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

One of the Special parts of our ministry is our annual spring staff retreat. Every spring we go to some beautiful or fun place together as a Dallas/Fort Worth/Texas staff team and just enjoy spending time together. This year was no exception. We went to Glen Rose Texas, staying at the beautiful Dinosaur Valley Best Western Inn & Suites. It was a wonderful time of fun, fellowship, sharing and prayer. We started out the overnight trip by visiting Dinosaur Valley State Park, home of genuine dinosaur tracks sitting within the Paluxy River. The blue bonnets were everywhere (looks great with Lisa’s eyes) and we were able to hike all the way into the river. Before we went there some toured the Creation Evidences Museum. After a fine dinner at the renowned Ranch House Barbeque Restaurant, we walked around quaint downtown Glen Rose where all the stores were open because it was ladies night out(every third Saturday).On Sunday, after eating a full breakfast at the hotel, we met to share, pray, and worship together. It was a wonderful time!

The primary purpose of this particular gathering is to build camaraderie within our team. We do so many things together where we were working hard under pressure. We also hardly ever have opportunities to see each other as couples (for us married ones). This gives us the chance to see each other in a different light and enjoy just spending time together as couples/singles together in a light fun atmosphere. It also gives us a chance to share from our heart and really pray for each other. No doubt when things get hairy and busy and we need to be able to trust each other and our motives – to cover each others’ backs – the strengthening of relationships we did here will surely pay off.

Tags: Dallas, DFW, Fort Worth, Glen Rose, Retreat, Staff

(See all pictures) Giant Rocket inflatables, climbing walls, loud music, large turkey legs, tons and tons of candy and a climbing… coconut tree… what do all these things have to do with international students? On October 31, TCU team members Bennie & Patti, UTA team leader Ron and Lisa and I with T-8 & C-5 were able to take 12 international students from TCU & UTA to the Fall Fest at Christ Church, Assembly of God in Fort Worth, TX to serve the over 7000 children and families who came to their fall festival.

Our group helped to man two different booths at the annual event and it was a real blessing to all involved. The international students were able to witness some interesting things… They got to see genuine Christ followers love on the people of the community who were expressing themselves in an a traditional American way. They became witnesses to the fact that loving others and giving without condition is in the DNA of a true Christ follower. They also felt a sense of accomplishment as they themselves were able to “give back.” It was a real blessing for them to hear from some of the other volunteers genuine appreciation for their being there and helping out. One woman who developed the booth we manned said that this is first time she was able to spend some of the time with her Grandkids at the event because of our students… This brought smiles and joy to our students.

Tags: Fall, Fort Worth, Halloween, Serving, Volunteering

Here is an e-mail to one of our volunteer coordinators….

David,

Although I was looking forward to visiting with the student you ‘hooked me up with’, I was not prepared for such a fabulous day!!

I picked San up at UTA at 11:30 so we could go visit a FW site, come back to my house for lunch (I live 1 mile from Bear Valley) and then take him back when ‘we were done’.  I think that if he had stayed until New Years Day, we still wouldn’t have been through talking, laughing and exchanging stories.  My whole family was taken with him.  San was outgoing and personable yet appropriate and respectful.

When he got into my car at UTA I complimented him on his bravery for agreeing to go home with some unknown woman and told him that I had 900 questions for him but to ‘please let me know if my question is inappropriate or offensive’.  He agreed and asked me to do the same.  That is where the fun began.

We went to the Stock Yards, where naturally we talked about cows, the eating of beef, what would happen to you if you did eat beef, what if you converted to Muslim or Christianity, would you eat meat then- tons of real and hypothetical questions.

We got back to my house at 1:45 to eat and at 6:45 San said that he had read somewhere that he should have left our house after 2-3 hours and was afraid that he had over-stayed his welcome.  We talked about how that is probably true and with someone else ‘this is how you would bring up the subject of leaving, if you had your own car vs if you needed a ride home, etc’.   We then talked about because of my comments (I had scheduled the whole day for our visit, we have nothing planned for the rest of the day) and that it was obvious that we were truly enjoying our conversation that the 2-3 hour time limit was probably waived, etc….

We touched on every aspect of Indian life vs American life and ‘what-ifs’. My son is home from college for Christmas and opted to stay to talk with us rather than meet his friends at the mall as planned.  That is how comfortable and enjoyable our day was.

I got him back to UTA at 8:30 and could have talked in the car for 2 more hours.  We did mention going to the rodeo together.

Thank you for the introduction.  This experience was priceless.

Katie

ps.  I did learn that it is rude to point at him. I am going to have to work on that and the whole ‘talking with my hands’ thing.

From Katie a volunteer to who works with our ministry partner David Underwood at UTA. Names have been changed to maintain confidentiality

Tags: Fort Worth, Friendship Partner, testimony