Yabuki Breeze Blog

Happy New Year everyone! We had a great holiday. We got much needed rest and family time. We appreciate your prayers and many of you helped out with our year end shortfall. Thank you so much! It really helped.

Big week coming up. We have a big meeting with our Texas staff – planning our Tejas spring break retreat. This is an important meeting because many of us will be very busy right before the retreat and so much of the planning has to be done early. This is the retreat where God often leads many to start the journey with Himself and many discover God through the Bible and learn how to help other discovery God through the Bible. We are anticipating a very busy semester coming up. We will need your prayers as Roy will be traveling a lot to train people in ministry stuff and doing other things. We have busy regular schedules too with Friday night groups, PTO discipleship groups, lots of sports, scouts, etc. Here are some recent pictures including some from the holidays, etc. http://www.flickr.com/photos/yabukibreeze/.

Some Quick hits form the last few weeks:

• Roy and Charis got sick during the holiday. This is a blessings because it forced Roy to rest a lot which he needed. We got really close.
• Roy just finished yesterday the next major version of the PTO discipleship curriculum for our offering the ISI M28 initiative that he has been working on the last month. It is curriculum designed to help disciple groups to disciple other groups.
• The kids are excited about all the special gifts they received for Christmas. So are their parents.
• We met with our UTA ISI Team at the Phillips for a fun get together. Wow! I can’t believe how big and tight our team has become. Good job Ron as our UTA team leader.
• A fair number of students were exposed for the first time to the story of Christmas at churches during the holiday. Two student were even involved in Christmas plays at churches.

Pray for

Tags: Bible, ELI, Friday Night, Pictures, PTO, scouts, Spring break, Spring Break Retreat, Staff, Tejas, 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

One of the special things about being the Dallas/Fort Worth City Director is that I get to know some really wonderful people. I think we’ve got a wonderful staff team and I would like to share a little bit about them over the next few months so you can see why I enjoy working with everyone so much.

Every Friday night in my house, the UTA ministry gathers with many international students. Some students come to practice English, others come to study the Bible… but all enjoy the rich fellowship as Ron Bunyard leads the group in fun and fellowship. Ron, with his gregarious manner and joyful spirit brightens the day for many students who are tired after a tough week of study.

Ron, his wife Angela and his daughter, Sarah came to us several years ago to be the UTA campus director after a successful season of being the chaplain and basketball coach at an international school in Korea, while being the pastor of an international church. Ron and Angela, both University of Oklahoma alumni, have a long history of ministry. Angela, whose training is as a nurse brings a wealth of experience and wisdom to our team. Ron’s pastoral nature is a perfect fit in complementing Roy’s personality and the ministry has thrived in Arlington.

Ron loves developing people and that truly comes out in everything he does. Angela has a passion for the heath and growth of people and she has dedicated herself to helping people in this area. Sarah, an aspiring photographer, is a freshman in college and her third-culture upbringing is a real asset to all her relationships and is a real blessing to everyone she is around.

Please pray for Ron, Angela and Sarah. Pray especially as he grows into his role as UTA campus director. He feels some pressure to carry on what we started. Honestly, with his gifting, he has the potential to take the ministry in directions we never would have dreamed and I know God put him here after us to take the ministry to a higher place. Lisa and I (Roy) look forward to continuing to assist him on this campus that means so much to us for years to come even as we do more Dallas/Fort Worth city wide stuff.

Tags: Korea, Staff, UTA

The term “basic training” invokes images of drill instructors yelling incessantly at short haired recruits to knock out the old and indoctrinate in the new. In some ways ISI’s Basic Training of new staff is not too different, though a lot quieter and gentler. Every year Dallas has the privilege of hosting ISI’s basic training for all new staff. These people come from all over to Dallas to hear about how ISI does ministry and how God can use them in their new posts. Most of these people are veteran missionaries or ministers and we often learn as much from them as they learn about us.

This year staff came from as far away as Virginia to learn from Regional Director and DFW team member, Derrah Jackson and National Training Director Gordy Decker and our DFW team in early April. It was held at Trinity Bible Church, Derrah’s and Ray and Laurie Cotton’s church. This is a tremendous honor, to be able to influence the tone of ministry throughout the nation.

This year’s Group included: Steve Braintwain (Charlottesville, VA), John Dugo (St Louis, MO), Mark Gray (Wichita, KA), Sherida Gray (Wichita, KA), Dan Kronstad (Wheaton, IL), Jeff Newpher (Houston, TX), Susan Wilson (Wichita, KA), Vinay Patras (Plano, TX), Sandy Shahdad (Richardson, TX)

Tags: Basic Training, National, Staff, Training