Yabuki Breeze Blog

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

This last weekend a new group of students from China, all executives in large companies, arrived to start their one year Executive MBA program at UTA. “Your Texas Friends,” a team of people from various churches and ministries in Arlington, were there to help them get settled into their new apartments and learn about living in America.

These students arrived on Thursday off of a bus and YTF’s team (ISI is a partner in this) was ready to welcome them. We had welcome laundry baskets full of food, flatware, pots, etc. that would tide them over till they were able to go shopping. Also we helped them to move their luggage into their apartments. Roy made a real impression by falling off a curb down a small hill onto his face while moving luggage. They will no doubt not forget him.

For six Saturdays, YTF is going to take the student shopping at Hong Kong Market and Walmart. As Arlington does not have mass-transit, this is a huge need for students. This last Saturday, Roy picked up three students and they wanted to go get a computer so he and another couple from Grace Community Church took them to Fry’s and the student was able to buy a nice laptop computer. We all got really close through this time and talked about all kinds of things. One of the students shared that he is really into Chinese lore and we talked about him sharing some of that with C-6 to help her to learn more about her heritage.

Tags: EMBA, UTA, volunteers, Your Texas Friends

(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

One thing we have learned about international student ministry over the years is that it really is a team effort. We have some wonderful volunteers who contribute to our Friday night dinners and Bible studies. RutheAnn Aldridge, for example, is indispensible. She comes to all the planning meetings and prepares the meal for about 30 students and volunteers once a month. She helps with rides from the university to our house every Friday, and is involved with leading discussion groups and Bible studies on a regular basis.

We also have two wonderful families in our Sunday School class at Fielder Road who have taken on occasional hosting of the UTA Friday night group. Rob and Sunday Phillips live just minutes from UTA. They are a somewhat international family with Sunday being from the Philippines. She also works in the library at UTA. They have 3 daughters who love to mingle with the students and create a warm and inviting atmosphere. The other couple is Al and Sherry Johnson. They recently updated their game room and were excited to open their home to international students last month for the first time. Everyone enjoyed their comfortable home and warm hospitality.

Tags: people, UTA, volunteers

I have taken some time to allow what happened this weekend to sink in. The party went very well and we could really see God’s hands throughout as He made it work. One statement that remains, and it was evident on Saturday, by Gary, the BSM director, is that for many of the students, their first Big Howdy stands out as the highlight of their time in the US. They never felt as accepted or appreciated as at that moment. Wow… That is both an testimony as the power of the Howdy to touch students hearts and allow them to smell the aroma of Christ but also a indictment on how far we still have  to go in continuing to touch their lives with the love of Christ afterwords.

The set up team, made up of mainly college students from the BSM and Lake Arlington Baptist church came 2 hours early and did a tremendous job of setting up the place to help the students celebrate. I’ve never seen college students work so hard. It was a REAL testimony.

The food came in late and there were some nervous moments as the time for the party to start came and all we had was fruit and one casserole. It reminded us of the fish and the loaves that the Disciples knew something about. With some tight muscles, we chose to trust and God seemed to bring just the right food at the right time. Even our Gnocci crew had a problem and came late… but that was perfect timing. If they came on time with what they planned on bringing, I believe it would have been gone much sooner and so the people who came late would not have had anything… God knows what He is doing.

The registration was brisk and yet we got all kinds of information from the students. The tables with all the different Christian orgainizations on campus had brisk traffic throughout and the serving lines were wonderfully staffed by an amazing army of volunteer from I don’t know how many churches. We had one Japanese American man come all the way from California (visiting his friends here) to make a stir fry dish for the students. Wow! Between Pizza boxes, there were home made pasta, Chinese dishes, rice, curry, you name it. Many student even contributed much. Further, since many of the students are vegetarian, there were tall signs carried by beautiful volunteers (Lisa included) indicating which foods were “green” and which ones had meat.

After lots of food and talk… Line dancing and Indian dancing commenced. Two days before the party we found out there was a mix up on dates with our usual, line dance instructor and so we were hard pressed. We sent out a request to the rest of our team and the UTD team shared the older lady to teaches their kids… Again God intervenes… It was a blast. She did a tremendous job. It was wonderful too, to see, some of our retired volunteers doing western line dancing with the “hip” young indians and chinese and others on the dance floor.

Finally, the students were allowed to let loose a little when we allowed them to control the DJ. It was good to see them release some of the stress that had built up in the last month in moving to America in a clean way. To many that was a testimony of grace and hopefully, it broke down some misconceptions about Christians that could lead to other opportunities to share Christ’s love in other ways in the future.

All in all. It was a wonderful evening. We also got over 130 sign ups for the next event, the Tour of Arlington, September 1. Please pray for this. We are very short on drivers to take students around Arlington, Fort Worth to see things in the area. It is probably the time when we get closest to the students of all the Big Howdy events.

Thanks ALL of you who were praying so fervently. It made a difference.

Check out more pics from all Big Howdy Events!

Tags: Awesome, Big Howdy, Party, UTA, volunteers

Future pastors and missionaries… future gatekeepers for international ministry… that is the target as every semester Roy shares with Dallas Theological Seminary and Southwestern Baptist Theological seminary students about international students and gives them the opportunity to volunteer to help out with the ministry.

This semester 50-60 American seminary students signed up to be friday night helpers, friendship partners, retreat volunteers and english partners. The result, students being touched and hopefully future pastors and missionaries who see the strategic nature of international student ministry who integrate this sort of ministry in their churches.

I ran into two guys at DTS this time around who volunteered three years ago and they are still in contact with a couple of Saudi students they befriended and still meet with them on a regular basis. One other DTS student is going to be our spring retreat speaker. A SWBTS student is going to meet with us to integrate our adopt a people strategy into Texas Southern Baptist Churches. God uses these short term “missionaries” in a big way.

Tags: DTS, Seminary, Southwestern, volunteers