Rivers.

"I will open up rivers for them on the high plateaus.
I will give them fountains of water in the valleys.
I will fill the desert with pools of water.
Rivers fed by springs will flow across the parched ground.
I will plant trees in the barren desert—
cedar, acacia, myrtle, olive, cypress, fir, and pine.
I am doing this so all who see this miracle
will understand what it means—
that it is the Lord who has done this,
the Holy One of Israel who created it."
-Isaiah 41:18-20

Takinogawa, Kita-ku - Tokyo, Japan

Before I go into what I've been up to over the weekend, I just want to pause and talk about how good God is for a moment. He has been showing me some overwhelming grace while in Japan. I haven't been scared. I sleep like a rock and wake up early, ready to begin the day. Jetlag hasn't been a problem. The food is delicious and my picky tastes seem to have disappeared for the time being. I have an awesome place to stay with good people. My Machida and Tokyo church families are pretty amazing.

I pray, more than ever, that God's love would flood Japan. People, especially the young people, are searching for something more. There is an emptiness that I recognize, because haven't we all felt it before? We are lost without Him. He desires us, loves us - covets our attention and our praise. His perfect love begs reciprocity. I love what He says here in Isaiah, that He will bring life giving water to the land so that the people will understand that it was He who created it. I pray He continues to open our hearts and our eyes to the truth of His love.

A lot has happened over the weekend. We spent Friday morning teaching English to the mothers of J.O.Y. Club students. I love kids, but I felt more comfortable in this class. We were expecting about 4 or 5 mothers, but 12 came! Praise God! It's a big thing for all of these women to come to the church, even just to come to an English class. It was a lot of fun, my students Mari and Naoko were awesome. Ladies from the church cooked us lunch. They were so good to us at Evergreen Chapel! After lunch, we piled into some cars and went on a prayer walk and campus tour of Obirin University. It's a private Christian university. Our tour guides were Reiko and Saki. Pray that there is a greater openness to Christianity on that campus, so much ministry could be happening there! From what I hear, Keiko and Saki came to Evergreen on Sunday - so that's pretty cool. As soon as we returned, Robert and I got our bags and headed into Tokyo. Our luggage was kind of a nuisance in the train stations, but we got to where we needed to be. Debbie picked me up at Ikebukuro station and took me on to Itabashi station, where I'll be living for the summer! Debbie took me out for curry later that night and I met Megumi! Such a sweet dog. Saturday, Susan had class to teach, so I walked around a bit on Saturday afternoon. Sunday, we took the subway to Tokyo Urban Church, which is where I want to be in my timeline here.

To get to Tokyo Urban Church(www.kyoukai.org), I take the Shin-Itabashi line to Jimbocho. Here I change over to a local train to get to Higashi-Ojima. I'm telling you this more for myself, I confess. I want to remember. From there, its about a five to ten minute walk. The church has a real contemporary design and there are quite a few people there around my age. We came for morning prayer, which was a really powerful time. The people of this church are so passionate! It was really amazing to see, and refreshing for me. I'm looking forward to my summer with this church. Anyways, after prayer Naomi, the worship leader, and Susan translated some of the songs into romanji(roman characters) for me so I could sing during worship then Susan and I went to Sakai Sensei's office and he preached his message to me in English. He is so annointed! The message was good and I really took a lot from it and I learned a few new Japanese words and some kanji along the way! He spoke about the difference between knowledge and Godly wisdom and how we should be seeking God's wisdom in every situation, especially in crisis, instead of relying our our own knowledge and instead of seeking the reason for the crisis. The reason you will see in hindsight, we should always first seek His wisdom. It was so good. I learned about the words for purpose, wisdom and knowledge too. In kanji, the characters for mokuteki, or purpose, mean "eye" and "target." The characters for knowledge, chishiki, mean "know" and "judge." For chie, the wisdom we get from God, the characters mean "know" and "grace." Isn't that awesome?

Ok, so after church in Japan, pretty much everyone just hangs around for the rest of the day. I went to the store with Nobue, Mariye and Mika to get lunch then we brought it back to the church and ate before cell groups. Naomi, the worship leader, is also in our group. She's only 22, but she's a church leader and she's very strong. Susan had some meetings so we were there at the church for a long time but it was really fun. They are going to a church in Singapore at the end of this week, so Susan will be preaching next Sunday.

Today, I slept in for the first time! Well, I woke up around 5 a.m. but I forced myself back to sleep and got up around 10 to get ready. Susan took me to the Assemblies of God Bible college here in Tokyo. It's also the Japan Assemblies of God headquarters. Beautiful campus! From there, we walked through the park and looked at a shrine there. Back at Ikebukuro station, we stopped at this awsome bakery called Little Mermaid, had some sweets, then came back to the apartment to wait for the staff meeting tonight...

...which brings me to right now! 3:36 p.m. on Monday afternoon! We start campus ministry tomorrow at the University of Tokyo, and will be going to Waseda University on Wednesday. Be in prayer for us! Pray for boldness for Robert and I(as well as the rest of the team!), and pray that God gives us favor on these campuses. Also, please pray for understanding for the Japanese students we talk to and that we develop close relationships to the students we meet. Praise God for the work He's doing in Japan!

Thank you for helping make this journey possible for me! I'll keep you posted!