Yabuki Breeze Blog

We’ve had a couple of weeks of good ministry since our last post but also we feel some tiredness and spiritual warfare. But God, at just the right time, took me (Roy) to an ISI Regional retreat in Colorado.

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.

Tags: Astronaut, Colorado, Colorado Springs, CPM, Houston, NASA, Retreat, Space Weekend, Spiritual Warfare, UTA, warfare

There is no doubt in my mind that many had been praying for the Tejas retreat (http://isitejas.com – for Tejas retreat website with pictures, videos, etc. You can also visit our facebook group page at http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=50327357388). No doubt at all. This was honestly the best retreat in terms of Spiritual fruit and in terms of introducing Jesus through words and deed to students that I have been a part of. What an incredible blessing it was. God brought the right people at the right time to hear the right message and be part of the right small group this whole weekend. His hands were everywhere.

Here are some of the results. 19 of around 64 respondees to our response cards  indicated a first time commitment to Jesus. It’s hard to say how many of those are “first time” as some listed are people we thought were believers’ but based on what I was seeing on the eyes of the students it seemed very clear that many of these were genuine. Of the 64, 30he 64, 30
English: Contemporary English Version (1999) - CEV
Izbrano poglavje ne obstaja!

WP-Bible plugin also shared a desire to learn more about who Jesus is and how they can know him personally. And 16 want to meet again with a Christian to learn more! 22 indicated a desire to be a part of a discovery Bible study, the starting point for a fast duplicating small group (groups based on CPM principles for you missions folks) which we modeled in small groups during the weekend. This in its self could mean much more fruit in the future. 43 indicated interest in being notified about future ISI events and 17 indicated interest in meeting a Christian student on campus to make friends with. Some comments about some of the things the students decided included:

I decided to…

• To know Jesus more deeply.
• To keep meeting with Christians on my campus.
• To trust Jesus
• To read Bible more and join discussion group for asking questions and learn (from Muslim student)
• To be a Christian leader on my campus
• To put Jesus number one in my life
• To learn more about God and share him with all.
• To start reading Bible by myself

It was amazing. This time around we had a smaller group, and we were much more pointed in our advertisement (with in-your-face Jesus on the logo), the cost was a little high for many who were not already traveling (many went all over the country this year), and yet God especially spoke powerfully to the students! PRAISE THE LORD!

PRAY FOR…

• Faithful followup with the Tejas students who made some big jump in walking with Jesus and continuation of the momentum from the retreat.
• Pray for a couple of M students who seemed very interested in Jesus
• Safe trip for students who visited from Nebraska (already some car and human issues yet God was working…)
• Pray for Hakeem (who comes from an extremely difficult to reach muslim people group that borders China and Turkey) who is on the Nebraska trip(I’ll explain next time)… I saw some thaw in his time here. Pray for more progress for the team. Pray also for patience with a couple of high maintenance students too.

Tags: Retreat, small groups, Tejas

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

(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

Mar 2007 – PICS & VIDEO & AUDIO – This year’s Tejas Spring Break retreat (www.isitejas.com) was probably the best we have ever had. As we were sitting and watching it happen, God did some good work. In meteorology, there is something called the “perfect storm” when all the right ingredients from all over the world come together to form a monster storm. That is what this was like. God brought he right MC (a first-time seminary volunteer, author and Iraq veteran officer), the right small group leaders, the right speaker (Dr. Tony Maalouf) the right activities and team leaders brought all of this together.

Check out our pictures and videos(summary and other) through our tejas website at www.isitejas.com

Interesting Numbers from Tejas

· Over 120 people attended the Tejas Retreat this year.

· 22 Countries were represented

· There were over 92 students and family, 29 staff & volunteers to befriend them, and 5 seminary students to help in any way needed.

· According to our response cards… (we did not get all of them back yet)

o 8 people indicated “This weekend I decided to trust Jesus as my only hope and way to God… to follow him only.” – we know of at least one who was already a Christian, but this is encouraging.

o 30 indicated “This weekend I decided to learn more about who Jesus is and how I can know him personally.”

o 19 indicated interest in meeting with someone to talk about what they heard and/or meeting for Bible Study.

o 39 wanted to learn more about ISI events in the future

o 19 indicated they wanted to be introduced to a Christian friend through ISI.

o 13 Christian students did a terrific job of leading 12 small groups who each received a special “bandana” with a special color which they proudly wore around camp.

WOW!!!! God was so present at the retreat

Some Statements from Students

I commit to have a more personally walk with Jesus. – Malaysian Christian

I commit to study more on the issues come to my mind (re: what was discussed) – Iranian Woman Non-Believer

I commit to join more meeting with other Christians friends to learn and grow in Jesus Christ. –

I commit to forgive a friend about his mistakes. – Saudi Non-Believer

I commit to make more Christian friends. They’re so kind. – Iranian Woman Non-Believer who indicated some commitment to Christ.

I commit to learn more about who Jesus is – Hong Kong Non-Believing Student

I commit to love Jesus more and to live for Him!!! – Korean Christian Small group student leader

I commit exhaust myself! It’s great! – American student volunteer

I commit to join the 08 retreat again next year – Hong Kong Student Leader

Tags: camping, Retreat, Tejas, Video