Day 3: Monday

Testimony From Home: There was a team going down to Mexico that raised a baby from the dead. It was thrown from a car in front of them and it wasn't breathing for 6 minutes; they prayed and it started to breathe and the mom got saved!

As for Japan, the culture as a whole is just beautiful but the girls are particularly gorgeous. I'm constantly stunned by their beauty and then shocked by a blank look in their eyes. My daddy was right-- the heart for Japan came after obedience. I absolutely love these people; I've felt His heart and I can see huge potential for this nation. They have a foundation of honor-- but honor without relationship boils down to rules, just like anything else. We've prayed for a passion and an encounter-- after all, everyone is only one encounter away from a paradigm-shift!

Our time at the prophecy cafe went so well! I did prophetic art in the second session and I prayed for a lady whose vision improved and she had an experience with God, another lady's shoulders got 90% better and she went home believing for the last bit, and then I got to pray/prophecy over a mother and three kids from Chicago who were missionaries waiting for their husband/dad to move from Osaka. They were some of the most beautiful children (Madison, Matthew, and Kellen) I've ever seen! I've got pictures of them, too; they're supposed to be at the cafe again this weekend when we take everyone out on treasure hunts. There was one lady Donn and Dia prayed for whose knees got 90% better and then I joined and got to see the last 10% healed!! She was moving her leg around and kept telling us in Japanese that she hasn't moved it like that in a long time!

This week, I am really looking forward to going to a really prominent university sometime this week, I think for a prayer walk. Also, we're going to get to meet up with two people in particular-- one from the entertainment industry and another from the fashion industry. We're gonna tap into as many mountains of influence as possible! In a few hours (5:30am) we're going to the fish market, so I need to get some sleep. I'm sipping a warm Cafe au Lait that comes from a vending machine. It's a little weak on the coffee side, but not bad for a $1.50 vend.

If anyone wants to get on Skype, I'm going to try to be on tomorrow afternoon, my time... Redding is 14 hours behind and Texas is 16. I don't know what that will put you at-- probably some ungodly hour. Anyhow, have a good Monday, everyone! I fully enjoyed mine.

Tokyo: Days 1 & 2

So we flew out of Redding at 9 am Pacific time on Saturday, April 5th and here in Japan it's now 9:20pm on Sunday, April 6th. That means I've been up for almost forty hours, minus a few power naps, ranging from 5-45 minutes. I'm about to go crash and attempt to get at least 11 hours sleep, but I had to say "konnichiwa" and Japan is amazing! We got here just before sunset and I caught a glimpse of the beautiful cherry blossoms! We're catching the tail-end of the season, but just enough to enjoy it thoroughly.

We had a couple hour layover in San Francisco so I made a few quick phone calls before we had a team-prophecy session. The plane ride was long, but I made the most of the 10.5 hours and worked on my teaching on prophecy, began reading for my next homework-book, slept some, and watched a bit of the sequel to National Treasure. Once we landed in Tokyo-Narita Airport, I got my first passport stamp, discovered bidets in the bathroom, and coddled little Nava (Donn and Dia's year-old daughter) as she gazed with her wide, sleepy blue-eyes at the foreign surroundings. I've taken a few pictures and I'll attempt to share some tomorrow (we'll see what time looks like). After an hour-and-a-half train ride, we took a ten minute walk to our hostel, dropped our stuff, and ran for a bite of food at the local YWAM base. The rice-mix was great, but I have to admit the seaweed was a bit much.

Well, I'm off for a bit of sleep!
祝福 (Blessings!)

Blown Tires & The Winds of Opportunity

Konnichiwa.

Today I woke up to a bright morning. However, when I hit the highway I felt my car jolt and suddenly I remembered my encounter with a median leaving work last night. Long story short, I walked five blocks to work, missed my leadership meeting after work, and was rescued by my "big brother" out here. I also learned how to change a tire and air up a spare (mine was flat, yay) so now I'm shopping for a new tire so my life doesn't come to a screeching halt, haha.

In other news... During recess today, I got a call from the missions department at school. He offered me a position on the Tokyo trip, with the church covering the $130 difference between my balance and the airfare amount due today so that I could be the tenth on the trip. After some prayer, soul-searching, and one quick Daddy-phone-call, I was in. Just like that... I'm going to be ministering in church-plants in Japan! What an opportunity! Apparently God has His own plan because I definitely would not have opted for Japan on my own. So continue to pray for my missions trip... just a continent over.

And as for tomorrow, the lovely Valentine's Day and all that it implies... Morning: Passing out Valentine's to kindergarteners and enjoying the simplest view of the day ever. Afternoon: renewal of focus and realizing that revivalists don't hate days like tomorrow. Evening: the girls and I are going out with some friends for dinner at Logan's (thank you Mom and Dad for my Christmas giftcard!) So of course, with an apartment full of girls (and then some), there's been lots of talk about warped red shape day. We're not celebrating a superficial consumer-driven what's-the-point-of-that-kind-of-love-anyway. We're celebrating the life of a man (St. Valentine) who loved God, saw people healed, raised from the dead, and married people in private when the government was dictating what was of God and what was not. We are celebrating a revivalist-lifestyle. There's the ministry school student take on it, haha. Take it with a piece of chocolate.

I hope all is well with you-- Please send me an email sometime and update me on your world.