Some quick hits:

• Roy and teammate Derrah spent Jan 13-16 in Colorado training people in some of the stuff we are doing in ministry with the M28 initiative. This was in a sense a dry run for another nationally teleconferenced training in Omaha in February and a international trip to do training in Asia in late March. God really blessed the time as people seemed receptive and open to trying what we were teaching: implanting church planting concepts in discipleship of students who follow Jesus. We also learned about what works and doesn’t work in training this material. Almost everyone there said that we encouraged them to really look deeply at how they do ministry.
• We welcomed several hundred new students at UTA. Roy helped out with the rides to Walmart and Roy, Lisa and the team helped out much with the Big Howdy party this last Saturday. On the Walmart run, in his group of 6, he met a young friend from Iran who really connected with Roy.

Big week coming up. We have a big meeting with our Texas staff – planning our Tejas spring break retreat. This is an important meeting because many of us will be very busy right before the retreat and so much of the planning has to be done early. This is the retreat where God often leads many to start the journey with Himself and many discover God through the Bible and learn how to help other discovery God through the Bible. We are anticipating a very busy semester coming up. We will need your prayers as Roy will be traveling a lot to train people in ministry stuff and doing other things. We have busy regular schedules too with Friday night groups, PTO discipleship groups, lots of sports, scouts, etc. Here are some recent pictures including some from the holidays, etc. http://www.flickr.com/photos/yabukibreeze/.

Some Quick hits form the last few weeks:

• Roy and Charis got sick during the holiday. This is a blessings because it forced Roy to rest a lot which he needed. We got really close.
• Roy just finished yesterday the next major version of the PTO discipleship curriculum for our offering the ISI M28 initiative that he has been working on the last month. It is curriculum designed to help disciple groups to disciple other groups.
• The kids are excited about all the special gifts they received for Christmas. So are their parents.
• We met with our UTA ISI Team at the Phillips for a fun get together. Wow! I can’t believe how big and tight our team has become. Good job Ron as our UTA team leader.
• A fair number of students were exposed for the first time to the story of Christmas at churches during the holiday. Two student were even involved in Christmas plays at churches.

Pray for

John 1:1-18
1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was with God in the beginning. 3 Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. 4 In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind. 5 The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome[a] it.

6 There was a man sent from God whose name was John. 7 He came as a witness to testify concerning that light, so that through him all might believe. 8 He himself was not the light; he came only as a witness to the light.

9 The true light that gives light to everyone was coming into the world. 10 He was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognize him. 11 He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him. 12 Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God— 13 children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God.

14 The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.

15 (John testified concerning him. He cried out, saying, “This is the one I spoke about when I said, ‘He who comes after me has surpassed me because he was before me.’”) 16 Out of his fullness we have all received grace in place of grace already given. 17 For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. 18 No one has ever seen God, but the one and only Son, who is himself God and[b] is in closest relationship with the Father, has made him known.

 Rejoice because for the first time, when Jesus was born, we could see God dwelling among us “in the flesh” through his Son, full of grace and truth – the light of the world!

Check out some of Christmas pictures! Check out all our latest pictures.

Merry Christmas every one from the Yabuki’s!

• A new student Andrew from Nepal made a decision to follow Jesus through one of our volunteers doing Discovery Bible Study with him. God was influencing him in many way through many people and when he read the Bible he recognized what he was looking for.
• We are praising God that several of some of our closest students finished school this last weekend. Still we will miss them dearly. Vritant, Fernando and Bibianna specifically said that we all were their family in Texas (they even said it in a caption on facebook). Cynthia and TCU was showered with many blessings by the team over there. We are very sad to see these very special friends go home.
• We are excited that our student friend, Greg from East Asia welcomed his family to the US to join him after 6 months apart.

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?”

During this time, God has answered prayers for Roy, Lisa and the kids that you all lifted up. We very much covet and appreciate your prayers. Lately, we have been putting more focus on prayer in our lives and ministry and I have heard and am experiencing that when one does, especially in areas that break new ministry ground that there is generally MORE spiritual opposition than less. So we need you all covering our backs especially now. You don’t know how much it means to us to know your all are behind us.

Here is a quick report of the last couple of weeks:

• The Houston trip went very well. All the students went and came from Houston safely. We were concerned that there was no astronaut to speak to the students. It wasn’t a problem. The students truly enjoyed their time at NASA and afterwards they heard from a NASA team partner who arranges for HAM radio demonstrations with schools where kids get to talk to the astronauts up in the International Space Stations. There was a great “live-looking” video from the space station itself where we watched an astronaut give a tour and then talk to some HAM radio operators. The students really mobbed the speaker, taking pictures and asking for autographs. It was great. We also experimented with more students staying at each host home and it was a rousing success. I had a couple of Russian speaking students and family members in my car and many of the NASA people spoke Russian. The students felt so special because they could talk with the space program people in their native language.  The students also attended churches and met even more NASA people there. No doubt they see that rational, highly educated people could be followers of Jesus too.
• The week after the NASA trip, I was feeling very exhausted, with little enthusiasm and with several problems I had to deal with. (small things that the enemy often shoots our way). God blessed me as as we had our ISI Rocky Mountains and Plains regional retreat in Colorado Springs and He used it as a tool to heal and restore. It was incredible being up in the mountains. Normally, I am very social and stuff at these retreats –  learning  from other staff different things God uses to reach international students. This year, I spent a lot of time in my room. I rested some but also I was supposed to give a talk on the “Gospel of the Kingdom”, a HUGE theme in the gospels, the New Testament and much of the Bible. I spent much of the weekend immersed in the Word in the beautiful scenery of Colorado and it was just what the doctor (or Lord) ordered. It didn’t feel at all like work. Praise the Lord for times like these.
• Praise the Lord that the M28/CPM project is starting to gain traction outside of the just the Metroplex and spilling into our region. Praise also for a wonderful Skype discipleship opportunity I had on Friday, filling in for Ron with a couple of former students who now live in East Asia. Wow, God is working powerfully in their lives.
• The new school where Lisa works changes terms every 8 weeks. It is not always certain her classes would have enough students and she would have the classes she wants or if she will even teach. The second eight weeks started and she was concerned about teaching and and that she didn’t hear if she would have a class. At just the last minute, God provided and continues to provide enough classes for her to teach.
• At UTA they had a 72 hours of prayer group effort and God blessed and God we still feel the residual effect of that ministry at our groups and events.

• The Houston trip went very well. All 80 people safely went down to and got back from Houston in 15+ vehicles. The students had a terrific time. Many of them shared with me this week that it was the best time they’ve had in a long time. Some even said it was the best time they’ve had since they came to the USA. Some went into a church building for the first time in their lives. We had some HUGE conversations about deep things during the rides up and down. I got to know a young man from Armenia very well and talked about heart related things. What a blessing.
• Many of the Spiritual Warfare problems evaporated after we and you all started to pray. Some of the broken relationships need a little bit more healing and I am learning how to trust God through all of this and more importantly, how important you all are in what we do. WE ALL ARE BREAKING DOWN STRONGHOLDS. Without prayer we can’t do what we do.
• My car is back on the road and working well enough to take us to Houston.

It’s hard to believe it but after almost two years of prayer,  planning and preparation, our family (Roy, Lisa, Jonathan, Timothy and Charis) is only 5 days away from leaving for our month long missions trip to Asia. Wow! On June 8 we take off and fly off to Shanghai through Los Angeles and start a long and special journey. (check out our daily itinerary, map and prayer points for the trip)Among the places we will go include: Shanghai, Tianjin, Langfang, Beijing, Hefei, Wuhan, Guangzhou, Hong Kong, Tokyo, Yokohama, Fukushima City, Parts of Northern Miyagi Prefecture, and Los Angeles.  In one month the five of us will have traveled approximately 19,155 miles by air, 3,200 miles by train while visiting thirteen cities and three countries where we will minister to many student friends orphans, and relatives. (Learn more about the trip)

You all have been a special part of it in many ways so far. Some of you gave financially. (if you still want to give, we still need $2000 to break even click here to learn how) Some of you gave your time. Some even sold stuff to help. Quite a few students and former students and you all helped us set up parts of the trip that we could not because of cultural differences. We could not have gotten to here without you.

But now is the most important part. THIS IS THE TIME THAT WE NEED YOU THE MOST. Any type of mission trip, while having tangible elements is primarily a Spiritual affair. We need a team of prayer warriors to cover us as we go. You don’t have to be a prayer expert or you don’t have to have stellar prayer habits already… but you do have to be willing to pray for us as often as possible. During the time leading up to the trip and while we are on the trip. Are you willing to do it?  Even one day of the trip is okay as long as you commit to do it and do it.

If you are interested, please let us know. We have put our daily schedule for the whole trip on a web page, this will give you a sense of how to pray for a given day and it gives specific prayer needs for the day. In addition it is our plan to send live updates, as often as possible via e-mail and we hope to put up posts (and hopefully pictures) up on our ministry blog http://blog.yabukibreeze.com. All of our weekly prayer partners will automatically get these updates. The e-mails will be more detailed than what we can post on our public blog for many reasons.

If you are NOT already signed up to receive our weekly prayer update, we can add you to a SPECIAL PRAYER E-MAIL list for the trip. This will not lock you into the regular prayer e-mail unless you want to receive them. If you reply with an e-mail to us before June 7 I can add you or any time you can…

Sign up for live trip email updates to pray for the trip

• 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.