Yabuki Breeze Blog

(pictures) Lisa and C-4 had a wonderful week in Oregon. Lisa was able to visit both of her parents, two of her brothers and one of her sisters, plus several of C-4’s cousins. They even got to meet one cousin for the first time, baby Graham (8 months). C-4 really enjoyed picking swiss chard from the garden at her Uncle Mark and Aunt Brandy’s house, but wouldn’t touch the stuff at dinner time! C-4’s cousin E (age 11) was a real blessing to C-4, taking her under her wing all day and making her feel very special. The highlight was a “sleepover” in E’s room. During the week, Lisa also was able to connect with a couple of old friends from her high school days. Unfortunately, she did get lost once in downtown Portland but was able to find her way eventually (note if traveling in another state: Mapquest directions are not always accurate!)

Roy, J-11 & T-7 survived the week living on microwave dinners and pizza eaten in front of the TV, watching movies, etc. having a guys week out… We were able to keep that a secret by making sure we cleaned up the house before our Friday night meeting and especially before the girls came home. During this time, T-7 attended Camp Thurman and really had a great time with his counselor AMAZON and other 2nd grade boys. His friend R came all the way from Japan to attend the same camp. That was a great reunion.

Other family news… J-11 had his 11′th birthday at a local pool and got his Tenderfoot badge in scouts. T-7 is starting up Soccer in a couple of weeks.

Tags: 2007, Camp Thurman, Family, Oregon, Summer

“We want to go to the zoo,” said several of the UTA international students toward the end of the last Friday Night meeting of the summer at the Yabukis’ house. Ron said, “Lets go” and so began a wonderfully fun journey with six international students from Taiwan, Korea, Ivory Coast, etc. We gathered during the break between their summer and spring semester. This is a time when many of the students are stuck on campus and looking for stuff to do. We piled into our two mini-vans and we all drove to the Fort Worth Zoo. We saw all sorts of animals… Monkeys, lions, tigers up close. C-4 liked the tigers the most. It was a great time of fellowship and relationship building. We then had dinner afterwards and were joined by another student from Vietnam.

Tags: 2007, ELI, Summer, UTA, zoo

Luke’s Speeder, Obi Wan’s Light Saber, R2D2′s suit, these were just some of the things Roy, J-10 and two TCU students experienced at the Fort Worth Museum of Science and History’s Star War’s exhibition. Purple Cow milk shakes were also on tap for this trip. Also, just a week later, on July 4, Roy, these same two students from Italy & Korea and at least 25 others from many other countries enjoyed fireworks while sitting in volunteer Bab’s yard after a delicious Hot Dog barbeque. (Pictures)

Texas Christian University (TCU) is one of the campuses we are trying to develop a new ministry on in the DFW area. This summer, we are working hard to develop relationships with new summer students as they start their journey here in the States. Hopefully these kids will form the foundation for the next school year. Babs and volunteer leaders Bennie & Patti Moore and other students leaders have done a wonderful job of building the ministry at TCU.

Tags: 2007, July 4, Summer, TCU

Arlington Park Baptist Church had people who had a heart for international students. Many of them had much experience but they wanted to partner with ISI to more strategically reach students. Thus came the partnership that resulted in a special July 4 party for UTA ELI students.

Ron Bunyard coordinated ISI’s involvment with APBC Missions Pastor Robert Smith, long time international student lay minster Pot Samermit and Roy’s mentor Al Kawamoto and around 20 student and many more church family members interacted, played games, etc. It was a great opportunity to break the ice with several new students. The whole Yabuki family was able to be at this party of students and families.

ISI is always open to partnering with other churches and organization to reach international students because it is our goal to touch EVERY international student and we can’t do it alone.

Tags: 2007, Arlington Park, July 4, Ron, Summer

The glamor of a photo shoot… there is nothing like it… Last month Esther a Chinese American student volunteer who just graduated gave us a special gift. She  did a photoshoot of the family (photos). It was not the easiest thing in the world to do to get the kids to cooperate but She did a wonderful job. Praise God for this thoughtful student and her special gift to us. Please pray for her today as she is leading a missions team to Hong Kong this summer. Pray also for direction as she seeks God’s will for the next chapter of her life.

Tags: 2007, gift, model, photoshoot, Summer

It has rained, and rained… and rained much of this summer. It has been very unusual in that way. In others ways its been fairly typical… Here are some of the exciting things the family has been doing this summer.

• The kids are out of school and enjoying time with mom… playing games… going outside, etc.
• J-10 went on his first weeklong Boy Scout Summer Camp. They slept in two man tents (in the rain) with his troop, hiked long distances to get around Sid Richardson Scout Ranch (SR2), and took a whole bunch of fun classes. In general he had a wonderful time. It was a proud moment when on family night, when we came up to visit, one of the scoutmasters told us how much J-10 blossomed as a person and as a leader. I can see that. During that same time, T-7 was the “Big Brother” in charge… and even the “man of the house” when Roy was at the ISI conference. He did a wonderful job learning how to do that. It was good seeing him helping with buckling his sister in and other things.
• Lisa ‘s Sister Becky and her family came out for the week of July 4. We tooks a much needed one week vacation Lisa planned outings every day including trips to Six Flags (it rained), a trip Athens and its fishery (T-7, C-4 and their cousins C and P caught their first of many fish there), etc.
• T-7 and Lisa were in the 152 entry strong Arlington July 4 parade representing Cub Scout Pack 323. It was awesome seeing them as such celebrity’s in the city.

Tags: 2007, Boy Scout, Family, Parade, Summer

We were going to Colorado to learn how to be better leaders! In June Roy attended ISI’s Advanced Leadership Conference (see video) with most of the local staff. This is a very important conference as we work this year to work on tuning up our strategic plan for the DFW area and as we invest in our already gifted team. We learned about the importance of mentoring and how intensive it has to be to be effective. We learned about the nuts and bolts of strategic planning. We learned about technology and how important in or type of ministry to stay on top of technology that makes the world flat. Finally, we learned about how to do networking from the new president of Biola. It was excellent training that was truly mindbending for most of us. Very well done by our national traning team. I roomed with Ron Bunyard and we were up almost every night thinking about how all this applied to our personal ministries. Wow!!!

Tags: 2007, Conference, Leadership, Summer

“In my first day in America, I have a warm feeling…” one Taiwanese student commented. Unlike domestic students, international students typically stay during the summer. Many also arrive for the first time during this quiet time on campus. It is a perfect opportunity to really shower Christ’s love on them and give them our full attention. This week, Roy, Ron, and the team were able to welcome many new international students to campus.

In addition, Roy & Ron and others on the team picked up others from the airport and helped the students get settled. One student commented, “In my first day in America, I have a warm feeling…”  because of the love he felt.

Ron also shared to all 50 new English Language Institute students at UTA about American culture. He was then able to visit all of them to our welcome picnic, on June 1 which ended up a wonderful success with over 40 students who came to enjoy the time in the park We played many different games and had a lot of fun.

Tags: 2007, ELI, new students, Summer, UTA