A winter day

Taco Party!

Here are some pictures of the local Buddhist junior college students who came to our apartment last week to eat tacos. Please, please pray for them!



Minoru, the only guy. He comes only once in a while because he's a little embarrassed. :) He also goes to Amiko's church but is not a Christian.



Kumi, one of my favorite girls. She teaches me all kinds of Japanese slang.





Most of these girls have never had tacos before, so this was their first time.

Special assignment - Tokyo

Ferdie, a Filipino Christian, was one of the first people with a Japanese ministry group I met in Australia. The first night we met he sat up almost all night with me, talking about ministry among the Japanese and my questions about going. I was so moved that I remember tears as we prayed. My life has never been the same.



The missionary couple who asked me to come to Tokyo and do the article and interviews. They are so much fun! If you ever get to meet them you'll come away smiling (and full of Tokyo Mexican food)! :)



The Japanese Christians I interviewed who became Christians either in the U.S. or as a result of their time in the U.S. Such an awesome bunch! I am so incredibly blessed to have met them.

The Year of Jubilee

The Year of Jubilee

I just got up from a long, long night sleep after traveling Saturday and Sunday to and from Tokyo. What an incredible time! I got to meet the missionary family who wanted me to do a story about internationalized Japanese accepting Christ, and I met again with the family who showed me around Tokyo the first time I arrived in Japan. I'm writing news article again! Praise God!!

Not only that, but I wound up going with the Millers to an awesome church in Tokyo where some of the Japanese Christians (and other nationalities living in Japan) that I met during the Olympics in Australia go. They have prayed for me, kept in contact with me and encouraged me so much to come to Japan as a missionary. Now I'm here! It was like a dream to see them again.

Watching the nations come through the doors and standing together singing praises to God was one of the most powerful and beautiful experiences I've ever had.

Praise God that heaven will be like this!! I saw Africans with headwraps, Japanese playing the guitar, Filipinos, Australians, red-haired Americans, Indians. I was beside myself.

Together we sang, filling the church to the rafters with these words:

"Behold He comes riding on the clouds
Shining like the sun at the trumpet call
Lift your voice it's
Year of Jubilee
Out of Zion's hill salvation comes!"

Praise God, praise God - He CAME! He is HERE! And He is COMING SOON! Because of the cross all of this is possible. Because of the cross I can live again, I can sleep at night without fear. Because of the cross I am free. Because of the cross I am no longer a slave to myself but have a new heart and a new purpose in life.

Because of the cross I can live in a city thousands of miles from the U.S. and call it "home" because HE is here.

Because of the cross I can claim the verse God gave me on my first days in Tokyo: "The Spirit of the Sovereign Lord is on me, because the Lord has annointed me preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives and release the prisoners from darkness, to PROCLAIM THE YEAR OF THE LORD'S FAVOR..." (Isaiah 61:1-2).

So lift your voice - it's the Year of Jubilee!
And out of Zion's hill salvation comes!!

Colors of Sapporo

Courtesy of Heidi...





A day care center across from my language school.



Red, just in time for Christmas... Heidi, Takako and me in front of a big Christmas display at Sapporo Factory.

Limday Festival

Here are some more pictures from Limday, a festival at the local university/junior college where I go each week for English club. Last Saturday I helped cut pumpkins at the invitation of two American teachers - one Christian and one non-Christian, both married to Japanese women. That was the night I met Yuriko, one of my favorite people here.



My new friend Yuriko, a girl my same age who came to our apartment a couple of weeks ago.



Jerry, one of the American university teachers who is a Christian. He introduced me to my Christian friend Amiko who I now meet with regularly.







College kids cutting pumpkins. The girls I meet with on Thursday for English club think the guy in the back, in black, is the hottest guy on campus.



Jerry, Yuriko, me, and another student outside watching the last of a crazy student-led game show on stage.

Surprise!

As soon as I woke up this morning I knew something was different. It was QUIET. A strange sort of quiet - muffled, soft, distant. I jumped out of bed and ran to the window, and sure enough, the first SNOWFALL!!! (I think I would be slightly more excited if I had found boots already... but snow is snow, and there's a thrill that I hope always goes along with it).

It's falling now, in almost absolute silence, in big flakes past the window, cascading and whirling like a giant waterfall. The ground is coated white, the coppery-orange trees left over from fall are frosted. Grey falls against grey in the sky like tufts of goose down. A whirl of white confetti; a tickertape parade from our balcony.

And even now - silence.

Beautiful and still.

Please pray with me for Japan and for Sapporo. Blanket this area with your prayers the way the snow falls - gently and persistently, filling in the holes and corners until all is clean and fresh and new.

*Pray for the nine junior college girls planning to come to our apartment and eat tacos tonight! Pray that they would see Christ displayed so greatly in us that they would want Him for themselves. Some names are Yuuka, Noriko, Maki, and Aki.

*Pray for Yuriko, my new friend from the nearby university. She met Amiko, a Christian friend of mine at the same university, and the match was a success. Apparently Yuriko's boyfriend has a Christian grandfather, and Amiko says she's a little interested in Christianity. But she does not want to be pushed. Pray that the Holy Spirit would speak so gently and softly, as the snow falling outside, that she will not be afraid to commit her life to Christ.

*Pray for Heidi's work with about seven apartment women and nine children who come over to learn English each week.

*Pray, on this Sunday, for a revival to take place in Japan's churches - especially those here in Sapporo. Pray that they would be havens of hope and healing, places of truth, and places to which young people are drawn.

*Pray for the seven junior college English club students planning to come over for tacos (one of the biggest ministry tools yet! And we get to eat the evidence!! :) this coming Thursday. I really love these students. Pray hard for them: Kumi, Minoru, Ayumi, Ayako, Mana, Mari and Asami. All but Mana heard the gospel presentation at Korean Night.

The snow is still falling in diagonal slants outside the window.

Pray, pray for the peace of God in Sapporo.

love,
jenny