Yabuki Breeze Blog

Wow your prayers were huge this week. The Tarrant County Space Weekend trip went well. Many of the Spiritual Warfare skirmishes were dealt with and God opened up some doors with students in surprising ways. Also, Lisa was on  fall break at her work and we had a lot of time together. Praise the Lord.

• The Houston trip went very well. All 80 people safely went down to and got back from Houston in 15+ vehicles. The students had a terrific time. Many of them shared with me this week that it was the best time they’ve had in a long time. Some even said it was the best time they’ve had since they came to the USA. Some went into a church building for the first time in their lives. We had some HUGE conversations about deep things during the rides up and down. I got to know a young man from Armenia very well and talked about heart related things. What a blessing.
• Many of the Spiritual Warfare problems evaporated after we and you all started to pray. Some of the broken relationships need a little bit more healing and I am learning how to trust God through all of this and more importantly, how important you all are in what we do. WE ALL ARE BREAKING DOWN STRONGHOLDS. Without prayer we can’t do what we do.
• My car is back on the road and working well enough to take us to Houston.

Tags: Houston, ISI, Prayer, rides, Space Weekend, Spiritual Warfare, Student, TCU, trip, UTA, warfare

We leave for Houston at 6:30 AM Saturday morning taking over 70 international students from Tarrant County to visit NASA, to stay at homes, visit churches and enjoy great times together. I am writing this at 12:30 Saturday morning and so I want to keep this short.

I wanted to make sure I got this out because there have been small hints lately of some spiritual attacks going on. Relationship problems within teams… passive aggressive behavior…people being easily irritated… feeling overwhelmed over things that God controls… a student close to the meeting Jesus getting in trouble with another ministry… more resistance than ever by a small majority on this trip (but also a huge excitement by the majority. All this is clearly not from God AND all at once. God is in control but this is also the time to call in the spiritual prayer forces.

God is doing good stuff and I sense a real sense of community on this trip to Houston. I believe God will do stuff but so with the enemy to disrupt it. Please pray for…

• Safety on the trip for all (80+ total people including volunteers and students)
• Good Holy Spirit driven attitudes by all the team and host families with each other and with the students. Good attitudes of the students.
• The unearthing of people of peace in the time together
• Open hearts for the students who have been chosen to come.
• Safetly and encouragement for Lisa and the kids back home and patience to weather this very busy time.
• Good host families who really love on the students and share the love of Jesus at the students’ pace.
• Some student who are real close to have good conversations with the people they are with both in the cars but also in the homes and at NASA.

Thanks all. Appreciate your praying as you receive this because we probably are on the road as you read…

Tags: Houston, ISI, NASA, Prayer, trip, volunteers

You all have been a special part of it in many ways so far. Some of you gave financially. (if you still want to give, we still need $2000 to break even click here to learn how) Some of you gave your time. Some even sold stuff to help. Quite a few students and former students and you all helped us set up parts of the trip that we could not because of cultural differences. We could not have gotten to here without you.

But now is the most important part. THIS IS THE TIME THAT WE NEED YOU THE MOST. Any type of mission trip, while having tangible elements is primarily a Spiritual affair. We need a team of prayer warriors to cover us as we go. You don’t have to be a prayer expert or you don’t have to have stellar prayer habits already… but you do have to be willing to pray for us as often as possible. During the time leading up to the trip and while we are on the trip. Are you willing to do it?  Even one day of the trip is okay as long as you commit to do it and do it.

If you are interested, please let us know. We have put our daily schedule for the whole trip on a web page, this will give you a sense of how to pray for a given day and it gives specific prayer needs for the day. In addition it is our plan to send live updates, as often as possible via e-mail and we hope to put up posts (and hopefully pictures) up on our ministry blog http://blog.yabukibreeze.com. All of our weekly prayer partners will automatically get these updates. The e-mails will be more detailed than what we can post on our public blog for many reasons.

If you are NOT already signed up to receive our weekly prayer update, we can add you to a SPECIAL PRAYER E-MAIL list for the trip. This will not lock you into the regular prayer e-mail unless you want to receive them. If you reply with an e-mail to us before June 7 I can add you or any time you can…

Sign up for live trip email updates to pray for the trip

Tags: Asia, Asia Trip, China, Hong Kong, Japan, trip

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

(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

(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

Report by ISI Staff Ron Bunyard & Jeff Newpher

February 10-11 was a great weekend with the students. Our DFW ministry teamed with our new ministry in Houston to offer a weekend for students focused on relationship building with new students and gave us a chance to share the gospel with them while we team with new church partners in Houston.

Our ISI ministry in Houston is new and we are excited about what God is doing through our staff and volunteers. This trip to the Johnson Space Center and Kemah in Houston allowed us to take some of our students from our ministry here in Arlington to experience the Space Center and other sites in Houston. We had the opportunity to hear from a current astronaut, Joe Tanner who shared his testimony and about his faith in Christ.

The Result…

“Space Weekend” on Saturday was wonderful. The Space Center Houston tour, and the Dinner and Astronaut Joe Tanner’s Presentation at First Baptist Church Pasadena–with 120 international students and 70 others in attendance

Sunday morning was a great time of learning as Clarence Shaw shared his life story with the students, overnight Hosts and others. Worship at the church was touching, as the international students were recognized and welcomed. “I’ll never forget watching international students sing along with the rest of us! Lunch at The Kemah Boardwalk was great. The only downside was having to say “good-bye” afterward.” shared Jeff Newpher, new ISI City Director for Houston.

Here are some links to Jeff Newpher’s pictures of the event: Students Arriving at Space Center Houston, Students at the DInner with Astronaut Joe Tanner, Students enjoying the boardwalk at Kemah.

Tags: Astronaut, Houston, Space Weekend, trip