Yabuki Breeze Blog

This week has been fairly nice on many levels. I was able to spend a fair amount of time this the week with my friend Alex from Columbia. It has been such a blessing watching him grow as a person and in his knowledge of God these last few weeks as he prepares to return home to his wife and son this weekend. We went over many of the basics of the faith. I could see a zeal for the Lord and his word developing in him. It is very exciting. We hope to continue to meet via Skype after he leaves.

We also were part of a pilot program to preview a bunch of videos called “God Provides” produced by Crown Financial Ministries.  These are really first rate videos that explores what real faith looks like from many angles through key Bible stories. The ones called “Lifted Up” and “Abraham and Isaac” were tear-jerkers for me.

Another interesting thing happened this week. My son T-10 was part of the awards ceremony for his 4th grade class. It was really cool. He won a bunch of academic awards including getting the high score for the math Olympiads, being part of the 4th grade Battle of the Books team which got a silver metal and he was chosen as the student of the year for his home room. We were so excited. Anyway, it was kind of interesting. We had to go up for the final award because they honor the parents as well as the students for that particular award. Of course I forgot and wore the rattiest pair of shorts and polo shirt I had that morning (almost didn’t take a shower) because it was fairly early in the morning and we usually don’t have to do much at these events. Anyway, during the ceremony I was feeling some discomfort in my knee. Not too bad but it was getting progressively worse. By the time it was time for us to go up, I could barely put weight on it. It was scary. I managed to get up there with Lisa because I didn’t want to ruin this special day for my son. Anyway, after getting home, the situation got progressively worse. By the evening, I could barely walk. I borrowed a colleagues crutches. It made it hard to sit for a ministry meeting, etc. It was difficult. It was a struggle to even get from my office to the kitchen at home. I was thinking it seemed like swelling and inflammation and didn’t feel any structural damage so I decided to wait till the next day. Well the next day, while weak, I was able to walk and everything was slowly getting back to normal.

God really reminded me of something yesterday. It takes so little time for a situation to go from great to bad to great again. It takes very little for that to happen. This reminded me of how fragile we are and how much we depend on God to keep us doing the things that we do. Pray as I send Alex off on Sunday and as we welcome several students from the airport this week.

Tags: Columbia, God Provides, knee. Video

Today my son, T-9 became T-10. He had two of his buddies over for his birthday party and they had pizza, cake, played with their DS’s until the wii… I mean wee hours of the night (wii was played a little too) and fun was had by all. The last couple of weeks I’ve had the pleasure of being T-10′s Webelo den leader. It has been a blast watching he and his friend D work through some of the requirements and learn and truly grow. It was not too long ago that Jonathan as at this stage… or it seems. Actually Jonathan is now a teenager, spending countless hours studying about military history and the world… If you ask him what he wants to be… he would say to you, Ruler of the World. (I think tongue in cheek…). Our little one… it seems like she just came home from China and the precocious 7 year old is already talking about boys and wanting to dress well for them. What in the world?!?! Time is just flying. Lisa and I feel blessed to be able to be a part of all this but sometimes it feels like we are watching a car race running in front of us as we sit in the stands as spectators… the only think… we are actually in the race too, they are just moving that fast. Not too long ago, Jonathan and I read Ecclesiasties for our bed time story and I was really touched by its description of the brevity of life. Of how things go so fast… And his conclusion is it is all vanity… the only thing that matters is worshiping God. The fear of God is the beginning of all wisdom. I am really  beginning to appreciate that as I clearly get past the half way point of my life.

Tags: Family, growing, Kids

Every year there are exceptional people who cross our path… people who God brings into our lives and ministry that we really get close to and who you can see God working in and through in a special way. Sometimes, there are whole groups of people who come through who together and there is a special synergy that is very hard to manufacture. One might say that it can only be conceived by the creative mind of God. I would have to say we had one such group in our UTA Friday Night fellowship this semester.

Pictures here is a group that bonded and gelled like few others. This group of Latin Americans, Asians, Middle Easterners and Africans (which continent did we miss) were extremely tight and truly loved each others. You could see it in their faces and in their constant being together. It was our privilege too to be close to many of them too and God gave us the opportunity to really love on them and speak into their lives. This semester reminded me much of the heady days when Lisa and I first got involved with international students. The precious fellowship and the obvious work of the Spirit was truly intoxicating then and is still so today. Thanks all for praying for this ministry. I really believe what God built here this semester was the result of all your precious prayers and love for us. Please pray for more semesters like this one.

(check out pictures from this semester) This has been a very blessed but emotionally draining week. Honestly, this last semester has been one of the best of our career. We had some wonderful students that were very responsive to God and to their relationship with us. Just this week one student led Bible study the day after he made a definite decision to follow Christ. Another student shared his appreciation for us as his “family” in America. We have also been exposed to some new ways of doing ministry and have really made progress in applying those principles throughout the things that we do. It has been a year of much movement.

Still, this week was very hard… Several dear friends are going home long term this weekend. In addition, several of our staff have had some huge family crises and we are transitioning one of our kids through teenhood and another through being a Webelo… I can’t remember when we have had more “stuff” to do in my life. No I take that back, back in High School, the weeks before I left for New Jersey for the first time, I had just about every hour scheduled with packing, having dinner with someone, etc. It was just as non-stop but the idea that that sort of life style not ending any more can be daunting… Still the exciting thing is that God is showing me through daily time in His word and in prayer that it can be done. We are being forced to depend on Him for every second of every day and it actually works!

One of the things we end each Bible study with every week is “if this passage is true, (which I believe it is) how does it change the way that you live…” I’ve been really challenged this year to make this question a part of every Bible truth that I know and imagine this… THE BIBLE ACTUALLY IS TRUE AND LIVING AS IF IT IS ACTUALLY WORKS! Imagine that…

Tags: Bible, Friends, stress, Summer, truth

(Pictures & Videos) This last Friday night was very special in many ways. For many of our students from Spring 2010, this was going to be the last Friday night at our house. It was kind of interesting but in Spring 2010, there were quite a number of students talented in music and so we decided that a fitting way to end the semester was to allow them to showcase their talent. It was so very special!

Guitar soloist Cesar kicked it off with Vietnamese brother Toan with a great song that they put together that day. Then new student Malone from China who just arrived last week sang a very well crafted song that he wrote on guitar. Miguel played a guitar instrumental number and Claudia, a classical piano soloist who has been accepted into the UTA piano performance Master’s program played some Debussy for us. It was truly a feast for the ears. (See video clips from the performances)

After the sonorous start, we moved to our discussion groups and I (Roy) had the pleasure of leading the discovery Bible study through John 3, the story of Nicodemus. The students had so much insight to share. Every there had so many good things to say. My good friends Julian and Alex from Colombia especially were both so insightful in the things that they shared. It is really cool because Alex has agreed to lead the next Discovery group in two weeks. He is returning to his country in a month but he has a desire to see something like our Friday night in his country some day.

Our little girl is truly growing up so fast. C-7 was in a concert this week at her school. She sang with her first grade class and she did it with so much dedication and purpose. It was a real blessing. Afterward, we snapped a bunch of pictures with the family. Check out the pictures when you can.