Yabuki Breeze Blog

The Stephenville trip was great! After the students had a great time riding, fishing and shooting and a great night of camping we went to church. One of UTA’s students gave their testimony which touched at least one of the other student’s heart. After church I had a couple of great conversations about God and some of the implications of following Jesus. Trips like make what we do very fun and remind me that we (you included as prayer partners) are making a difference.

• The Stephenville trip was a huge success. Nearly 100 people were treated to camping, riding, shooting and fishing. Your prayers mattered. It was amazing because while we heard thunder all around when we checked our our phones and the radar on weather apps, we saw the the rain was north of us, south of us, east of us and west of us but just not where we were. Wow! Your prayers parted the weather patterns! We had some great connections with students as you prayed for. I’ve never seen so many people sharing phone numbers and e-mails/facebook as in this group.  (See pictures) There were a few challenges including a trip to the emergency room (which turned out to be relatively minor), the bailing out of the drill team that was supposed to perform for us, incredible heat, etc. But all in all it was a great time.  Thanks all so much for praying!
• Two of the girls from UTA and one guy from Collin shared their testimony at the meeting of people who do international student ministry in the DFW area. Wow. It was really fun. One interesting thing was that the one student who was the newest believer was sharing through the eyes of someone just discipled through our T4T training. You could see it all over her story. That was encouraging. Also, one non-believing student came and afterwards was asking a lot of questions.

Tags: camping, Ranch, Stephenville, T4T, testimony

You should see the e-mails we got from people who participated with the Big Howdy and other welcome events. It is always a blessing to hear such things and God has been very, very good. I really believe that God is moving so quickly of late in our area because of your prayers.

Tags: Stephenville, T4T, TCU

The forecast called for heavy rain with a 50-70% probability. Derrah, our team’s point man for the Fall camp out, picked up the phone on Friday to confirm with me that we were still going to go forward with the camping trip we had planned for international students from the area. We both sensed God’s peace about this trip and we also mobilized many of you and others to pray that God would spare us weather that will take away from the camping experience that we had planned for the weekend together with Grace Fellowship Church of Stephenville. It was amazing God did that and more.

Stephenville has been called the Cowboy Capital of America and students from UTA, UTD, SMU, and Texas A&M University were treated to a Cowboy experience in this special place! As we arrived there were small drops of rain and several of the students had already arrived. We were greeted by the smiling face of Pam and were treated to some wonderful hamburgers out in the open under the trees (all our meals were there). The local Cowboy Church brought its horse drill team and they gave us a show worthy of the Fort Worth Stockyards of horsemanship and pageantry. AFter that, some local cowboys showed us their skill in roping rounding up some calves. This was all done in the “stadium” on George DeVries ranch. Every year George, a Grace Fellowship Church member, provides this special experience on his large and pastoral dairy ranch.

After the expert display of the cowboy arts, the students got their turn to play cowboy. They rode horses, shot skeet with a shotgun and fished int he fully stocked pond on George’s land. While it rained a bit during this time, the heavy stuff stayed away and the students had a great time. I traveled with the UTA crew and hung out with some Chinese and Colombian friends. For most of them, this was their first camping experience and definitely to shoot, ride and fish this was a first and yet even with the rain, there were smiles all around!

Some seminary that I met when I shared at DTS and SWBTS came along and made themselves available to help in many ways including cooking, setting up and just hanging with the students. They were great. They really intereacted with the students. Two of them spoke Spanish and one of the UTA students from Colombia was so new to the US he jsut beamed when he realized there were some people there that spoke his language and cared about him.

After a dinner of fresh (from the ranch) beef fajitas cooked by the owners of a local Mexican eatery and some of the workers on the ranch, we had a rousing camp fire led by Ryan, one of the seminary students. Between games of Chubby Bunny, Chinese fireside songs, etc. everyone seemed to be enjoying themselves. Again, the rain, a constant specter just over the horizon stayed away!

The next day, after a night of sleep in tents on a relatively balmy night, (it only rained a little bit) we went on to the Stephenville Opry where Grace Fellowship Church helped the students experience a country church worship service. The students seemed to respond well, especially when Pastor David, a good friend of our ministry for many years, shared the story of God’s miraculous healing of his daughter after a near death experience as a result of a four-wheeling accident.

After lunch in the small town city park, we toured George’s dairy operation. We saw, among other things, a 15 minutes old calf and cows being milked. I think the students were struck by how much like a factory this was and how much farming today is a business.

Then it was time to leave. When all was said and done, the student spoke with gratitude and excitement. They had so many firsts and they really got the see the love of Christ lived out in the townspeople, the seminary students, etc. It was truly a blessing. In addition… God showed himself in the weather. Early in the morning on Sunday, I checked out the radar plot of the storms to see what to expect, and it was the most amazing thing I had ever seen. There were lines of large storms to the north of us and lines of storms to the south of us but through the middle, where we were, there seemed to be a corridor of calm. The plot kind of reminded me of the crossing of the Red Sea. I was touched deeply. God was listening to all your all’s prayers!

Tags: camping, China, Colombia, Fall Campout, roadtrip, Stephenville, travel, trip

(See all pictures) Yee Ha!!! Such was the call as international students from all over the DFW area enjoyed the hospitality of George DeVries at his Ranch together with many others from Grace Fellowship church and Stephenville, TX. They were able to… camp out in tents overnight under the beautiful Texas night sky, watch a incredible trick riding demonstration, ride horses, fish in George’s fishing pond, see George’s dairy cow milking operation and baby calves just learning to walk, learn to skeet shoot, attend a “cowboy church” service at the local “opry hall” , play  volleyball, horseshoes, and an experience and incredible evening bonfire complete with skits and singing.

Over 90 students, volunteers, friends, etc. from 17 different countries from TCU, SMU, UTD, UNT, and UTA had a terrific time together learning about this part of Texas culture. These students came from countries like   China, Denmark, France, Germany, India, Italy, Nepal, Mexico, Malaysia, Poland, Serbia, S. Korea, Taiwan, Tanzania, Thailand, USA, and Vietnam; a very diverse group. In addition, there were so many first by so many students.  They even saw a baby calf being born (I have a video if you want to see it.) The students had a great time. One of our Italian students from UTA wrote one of our staff the following words regarding the campout…

“I liked the trip from the beginning to the end. The ranch experience lead us in contact not only with nature, but also with God. I especially liked the simple and [sincero] cowboy spirit, which is exemplified by the Christian service as well. That was also a great opportunity to meet people from the Dallas/Fort Worth area which share the same [pensieri=thoughts] as ours.  I hope there’ll be other occasions of this kind. Looking forward to meet you again.”

God was clearly there and the students were able to see him both in word, spirit and deeds. What an experience!

Tags: camping, Stephenville, trip

(pictures from this year)Every year, the George DeVries Family and Grace Community Church with ISI set up a special camping experience at the DeVries family dairy ranch. George clears out one of his fields, and we pitch tents and enjoy a rip roaring occasion of riding, shooting skeet and fishing. It seems like the whole town of Stephenville, Rodeo capital of Texas, comes out to welcome the 70-80 international students we bring from all over the metroplex. The students are also exposed to a western style church. In addition this year 30 American Christian volunteers from Dallas and Southwestern seminaris build strong relationships with the students.

This years DFW Fall Camping Trip (see link to videos and pictures from last year) to Stephenville was especially awesome.  One of the most remarkable things was the number of spiritual discussions that I saw at this “pre-evangelistic” event. The seminary students and other volunteers were exemplary in being real friends to the students, serving in many ways, etc. I know the gospel was shared on multiple occasions. It was one of the best Fall Camping trips we’ve had in a while.

Tags: camping, Fall Campout, pre-evangelism, Stephenville