Yabuki Breeze Blog

We leave for Houston at 6:30 AM Saturday morning taking over 70 international students from Tarrant County to visit NASA, to stay at homes, visit churches and enjoy great times together. I am writing this at 12:30 Saturday morning and so I want to keep this short.

I wanted to make sure I got this out because there have been small hints lately of some spiritual attacks going on. Relationship problems within teams… passive aggressive behavior…people being easily irritated… feeling overwhelmed over things that God controls… a student close to the meeting Jesus getting in trouble with another ministry… more resistance than ever by a small majority on this trip (but also a huge excitement by the majority. All this is clearly not from God AND all at once. God is in control but this is also the time to call in the spiritual prayer forces.

God is doing good stuff and I sense a real sense of community on this trip to Houston. I believe God will do stuff but so with the enemy to disrupt it. Please pray for…

• Safety on the trip for all (80+ total people including volunteers and students)
• Good Holy Spirit driven attitudes by all the team and host families with each other and with the students. Good attitudes of the students.
• The unearthing of people of peace in the time together
• Open hearts for the students who have been chosen to come.
• Safetly and encouragement for Lisa and the kids back home and patience to weather this very busy time.
• Good host families who really love on the students and share the love of Jesus at the students’ pace.
• Some student who are real close to have good conversations with the people they are with both in the cars but also in the homes and at NASA.

Thanks all. Appreciate your praying as you receive this because we probably are on the road as you read…

Tags: Houston, ISI, NASA, Prayer, trip, volunteers

The Big Howdy begins (www.utabighowdy.com) as we students are getting picked up from the airport by the Big Howdy team of volunteers, churches and ministries, others have been shuttled to Walmart. Some will be given a warm welcome at orientation, others will receive furniture and other things from the student Garage sale, most will enjoy as big Texas welcome at the Big Howdy Party and finally some will receive a custom tour of the DFW area by local volunteers. The Big Howdy is a month of welcoming goodness for the new international students, where Jesus following volunteers can make a lot of noise for Him and hopefully some people of peace will reveal themselves. Even if not, God will use it to start working to touch their hearts. Here are some quick things to pray for.

Lisa started her new job at DBU. After around 10 years at the same school this is quite the change. She is excited that she can overtly make a lot of noise for Jesus and share her heart as she teached English to her new students.

Our family continues to meet for Discovery Bible study with another family, our dear friends from Tajikistan. Wednesday was the husband, Alex’s birthday but the Alex and Maria  insisted that we did Bible Discovery group before we celebrated with Alex for dinner. Praise the Lord for their excitement over studying together. Pray that as Wednesday church and other things start up again, we can find a day of the week that works for everyone to meet.

Continue to pray for UTA Friday night group(www.utaisi.org) as we transition to two separate locations at around the same time. This is not easy, to see our awesome and close team work in two groups but it seems necessary. Pray for discernment as we decide who goes with who in the two groups both with volunteers but also student leaders. And pray that the students take to one or other of the groups and don’t get lost in the wash.

Many students are going home after the summer long term. One student shared on Friday that she was “concerned” when she came here and was worried about not having anyone here. She shared she never would have thought that she would have found a place that felt like family like the Friday night group was to her.

Tags: Big Howdy, Friday Night, Prayer

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

Tags: Asia, Asia Trip, China, Hong Kong, Japan, 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.

Tags: Cancer, EMBA, Miracle, UTA

Tags: Cancer, Easter, Ron

This was a difficult week on many fronts for us. There have been many challenges for us and many of those around us: family, friends, co-workers, etc. I have been told that often when one undertakes a spiritual challenge like a prayer emphasis on a campus or trying to spark a spiritual movement in a little reached group, there will be difficulties and challenges. But God placed the passage where Jesus calmed the storm after being sacked out in the back of the boat to remind us that He is in control of all of that and we can be safe even in the midst of storms. I was also challenged by John 15 about the importance of abiding in Christ.

. Chinese class is going well with Wilson.

. It looks like we will be able to visit Charis’ orphanage while in China.

. John was accepted on the Academic Decathlon team and Tim started Boy Scouts last week.

. For those of you who have been praying for Micah Ahern, it was looking bleak last week but this week was very interesting. The test results have been inconclusive which is not at all what was expected. They have decided to monitor him for the time being. You can keep on what is going on at their new blog, ht http://www.caringbridge.org/visit/micahahern/journal http://www.caringbridge.org/visit/micahahern.

. Roy was able to meet with Vritant who is a good friend that he has been able to get to know since the Houston trip. We watched the World Cricket cup championship and hung out at his lab.

. Huge need here. Pray for one of our colleagues as he faces a very significant health challenge. More details to come. Still it was difficult for our team and several of us will need to step up to help take up the slack to help him to focus on healing. Pray for him and his family. Pray also for our team to come around the situation and really be the family that it is.

. There was another earthquake in the area around where my family is. All are well but pray for continued safety and provision for their needs. Pray also that things will clear up by the summer so that we can go and visit them and hopefully minister to them. Pray also for wisdom on if we should go (we a sensing a calling to do so right now as part of our Asia trip and we already have tickets) and pray for how we should go and where in Japan.

. Pray for continued preparation for the Asia trip. HUGE amount of work.

Tags: Earthquake, email, Prayer, Ron, Vritant

Tags: group process, obedience

Sitting here, thinking about what to put in this prayer update, I realize I could tell you about many events, such as the Big Howdy party that drew more than 500 international students, the annual Stephenville campout, where students got to stay on a real cowboy ranch and get a real Texas experience as well as a chance to hear the gospel, about the awesome Friday night groups in which many students are participating in Discovery Bible Study, as often as not led by a student, about the special training that some of the believing students are getting to develop them into Christian leaders, Roy & Tim’s scout adventure, our sharing at VBS at Calvary Church in California.

But instead I’d like to share about some things that God is teaching me lately. It mostly has to do with the nature of faith, believing God even when I don’t know what He’s up to. Lately some of the most challenging conversations I’ve had about God have been with my own kids. Our oldest is sorting through a lot of ideas right now, forming his world view. He’s being influenced by music and ideologies that dance around the truth (this is a really messed up world), but don’t offer a satisfying solution. He’s skeptical whether the Christian faith really offers that solution either. I’ve had to understand that no one comes to God unless the Father draws him. God doesn’t beckon us with logical arguments. . . he beckons us with authentic relationship.

I’m also being challenged in how to respond to Roy when I’m feeling the strain of our busy schedule. It’s so easy to lash out and be angry at our mates when we’re under stress, but I recently was at a women’s event where the speaker reminded us of the importance of the soft answer. It’s hard to work as a team when we are blaming each other. Instead, we (okay, I) need to be slower to take offense and quicker to affirm that I want to work together, not against each other.

Tags: Lisa, provision, strain

You should see the e-mails we got from people who participated with the Big Howdy and other welcome events. It is always a blessing to hear such things and God has been very, very good. I really believe that God is moving so quickly of late in our area because of your prayers.

Tags: Stephenville, T4T, TCU

I have been a bit behind in my blogging so the next few posts come from our prayer e-mail. This will keep you in touch with what is going on with us and how to pray!