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

 
• Tejas Spring Break Retreat (see pictures and video) – Last week began very frantically as we prepared for the Tejas Spring Break retreat. Between the threat of rain, over 100 people signing up on the last weekend, a miscommunication with a couple of key players, etc., it was as typical a mad dash to the retreat. Now this would be normal except this year there were more moving parts than normal. It felt like a three ring circus, because in a sense it was. We decided to have a main student retreat (with no speaker and all small groups), a children’s retreat, and a volunteer training weekend all at the same time. Once we got to the retreat though, it was fun to watch God work. The staff, volunteer, student team worked as one to help their unbelieving but seeking friends fall in love with Jesus and enjoy a true community. I’ve never seen such a dedicated crew and God blessed… Most of the students were very happy of their experience there.  In addition, 52 people said they wanted to learn more about who Jesus is and how they can know him personally. The bigger thing was most of the students that God was already working in – the people of peace – they made themselves known and they also learned through the Discovery Bible studies to love and trust God’s word and to love Jesus more. It was a truly great time. Oh and a big prayer praise, and this was a concern up till last week. It looks like we may break even financially for the retreat. (the initial thought was we were going to have to use most of our reserves for this) God is Good!
• Disaster in Japan – As I was preparing for Tejas late on Thursday night, I received an e-mail from a friend in Japan about what we now know as the 9.0 Tohoku earthquake. Because of my responsibilities as camp director for Tejas, I didn’t have time to research more or get in touch with my emotions about this until the following Monday, but the location of the earthquake was in the region where my relatives live. While they live inland and were shielded from the tsunami, they happen to live in the now famous Fukushima prefecture and one of my aunts lives only 30-40 km from the nuclear power plant. We also recently found out of my Grandfather’s cousin who was a seaweed farmer in Soma on the shore who lost everything. Because of power issues, we didn’t hear from them until the Monday morning following the earthquake. Wow! As Californians we have some sense of all this but nothing like this. Obviously, we still ask for your prayers as that is clearly not resolved. It’s interesting too… we planned on visiting these relatives while in our big Asia trip this summer and the purpose of that trip has changed radically. We will see if by then our three days in that region can help in some way besides just being there and talking with people and how that helps them. Obviously right now the basic necessities and the ability to transport them are the big issues, not to mention the nuclear problem. Please give to a charity to help them in the recovery. CRASH Japan (http://crashjapan.com/) is a collective effort manned several large evangelical organizations and denominations in Japan focusing on empowering volunteers from around the world to help with long term recovery. Share this with your facebook friends. A friend of mine is one of the leaders. Samaritan’s Purse (http://www.samaritanspurse.org/), Salvation Army (http://www.salvationarmyusa.org) and the Red Cross (http://www.redcross.org/) are also good organizations that are big enough to work through some of the logistical issues existent right now.
• Missions Trip to Asia – While at the retreat, our small group at church sacrificially gave a fair amount financially (and hopefully in prayer too) towards the summer mission trip to Asia that our whole family will be taking this summer.  We will be going to Asia this summer to do many things including visiting, encouraging and spiritually mentoring MANY former international student friends in three different countries, taking 25 special needs Chinese orphans to McDonalds and serving at their orphanage, visiting the quake area of Japan, etc. You can get more information  about the trip through this letter (http://bit.ly/letterasia11) that has more details about the trip and why we are taking it. We need to raise between a total of $16,500 and $18,000 for this life changing trip. You can respond by mail through sending a check written out to “International Students Inc.” and referencing “account 5734” or “Yabuki Asia trip,”  to “International Students Inc, Box C, Colorado Springs, CO 80901 or you can give online through our website at http://bit.ly/give2yabukis. We will be sending more information about the trip in the near future.
• Spring Break 2011 – Finally, we have had spring break right after the retreat. Lisa’s mom Penny “Nana” Stockwell was visited us. The kids were home. All the Major projects were in hiatus. That was a real blessing after the previous week. During this time, we had the pleasure of celebrating C-8’s birthday at a ceramic painting shop with her friends, we spent time at the Fort Worth Japanese Gardens and C-8 and I went to the car show and the Fort Worth Water gardens (see pictures and videos from all). It was a much needed time together as a family.

Anyway, that was our last two weeks in a nutshell. Honestly, we could not have done it without your prayers. God is really blessing the ministry significantly.

Tags: Asia, camping, Earthquake, Spring break, Spring Break Retreat, Tejas, Video

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

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

Here is the Final Tejas 2009 Summary Video

ISI Tejas 2009 Main Summary Video from Roy Yabuki on Vimeo

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Tags: Tejas, Video

(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

This last Saturday was one of the most frenetic that I think we have ever had as a family. I journaled the day using twitter and facebook just to get a sense of what it was like. Buckle up because here we go…

• attempting to journal our unusually crazy day… Lisa is going to be the champ on this one – 8:11 AM Feb 28th from Ping.fm
• Excited, morning begins with lisa up early getting everyone ready with pancake bfast – 8:15 AM Feb 28th from Ping.fm
• Next up, c-6′s hoops game with every one. – 8:35 AM Feb 28th from Ping.fm
• We got snacks – 9:05 AM Feb 28th from Ping.fm
• Home to change and back for T-8′s game. C-6 was in the postgame video interview. – 10:29 AM Feb 28th from Ping.fm
• Getting ready to watch t-8′s game. Lisa’s off to j-12′s game and then taking c-6 to a bparty at same time. – 10:57 AM Feb 28th from Ping.fm
• T8′s off to his friend parkers as lisa goes back to j12′s game. I’m off to Tejas planning meeting. – 1:23 PM Feb 28th from Ping.fm
• Charged after a good planning meeting. Lisa already picked up kids from different places. Serving as pack treasurer at Cub Scout blue & gold banq. – 4:46 PM Feb 28th from Ping.fm
• 

  Julie Ragland at 10:15pm February 28 – What a day – I’m exhausted just from reading your status updates.

• Is happy we made it. J12 also had a end of season party. T8 is now a bear scout. We made it. Esp. Lisa. God is good. – 10:33 PM Feb 28th from Ping.fm
• Roy Yabuki at 4:48pm February 28 – What an incredible woman Lisa is.

Tags: Family, Tejas

(see video below) The Tejas 2008 Spring Break retreat was wonderful. In many ways it was our best yet. With attendance around 120, the students were treated to great hospitality, lots of fun activities, thought-provoking drama presentations, an engaging speaker who clearly presented the gospel, and small groups to process the message and build a sense of community.

We were excited that 12 students indicated they trusted Christ at the retreat, 30 indicated they wanted to learn more about Jesus, and 24 wanted to join a Bible study. Praise God for what He did during that weekend, and thank you to everyone who prayed for the Spirit to be present. He obviously was!

Here is what one student had to say: “I also enjoyed the music during the service, which is inspired and joyful. During the group discussion, we had explored what is about Christian and Jesus and also got many different views about religion and different interpretation about god. Although I am not a Christian, this is very helpful to let me understand about different religion and what the Christian see about relationship with god.” Pray for this student to continue pursuing God in his life.

Video from Tejas 08

Tags: Spring Break Retreat, Tejas, trip

Kids were a part of the Tejas ‘08 retreat. T-7 is the 2nd from the left. His ability to make friends easily is a gift from God.

Tags: Kids, Tejas

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