us later at the office. The pages were already laid out around the table folded in 2 sets, so we just needed to keep on adding outer layers to the inside ones till we put on the cover, which was a very efficient way of doing it (sorry, was too busy doing it to take a photo!). Then helped a bit with stapling them, though it seemed like they did most of the work and we only helped out a bit. We started pretty late so I got plenty of sleep, but still fell asleep at the office waiting to leave (Fi and Alen left earlier because they had to travel a lot further).

Kat and I went with Makiko (the staffworker mainly looking after us and organising our schedule who speaks really good english and translates really well) to Risshou university, which looks awesome as the building is really new. We learnt that this was the 2nd time a KGK meeting was held there (I think), and it is actually a buddhist university (with funding from temples and a seminary), so like the other university's we've visited KGK isn't an official group at the uni, though thanks to God they are all able to meet and even sing songs! It ended up being an all girls bible study, which was a first for me, but ended up being the bible study I enjoyed the most. We looked at the story of the Samaritan woman at the well, and opened up with a question about how we deal with the loss after a breakup (I gave a hypothetical answer). We looked at the story from the perspective of the woman then Jesus, especially discussing their feelings, which is not normally something we look at in bible studies in Australia. I found it really insightful hearing the perspective of the girls, even the non-Christian one. She even called Jesus Iesu-san because that's how her philosophy teacher talks about Jesus. The girls were from different universities but the leader keeps up with them and is training them up to run bible studies on their own campuses, which I find pretty amazing. Ended up eating Sizzeriya (cheap Italian food) for the 3rd time, but had interesting conversations about Christianity in Australia and Japan, especially with the lack of guys in the church, which is especially hard for the Christian girls in Japan since there's so few Christians their age. So people in Australia, perhaps we shouldn't be so picky! Another late night but also had a sleep in the next day.

Friday
We had most of the day off, so slept in and had a meeting, sharing about our different experiences and praying for one another. Lisa had a headache so she went back to bed. We then looked at Luke ... using Kat's method - thinking about the original audience, what particular things they would've noticed and what twist there is in the parable. Was quite difficult, but ended up with the idea that as disciples of Jesus we need to examine ourselves and make sure that we keep ourselves spiritually strong and acting more like Jesus before we help others do so.

Kat, Fi, J and I headed out for lunch - ended up eating at KFC since my church friends wanted me to see if there were no bones in the chicken here. The spicy chicken is not spicy but better than in Australia but there ARE still bones in the chicken here. I'm not sure if they were joking... anyway, it was good chicken. We then headed to the markets, and ate some interesting food like green tea icecream and chestnut cake (bit like moon cake texture). Wasn't fun for me since my raincoat got condensation on the inside so I felt wet. Quickly bought some onigiri and melon-pan (melon shaped bread) for Lisa, before going back to hostel then heading out to the station.

We rode the trains for nearly an hour to Tobe, next to Yokohama for the Bay block prayer meeting. It was awesome to see so many Christian students there (though they were from a lot of universities). One student (a quite eccentric and cool girl) shared how tough it is being the only Christian at her university. We shared a bit about AFES and Credo, with Alen translating for me, then heard a message about the dispersion and Barnabas, which was very encouraging about God working through ordinary and individual Christians in new places far from their homes where it wouldn't be expected.

Anyway, I better not continue rambling on and get some much needed sleep. I've only just survived a day without falling asleep in the evening. Thanks so much for reading and supporting us!!

Praise points:
Thank God for the staffworkers Miyuki and Makiko who have been looking after us and translating constantly for us.
For the awesome Christian leaders here who put in so much effort to help other Christians even in different universities.
That we could get some much needed sleep-ins after late nights (not all of us)
For my kinda improving Japanese
That Lisa was able to get extra sleep and recover today

Prayer points:
That we would continue to improve our Japanese and communication
That we would be honouring and thankful to our homestay families Friday night
That God would sustain us - especially for Kat, Lisa and J who have been unwell at some point in time - I think J still has a bit of a migraine from lack of sleep.
That we can be an encouragement to the Christians here in Japan