Yabuki Breeze Blog

One of the more interesting parts of my job in the international students ministry is the meetings that I have the privilege of being a part of. The last two weeks I took part in several very important meetings. Among the things we met about were:

• Charting the course of a new ministry initiative for ISI in developing a new discipleship and outreach ministry strategy
• Meeting to help look at sites for our ISI national conference in June of 2012 in the Dallas/Fort Worth area.
• taking students furniture
• Sharing at a national conference of South Asian (Indians, Pakistanis, etc.) Christians about the possibilities for them doing ministry with international students
• Picnic meeting with our family and our friendship partner students and their friends and families from China
• Meeting with students to share the Bridge illustration.
• Meeting to share at a seminary class about helping with ministry with international students
• Meeting with our friends from Central Asia to discover what the Bible says
• Meeting with a staff friend in New York over the phone to encourage each other in ministry
• Meeting with a church friend about the possibility of working together on a special project
• Meeting with some seminary students who have decided to focus on serving Indians at UTA and doing some pioneer work there
• Meeting to prayer walk with a couple of people
• Meeting with a man who wants to volunteer and share about our ministry for a mobilization effort called Perspectives
• Meeting to talk and plan for Friday nights with several individuals
• Meeting with another couple to talk about how to help with international students
• Meeting with a national speaker, who wrote the book Death of a Guru on Hindu ministry

Okay, I think you get the message. Honestly, each of these things were energizing and invigorating… It reminds me that God is at work right now. Continue to pray that the Lord of the harvest will raise up more people for the harvest. Also pray that he will take these that He has risen up already that He will empower them to share with the 18,000he 18,000
English: Contemporary English Version (1999) - CEV
Izbrano poglavje ne obstaja! Štetje svetopisemskih vrstic se za?ne z ¹! Vrstica ⁰ ne obstaja!

WP-Bible plugin international students in the Dallas/Fort Worth Area the love and message of Christ.

The original purpose of the Friday group going to two different locations was to alleviate pressure in the homes that we meet in. There were just too many people for our homes. We are praising the Lord because while the late group is growing and developing a regular following and a level of stability, the early group is still bursting at the seams with as many as 50 people still coming. God is working in different ways in each group and he is able to touch different types of people in different ways because of the different natures of the groups. Praise the Lord. Pray that the Lord of the Harvest will raise up more workers (and maybe more and bigger houses to host) Pray also that the students will still feel like while we meet at different locations, we are still “one group” following one Lord.

Tags: Bible, China, church, Conference, Dallas, Family, Fort Worth, Friday Night, Friendship Partner, Hindu, India, Ministry, Mobilization, pray, Seminary, Strategy, UTA

(See Pictures) As Lisa and I walked off the airplane in Colorado Springs, the first thing we saw was the sign of the driver that said, “Modano, Morrow & Turco.” For those of you who don’t know Dallas sports too well, those are the names of the superstar players on the Dallas Stars hockey team and apparently they were on our plane. Thus began a remarkable week of remarkable occurrences in Colorado Springs last week.

Every year, as ISI staff, we are required to go to our annual staff conference. Often it is in Colorado Springs, but sometimes it is at some other exotic location, like Seattle, Niagara Falls, Amsterdam, etc. (2011, a family conference will be in Hong Kong, pray for how we can do that) Sometimes it is a family conference, other times it is not and we cannot bring our kids. This year, it was not but for the first time, through the generous offer by Lisa’s mom of watching the kids during the conference Lisa and I were able to go together, just the two of us. On reflection, it was the longest we were together without any kids since Jonathan was born, a full 8 days.

Actually the conference itself was 5 days but there was a chance I would have to lead ministry technology related seminars before or after the conference so we put some buffer days before and after AND this is the 15th year that we have been married and we had not celebrated our anniversary in much of a special way, we decided to make this trip special.

The first couple of nights we stayed at the Navigators’  Glen Eyrie Conference Center. On arrival we were told that we would be in General Palmer’s room in “The Castle.” While walking around we learned that General Palmer was a Civil War General and railroad magnate who was the founder of Colorado Springs. “The Castle,”  a long time fixture in Colorado Springs, nestled between mountains and monolithic rocks much like Garden of the Gods, was build by General Palmer as the home for his family. It really looks like a Medieval castle complete with a great room with fireplace, stone walls, a “keep-like” tower, vaulted ceilings, and even a coat of armor. On arrival to the 19th century styled “General Palmer” room, we found out that the room was the good general’s actual bedroom and bathroom and that the bed we slept in was the actual bed he used. It was an incredible couple of nights. The ground were beautiful too. On one of the days, we took a hike the day before my Birthday that took us to varied places like Dawson Trotman’s grave, to the top of a mono-lithic rock formation, under a overhanging cave, through and English rose garden and through many other gardens kept up by volunteers on a daily basis. On the same day, Lisa treated me to a delightful dinner at the Flying W Ranch for my birthday. While there we were treated to an authentic outdoor Chuckwagon meal complete with a show presented by a bunch of believing singing cowboys (the second oldest western singing group in the world). I’m not much of a cowboy music devotee but it REALLY was FUN! All in all, the unique peacefulness of Glen Eyrie, made the time very special and a great way to decompress to focus on God before our conference. In fact during this week, Lisa and I read three books each (but with each other which was very rare indeed).

We then went on to the conference which was one of the best ISI has ever done. We heard from Singapore pastor Edmund Chan (excellent), Political Commentator Dinesh  D’souza(even better), Biola president Barry Corey(first rate), and a former muslim terrorist who is now a believer(inspirational). The talks were extremely relevant to what we do and timely and contemporary. The workshops were very good too. I was able to lead two of them and in one of them, we had all the tech savvy people personally help the less tech savvy ones and it was wonderful watching people working together to grow together. We came away energized and raring to go.

After the conference, Lisa and I spent some time in another part of Colorado Springs. After visiting the cliff dwelling in nearby Manitou Springs and the special internet related ministry All about God/Got Questions?, we checked in at the reasonably priced, Spur and Lace Bed and Breakfast in the Colorado City portion of Colorado Springs. When inn keepers Leo and Sharen Janzen greeted us as we arrived we had not idea what to expect. The intriguing name and theme (cowboy & lace) made for some mystery. Leo is an amiable man with a smile permanently etched into his weather worn face. He later shared that he was farm boy who became an educator. On hearing that we were campus ministers, he shared that he had a grandson who worked in some capacity in campus ministry. After he checked us in, we were touched by how he visited the guests just to chat an catch up.

After checking in, we went down the street to a coffee shop and bookstore, Agia Sophia. On going inside, we found that it was run by the local Orthodox Church, there were books all over about Jesus and the church as presented from the Orthodox perspective. For me it was like being a kid in a candystore. There were some theology books that you can’t just find anywhere, especially in the area of the Trinity. Good coffee too. A couple of nights later, we talked with Father George, who in addition to serving up Coffee Frappe’s was the pastor of the church. It turns out he became a believer through the ministry of Young Life, went to Fuller and turned to the Orthodox tradition because he was seeking the deeper life that he read about through people like John Michael Talbot, Henri Nouwen, etc. It was really fun talking.

After visiting the coffee shop, we walked along the Colorado City Streets and ran into a outdoor Jazz concert which just happened to be at the band stand in the center of town. While there we just happened to run into an ISI home office staff person with her family enjoying a time of rest after serving us so well at the conference. Having enjoyed the company and music our stomachs were ready to be filled with some great Greek food. Wow!

The next day, we took the 3 hour trip via the Cog Railway up to the rarefied heights of Pikes Peak. It was absolutely beautiful up top (though my legs felt like lead because of the altitude). We really could understand how Katherine Lee Bates would have been inspired to write America the Beautiful because of her time up there. You could see so much!

The next day, we boarded our plane for home. It was really nice seeing our family again… but the time together was very, very special for Lisa and I. It really felt like a second honeymoon in many ways and we learned so much about each other and SO many other things. Thanks all so much for your prayers and support during this time. It was a blessing in so many ways and I believe God will be able to use us more effectively because of this time.

Tags: anniversary, Birthday, Colorado, Conference, Glen Eyrie, ISI, Pikes Peak, Summer, travel, trip

(Check out our pictures and videos) There are times when it is difficult to get started on this blog. Sometimes the times make our minds busy. Other times, there isn’t really all that much to say. It’s been more than a week since Lisa, C-6, T-8 & I got back from the ISI Tejas Retreat for Texas international students.  Those of you on the prayer team, you all might remember this as the retreat we have been having you all pray for – its planning, its implementation, spiritual warfare surrounding it – for the last few months. Now it is over and the difficulty is that there is so much to share, I don’t know where to begin. It was an amazing exercise of spiritual warfare and there is so much we learned from its execution.

Let me begin some of the elements of spiritual warfare that happened (mostly physical things PTL):

• One week prior, on the official due date, were were about 40 people short of the required 125 (we ended up with over 133)
• It was not until the last week that had a verified music leader and then our international student guitar player got sick the night before we had to leave (the music leader, the son of one of our ISI partners did a great job and showed a real heart for the students)
• Only five seminary student who help with the logistical elements of the camp were signed up by the due day well short of the usual 10 needed. (we ended up with a few more and other key leaders who helped out with this… almost had too many American volunteers)
• We had some major relational and personnel blow ups among our staff right before camp. (Only slightly affected the camp)
• I sent out a prayer e-mail alert to pray against spiritual warfare… (We had already sent out a request for prayer earlier in the week but it seemed like we needed more prayer coverage… we also knew, based on past experience, that trips where many things go wrong are often the one where God most often shows himself in a special way.)
• We still didn’t have a line dance instructor for the line dance activity by early in the week. (We were able to find someone who so loved line dancing from the Tyler area that she just kept dancing and dancing clear until dinner during the free time… the students loved her)
• UTA Campus Director (and camp small group director who had a big role on Friday) Ron was getting ready to load up for camp 2 hours before we were supposed to leave for camp and he bumped the vehicle he was supposed to use to cart 10 international students to camp in, into his garage door, knocking it off its tracks (Looking really bad), making it stuck in the open position. He could not leave until it was fixed (a garage guy was able to fix it within the necessary time and Ron beat me to campus.
• The newly found music leader, Casey got into his car in Houston with his young son, preparing to leave for camp, his car wouldn’t start. When he tried to jump it with his wife’s car, her car wouldn’t start. (After 40 minutes of looking he finally found someone in the neighborhood to jump his car so he could go to Sears to get a new battery for both cars and he made it with time to spare)
• One of cars transporting students from Texas A&M University got a flat tire on the way. (It was fixed with the help of other students)
• Our sound system, data projector, video camera, and just about every other “tech” thing was having more problems that I can ever remember them having. (And I’m supposed to be one of the ISI tech guys…:-)
• Here is the biggest thing. It was pouring down rain on Friday night as we were driving up for this Retreat that features mostly outdoor activities with a 30 & 40% respectively chance of rain for Saturday and Sunday. (Ron boldly told the group that he prayed for it not to rain and that he believed God was going to stop the rain… It stopped right after that very gathering.  As we were in our cars leaving the retreat center, the droplets started falling again as if God wanted to remind us of his mastery over the elements… Wow! What a testimony! God is good!)

So how did it turn out?   I felt totally out of control… which with God is not a bad thing. He showed His control every step of the way. It was amazing. In addition to the above.

• The speaker, Chris Plekenpol, did a bang up job teaching from Joseph. I think he connected with the students at a heart level and his background as an Iraqi war veteran lent credibility and build his testimony of God’s grace as he showed himself to be a wise, fun and humble guy despite.
• The discussion and camaraderie around the small groups were exemplary, likely the best quality we’ve ever had. It was such a diverse group of leaders too. Developing this part of the retreat was the focus of our planning team and I believe we hit it right on with international students leading other students and volunteers. (the majority of students were not believers so it was awesome to see the spiritual discussion going on so strongly.) (see the resultant video when the groups had work together to tell a story using pictures)
• The students had a great time doing the activities (not hard given all the choices) without anyone getting hurt.
• The kids conference, led by one of the seminary couples, went without a hitch. First rate! My kids were with 5 others and were treated to stuff usually saved for VBS.
• Everything was done safely…
• From our response cards we learned the following…
  • 9 students indicated, “ I decided during this weekend to trust Jesus as my only hope and way to God… to follow him only as my God”
    
  • 27 students indicated, “this weekend I decided to learn more about who Jesus is and how I can know him personally.”
  • 9 students indicated, “This weekend I decided I want to meet with someone who can answer my questions about the things we learned and discussed.”
  • 7 students indicated, “ This weekend I decided I want to join a Bible study on my campus.“
  • 35 students indicated, “ Please email me about ISI meetings on my campus and future trips and events like this.”
  • 25 students indicated, “ Please contact me about opportunities to make a Christian student friend on my campus“
  • Some students indicated, “This weekend I decided…”

• • • continue with ISI/ICF to glorify God
    • fight more for life to be thankful and have faith
    • have faith in Jesus when we are in hard time
    • to apply Joseph’s life in mine
    • to enjoy with my small group
    • to face my fears with faith
    • to get close to God
    • to keep going strong with God
    • to pray more and be more patient
    • to recommit my life to Christ (already a Christian)
    • to reflect on the things I do and don’t do if I am confident that God is with me
    • to talk to my Bible study teachers to answer the questions I formed this weekend
    • to try to put myself in the shoes of others

All in all, it was a great trip and most of all… we could really see God present and how important the prayers of you are in what we do!

Tejas 2009 Small Group Slide Show from Roy Yabuki on Vimeo.

Video Slide show from Retreat

Tags: camping, Conference, Retreat, RockinC, Seminary, Tejas, Video, volunteers

Last week was a very significant week for the Yabuki family on many counts and all of us came away having grown up a lot. I will post what happened in Niagara Falls and Lisa will later post about the Amarillo trip.

Niagara Trip

Roy went with Timothy and Charis to Niagara Falls, New York for the ISI National Staff Conference (check out our pictures). What an experience that was. Many were astonished that I(Roy) went on this trip alone with T-8 and C-5 while he also had responsibilities at the conference. Honestly, there were times I wondered the wisdom of this too. But in the end, I really felt God used this time to allow each of us to grow in so many ways.

The Conference

The conference itself was very informative and marked some important themes that will affect ISI in the future. This was the first conference after the development of a five year plan the included the involvement of over 60 staff in its development. You could feel the buzz and the sense of empowerment that brought.

People seemed more energized. Further, typically, the speakers tell us that what we do is very strategic… but this time, we really got a sense of this in their talk itself. It seems that globalization is making ISI very relevant in the what God is doing in the world. China and India among other countries are exploding as players in the global market. It’s cool that the largest international student groups in the US are from these countries. Many of the past and future movers and shakers of this phenomenon have or will have experience as international students here in the US. Further, it seems that the international student trends in the US seems to foreshadow what is going to happen in the global marketplace. From our discussions at the conference, it seems that God is really positioning ISI to really impact the world. What an endorsement of what we are doing.

Technology Seminars

I also had the special opportunity to lead several seminars on using technology in our ministry. The current generation of internet based software is really geared toward building and maintaining relationships. One of the key values in ISI international student ministry(ISM) is relationship. I would go as far as to say ISM is all about relationship. It behooves us to take advantage of what God had provided in the way of technological tools to supplement what we do person to person. There were several examples of staff using skype with webcam to lead a Bible study across 2-3 countries where people who met originally in the US could continue to do so even after students returned home. We also learned about how Facebook has become so much a part of how student interact and stay in touch. It was such a blessing to see the faces of staff people starting to “get it” and really see the potential of such tools to do their ministry better.

Kids’s conference

T-8 and C-5 were part of a kids conference for the staff kids led by the Buffalo Dream Center. The Buffalo Dream Center is a

church [that] has become well known as a ministry that meets the needs of inner city families, going into crime infested neighborhoods – places other churches are afraid to go. The Buffalo Dream Center reaches thousands of people through various children’s outreaches, a mobile food pantry, a bus ministry, and many other programs that feed, clothe, and bring hope to those who have none.  The church has touched so many children that one-third of those attending the Sunday morning service are under the age of eighteen.

Many of the leaders of the kids conference were teens from the center. The kids got really close and seemed to really learn a lot. Here are some quotes from T-8…

“It was really fun, and I made some new friends that I really liked. Tr-8(from

Oregon) & L-10(from California) were fun to hang out with… We learned about loving God and serving others. It was really worth my time in a big way.”

What a way for the kids to see as well as hear about the love of Christ and how much walking with Him is a full time thing. The friendships went beyond the conference time as the kids swam, toured, and even visited each others hotel rooms together. I know these kids have common experiences in life as children of ISI ministers and these relationships will serve them well.

Enjoying Niagara Falls

C-5, T-8 and I were able to witness the power of Niagara Falls first hand. Our hotel with within walking distance from the American Falls. WOW! Such power! T-8 said it was a really “beautiful site…” We really sensed God’s glory there. The three of us were able to ride the Maid of the Mist boat which went right up to the US and Canadian falls and we really got a sense of the power of all that water falling down. Not the mention the fact we got really wet… One of the best parts was going through the Cave of the Winds to a platform that ran at the base of the American Falls. We were literally walking over the bottom of the falls. And when the wind shifted we felt the power of the water as some of it fell onto the platform and we got totally drenched… It is an experience we will likely never forget. Charis was so brave in all of this and went right up to the falls itself.

After the Conference

After the conference we went to stay with the family of my college roommate. Brian & Donna Bennett live with their kids J & C and big Rhodesian Ridgeback, Cora, in Lewiston, NY. Brian is a professor and head of the religion department at Niagara University. It was a huge blessing staying with them. While Charis was afraid of Cora at first, she learned how to trust her and even embraced Cora before we left. Timothy told me that we wanted to stay in New York because he wanted our family to be like Brian’s… Wow! Brian & Donna were off from their work as educators and so we were able to go to such places as the Strong National Museum of Play in Rochester (where we saw C-5′s beloved Berenstain Bears town & sesame street) and we were even able to go into Canada to enjoy the Niagara whirlpool aerocar and the falls from the Canadian side. This was the first time Timothy left the United States. It was really cool.

The kids were also exposed to some new ways to play at the Bennetts as we were often outside and we played such fun games as horseshoes, hopscotch & ultimate frisbee.

Tim really had a thing for Ultimate and played well with the adults. It was awesome. Our time with the Bennetts was such a blessing and we are so thankful for their hospitality and most of all for who they are as a family.

Coming Home

The trip home was quite and ordeal and yet God taught me through my kids so much about trusting him. Our first flight from Buffalo to Detroit was delayed by an hour. Unfortunately we had only a 30 minute layover scheduled before our flight to Dallas. Talking with gate agents at Buffalo, all felt that we had no chance of making it to our flight and because we were on the last flight to Dallas, we would probably have to stay overnight in Detroit. We were all bummed. We were tired of traveling and were really looking forward to going home but I prepared the kids for what I thought was the inevitable.

As we approached Detroit, the pilot announced the estimated time of arrival and I figured out that the flight would arrive after our second flight was scheduled to leave. And according the the internet (I checked on my phone before we took off) the flight was scheduled as leaving on time. Further more, we were set to arrive in at gate A11 and our second flight was leaving from gate 59. I told the kids about what staying in Detroit would be like, that there was no hope that we would make it home on that day, let alone have our luggage. T-8 & C-5 reminded me, full of confidence, that we should pray because nothing was impossible with God. So I let them pray, ready to help them to deal with their disappointment when we arrived. When we got off our flight we found that our flight was indeed delayed… but was leaving in less than 5 minutes. So we ran and ran, C-5′s shoe fell off along the way, I pulled her by her arm having her walk around with one shoe in her hand, looking back it was embarrassing… Anyway, long story short… we arrived at the door of the plane as it was about to close. You would think I would learn by now. I told the kids our luggage would not make it. They prayed again and all our stuff made it… I really felt like the “spiritual leader” I was supposed to be…

Lessons Learned…

Besides the obvious lessons learned at the conference, we learned so much more on this trip. Some time ministry is not only about what we do, but what we learn in the process so we can be used more in the future. Here are a couple…

• I was reminded by the trip home that God really loves us and is involved in even the intricate details of our lives, and what “faith like that of a Child” looks like.
• I was reminded by the time with the kids at the conference that I needed to sometimes not do “ministry stuff” no matter how strategic for the sake of my family and the ministry to them. I was not able to “hang out” with the staff and do some other ministry responsibilities a well as I would have liked… but to see the kids and how much they grew because of time spent with them was truly worth it. This idea was rammed home with my time with the Bennetts. No family is perfect, but I was reminded about what a good family looked like and I was convicted by how little I have been actually playing and spending time with my kids lately in the name of “important” work. We really have a important and strategic ministry to and then through our family (this order cannot be reversed)
• I was thrilled by how much T-8 and C-5 grew in this trip. I really put it on Tim to step up as “first boy” “in charge of the kids” on this trip while Jonathan was not there and he really lived up to the challenge. I saw maturity that I have never seen before. I really see a lot of my dad in Timothy. He has a humble take-charge lead-by-example quality that is really a blessing and he really sees things. He really needed the time to shine away from his brother. C-5 had many things she was afraid of on this trip before we left… she was afraid of the waterfall, swimming away from the wall of the pool, being away from mom… she overcame most of these during this trip and showed me how brave she could be. I also learned about her need for dad and regular affirmation of our love for her equal to our love for her brothers. I found out she struggles with being the youngest and feeling like she is loved less because of it and I learned how important it is to remind her of the lie that is every day.

This was quite a trip. I feel like God truly used it to re-energize me and our family for the upcoming year as a family and in ministry.

Tags: Conference, ISI, Niagara

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