15th Day on Campus

So this week would be a little different in a way where we would be switching over to the other team for a day to be with people we haven't worked with. I was switching on Thursday but on Monday Jack and Kyle switched over to our team while Kylan and Jeremy went over to the other team. The day started out with an English lunch where I got to see Maki, Shuhei, and others but Koji wasn't able to make it. But it was still a lot of fun and I am really grateful for God putting them all into my life at Gakugei University! Jack seemed to have such a good time at lunch as well and he was even told that he has a "great" name! Haha! Hope I get to see all of these fun people again in my lifetime! Hopefully sooner rather than later!I then went over with Kyle and Jack to find some students to talk with but during this time I ran into Santa where I chose to talk to him by myself. We were talking for over an hour and was just a really good encouraging conversation though I wasn't able to talk a whole lot about God and the bible but I was able to have a deeper conversation then the week before! Santa is a really great guy to talk to and I was really glad that I ran into him last week!He then went off to class and then I just went the rest of the day with Gen. It was a really encouraging conversation because I was a bit discouraged because I had not gotten into a really deep conversation that day but it was alright and I was glad to have the chance to talk to Gen. 2.5 days left at Gakugei! :(

14th Day on Campus

So Friday was a really long day! But that only made it even more amazing! :) So it started out with the 25 min train ride to Kokubunji and then the 20 min walk to campus! The day started off with an hour before English lunch would begin. Andrew and I, we were both really tired at the time, went off to search for some people to come to the English lunch. To our surprise we found Jason, a southern baptist who was doing missionary work in Japan as an intern. He told us that his team had already been kicked out of three universities in Tokyo and we then told him about how our other campus team had been told not to come back to one of the universities they were going to. He then came to our English lunch and was able to tell one of the students about God and part of the Gospel which I thought was amazing because it was the same student had shared part of the Gospel with a week ago. I also got to meet a new student from Gakugei which was pretty sweet. He was nervous about not being able to communicate with us at first but he then began to open up and feel really comfortable. He then had to go to class so I decided to go off with Jeremy and we ended up just prayer walking a little bit and then met up with Yusuke and Kylan for more extended prayer before we had to leave. This friday was shorter than most as we only had three hours on campus.

So then there was the Discover Friends Party. This was an outreach event where we could invite some of the Japanese students who we had met in the past three weeks. Though most of the people I had met had sports practice, a part time job or a seminar... Ryosuke, Azuma and his friend. They were really excited to come and had a great time. I was also able to meet some of the other japanese students from the other campuses and they seemed to have had a great time also! Ryosuke seemed to have an a great time playing Soularium, which is a game where there are about 30-40 pictures and we ask a series of questions relating to life and God. It was an awesome game and I had a great time leading my group of seven. Azuma is already a christian at Hitotsubashi but the other two weren't but they ended up taking a Bible and said they wanted to meet with me next Wednesday! I'm definitely really excited about that and I can't wait to see them again! What a great ending to the week!

13th Day on Campus

So this day began with another wonderful 30 min train ride to Hitotsubashi University with my campus team pictured above! When we arrived we split up into pairs of two again and I was with Joe for the second day in a row! I wasn't really with Joe the past two weeks so this was great to have someone new to go out and talk to students with. So we went out to the cafeteria on the small side of campus and met up with a graduate student who was studying law. Joe and him were talking about law movies in America and about other stuff but I can't really remember. We were talking for about 20 min when he told us he had to get to class. So we then went to go get food and then find some new students to sit with. Well, we got food but after that we found that there wasn't any space available for us to sit except for these two seats where we wouldn't be sitting next to anybody.

I then went off to talk with the Project Director, Gen, and that was a really great experience. I just got to see how much I have changed since I had entered the summer project and reflect on some things. Overall, a really great talk and definitely thankful for Gen for talking the time to meet with me. I then went off with Joe again and we went in the other cafeteria and met with a freshman. I don't really remember what we were talking about because I was really tired by the end of the day but Joe was talking for quite a while with him and they seemed to have a really good conversation. Overall, this was a pretty good day and I'm looking forward to the Discover Friend's Party on Friday!

12th Day on Campus

So on Wednesday we got to Hitotsubashi campus around 11am and I was going to meet with someone at 11am so we thought it best that I would go by myself since there was also an English lunch that day. So we spent the first hour to look for some people who would be interested in going to the english lunch and I believe we found two people who were interested. I then went off to the other side of the campus to go meet with Yuta but when I got there I realized that there were about eight other people at the table from his sport team and they didn't really seem interested in talking to me. So the whole hour most of the eight people were trying to ignore me while I spent the whole hour trying to start a conversation but only about two people began to talk to me and they didn't have much feedback. But I was glad I got to see Yuta again and that I got to see some other freshmen from the university that day.

I then went off to go head off to the english lunch. Everyone seemed to be in a good conversation. I joined one and the student was really funny though I was told that he had been told the Gospel the day before so that was cool. We were all talking until about two o'clock. Then we split into groups where I would then find my self being paired up with Joe. We decided to talk to someone outside of the cafeteria. We started talking about spiritual ideas and the guy was really interested in speaking about religions and stuff. He said that he had studied other religions and was interested in hearing other points of views... i think. We ended up getting his contact information and telling him about the discover friends party the upcoming friday. I really hope God will begin to work in his life.

11th Day on Campus

So Tuesday was a really exhausting day for me... The day started off with some quiet time which was really nice and I thought I definitely needed it. I then went off with Kylan to the East Side dining hall where we sat with two freshmen. One of them didn't speak english very well while the other did and was even living in the YMCA where students are required to attend a weekly bible study. Kylan was able to share the gospel with him in Japanese since he had told Kylan that he was interested in the Gospel but didn't really understand. It was really neat just getting to see Kylan tell the Gospel in Japanese and get to see how interested this Japanese student was towards it.

We then went over to talk to a student who was sitting on a picnic bench. This guy didn't really seem to happy so I made it my job to try and make him smile. He wasn't really interested in talking about anything, I think, but I did get him to smile once but I forgot what made him do it. He flatly sad he wasn't really interested. The conversation was alright and I guess it was an experience that I needed, if you can understand.

I think we ended up talking to two more people but I'm not totally sure how those conversations went or anything. But I remember the last conversation we had which was probably the most encouraging one of the day! We went over to this guy who had been told about the gospel in some way a few days before that day. So we were all talking for a while and Kylan had known him from when he went to school at the University. We asked him if he wanted to learn more about who Jesus is and why he his so important to us. So right when I began to tell him about Jesus, Kylan's old friend from college comes up and says hi so they both go off to the side while I got to share the Gospel to someone on my own. Which was incidently my personal goal of the week! That was an awesome experience! So he ended up taking a bible and was going to go over it with his christian friend. :)

10th Day on Campus

So today I went back to Gakugei University an hour earlier than we usually did. We left at 10am instead of 11am and arrived around 11am instead of around noon. We started off the day with about an hour team devotional which I found to be really helpful! We then had our joyful cafe where there were three students who came to I believe. I was able to get into a discussion with one of the guys who I had met two times prior to this meeting. I was able to tell him about what I believe and how I got to believe what I believe. He seemed somewhat interested and then changed the subject about Whale hunting for some reason. But I was able to change the subject back to God because he asked me what I thought of whale hunting. So I just told him what the Bible said about animals with the help of Andrew. He then said he had to go to a meeting but would be back on Friday!

I then decided to go for a walk for some reason... I can't remember why exactly. But I was glad I did because I then ran into my friend Yousoke and his friend Santa. They were really excited to see me and we were chatting for about an hour and they bought me pudding! Haha! I didn't get the opportunity to share the gospel but they were really excited to see me again and that we should all get together, we including Koji and Maki, next Monday! They also wanted me to go to their basketball class (they are Physical Education Majors) but I didn't think that would be alright since there were only 20 students in the class and I didn't have any athletic clothing. So we said our goodbyes and I will be seeing them next Monday!

I then went with Yuki, a Christian student at the University, to go share the gospel with some students. During this I managed to see Maki and Shuhei. They were busy so I didn't get to talk to them much but I believe I will be seeing them next Monday! Yuki and I then sat down with a guy who was sitting by himself. He said that he had graduated from the University a few years ago and was currently teaching Junior High. He also stated that his belief was following the Buddhist way and he was Buddhist because of tradition as his parents were Buddhist therefore he had felt the obligation to follow in their footsteps. I then went on to discribe the main points of the Gospel to him with the help of Yuki. Towards the end Yuki asked if he could just finish off describing the Gospel since it would be easier so he told him all about his beliefs and what the Gospel ment to him. After Yuki finished presenting the Gospel, he said that he was very thankful for having us share what our beliefs were and was glad to have met us. But he also said that he didn't want to switch religions because he felt that would be a bit complicated. Yuki and I then realized it was time for us to leave so we said our goodbyes. I just hope that he would be able to remember what Yuki and I told him about God and he would try to pursue more information about what we told him. This was a very encouraging day for me! Can't wait for tomorrow!

9th Day on Campus

So on Friday, we went back to Gakugei University! I was really looking forward to coming back here though I knew it wouldn't be as long as last time as we had to back an hour earlier. So we had the joyful lunch cafe that day so we were all trying to gather more people to join our lunch. I went to go get food when all of the sudden this guy, who looks really familiar, comes up to me and says "Hello!" We were talking for a while and then I realized that he was one of the students that was helping me with my lunch last friday. I asked if he wanted to come to the joyful lunch and he said yes and with him came about 12 other friends of his who came over to the cafe. This encouraged me greatly because I wasn't sure if we were going to have anyone come to the cafe. This was a great time just to meet other students on Campus besides those I had already met. It was also somebodies 19th Birthday so that was really cool I thought!
Later on, after lunch, I went over to the cafeteria with Scott. We decided to go talk to three guys eating lunch at one table. They asked two other people to come over because I think they thought they would have trouble speaking English. Here Scott was able to present the Gospel in a really neat way that I've never seen before. I found this really encouraging and was really thankful for being able to be with Scott and just being able to see how he was able to converse with the Japanese students even though he was almost ten years older than most of them. He was able to present the main four points of the gospel to them but he was a little rushed so I don't think it went as well as he wanted but I'm sure God is proud! :)

After this conversation I realized we had 20 minutes so I decided to go to the other dining hall and try to find Koji since I hadn't seen him since Monday and he couldn't come to lunch because he had class. Lucky enough, I found him sitting by himself and sat down with him. I hadn't been able to share the Gospel with him before and didn't see enough time to do so then as I only had a couple of minutes left so I decided to just talk to him about life and such. I hope that I get the chance in the near future to share the most important part of my life with him! I know I only have 5 days left at the University so I really am praying to be able to have this chance! He has soccer practice 6 days a week so he doesn't have much free time. But I enjoy talking to Koji because he's really funny! Haha!

I was also encouraged a lot by Toshi, who is pictured below. I saw him at church and he gave me great encouragement on how to ask Japanese students to get to show a person around Tokyo. Haha. I was feeling a bit discouraged before church but Toshi definitely lifted up my spirits! He's also going to Los Angeles on Tuesday so I told him to say Hi to L.A. for me. Haha!

8th Day on Campus

So on Thursday, I went to Hitotsubashi again. I went with Kimi to the east side dining hall and then we split up because she was meeting with someone. So I was trying to find Yuuta or Soshi but I couldn't find them in the dining hall. So I decided to sit with someone who was sitting by themselves so I got some food, really good food by the way, and sat next to this guy. I found out that he was a junior and was in a hip-hop dance club. We had a really neat conversation and I was really glad I decided to sit with someone instead of sitting by myself. He told me that he had been in the dance group for three years and that is when he began dancing. He also said that I should come to the dance group next week so I'm excited about that. I invited him to our English lunch next wednesday too but he said that he couldn't because he was going to take his girlfriend out on their first date. But he said that I definitely should come to the dance group next week. The rest of the day was fun and exciting but I didn't really get the chance to meet anyone else but I'm really thankful for who I got to meet.

7th Day on Campus

Hey Everybody! So on Wednesday I went to Hitotsubashi again. I go to this university every tuesday, wednesday and thursday while I go to Gakugei University on Monday and Friday. These Universities are all in Tokyo! So on Wednesday, my campus team had an English lunch with some of the Christians on campus as well as about three non-christians. That was a great time just to converse though I didn't really get to talk to the non-christians but it was great getting into a conversation with someone who was a Christian from Japan. He also liked to listen to the pastor that is the pastor of the church I got to in Los Angeles. Then I went on to go talk to a some students with Yusuke, who is pictured below. We then sat down with Ryosuke, I forgot that I had met him the day before for a minute. But then I remembered everything and was able to get into a better conversation than I had with him before and he even played frisbee for a few minutes. Then I met with Tomita later that day with Takito, he is on staff with CCC I think, and we all went running for about three miles. Takito and I were able to tell Tomita about Student Impact here and we are planning on running next week! So that is really exciting and I can't wait to meet up with Tomita again.

6th day on Campus

Konnichiwa! So today was a really great day for me! It started out at Hitotsubashi and I was going to be with Jeremy today. Jeremy just received his degree in Chemical Engineering from Montana State University. So the day started out with Jeremy and I going to go eat as we were both pretty hungry. We decided to sit with this guy who was sitting all by himself. He said that he had a friend that we be sitting at this table as well. He couldn’t understand English very well but we could keep a decent conversation. His friend soon came over and we found that he spoke English very well. He had studied abroad in Canada about a year ago. So we had been talking for a while and Jeremy found out that both of them played a musical instrument. One of them, Ryosuke, played the Trombone while the other, who went to Canada, use to play the trumpet but switched to the bassoon. Since I used to play the trumpet in high school I was able to talk about music. We were able to talk for about 40 min and then they had to class. We were able to discuss a little bit about Christianity but not as much as I had wished. But the Ryosuke asked if we had facebook, which we did. So we were able to exchange facebook names. haha. So hopefully next time we can elaborate more.
The rest of my time at the University was spent talking with Jeremy about a lot of things. It was a really great conversation and I was really thankful for the talk. Thanks for the encouragement Jeremy! haha. Chem-E Buddies for life! Though, I'm still not sure if I'm going to be a Chemical Engineer.

5th Day on Campus

So Today we went back to Gakugei University. These Universities are all in Tokyo by the way. Today my team consisting of Kylan, Jess, Kimi, Andrew, Jeremy, Joe and I, along with Heather, went and had lunch with Koji, Maki and everyone I met on Friday plus some others. The weather was also great too during lunch and it started raining right when lunch was over so we didn't have to stop talking!

Oh and here is a picture of our photographer Andrew, who took the picture above, who is also from USC!

This was a really cool lunch because we just had this big social lunch of Americans and Japanese students. Everyone got to stir up a conversation with a student from Japan and it was a great feeling just getting to see everyone get a long. I got to meet some new Japanese students as well as some new ones. This was a lot of fun and I got to know Koji and them a lot more and hopefully we will be meeting more often though he does have soccer practice six times a week (not Monday). This is a picture of Koji and I. It seemed as though everyone had a good time and everyone was laughing a lot. I just hope we can continue to meet with all of these great Japanese students. This has been a really great time in Japan and I know that God will/is doing amazing things here. Can't wait to go to Hitotsubashi for the next three days! And I'll probably get to see all of these people in the picture on Friday! I haven't really had the chance to fully tell them about Christianity and Jesus Christ so I hope that God will give me this wonderful opportunity to share this with them!

After this I did some quiet time with God since I was feeling God leading me towards spending time with him instead of students. I think I need to set more time for God and just say that I've decided to set a time that I will spend just with God. I had a really great time with God and He has taught me so many things today. I'm looking really forward to this week and just becoming really close to God over the next four weeks. Thank you for all of your prayers! :)