Last Tokyo Post!!!!

Ok, so we got back to California and had our debriefing for the next couple of days. The days were filled with storytelling, memories, personal triumphs, and a resolve for when we were to go back home. We prepared for reverse culture shock, telling our stories, and for the possibility that people wouldn't always want to hear all the parts of the stories that we would want to tell. In our free time we spent wrapping up loose ends with teammates and preparing to say our goodbyes. On a lighter note, we played a ton of card games and laughed a whole bunch in a relaxed friendly peaceful setting.

We then had to say our final goodbyes as we left our team (the three Michiganders) and headed back to Detroit. It was freekin' sad, but of necessity for sure. Looking forward, we all made resolutions towards the rest of the summer and the next school year. Some of my resolutions are to:

Have quiet times every morning; no exceptions.
Be in prayer for the lost more, at least daily.
Be more intentional in conversations, especially towards building up/edifying people.
Be bolder in talking about God, in all situations and in every opportunity.
Be intentional about meeting with someone for mutual growth in our faith.
Be way more relational with all people.

And so, I'm back at home and trying to work before I head back to college and get pictures and letters compiled to supporters.

Thank you very very much for reading this blog and for taking this journey with me and/or supporting me. As a final request, I pray that you would make a point to pray at least once for Shinji, the guy I was blessed to witness to unto salvation, and for all the Japanese students we met, for nothing we did over there for the Lord was in vain.

Thank you!!!

Final Weeks

Hi everyone! I realize that this is coming late, but I wanted to talk about the last big things that happened in Tokyo while we were there.

Ok, week 4 came and it was a bit different, but good nonetheless. This week the theme was perseverance and team unity. The focus was using all of campus time for conversations and not on anything else. Also, each one of us traded to go with the other campus team at one point during the week. I got to trade and go to the "Joyful Cafe" (it's an English lunch) at Gakugei and man, I really missed my campuses after that day! It was great going sharing with people I hadn't ever gone out with, but it was hard and uncomfortable being at a place that I was totally unfamiliar with. The whole theme of perseverence lasted all week and the next week as well. In that way, campus days were harder and more intense.

The most notable things to me were with Shinji. We (Jack, Shinji, and me) got together on that wednesday and it was just great. We talked about what it means to be a disciple of Jesus and how it can be hard and we looked at tougher passages...but Shinji wanted to be a disciple still, so we prayed with him for a bit and then answered some more questions and just hung with him. We next met with him that next tuesday and me and Jack gave him some gifts to keep with him in Japan. We didn't talk as much that day (I didn't, Jack did) but we got to get together the next day and just talk, laugh, and recieve some gifts from Shinji. Since then, me and Jack have remained in contact with Shinji and I have just enjoyed his friendship and it's so encouraging to see his progress towards God; it's awesome.

A couple of fun things also happened in this time. One of them was the guy's "creative date" to the girls in which we cooked dinner, wrote a poem, performed a skit, and aimed at showing the girls that they were special, in our eyes and more importantly, in God's eyes. We also went to a "shabu shabu" eatery. What you do in a shabu shabu place, is you take thinning sliced beef and pork and you hold it in a thin pan of boiling oils until it is cooked (kinda like a type of fondue). It is all you can eat and it is good! There were also vegetables that we put into it and raw eggs we could dip the meat into. We also did karoake, which was interesting, as all the songs were higher pitched than most of us could sing and also the music videos to accompany the songs were so awful and not descriptive at all of what the song was saying. Finally, that last weekend in Japan we went to Harakone and basically had a little getaway/retreat before we had to leave. We relaxed, did lots of spas, and all around just enjoyed hanging out with the team. During the retreat we did gondolas and say the beautiful natural beauty of Hakone's woody hills and then rode on a modern day pirate ship before resting on the lakeside for the day. The next day we went to a spa palace and stayed in spas that were filled with water, yet also had the smell and a bit of the feel of things added to it; for example, there was a strawberry spa, a chocolate spa, a coffee spa, a saki spa, a honey spa, and then they had some water slides and then a wonderful buffet.

After this, we packed up to go home and we navigated our way to the airport and embarked on our ten hour flight and said our final goodbyes to Japan.

One more post to go!