The Visit I Couldn't Wait for...

This is an old post from when Vicente visited in 2011 for an almost 2 week trip...

Thursday, July 28, 2011

July

Yeah, July has been busy. Beside having 2 back-to-back teams for more than the first part of the month, we are in the nice summer heat and humidity.

I also started teaching another couple of classes on Wednesdays, which has made for a lot of preparation work.

Anyway, that's kinda the gist. We continue on, working. We've been really going at Street Live (Street Outreach). Having the break dance team here from California was a huge boost to our efforts. Not only did they draw along huge crowds, but they were each very passionate about making the most of every opportunity they had, even the ones they didn't have. In other words, they scheduled more outreach for themselves as a team. The next team, from Korea, was also very passionate, and typical of Koreans-- they were pray-ers. We really enjoyed being with them.

So, yeah, since then, we've been really going at street outreach hard, and it gave us an added boost to be more intentional with our opportunities. Even Tuesday night, I met 2 young college girls, and shared who Jesus is to them, and shared my testimony, all in Japanese. We finished and Ty asked if there was anything they wanted prayer for. Nothing specific, but we prayed for them anyhow. I've been following up with them through texting since then, and I hope to see them on Sunday.

Also, on a side note, I've been reading a book called "Not for Sale" by David B. Batstone. It's about human trafficking. I really encourage you to get it, and once you start reading, you won't be able to put it down. It's very well-written, easy to read, and with stories from those trafficked, the history and tactics of trafficking and the stories of ordinary people doing things to make a difference to stop the suffering of hundreds of thousand, maybe millions of women and children trafficked in this world today. Don't choose to keep yourself in ignorance.

Well, gotta get running... but hope you find yourself well in this summer season!

And the rest is history....

Hi!  Just posting some old blogs from my previous blog (plumsplotches.blogspot.com)... These ones are about how we met!

This posted on November 27, 2010, the week I met Vicente!

Weird, New and GoodGood Things!

Well, it's been quite an interesting week. Last week was really stressful and I had a big test-- a Japanese proficiency test-- the N3, which is in the middle. There are 5, 1 the highest, 5 the lowest. It was a 2 hour test involving new words/kanji, grammar, reading comprehension and listening comprehension.

I was really nervous about it, beside the fact that I was really busy with everything else, and had everything from a fever to the sole of my foot swelling up and getting really sore, a trip to the doctor... so, I'll leave last week at that. It wasn't my funnest.

But this week, there were lots of weird/new/good! happenings:

Creeeeeeepy: On Tuesday night, I had gone to meet a friend at Shimo-kitazawa, which probably means nothing to you. I returned, messaging the team and waiting for them at the meeting place. So, as I'm waiting, I'm standing there and this guy who is like 50ish, with bleach blonde hair and early 90s style sunglasses and a white leather jacket comes up to me. He was from Turkey. Anyway, he was trying to pick me up, and I was definitely like... no. Anyway, he kept talking, and tried to pinch my cheeks and touch my face and say you're beautiful, and I was like, Don't. Touch. We don't touch people a whole lot in Japan (they just don't do it), and so a 50yr creepy guy trying to touch my face was like, even worse. Anyhow, the team finally arrived and I was NEVER so happy to see them in my life.

By the way, I decided I was entirely too nice in this situation.

New: We had a group of breakdancers here! They're from California, and did a break-dance workshop and did our street band outreaches, attracting a lot of people! It was super cool, and one of them speaks Spanish which really, really confused my brain. But in a good way. ;)

Good: And these are the things I'm thankful for (since it's Thanksgiving and all)

-My brother, niece and 2 others were in a terrible, terrible accident. (wait for the good part) It's one of those that people don't walk away from [i.e. rolling the car 4 times and then landing upside down, off the side of the highway]... but the worst that happened was that with the 2, the older had a concussion and 2 black eyes, and the youngest had a bump on her head. That's it. PRAISE GOD Who had His hand on them, because He is the only One who could have let them live through it.

-I got to talk with all my family via Skype on your Thanksgiving Day, my Friday. It was lovely to talk to all them.

-And to finish, I got the results of my Japanese test. I was had been wondering about the results all week, because on 2 parts, I felt confident, on 1, I wasn't sure. You need a 60% to pass, right. On my last test, I got like a 82%, maybe? It was like 2 levels down. Anyway, my heart was beating beating beating as the teacher came by, passing out the strips of paper with the results from each section and the overall result. I got a... dundundun: 89.5% .... !!!!!!!!!!! Score! Praise God! I was so excited!