Yabuki Breeze Blog

Today was an interesting Friday night ISI . The question as we went around the room as we were introducing oursevles was “What is your name? Where are you from? and Where were you and what affect has 9/11 had for you in your life?” I was touched by how many of the students remember the day so well. Many were as young a 8 years old and yet feelings of shock and sadness were all over. Probably one huge sentiment was that the worlds became a different place after 9/11. The USA, a place that all people felt was a safe haven was no longer safe. What does that mean for the rest of us. Wow. One student said that he just happened to be on lower Manhattan on the 4 days surrounding 9/11 and saw the burning of the buildings and the collapse of the towers with his own eyes. A Chinese student said that his best friend happened to be flying to the US around that time and they were concerned for their safety. A Taiwanese students felt like something had to be done to prevent this sort of thing from happening. A Saudi student was upset because she felt the world was blaming Islam and she didn’t feel that what happened accurately characterized the Islam that she new. The sharing was raw and real and almost all came away thankful that we talked about all this. 9/11 was truly an international affair. It really hit me when the first person that I talked to that lost someone close at the WTC was a Chinese UTA Student (who we happened to visit this last trip) whose friend was working for a Chinese company with offices in the towers. I know there were people from almost every continent if not country of the world that was killed that day.

On three other notes, this was a special day for Friday nights. Last week, I asked the students in the Discovery Bible study group if one of them might be willing to “facilitate” discovery bible study. A student from east Asia who isn’t a follower yet agreed. Wow! Of course facilitating Discovery study is not “teaching” the Bible. Rather it is asking the same questions every week to build community and to facilitate deep thinking and personal discovery by the students themselves. Anyone could do it because the questions are always the same but it is an honor and I was proud of him. He did a great job today on Genesis 2. Some really good statements came out of the group including great observations that he made about God’s sovereignty and about His care for us.

Second, Anish and Joanna, two young volunteers (Anish is originally from Nepal but grew up here and Joanna is Chinese American from Southern California) helped in leadership in leading music and discussion group respectively. It was really fun watching them and it reminded me of when Lisa and I (no they aren’t a couple) worked with some others our age to help in the leadership team back in CA.

Third and probably most joyful, while the “early group” we were a part of had its normal of late 40+ people, the “late group,” the new home group, which only had 7-8 students last week, its first week, had 28 people with 14 in discussion group and 14 in discovery Bible study. Wow! I do believe that starting a new group is getting people to step up in leadership over there and in our group. Also two “super volunteers” who are significant parts of other ministries were also a part of our Friday group and both have offered their homes to help. Praise the Lord for what he is doing!

So far, in our work with the new group, we have felt so blessed with the team God has given us. The Phillips, whose house we were at this week, have been a joy to work with on so many levels. The Baslers, Joanna, the Rittenhouses, the Johnson’s the Hensons and visitor team members (for this week) the Hodson’s and Neusses are an incredible team and we feel so blessed working together!

It is also cool that Cha* has a bunch of 6-9 year old international girls who she plays with every week, daugthers of students and volunteers and she sees that as her ministry.

Tags: 9/11, Friday Night, Kids, Student Leadership, UTA

This last Saturday ISI DFW sponsored a training event for international students. Around 20 students, staff and volunteers heard from various member of our staff to learn about God’s plan for the world and His heart and impulse for missions. It was a lot of fun and the students really learned a lot from the experience.

The Christian students, most of them campus leaders, all came together at Irving Bible church for a day of training. This is part of our twice a year training cycle where we try to prepare students to be stronger Christian leaders when they return to their countries. We adapted the traveling team’s mission mobilization curriculum (http://www.thetravelingteam.org/?q=node/334) to help students see that they have a responsiblity to touch the world for Jesus.

Topics included:

• The Harvest is Plentiful, the Laborers are Few – Jeff Anthony
• The Bible is a Missions Story – Ron Bunyard & Derrah Jackson
• Every Christ Follower a “World Christian” – Roy Yabuki
• Every “World Christian” a Mobilizer – Ray Cotton

The students were greatly moved as many shared that they never knew about this purpose that God had for believers. It motivated them to consider how they could strategically affect the world around them and world back home. I

After the training seminar, we met with other “Tejas” retreat alumni and watched the Tejas summary video in its world premier. We heard some very rousing testimonies from the students who were there too. Wow!

Tags: Leadership, Mobilization, Student Leadership, Tejas, Training

Vanessa (left) and Joy (right) are 2 of our key student leaders.

Many people think that the primary goal of international student ministry is to befriend lost international students, build a relationship with them, and earn a right to share the gospel so they can know Jesus Christ. While this is one of our key goals, another equally important one is to identify Christian international students and give them opportunities to grow in their faith and develop leadership capabilities. We want to help them get a vision for how they can use their time, talents and treasures (and their college degree) to build up the Kingdom of God.

For the past two years we have been involved in the lives of Joy (Korea) and Vanessa (Malaysia). These two ladies have both taken on leadership responsibilities in the International Christian Fellowship which meets weekly on the UTA campus. They help to organize prayer meetings for students and coordinate service projects for them. They are both active members of our Friday night Bible study group as well. This past Friday they led the study on John in our kitchen for the first time and did a fantastic job! Joy is studying to be a missionary doctor and Vanessa is getting a degree in electrical engineering. What a privilege to work with these gifted young ladies who have a heart for our Lord.

Tags: Bible Study, Student Leadership

“I learned something new about studying the Bible more deeply today…”  So were the comments of international students to attended DFW ISI’s annual all day Spring Student Leadership Training Seminar. Part of ISI DFW’s commitment to raising up students who can make a difference as Christian leaders in their own countries, this years Student Leadership Training seminar focused on Bible Study Methods and Hermeneutics.

Dallas Seminary graduate Roy Yabuki shared “everything he learned” from people such as Howard Hendricks and others so that student can go deeper in their study of the Bible. Observation, interpretation, correlation, verification, application became the mantra of the five students and two staff from five countries and three campuses who studied “practice” passages from Ephesians, Matthew, Genesis, etc.By the end of the day, minds felt stretched and lives were challenged.

This seminar is part of ISI DFW’s system for developing student leaders. The Spring seminar, which focuses on technical/biblical/theological growth, combined with the students leading the spring break retreat and the fall, practically oriented training seminar in addition to students direct involvement in leadership and mentoring from staff on campus forms the means by which of ISI DFW develops student leadership.

Working Hard Making Observations on a Passage

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“How many Observations did you Find in that one verse? 25!!!”

Tags: Bible Study Methods, Student Leadership, Training

Okara Ovey

I wish you a happy new year.

To say that I am richly blessed by this convention is an understatement.
My exposure to fellow Christians sharing together in the word of God,preaching and talks from renounced men and women of GOD,worship,drama,music,meeting people of diverse culture and background,food,and the general atmosphere has made me to make a redefined definite commitment to Christ.It was my first experience in the 358 days I have been here in the US.I have now a focus on the Mission Iam to embark after my studies.Urbana was indescribably beautiful.I am blessed that I made it to Urbana early in my stay here.
I want to use this opportunity to formally thank you for the investment of time and resources for me to attend the conference.
I am also for ever grateful to my sponsors whom I do not know in person trusted and granted me scholarship to attend this great event of which on my own wouldn’t have been able to fulfill this dream.May the great Lord we serve bless my donors in all aspects of their expectations and work.
Pray with me too so that the devil would not over power me .Because I made definite commitment to serve God and lead others to Christ more diligently now. I have vowed to put away those things that could hinder my vision for mission.
I thank you so very much.

Aklesso Egbendewe-Mondzozo

Catherine and I are really greatful to God and to people who gave money to
us in order to be able to attend the urbana conference.
First,we understood from the conference that we do not need to wait to
graduate from Texas A&M to go to mission, but we learn from urbana that we
are already in mission in our campuses. Our prayer is to leave a life worthy
of the calling during our stay here at College Station.
Second, we expect to take online seminary classes along with the Ph.D
classes in order to be ready to orther missions in Africa when we will go
back to our country.
Finally, we learn from Urbana the importance of the unity of the body of
Christ which is the Church. We expect that this unity will be helpful for
the ministry of cross cultural mission on our campuses.
Once again, we want to thank you all that make this urbana conference
possible for us.
God bless.

Mari Satani

I would like to express my appreciation and thankfulness to every one of you who has supported me in making my trip to the Urbana Conference 2006 possible.  It was a great experience to attend this Conference. I have always wanted to know more about the plan of God for me and I had been praying that He is going to show me some directions through this meeting. As I am praying, a strong desire to reach out to the international people who stay in the States develops

Meeting with people of different ages from different schools and countries, and meeting with missionaries who have been in the mission fields were my favorite part in Urbana. I was saved in Japan, but I met just a few Christians there. Now I am studying in Christ For The Nations Institute, a Bible College; I see Christians who have a heart to serve God. As I came into contact with Christians who do not attend Bible school at the Conference, I discovered that they also have the same passion for God. These Christians inspired me a lot. They love Jesus and are diligent and zealous telling about Jesus. I enjoyed meeting with the Japanese Christians who either go to Bible College or serve God as missionaries in the States! I really understood their hearts when they shared their live experiences with me. We worshiped and prayed together in our own language. It was an awesome opportunity.

The teaching sessions are also good, especially the Bible Study which I most enjoyed.  Discovering the Bible with other people is so fun and exciting!!!  I can see God is talking to us in many different ways.

Again, thank you so much for your support. It was a wonderful experience. God bless you and keep you,

Mari Satani

Mu-Chia Chen (Nadia)

Thank you so much for your support that gives me an amazing experience in Urbana 06.   23,000 people from 140 countries gathered to worship God, listen to His words and praise Him with several different languages songs. The missionary exhibition opened my eyes and mind. I can’t believe there are so many missionary organizations that work for whole world via different ways. So many things and so many ways we can do for serving God and helping people.

Two amazing things happened in Urbana. I attend the International track and lived with hundreds international students in the same hotel. We had small prayer groups separated by country every night. At second night, the Korean and Japanese students decided to pray together. They sang songs, prayed together and sought reconciliation for the past sins of their nations. My group (Taiwanese) heard this beautiful news that encouraged us to do something. We want to invite Chinese students to pray together for misunderstandings, both sides of governments, and the development of the church. It was the most joyful thing for me during the Urbana.

Forgive me my poor English grammar. All I can say is: Thanks Lord and thank you for giving me a chance to know more God’s power, will, and goodness.

May God bless you!

In His Love,
Mu-Chia Chen (Nadia)

Irena Fajdetic

THANK YOU NOTE TO PEOPLE WHO GAVE FOR SCHOLARSHIPS
Big THANKS to all you who contributed to the scholarships for trip and conference Urbana 2006!Thank you for enable us to partake in this big event,without your help I would not be able to participate and learn about global scale missions and movements and quite significant, to be the only representative of my country (Croatia) at Urbana. Even though already knowing a lot about AIDS disease itself, I learned much about underlining issue of AIDS and its problems. Rick Warren gave powerful message and clearly stated the differences of the World’s way and Church’s way of fighting AIDS epidemic.

I was encouraged at the Urbana to live each moment for the purpose God created me to, to reach more other people with acknowledgment of God, sharing boldly the message of Christ, with God’s wisdom and the power of Holy Spirit to glorify Him. “God is not God to download on IPod only for the personal consumption.”, but to share His Good News with all His creatures. Here is a part of the summary of one seminar: Discernment and Holy Spirit -It is so mandatory in today’s world to be able to discern what is from God and what’s not. We need more than ever before Holy Sprit in our lives to help us see what is from God. We are too fleshly today. Jesus said in Mathew26:41b     “The Spirit is ready, but the body is weak” Opposite is true for Christians today-we have a weak spirit and strong flesh. We need to strengthen our spirit. Holy Spirit is sent to us to help us. We must acknowledge the importance of the Holy Spirit for our spiritual lives/beings. We must allow Holy Spirit to work in us to be strong and not confused with waives of new teachings.  To determine Who is speaking, consider the character of one speaking and the content of message. How much we truly know God; as much as we really are searching after His heavenly treasures that much we know Him and the more you know somebody, more easily you recognize the voice of one speaking.

I wanted to share more of the words that had impact on me as a hearer, but this letter would be too long.
Irena Fajdetic

Tags: Student Leadership, testimony, Urbana

I (Lisa) have fond memories of my first Urbana experience in 2003, so I was excited about participating again this year. Altogether 30 of us from the Dallas/Fort Worth area, including ISI staff, volunteers and students loaded up in 2 church vans and 2 individual cars to make the 11-hour drive to St. Louis. This year the theme was “I Have a Calling.”

We were challenged from the book of Ephesians to see how God poured out His grace on us so that we could bring glory to Him through our lives. Different ones of our students were touched in different ways. Sam was challenged to pray for others and for the world, realizing that prayer is more than just asking God to bless us. Mari talked with reps from different missions organizations trying to see where God’s plan for her might be when she finishes school. Yoko, a recent graduate, made preliminary applications with a couple missions organizations. Irena participated in the HIV/AIDS track to learn more about how to minister to people with this devastating disease. All of us enjoyed the powerful worship.

There’s something electrifying about praising God with 22,000h 22,000
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 people in several different languages. It kind of reminds me of what heaven might be like. As for me, I really enjoyed learning about the technique of manuscript (inductive) Bible study. I’m looking forward to trying it out this year in our Friday night group.

Thanks to the many churches and individuals who helped make the Urbana scholarships possible. Altogether we were able to give 17 scholarships or partial scholarships. Urbana is only 5 days, but it is powerful and life-changing. Your investment will bear fruit in eternity!

Tags: Student Leadership, Training, Urbana