Yabuki Breeze Blog

(See feb pictures including stuff from this post) This has been a weird couple of weeks for us. It started last week with me having to be in Phoenix for some important meetings for the National ISI ministry about discipleship and preparing students for returning home as leaders in Christ and it ends with our family stuck at home on Superbowl weekend (in N Texas) with my parents visiting because of the weather. Here are some of the details…

• Last week I had the special privilege of being in Phoenix for a bunch of meetings to figure out how to improve ISI’s national strategy for discipling students so they can be better difference makers when they go home. While this is a huge value for ISI for all our years, we have felt the need to refine that strategy to make it more of a reality for every student who God moves to follow Him that we have contact with. It was good. We had great progress as we clarified assumptions with each other and put ourselves on the same page of the next steps. Praise the Lord for His Spirit to bring unity.
• Before and during the meetings, I had to manage the registration and the Dallas side for Houston Space weekend trip that Jeff Newpher, our Houston colleague, hosts for our Dallas team three times a year. I did not personally go, but our TCU, UTD and UT Tyler campuses sent 30+ students with other volunteers on this trip to Space Center Houston and to home stays nearby NASA. They even got to meet a astronaut who shared his story with Jesus as it relates to his space experience. All reports indicate a great experience had by all with terrific conversations about spiritual and heart things. Prayers were important as the weather coming back was bad but everything turned out okay. The difficulty was in the many last minute changes and moving pieces. Praise God for the outcome of it all.
• The all three of the kids were sick last and this week and missed some school but all are better now.
• This last week was unusual as my parents arrived on Saturday, the weather took a turn for the worse and so the kids stayed home Tuesday through Friday because of the ice and snow. We had much cabin fever. Still what a blessing for grandparents to have total access for a whole week during what is normally a school week. I love Texas. But the one thing I miss the most of California and the thing that makes me sad is not having my parents near by during this stage of theirs and our kids lives.  So this was special. Praise the Lord for His planning. Dad also turned 75 during this time but he insisted on cleaning up and building shelving for my garage during much of this time in the cold. He is awesome and he makes me so proud and appreciative on so many levels.
• This is Chinese/Vietnamese lunar New Year and it has been incredible connecting with students this week on facebook, QQ (A chinese messaging service… facebook is blocked in China), and other media. We have been able to really connect.

Tags: CPM, Family, Houston, Kids, parents, Space Weekend, TCU, travel, UTA, Weather

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 Pictures) As Lisa and I walked off the airplane in Colorado Springs, the first thing we saw was the sign of the driver that said, “Modano, Morrow & Turco.” For those of you who don’t know Dallas sports too well, those are the names of the superstar players on the Dallas Stars hockey team and apparently they were on our plane. Thus began a remarkable week of remarkable occurrences in Colorado Springs last week.

Every year, as ISI staff, we are required to go to our annual staff conference. Often it is in Colorado Springs, but sometimes it is at some other exotic location, like Seattle, Niagara Falls, Amsterdam, etc. (2011, a family conference will be in Hong Kong, pray for how we can do that) Sometimes it is a family conference, other times it is not and we cannot bring our kids. This year, it was not but for the first time, through the generous offer by Lisa’s mom of watching the kids during the conference Lisa and I were able to go together, just the two of us. On reflection, it was the longest we were together without any kids since Jonathan was born, a full 8 days.

Actually the conference itself was 5 days but there was a chance I would have to lead ministry technology related seminars before or after the conference so we put some buffer days before and after AND this is the 15th year that we have been married and we had not celebrated our anniversary in much of a special way, we decided to make this trip special.

The first couple of nights we stayed at the Navigators’  Glen Eyrie Conference Center. On arrival we were told that we would be in General Palmer’s room in “The Castle.” While walking around we learned that General Palmer was a Civil War General and railroad magnate who was the founder of Colorado Springs. “The Castle,”  a long time fixture in Colorado Springs, nestled between mountains and monolithic rocks much like Garden of the Gods, was build by General Palmer as the home for his family. It really looks like a Medieval castle complete with a great room with fireplace, stone walls, a “keep-like” tower, vaulted ceilings, and even a coat of armor. On arrival to the 19th century styled “General Palmer” room, we found out that the room was the good general’s actual bedroom and bathroom and that the bed we slept in was the actual bed he used. It was an incredible couple of nights. The ground were beautiful too. On one of the days, we took a hike the day before my Birthday that took us to varied places like Dawson Trotman’s grave, to the top of a mono-lithic rock formation, under a overhanging cave, through and English rose garden and through many other gardens kept up by volunteers on a daily basis. On the same day, Lisa treated me to a delightful dinner at the Flying W Ranch for my birthday. While there we were treated to an authentic outdoor Chuckwagon meal complete with a show presented by a bunch of believing singing cowboys (the second oldest western singing group in the world). I’m not much of a cowboy music devotee but it REALLY was FUN! All in all, the unique peacefulness of Glen Eyrie, made the time very special and a great way to decompress to focus on God before our conference. In fact during this week, Lisa and I read three books each (but with each other which was very rare indeed).

We then went on to the conference which was one of the best ISI has ever done. We heard from Singapore pastor Edmund Chan (excellent), Political Commentator Dinesh  D’souza(even better), Biola president Barry Corey(first rate), and a former muslim terrorist who is now a believer(inspirational). The talks were extremely relevant to what we do and timely and contemporary. The workshops were very good too. I was able to lead two of them and in one of them, we had all the tech savvy people personally help the less tech savvy ones and it was wonderful watching people working together to grow together. We came away energized and raring to go.

After the conference, Lisa and I spent some time in another part of Colorado Springs. After visiting the cliff dwelling in nearby Manitou Springs and the special internet related ministry All about God/Got Questions?, we checked in at the reasonably priced, Spur and Lace Bed and Breakfast in the Colorado City portion of Colorado Springs. When inn keepers Leo and Sharen Janzen greeted us as we arrived we had not idea what to expect. The intriguing name and theme (cowboy & lace) made for some mystery. Leo is an amiable man with a smile permanently etched into his weather worn face. He later shared that he was farm boy who became an educator. On hearing that we were campus ministers, he shared that he had a grandson who worked in some capacity in campus ministry. After he checked us in, we were touched by how he visited the guests just to chat an catch up.

After checking in, we went down the street to a coffee shop and bookstore, Agia Sophia. On going inside, we found that it was run by the local Orthodox Church, there were books all over about Jesus and the church as presented from the Orthodox perspective. For me it was like being a kid in a candystore. There were some theology books that you can’t just find anywhere, especially in the area of the Trinity. Good coffee too. A couple of nights later, we talked with Father George, who in addition to serving up Coffee Frappe’s was the pastor of the church. It turns out he became a believer through the ministry of Young Life, went to Fuller and turned to the Orthodox tradition because he was seeking the deeper life that he read about through people like John Michael Talbot, Henri Nouwen, etc. It was really fun talking.

After visiting the coffee shop, we walked along the Colorado City Streets and ran into a outdoor Jazz concert which just happened to be at the band stand in the center of town. While there we just happened to run into an ISI home office staff person with her family enjoying a time of rest after serving us so well at the conference. Having enjoyed the company and music our stomachs were ready to be filled with some great Greek food. Wow!

The next day, we took the 3 hour trip via the Cog Railway up to the rarefied heights of Pikes Peak. It was absolutely beautiful up top (though my legs felt like lead because of the altitude). We really could understand how Katherine Lee Bates would have been inspired to write America the Beautiful because of her time up there. You could see so much!

The next day, we boarded our plane for home. It was really nice seeing our family again… but the time together was very, very special for Lisa and I. It really felt like a second honeymoon in many ways and we learned so much about each other and SO many other things. Thanks all so much for your prayers and support during this time. It was a blessing in so many ways and I believe God will be able to use us more effectively because of this time.

Tags: anniversary, Birthday, Colorado, Conference, Glen Eyrie, ISI, Pikes Peak, Summer, travel, trip

(pictures) 4500 miles… 18 days… many old and new friends… connection with family too… a better appreciation for each of our immediate family members… Watching the kids grow in front of us… five whole classic audio books… four times watching “Cars…” four National Parks, three Jr. Ranger swearing ins, the kids experiencing skiing for the first time. The Yabuki family went on an epic roadtrip this Christmas holiday to California and no doubt it will be one we will never forget.  It was truly a trip for the ages. Praise the Lord for his blessing in all of this. Read all the details. stories & impressions from this trip in our trip blog. Here are a few highlights…

• We stayed in the Wigwam Motel on route 66, the model for the cone motels in the Pixar Movie Cars
• We stopped at and experience Manzanar Japanese Relocation Camp from World War 2 where my mom lived during the war
• The kids experienced skiing (Roy’s favorite sport) for the first time
• We enjoyed several day’s with Lisa’s sister family and mom including Christmas in Lake Tahoe and Napa (where they live).
• We visited four national parks including Yosemite(Roy’s favorite), Grand Canyon (J-12′s favorite), Painted Desert/Petrified Forest National Park (T-8 & C-5′s favorite) and Carlsbad Caverns National Park (Lisa’s favorite). T-8 & C-5 earned earned the distinction of Jr. Ranger at three of these on three consecutive days. We also saw a famed observatory and the hospital Lisa and J-12 were born in.
• We were able to share about our ministry at the church Roy grew up at and were able to re-connect with many dear and cherished friends.
• We spent several days with Roy’s parents in Los Angeles, having important time with his sister’s family, and many other friends, ministry partners (who are also friends), and family some of whom we have not seen in many years. Roy & Lisa even went out on a date with Roy’s old High School friends while the kids got to enjoy their grandparents’ passion for crafts and wood working.
• We were blessed to stay in the home of some gracious students who we got to know in Albuquerque.

What a blessed trip! I just wish we could have visited more of our friends along the way. Thanks all for your prayers and thanks all who we saw, who hosted us, who thought of us, who ate with us, Ken who watched our house, etc. I feel we are well rested and ready to go after such a special time.

Tags: holiday, national parks, roadtrip, travel

One of our dear student friends, Ken finally said yes. We were looking high and low for someone to watch our house while we take a 18 day 4000 mile road trip to California to visit friends, family, supporters, churches,  see some world class sights with our kids, etc. the next couple of weeks. For those of your who want to pray for us on this trip, we made a special “drop.io” blog site (at http://drop.io/YabukiCalTrip.  You can subscribe to an e-mail/RSS/podcast/etc. there.) where it is easy to journal our trip with pictures, notes, & audio files, etc.. On the right of this Yabukibreeze blog we have a box with the RSS update notices from that trip log. Also, here is the schedule so you can plan for our days… Please pray for safety, patience, a good holiday, good experiences, growing love for our family, good re-connections with friends and family, etc. Sadly, we won’t be able to visit all of you all given the tight schedule because of the transit times, family times during the holidays and all, but we are excited about seeing some of you all!

Tags: California, holiday, Prayer, travel

It’s hard to believe but its already been three weeks since we got back to Texas from our trip. Sometimes we feel like we are constantly jumping from the frying pan into the fire… but that is good. God is working… Anyway, just some summary thoughts from the trip.

When people ask how Japan has changed since I was last there, one word comes to mind: “color.” In the past Japan was a mono-colored culture where everyone wore the same colored (though designer) drab gray colored suites, had the same black hair (couldn’t be helped) spoke the same way, etc. This time there was a remarkable infusion of color. People dressed in all sorts of ways with hair of many different colors. It wasn’t so easy to find Lisa in the crowd any more because there were MANY people with blond or brown hair… and purple and red and … you get the picture. Self-expression has become an art-form in Japan. Ironically, it has become the way to “fit into the crowd.”
We also learned how hard it is to be a Christian in Japan, especially from those who were saved in the U.S. The church is different in Japan. This makes it difficult for these precious students to feel like they belong. As a result, many don’t attend church. At the same time, they are trying to stay faithful to Jesus in other ways and so they don’t fit into the mainstream culture either. This can be very lonely.

We also learned about some of the exciting things going on in the church, especially in the area of church plants and smaller house churches. We also saw the difficulties the older more established churches are having to stay alive. There is a leadership void in the Japanese church which only can get bigger because fewer young people are going to the seminaries and Bible colleges in Japan.

We also were reassured by the hospitality and love we felt in each of the cities we visited as we met with old friends, new friends and family. We really love and appreciate the Japanese people.
All in all this was a wonderful trip that touched and blessed so much. No doubt we will be returning for another visit some day. We come home with a greater sense of responsibility in keeping in touch with our former students and continuing to love on them even from a distance.

To all of you who have been tracking our blog () and praying along the way, it’s been fun. We experienced Pocari Sweat and the other type of “sweat” in great quantities (as big as a whale shark) together. It was also fun to learn together that it’s not such a bad thing to be a “Son of Dork” (bumper sticker on a car). Most importantly we saw God work in our efforts. Thank you so much for your support in every way. We have been much blessed. You have gotten us through emotional hurdles (e.g. discouragement at taking so long to adjust and actually function), physical hurdles (e.g. landing in LA – check the blog for details), and spiritual hurdles (e.g. God opened several doors along the way). For others of you who made financial and personal sacrifices to make it possible for us to go, thank you—some students are moving back on track because of you. Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! YOU DO MAKE A DIFFERENCE. Keep on praying for Japan. Keep on praying for the ministry to international student here in the states (www.yabukibreeze.com).

To see more of our pictures, check out http://photos.yahoo.com/rmyabuki.
- August, 2006

Tags: Japan, Returnee, travel