Here are some quick things to pray for.

Praise

• Friday nights – As we continue this experiment with Friday Night ISI at UTA meetings at two locations (early & late groups), God continues to bless. This last week is a example of how God is working. The late group had a student who just got baptized this last week. In the early group, our volunteer Cal had some significant conversation with several students which led to him meeting with a South Asian person of peace and starting to set up relationship with a couple of other students. Roy also had a couple of significant discussions about Jesus with the result being one East Asian couple taking the discovery Bible study “cheat sheet” with the intention of doing a family discovery Bible study group in their apartment. Praise God also for workers for the Harvest. Keep on praying for more. The fields are VERY white for harvest who want to be loved on and who want to learn more about the God of Creation and His Son.
• PTO (Passing Truths On)- Three PTO groups have started. PTO groups are a 16 week mode of discipling students where they are trained to 1) become disciples who train disciples, 2) learn the essentials of how to walk with Jesus, and 3)  learn how to start and lead discovery Bible groups. One of these groups is being led by a couple of American volunteer girls who are learning the process themselves and are passing it along immediately to another students. Ron is training one other key volunteer on how to lead PTO groups. Roy is leading an on-campus PTO group with three students and also  two volunteers who are learning how to lead these groups. Roy is also doing one PTO group using video Skype to disciples a student in Colombia and another one in Mexico. This process of starting these groups helped us too to tease out who the followers of Jesus are, those who the seekers are and whose not interested in Spiritual things but have a deep relationship with us.
• Right Now Conference – Roy and staff members, Jeff, Hannah, Judy and key volunteer, Tom joined in a conference to learn how to minister together with churches from the 20-30′s demographic. Tom and Judy also were involved with a conference with business leaders on helping believers see “Work as Worship” – using the workplace as a place of ministry. We need to help our students to have this perspective. We also were able to network with business leaders in the area to kick off a new ministry that we are looking at related to students in internships.
• Lisa is enjoying her new job because she is actually encouraged to share her faith with her students. It does require more outside time with students and it has less regular hours than her previous job.
• Ti* is getting more and more involved with Boy Scouts and playing the cello. He is getting better at both. In scouts, he has had the opportunity to learn things such as orienteering and tying knots. Cha* is really growing into a sweet young lady who loves to do crafts, cook, and spend time with her friends. She even made her own dalmatian Halloween costume. Jonathan is navigating through his sophomore year of high school and is learning how to be more responsible with managing his home work etc.
• Phoenix Training – Ron, Roy & Derrah had the privilege of training the ISI Phoenix team of 12 in some of the things we have been learning in our work with M28/CPM using video Skype. Imagine training a group of 12 people  hundreds of miles away with three local presenters and still be able to see their reactions, give feedback and everything. What a blessing that was to join hearts with kindred spirits and they seemed to grasp it. We hope that through all this training in M28 all over, it will catch sooner than later and a student movement will spark.
• At TCU, the team continues to flourish with several students growing through the Bible study there. Sharon, Sarah, Tim, the Moores and the rest of the team are ably leading the team. Recently, 8 UTA ISI students joined with 8 TCU ISI students in helping out with the Fall Festival as volunteers at Christ Church Assembly of God in Fort Worth. The student’s eyes were open wide as they were part of 300 volunteers who served 6000 kids and family members. They were touched by how a church would do such a thing through volunteers and donations without government help or anything. They asked many questions including “Why?”

• The 2011 EMBA students are here. A very different group that then 2010 group but we are very much blessed by them.  Also, the students are very much attracted to Ron’s Golf lessons(20 of the 35 went to the first meeting) and 27 of the 35 came to our house from Friday night group and we have a full table for discussion group and Bible discovery group This has been awesome!
• The kids are finishing their semester and Charis and Tim won many awards for their school year. We haven’t heard about Jonathan’s year yet.
• Final preparations for our trip are coming together. We are almost there! Hard to believe.

• For the EMBA 2011 group,
  • Pray that we can find enough friendship partner host families for these students. Almost all of the 35 signed up and we are still very much short.
  • Pray for a someone who could help instruct the students in golf while Ron is recovering from surgery. This is a very pressing need as so many of them want to learn.
  • Pray for a home to host a sort of “grand opening” welcome party for them in late July.
• Keep on praying for Ron as he deals with the prostate cancer. His surgery is coming soon.
• Keep praying for our city mobilizer, Jeff who is struggling with his mother’s terminal illness. Pray for his son too who is struggling with some unexplained extreme headaches.
• Continue to pray for Roy’s Irritable Bowel. It’s getting better but not completely.
• Pray for people who will step up and do the stuff Ron and we do for the UTA ministry and specifically the Friday group in June, a very important time for ministry while we are gone and Ron is recovering.
• Pray for the final week before the Asia trip. Pray that we don’t forget anything. Pray that we can get our hearts in a ministry mindset. (abiding in Christ) and we can get rest now before things get crazy. Continue to pray for the right heart for our kids… Pray that God will do something incredible for them on this trip.
• Pray for airport pickups for new summer students. Pray for good relationships and that we can fine people of peace who God has already been working in.

• The Austin trip to the Vibrant Dance of Faith and Science was challenging in many ways. I think most important thing that came out of it for Jonathan was that he was able to see that even really smart and educated people not only follow Jesus but have logical reasons why. I believe he also saw the limitation of science to explore some types of truth. Still, I appreciate your prayers. My heart aches with the stuff he is struggling with. I was once there. I trust in God’s grace and I understand what he needs to work through this himself and this is normal as a child grows into an adult and my role becomes one more of coach than player, but it still hurts sometimes.
• The Fall festival at Christ Church Assembly of God was wonderful as 20 of us (Americans and international students) volunteered at this event. The students were truly amazed by it. One Chinese student was amazed that someone other than the government sponsored something like this for the community. He was touched. We have learned that in China volunteerism is in its infant stages and so this was a paradigm shifting activity for them.
• Space weekend in Houston was probably our best yet. We took 50+ students and volunteers from UTA & SMU and we were hosted by our ISI team in Houston and Seabrook United Methodist Church. After visiting the space center, we were able to take pictures with an astronaut who spent more than a year up in the space station and then the students stayed with host families. I had the privledge of driving an Indian, two Russian, one Mexican and one Turkish students. They had a wonderful time! By the end of trip, there was sadness to leave their host families and I really felt like the people in our car were like family to us. God clearly spoke to them to show them his love for them.
• The T4T discipleship group at TCU has started and we have met three times already (on Fridays). To see what God is going in the hearts of the different members of the group.  It has been a real blessing. Further I am learning so much that can be applied to future groups.
• Pray for the HUGE thanksgiving party this Saturday, November 20 at the UTA BSM hosted by Fielder Road Baptist Church for the UTA international students. Pray for great connections between people and the students.
• Pray for TCU’s Thankgiving event hosted by McKinney Memorial Bible church also on the 20th as the students visit various homes.
• Pray for Thanksgiving day itself as various students will be visiting home (including 4 at ours) and more than 30 at the Moores.
• One of our student families had a HUGE family loss. I can’t share more but please pray for them as they grieve.

Students and Host Families Listening to the Astronaut

Happy Birthday!

• Family weekend at TCU went very well. I got to spend some time with a Japanese couple and other Japanese woman. It’s been a long time since I’ve had so much time with Japanese and it was a real blessing. They are not believers and we had a delightful conversation about all sorts of things. I also talked with a new believer Japanese and he will probably be the anchor of a new Training for Trainers (T4T) discipleship group for young believers that I will be leading at TCU.
• The trip to Colorado Springs was somewhat refreshing because we learned so much about different ways people are doing ministry and preparing students to make an impact back home. I was encouraged that the team there felt that we were on the right track with our work with CPM’s. (Christ Community Planting Movements).
• Pray also for clarity in Tim’s scout pack that Lisa and Roy are in leadership with. We are struggling at the pack level though our den is going strong. Pray for a fishing trip we are taking the boys on this Saturday.
• Keep praying for Jon’s heart and that he survives his dabbling in existentialism and the writings of its secular champions.
• Pray for a special project that is just starting where we help students in their post college transition that Jason and I are working on. We are in the pre-design phase. Pray for clarity of direction and focus and again balance.

Today, we got to be part of a community “carnival” at that apartment. We played sports with the kids. There was face painting, manicures and pedicures for the girls, arts and crafts for the smaller kids. There also was a baskeball hoop and all kinds of sports equipment. There was lots of food and wonderful fun.

My job was to go around taking pictures of everyone especially the families. Many of the families have very few pictures of them and so taking their picture is a very special thing. One little boy was having so much fun, he kept asking me to take his picture over and over again in funny poses. This will further the long term ministry of the apartment church as Andrea will be bringing these pictures for the families to take as a special gift. It made me very proud to see my kids getting into it and “making sacrifices” to do it. Jonathan was playing football with little Joshua (Understand Jonathan hates football… this was a image sacrifice in a big way) C-6 played with the kids though she cried a bit too because they didn’t want to play with her doing the stuff she wanted to do… Of course that is normal and you should have seen her before we went, we wanted so bad to go.

The people from the church were incredible. A couple of teenage girls were doing the manicures and pedicures… It kind of reminded me of Jesus washing the disciple’s feet. Some of the teenage boys were playing all kinds of stuff with the kids. Seeing some of the guys painting bag “pumpkins” and some of the gals face painting and shaving ice. It was really really special. Anyway, it seemed that everyone came away with a big smile.

Back when J-13 (not 12 any more) turned 9, feeling that I wanted to integrate rites of passage in my kids development, we went to a Japanese garden in Fort Worth and I shared with him about his heritage, how he is descended from samurai/teachers though Yabuki blood and from John Muir, Alexander Hamilton, Daniel Boone & Davey Crockett through Lisa’s family and how… wait… I guess it wouldn’t be all the special if I told you everything… suffice it to say, I tried to emphasize our heritage of service and now in our family love and devotion to God and people around the world. I then outlined a process of passing on what I am to him… He began the process as a “page” at 9, being instructed in the ways of men. At 13, he would move on to being a “squire,” given more responsibility but also more freedom as he learns how to apply what he learned in the previous four years. Finally he moves on to full knighthood, the full attaining to manhood, when I feel like he is ready, probably around when he is 18.

This last weekend was special because both T-9 and J-13 went through the ceremony in going to next levels. We were not able to go to the Japanese garden because as we left, a huge storm came by. But that make things more memorable in a way as we sat under a picnic shelter as a huge thunderstorm came by and a river swelled beside us.  J-13 shared the “essential Yabuki things” with T-9 and I passed on the rites of passage to J-13.

The rest of the day, I really saw a noticable change in both boys. It was really fun and I was really proud of them. It was a special time. We then proceeded to celebrate J-13′s birthday with a trip to the aquarium. The kids took tons of pictures. Here is a link to a few of them.

In many ways this has all the indications of being a very emotionally draining week for me and my family. So many difficult things happened (see Prayer needs below). There were some sleepless nights and lots more prayer than usual. Still, God is here and working and for that I am truly grateful. We have lots of huge prayer requests this week. Please pray specially. The next couple of weeks will feel difficult and the effects of the last couple of weeks will start to be felt.

Praises

• God gave our DFW team a wonderful, wonderful retreat. We looked at a new strategy for ministry for the DFW area that incorporates what we already do but looks to expand on it using a new paradigm. We will need some prayer warriors if this will work, but if it does, it could be really special. Let me know if you are interested in praying specifically for this for the next year in a concentrated way.
• I have been really blessed by seeing how my kids have been getting along at this point of the summer. I will miss the special times together working at home with them here when the summer is over.
• We had a wonderful banquet for the Chinese EMBA students at UTA where they got to hear from a wonderful Christian business man who spoke at their level and also they connected well with their friendship partners.

Prayer Needs

• Many of you have been praying for the Chinese student, N, who police are looking for as she has been missing since Saturday. There is no new news to report. Please keep on praying for wisdom on the part of the police and that she will be found one way or another.
• My grandfather in Japan passed away today. I did not know him too well as he was always so far but I do know he was a very special man who was a huge influence for my mother. I’ll never forget his wonderful laugh, his constant smile and his deep but simple wisdom. I just wish I could have gotten to know him better. I don’t believe he ever knew the Lord. That saddens my heart.
• My oldest son turns 13 this week. I can’t believe that that little boy who was little more than one year old when we came to Texas is going to be a teenager. In many ways I am so proud of him and yet I feel compelled to pray for him and all the kids every day. There is so little we control and so much we depend on God’s grace.
• We began our “Politics, international relations and religion” discussion group at Starbucks on Wednesdays two weeks ago. The first one had one Italian student. This week we doubled our attendance with the Italian student, an Iranian couple and myself. Please pray for good conversations about worldviews and stuff eventually opening up discussion about Jesus.
• We are winding down our summer groups and getting ready for the craziest month of every year when we welcome new students. At UTA alone there are over 600 new international students coming and we meet most of them in this busy month.
• Pray for wisdom on some financial and priorities things we need to decide on for the city ministry soon.

Jeff Anthony, our ISI City Mobilizer and “blessing man”, helped kick off the first thanksgiving dinner for Collin College (formerly Collin County Community College), a new ministry focus for us. Here is his report…

It was fantastic! God definitely answered our prayers and pulled everything together for His glory. We had over 100 people and I think more than 60 students. Countries represented were: Pakistan, Vietnam, China, India, Kenya, Bangladesh, Tanzania, Iran, Brazil, Japan, Malaysia, Bolivia, Taiwan, Fiji, and Belgium.

A lady from Iran who works in the int’l student office and brought her three daughters (soph at CC and two HS seniors) went on and on about how wonderful everything was and how  much she and the students appreciated it. She called me the blessing man (I’ve been called lots of things over the years, but this was a first!) and said I would be blessed because of all that we did to make the students feel loved. We had lots of students from Pakistan and they really had a good time. I re-connected with several students I had met at the BSM retreat in Oct. and two of them lead different int’l student organizations on campus.

McKinney Memorial Bible Church offered to host thankgiving dinner parties for international students at several different american volunteer homes as they provided the food. As key TCU ministry team and McKinney member Babs shares,

All went well with the American Thanksgiving Dinner Saturday night.  We had about 40 students and all went to an American home. They seemed to be in groups in which they knew people and felt comfortable.  The feedback which I have received from students and JP and Cassie has been very positive; everyone had a good time!  The families really enjoyed having the students, so all in all, I think it was a very positive experience for all!  Praise the Lord!  Thanks to all who were involved from planning, to recruiting students and sending them to the right place, to driving and eating with them, and getting them back home!  Thank you so much!

In addition soon-to-be TCU intern Cassie adds,

There were… students there from China mostly and Japan, Korea, Sri Lanka, and some others.  We split up into groups.  JP (Cassie’s fiance) and I took 4 Chinese students to a house and we got to stay with them.  Everyone involved seem to have a great time.  Plus, the time waiting at the [TCU Frog] fountain was just good talking to a lot of students I had not met before.

Finally, Bennie & Patti, key TCU team members, had more than 30 people, mostly international students, over their house on Thanksgiving day as they do every year. It sounded like, as usual, students had a rich and warm time. Bennie was telling me that he went down to TCU to pick up some students and twice as many as were expected were there… They are incredible people…