Yabuki Breeze Blog

The last two weeks have been a very productive time and God did many wonderful things in and through our ministry. Honestly, today I ran out of gas but that is okay. God seems be be giving me a couple of days of rest this week to catch up after non-stop stuff. God is good. Lisa and the kids too are in a busy time. Tim and Charis are in basketball right now and Tim continues in scouts. As I did some training with some ISI staff friends in Colorado who are just about to have their second wedding of the year of their two daughters, I was struck by the fact that in not too many years, we will have one in college and another not too far behind. Lisa and I celebrated our 18th anniversary yesterday. Wow… the time move so quickly.

Some quick hits:

• Roy and teammate Derrah spent Jan 13-16 in Colorado training people in some of the stuff we are doing in ministry with the M28 initiative. This was in a sense a dry run for another nationally teleconferenced training in Omaha in February and a international trip to do training in Asia in late March. God really blessed the time as people seemed receptive and open to trying what we were teaching: implanting church planting concepts in discipleship of students who follow Jesus. We also learned about what works and doesn’t work in training this material. Almost everyone there said that we encouraged them to really look deeply at how they do ministry.
• We welcomed several hundred new students at UTA. Roy helped out with the rides to Walmart and Roy, Lisa and the team helped out much with the Big Howdy party this last Saturday. On the Walmart run, in his group of 6, he met a young friend from Iran who really connected with Roy.

Tags: anniversary, Big Howdy, Colorado, ISI, new students, Party, Welcome

Sad story from this last week that hit me hard. I took a student to the airport to go home this week that I first picked up 6 months ago from an affluent country in Asia. He was an short term English student who happened to be a PhD student. We saw him occasionally at different events but lost track of him as the year went on. Anyway, as we were driving to the airport, I asked him what he planned on doing when he got home, he told me he was planning on quitting his PhD program and getting a job so he could “demonstrate.” “Demonstrate?” I asked him to clarify. He said, “yes, demonstrate against my government.” I was surprised. He is a humble young man, seemingly not too taken to passionate expression. I wasn’t sure what to say.. so I asked, “What kind of job will to do?” He said, “Self-Sustenance.” I was thinking he meant self-employed and I asked him to clarify. He said, “You know, living off of the land, planting vegetables, etc.” All I could say was, “Oh…” I asked why he was doing this. He said, “People from my country have so many things, everything a person could possibly have and yet our people are not happy.” Like Emerson and Thoreau, he sought the peace and meaning by chasing simplicity. At that moment, I realized something. He was a man who was looking for something while here. Something that would sate the angst that he felt living in modern Asian society. I have no doubt God could have filled that void, but I was not sensitive enough to his need. I didn’t sow broadly enough, thinking he would not be interested and so I missed an opportunity. I was sad. I learned alot from the conversation. I needed to salt all my conversations with the Hope that I have in Jesus so if God is working in someone, like this young man, he could identify himself to me.

• A new student Andrew from Nepal made a decision to follow Jesus through one of our volunteers doing Discovery Bible Study with him. God was influencing him in many way through many people and when he read the Bible he recognized what he was looking for.
• We are praising God that several of some of our closest students finished school this last weekend. Still we will miss them dearly. Vritant, Fernando and Bibianna specifically said that we all were their family in Texas (they even said it in a caption on facebook). Cynthia and TCU was showered with many blessings by the team over there. We are very sad to see these very special friends go home.
• We are excited that our student friend, Greg from East Asia welcomed his family to the US to join him after 6 months apart.

Tags: Asia, Bible Study, Discovery Bible Study, Family, ISI, Nepal, Rest, Student, TCU, Texas, volunteer, Vritant, Welcome

Every year we (ISI and many different ministries, churches and organizations) welcome new international students to UTA. The whole month of August is devoted to this activity. This is true at TCU and all our other DFW campuses as well. It is a very special time when we get to meet some new friends. We welcome them in many ways! (see http://www.utabighowdy.com for info on some ways we serve them) At the two campuses where I’m most intimately acquainted, UTA & TCU, we were able to serve more students with the love of Christ than ever. Let me share with you Ron Bunyard’s report  from UTA (Ron was the UTA Big Howdy Organizer) as a sample of what was happening on all our metroplex campuses (including UTA, UTD, TCU, SMU, UNT, Northlake, UD, Collin, Navarro, & Northwood):

Dear Roy

What an amazing month we have had in our Big Howdy welcome events.

Take a look at some of the numbers that all represent relationships and ministry.

500+ students at the Big Howdy party.
300 pieces of pizza
100 Chipotle burritos
200+ volunteers who provided food, did airport pickups, transported students to Wal-Mart, lifted and delivered furniture to students apartments, and many other acts of love and kindness.
300+ students country line dancing for the 1st time!
170 students picked up at the airport.
126 students taken to Wal-Mart.
100+ students have furniture and apartment needs to start their year off right.
72 feet of potluck food dishes devoured by 500 hungry students.
20 campus ministries and churches demonstrating unity in the body of Christ
19+ countries represented by the students at Big Howdy events
1 God to give all the praise!

Thank you for praying and giving!
Ron

Check out pictures from the Used Item Sale and Big Howdy party and for the TCU Welcome Party. Pray for the students you see and relationships that God will grow as the year moves forward.

Tags: Big Howdy, TCU, UTA, Welcome