Yabuki Breeze Blog

Wow its aleady the end of March. The weather is changing in Texas and students are coming up on the stretch run in their academic year. The last few weeks have been tumultuous and exciting but in the end the thing we best saw was God working out his will in all of it.

Our friends from ISI Nebraska brought down 13 kids to enjoy spring break away from the cold of Lincoln. They were hosted in Arlington with several families from area churches. The students came from China, Malaysia and from a people group that is one of the most remote people groups in terms of exposure to Christ. There was incredible spiritual warfare which indicates to me God wants to do something special. So your prayers mattered. Here are some of the details of praise… but also prayer…

• We actually recruited host families for 25 students but the final number fell 12 short. (We are very sorry for those of you who volunteered but could not host someone… We cannot control student decisions)
• From the beginning there were some personality conflicts among the students. It was very interesting to watch… and yet… God seemed to melt some of the thaw by the end through some circumstances. Also, a Muslim gentleman, who just arrived a very short time before, set foot in a Christian Church building for the first time and I could really see interest and surprise.
• The ISI Lincoln’s leader Ron (1)’s  car was broken into at our church during the night and his stereo was stolen and more importantly the passenger window was destroyed. After he helped drop off the students at Six Flags, working with Ron(2), our awesome ISI Arlington staff leader, he prayed a prayer of desperation and immediately God provided a auto glass shop right in front of them who also could find them and install a radio all for a reasonable price.
• It rained hard and was cold the morning we went to Six Flags (the very thing our friends from Nebraska were trying to escape from) BUT it stopped raining around 10 AM AND, the result was that there were hardly any people on this spring break Tuesday morning and so we got to go on more rides than I’ve ever been on. In fact, talking to friends who went on other days that week. they had to wait more than a couple of hours to ride one ride which were were able to get on in 40 minutes. Seems like a God thing…
• All of us who went to Six Flags had a wonderful time of fellowship and connecting. Again, you could see a visible thawing of relationships before and after.
• The next morning, as the Nebraska group was leaving, we found out that a couple of the girls who did not go to Six Flags but were specially cared for and taken shopping and sightseeing by their host family was bitten by a dog and taken to the emergency room. (long story.. ask me separately if you want more details)  Afterwards there was much wrangling about insurance, the law, etc. and what could have been a disasterous situation became a blessing of sorts. The legal stuff is working itself out (Please pray!). The family, at first negative about the experience allowed the Spirit to work and realized the spiritual warfare nature of what we do and became galvanized as to God’s presence in it.  PLEASE pray for this family and the girls involved!
• In spite of it all, last I heard the students all had a terrific time and I did sense a greater openness to the ISI Nebraska team and God in the end. Our new friend Jossica posted some photo’s from the time on her facebook profile (http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=154038&id=557438917)

Tags: Lincoln, Nebraska, Six Flags, Spiritual Warfare

I am so sorry all. I have been out of pockets with this blog the last couple of months. I am ever so sorry. My hope is that we can get back on track. I’ll try to “catch you all up” on what has been going on the last couple of months. Truthfully, it has been mind boggling how much happened in this short time. Appreciate you all!

Roy

Tags: Back

There is no doubt in my mind that many had been praying for the Tejas retreat (http://isitejas.com – for Tejas retreat website with pictures, videos, etc. You can also visit our facebook group page at http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=50327357388). No doubt at all. This was honestly the best retreat in terms of Spiritual fruit and in terms of introducing Jesus through words and deed to students that I have been a part of. What an incredible blessing it was. God brought the right people at the right time to hear the right message and be part of the right small group this whole weekend. His hands were everywhere.

Here are some of the results. 19 of around 64 respondees to our response cards  indicated a first time commitment to Jesus. It’s hard to say how many of those are “first time” as some listed are people we thought were believers’ but based on what I was seeing on the eyes of the students it seemed very clear that many of these were genuine. Of the 64, 30he 64, 30
English: Contemporary English Version (1999) - CEV
Izbrano poglavje ne obstaja!

WP-Bible plugin also shared a desire to learn more about who Jesus is and how they can know him personally. And 16 want to meet again with a Christian to learn more! 22 indicated a desire to be a part of a discovery Bible study, the starting point for a fast duplicating small group (groups based on CPM principles for you missions folks) which we modeled in small groups during the weekend. This in its self could mean much more fruit in the future. 43 indicated interest in being notified about future ISI events and 17 indicated interest in meeting a Christian student on campus to make friends with. Some comments about some of the things the students decided included:

I decided to…

• To know Jesus more deeply.
• To keep meeting with Christians on my campus.
• To trust Jesus
• To read Bible more and join discussion group for asking questions and learn (from Muslim student)
• To be a Christian leader on my campus
• To put Jesus number one in my life
• To learn more about God and share him with all.
• To start reading Bible by myself

It was amazing. This time around we had a smaller group, and we were much more pointed in our advertisement (with in-your-face Jesus on the logo), the cost was a little high for many who were not already traveling (many went all over the country this year), and yet God especially spoke powerfully to the students! PRAISE THE LORD!

PRAY FOR…

• Faithful followup with the Tejas students who made some big jump in walking with Jesus and continuation of the momentum from the retreat.
• Pray for a couple of M students who seemed very interested in Jesus
• Safe trip for students who visited from Nebraska (already some car and human issues yet God was working…)
• Pray for Hakeem (who comes from an extremely difficult to reach muslim people group that borders China and Turkey) who is on the Nebraska trip(I’ll explain next time)… I saw some thaw in his time here. Pray for more progress for the team. Pray also for patience with a couple of high maintenance students too.

Tags: Retreat, small groups, Tejas