RWC Missions

Final Update: Back in NYC

rwcmissions — Tue, 09 Aug 2011 16:13:25 +0000

Hey all,

We were all hoping that our flight would get delayed cuz of the typhoon. Too bad that didn’t happen and we didn’t get to stay a day longer in Shanghai and we’re back in nyc now. The typhoon was weaksauce!

We really saw God move. We’re debriefing now but grab one of us and we would love to share in person.

Ann is feeling better, thanks to those who prayed, but now Christine is sick. Please lift her up. Every day was so packed and long and physically tiring, but we tried to give it all each day. Now that we’re home, we’re looking forward to getting some rest!

Some recap:

Friday Outreach Night

We invited a buncha non-christian friends that we had met during the two weeks. It was a full house. Christine shared her testimony, GCC presented a skit, P. Yohan preached, and people raised their hands to accept Jesus. We really saw God working during this time. Everyone seemed engaged and interested. People who were closed to Christianity left with a great impression and I think they took a huge stride into really believing in Christ. Tracy (one of the friends I met on campus) came with another friend Lynn. Tracy seems really close to believing. She asked for a bible so I gave her one, and as she was speaking with Ann, she asked about Ann’s testimony.

I was saying goodbye to three of my friends whom I met at English Corner. They said they really enjoyed the night. When I asked if they wanted to believe in Jesus, they were hesitant but not completely closed, because they said they wanted to learn more about it. I had the privilege of praying for them (The opportunity came up spontaneously when I was walking them out). I’m grateful l for the opportunity. As I prayed for Taylor, she teared up and said it felt weird in her heart. Now, you’d think it would be my cue to say “That’s the Holy Spirit, Taylor!” But nope. Instead, I ended up saying something stupid like “Ohh that’s great, Taylor!” and ended at that. Oh dear.. The girls said they felt at peace and they left blessed from the night. I pray that all three would come to know the living God!

Unexpected Surprise on Saturday

We gave a professional seminar (our final ministry) from 10 to 5. The people who came out were new people whom we had never met before. Afterward the seminar, we invited some of them for dinner. Honestly, I thought we were “done” but nope, the table next to ours was praying for Martin one by one and he came to christ at the restaurant, just like that! Praise God! He came to Sunday service, and lol, he was telling people that today was his first “birth” day! Then he asked me something like, “When are you born?” (I believe he was asking when I accepted JC.) Something about a born-again Christian is really refreshing.

Sunday

We usually have Chinese service at 2pm, but we held an English service for the teams and the leaders of the church. We got to pray for the leaders during this service. All the leaders are pretty much new believers that came to Christ recently. Well, Jack, who came to saturday professional seminar, came out. Right before the Chinese Service, two members from GCC team shared the gospel with him and Jack came to Christ just like that too, right on time for the service. Pretty cool!

This is all I will share for now. Hope to share more in person. Thank you SO much for praying and supporting us. I felt like we were all enveloped and sustained by your prayers throughout the entire trip. Thankful for this church.

Karen

Seminars about God and work

rwcmissions — Thu, 04 Aug 2011 17:23:31 +0000

Yesterday Karen and I gave our presentations on design education and working life, respectively. Afterward, one of the members from GCC gave a presentation on resume building and we had a time where we would help our friends with their resumes.

After lunch we went Tienzefang with our friends. Tienzefang is a place with lot of vintage shops in a tight location with narrow streets and old traditional Chinese houses. The first place that we all went to was Shokay, the Yak store that Ann works at. We all bought different things but the most popular item was the little animal dolls made of Yak yarn. Afterward Karen, our three friends Lynn, Jane, Lucie, and I went to several different shops and hung out. The best shop was the teashop where we got to try free cups of tea. One of my favorite tea was the Rose tea where hot water is poured on a dried rose and the rose blooms. We also got lot of complementary gifts because Karen bought a lot of tea. Overall we had so much fun hanging out with our friends.

Grace told us today that while sharing the gospel is important, it’s also just as important to build a relationship with the person first and genuinely care and love the person. The gospel is not all about giving the best theories and convincing evidences, but really showing that God loves them for who they are. Right now, I really feel that God is opening up our and their hearts and forming loving relationships here in Shanghai.

Nation of the month quiz!

rwcmissions — Wed, 03 Aug 2011 16:29:41 +0000

WHICH SMALL COUNTRY ALONG THE ADRIATIC SEA BORDERS ALBANIA, CROATIA, and SERBIA?

Post your answer for a chance to win a prize!

Congrats to Han Byul for winning a Dunkin Donuts gift card for answering “North Korea” last month!

It is true that North Korea has up to 100,000 Christians in labor camps/prisons. Let’s keep them in our prayers.

Nation of the Month: North Korea

rwcmissions — Wed, 03 Aug 2011 15:48:37 +0000

Religion:

Non-religious: 69%

Christian: 1.5% (Up to 100,000 Christians may be in labor camps or prisons due to their faith.)

Prayer Needs:
The only acceptable religion is Chenodogyo or “Kim II-Sung-ism”. All other religions are harshly repressed. Pray for the Gospel to be spread and heard despite the circumstance. Pray for protection for the Christians and for them to persevere in boldness in keeping the faith.

Church up in here!

rwcmissions — Mon, 01 Aug 2011 16:23:17 +0000

Today we got to wship with the members of Reach (Kate’s Ch) and participate in communion. Wrshiping in Chinese was really great and refreshing. P Ulysses gave the srmn and we felwshiped with the members afterwards. I found out about a guy from Reach who came to Chst a few weeks ago, and got baptized right away! His girlfriend came to Chst last week and today, there was a seeker who came to the service also. I asked Kate what it is about China that it’s booming with new believrs, and she said that G has opened up a wide window at this point in time for China. She said now is really the time to pick the fruits because they are ripe as ever. I really see that this is really the day of slvation for China. Harvest is really really plentiful here, and it’s been super fun to be able to witness and be a part of the slvation story of China.

Karen

The Internship Experience

rwcmissions — Mon, 01 Aug 2011 16:20:54 +0000

This past week seemed to have flown by, but I feel as if I’ve been here for a very long time. It seems as if I’ve almost fully adjusted to life here from going to pryr mtg in the mornings then to work, and then meeting up with co-workers/friends/teammates or having meetings after. It also has been a joy and blessing getting to know the GCC and JCA members and seeing how G has been working in their lives. Throughout this trip I am seeing G’s love/heart for his children and their thirst for Him.

At my internship, there are 5 workers and 6 interns in a small office. I have been working under the creative director (K) who is actually an alumni from my school, with another intern, H, who is from the UK and started around the same time as me and is here for 3 weeks. There are 4 other interns working under the owner, 3 in which attend college in the states (V,W, J) and the other from China. Our main responsibilities are to help in rebranding and marketing the brand, as well as aid in the new lookbook and shoot merchandise for it. I mainly only get to interact with my boss, K, and the other interns. At first I was a bit discouraged as I only interact with “Americans,” as I felt as if it was like work back home, and I thought I would be able to interact more with the locals but as the days progressed, I got to know more about their faiths (K, H, V, J, W) as well as some of the other workers in my office. I first heard on Thursday from my “host family” that the intern V was a seeker and also heard from a member at the cntr that some of the workers in the office were Crstians’s or open/know of G and Crstian’s, and that K was a Crstian but only went to chrch on Chrstmas and Ester. Then on Friday, through the grace of G the subject of G and C’rstn’s came up. I found out J and H are non-belevers, more like agnstic. As J was sharing her beliefs with me on how she doesn’t really believe in C’s and mssionaries, I shared to her about my testimony and the gspel with the beginnings of the 4 sprtual laws until she told me that she was familiar with it, but couldn’t believe in something unseen. How she went to chrch a couple times but that she doesn’t believe that we are sinners, and how she is more than happy with her present life. As she was talking about how she doesn’t believe in mssionaries and how they are bad people trying to just “save” people who don’t need to be saved, the other intern V and I was trying to explain what mssionaries really do, and I was surprised to see how V was standing up for Crstian’s and mssionaries even though she does not consider herself a Crstian yet.

Please pray that…

-V will continue to seek after G and truly come to believe in Him.

-That G will open up J and H’s hearts to Him, and that G will stir in their hearts a longing for Him with an emptiness in their souls that cannot be filled and satisfied by things of this world, but only through Him.

-As I am coming to the last week of interning with them, I pry that G will continue to open more doors and opportunities to shed His light unto them.

-Ann

Ninja museum!

rwcmissions — Sun, 31 Jul 2011 01:34:15 +0000

Hi minasan!

We’re rounding up our second week here in Toyohashi. I can’t believe that time has flown by so quickly! So much has happened in the last couple days, and I’m so excited to share with you what God has been doing here through our team.

On Saturday, we went on our field trip with members of THCC, and had tons of fun! We visited the 48 waterfalls of Mie Prefecture. Through a little miscommunication, we found ourselves changing into ninja outfits and hiking through the forest as ninjas! After lunch, we got on the bus to Iga city to see the ninja museum and Iga castle! It was a lot of fun to learn about ninjas, and a couple of our team members got to try throwing real shiriken! Our last stop on the way back to Toyohashi was a really awesome rest stop on the highway. The rest stop not only had great restaurants, but beautiful bathrooms and onsen for your feet! All in all, it was a very blessed time of fun and fellowship with the members of THCC.

On Sunday, we had regular church service and I had the privilege of sharing my testimony with the congregation. Though it was difficult to get through, but through prayer I was able to find courage and boldness in the Lord to share with them. Throughout it, I felt God’s love through the support of my team members and members of this church who have been praying for me. I pray that the members here would be blessed from how God has worked in my life the last couple years.

After church, we were picked up for homestay. Christine, my fellow team member, and I stayed at Nelly Obayashi’s house. We went to a traditional Japanese tea ceremony in the park, then walked around the Toyohashi Art and History museum. Afterwards, we went to Toyohashi’s downtown area for a delicious dinner with her parents. Back at home, we got to play with sparklers which Japanese kids love playing with in the summer. We were able to spend time with Nelly and her family and just share about life in America and in Japan. It was a very blessed time.

English classes have been going well all week too. I think that the fact that this is our last week of English class ministry has really placed a sense of urgency on our hearts. We have been trying to share the gospel in our classes especially to the non believers. Both my classes were able to experience God’s presence, though in different ways.

My adult class had two believers and six non believers. Though it was difficult at times, we were able to read the bible and share about our reactions to the passage. The parable of the lost sheep (Luke 15), provided a great segway for sharing about jesus’s love for us, even those who are lost and confused. By the grace of god, I was even able to share my testimony with my students. They were able to understand my reasons for wanting to be part of God’s family through what He did in my life. In my junior high class, all my students were Christian so I took a different approach. We just worshipped together and prayed together (in English!). Though they were shy, I saw them start to build relationships with each other and open up about their lives.

Please continue to lift up this team in your prayers!

1. Pray for our students. Though we might not see some of them again, please pray that the seeds we planted in their hearts will start to take root and that they would one day come to know Christ.

2. Pray for our homestays this weekend. Our team will be staying with four different families this weekend. Please pray that we would be able to bless these families with our presence and really encourage one another as brothers and sisters.

3. Pray for the Sunday service at THCC. Bommy, Aaron and Christine will be sharing their testimonies, and Bommy and jin will be presenting a song. Pray that they would be a blessing and encouragement to the church.

4. Finally, pray for the bible camp that we will be attending next week. Pray for protection over the students and staff members attending, and that they would encounter God in a new way. Also pray for strength and energy for our team members as we interact with the kids attending.

Arigatou gozaimasu for your prayers! We wouldn’t be here without your love and support. We have seen God work in amazing ways already, and we have faith that He will do great things here even after we leave!

Love in Him,

Huei-Yu

At the halfway point!

rwcmissions — Sun, 31 Jul 2011 00:29:29 +0000

I’m sad we’re almost half way through already. We finished our first week of campus outreach. It was so much fun. We’re in the sweltering heat for hours but when we “catch” a fish, it gives me so much joy.

Team
Our team is doing well. We’re fully adjusted now and we’re enjoying it here. The days are kinda long, and the heat is ridic, so we can get tired but we press on to the end of the day. Pls pr-y for supernatural strength. We all get along pretty well with the GCC and JCA peeps, so it’s been good. No serious sickness or discouragements so far, ptl. Just minor tummy aches here and there.

Thursday
A GCC member and I went to a design school and handed out flyers. Our purpose for handing out the flyers is 1. to invite the students to the cultural exchange program starting on Monday, and 2. to share the gspl as we converse with them. We went to the dining hall and randomly approached students and talked to them. Most students speak English very well and are responsive for the most part. We invited about 6 students to the program, and 1 other student actually was very interested, so my partner shared the gspl with her. The student told us that we are very kind and took us to a nearby noodles joint and bought noodles for us. She even came out to today’s food party event and seems very interested in Chstianty, so we’re excited about that.

Friday
On Friday, I went back to the design school with a member–named Yaoching–from Reach (Kate’s chch). Ann was able to join us for the pryer walk part for the first hour, then left for work. Yaoching and I went to the dining hall again, pr-yed and approached students randomly. We approached two girls sitting together at a table, and when we approached them, they allowed us to sit next to them. One seemed open and the other a lil closed off, but as we talked, I noticed her countenance started to change and open up to me more and more. She then asked us out for dinner with them. It’s amazing how people here are so pure and so unassuming and so impressionable. Gd was totally with us at the dining hall this day. I took Christine and Ann for our dinner with the students we met and we had a lotta fun eating together and exploring the city. I will meet them again tomorrow (Sunday) after service, and hope to share the gspl cuz I feel like it’s ready. Please lift that up.

Treasure Hunt
So, after our time at the dining hall, Yaoching and I went out to do Treasure Hunt. Basically, for Treasure Hunt what we do is we pr-y for about 3 minutes, and ask Gd to lead us to a specific person He wants us to speak to. In order to find this person, we ask Him to give us a word, impression or an image regarding a location, person’s appearance, or pryer needs and write them down. Of course, sometimes we don’t know if these things are from the Lrd, but we just have faith He will use us. After pr-ying and writing down some words, we go out in search for this person. Yaoching and I had many words written down on a paper (such as: “white dress with sun umbrella,” “yellow,” “on the bridge,” “robot” etc..) We searched and searched for these individuals but to no avail. After a while, the heat was too ridiculous and it was about time to go. As we were heading back, we were crossing the bridge, and lo and behold, we see a girl literally decked out in yellow! About 45 minutes prior to our encounter, Yaoching had gotten “yellow” and I had gotten “on the bridge.” We approached this yellow girl, and asked if we can pr-y for her and she agreed. I started p-ing for her and by Gd’s grace, I received some word of knowledge about her being in finance, and lo and behold, she was indeed studying finance! I don’t know why, but I felt unsually bold in my pr-yer for her, and shared some prophtic words to encourage her. After the pryer, I shared the gspl and she gave me her email address and said she will come out to the cultural program to find out about more. Yay!

Kate also did the TH, and she saw an image of an old lady wheeling a recycling cart. With this image in mind, Kate had bought an extra bottle of water. And yep, lo and behold, she saw that exact lady she saw in her previous image. She gave the lady the bottle as a symbol for “living water” and blssed her.

Kate
Kate is mild-mannered and gentle and quiet, but dang, in her spirit, she is one fierce lady! Her sole focus is the gspl and reaching people. She has entirely devoted her life to Gd and the gspl. Her center (called Many Moons) is very effective in reaching people. People meet here to hang out, pr-y here, evnglize here, invite non-c’s here for food parties, and wrship here. I really see Gd using this center for His glory. I admire Kate a lot for her devotion to G.

Some other thoughts
This m trip has been slightly different than my previous trips. I had to really throw out all of my expectations and previous experience and understanding. This trip has been solely focused on the gspl. Also, I didn’t know evnglzing was so much fun and so easy! It’s taken much boldness and risk-taking and faith out of me but every time I step out, there’s so much blssing. There’s nothing to lose in stepping out. People here are less resistant in a sense, but they’re not much different than the people in NYC. SH is actually really similar to New York and I really hope to bring the gspl-centered lifestyle to ny.

Wrote a freaking book here. But hope you’re blssed in some way! Thank you again for supporting us and p-ing!

Karen

Urgency!

rwcmissions — Mon, 25 Jul 2011 03:38:51 +0000

It’s a scary thought to know that the trip is winding down, and how quickly it’s doing so! I feel like in the midst of teaching and meeting up with students/roommates one on one, the time has just flown by. And most certainly within that time, G has worked in ways that I cannot explain and I do not deserve to witness. Yet, though it has been tough to accept my inability and praise Him in the midst of what seemed like barrenness in what I was doing, G has softened my heart. And if there’s one thing I learned/experienced in a very powerful way is that He is the author and do-er of everything…EVERYTHING!

Going back to the part about winding down here, I feel like (at least for myself; not too sure of Jer and Beli) there is somewhat of a…lull? I’m not sure if that’s what you would call this; I know the time is short and that urgency and focus is an utmost, but at the same time, time just seems to be passing and my heart isn’t quite following where my mind already is. We’ve been talking for a while how intentionality and purpose is crucial in the coming days. And since we’ve had this talk, I think it has pushed me to be more upfront about the good news in my one-on-one’s with my students. This has been amazing, and G has been showing me how He has been churning in their hearts a desire for something more than this world. It has been a huge encouragement and source of joy to see that in the midst of their hopelessness and dislike of studying their major at an intensive school as this one, G is still there and He’s doing SOMETHING!!

With that said, I feel like the urgency is making me take matters into my own hands; that because I’m constrained by time here, I have to do my best and all I can to hit these students’ hearts with our Father’s good news. I’ve been realizing this over the past couple days, and time I should’ve spent prxxing, I just simply was not. This is a dangerous place to be, especially for me, because my personality is one to reward effort. As such, once I start to think that this is all about effort, I’m already on a slippery slope. I pxxy that you would pxxy for me, as well as our whole team, that we would die to ourselves, our deeds, and our efforts and know that without His grxxe, we are nothing and this trip is nothing. After speaking with some of the volunteers here, prxxing on my own, and going through my share of discouragements, He has taught me it’s only through His grxxe; THAT’S IT. I feel like I’m in that dangerous place of growing okay in my efforts and thinking I can do these last few days on my own. ABSOLUTELY NOT!! Please pxxy against that!! Already, the past couple days I have been shirking pxxyer, and I’m pretty sure it comes from this sentiment.

Please please please please intercxxe for us, that EVERYTHING that we do comes not from our efforts that we can boast in ourselves. But that in EVERYTHING, we lean COMPLETELY on His abundant grxxe.

Thank you for reading, thinking of us, and pxxying for us,
Ki Hoon and the Y-U-ST team

Konnichiwa minasan!

rwcmissions — Sat, 23 Jul 2011 05:05:07 +0000

We are rounding up our first week in Toyohashi, and have quickly settled into the routine of things here. After church and class orientation on Monday with J.P. Morgan and Yuzo-san (two members of Toyohashi Hosanna Christ Church), we have started teaching our English classes. Our ministry for the first two weeks includes English classes held in the church to not only teach the Toyohashi community some English, but more importantly, providing an opportunity for the non-believers to interact with the church here.

Our schedule everyday here is pretty standard. Because the girls and guys are living separately, we meet at the church every morning at 8.30 for breakfast and prayer as a team. Our classes begin promptly everyday at 10 and go for an hour and a half. By the end of this week, we would have all taught at least one of our classes! After class, the church usually provides lunch for us and our students, which is a good opportunity for us to talk and minister to them. We usually have body worship, skit or worship rehearsal before dinner, dinner, then evening class from 7.30 to 9.

Classes have been going really well. From Bommy’s kindergarten classes to Jin’s adult beginner class to Young’s bible class, everyone in the classes has been enjoying themselves and learning some English (and Japanese for us!). By God’s grace, we have been provided with opportunity to share God’s truth in a number of our classes and interactions with the non-believers who have been coming to our classes. It’s been tough bridging the language and cultural gap, but we’ve seen God’s grace and faithfulness shine through despite the barriers.

Please pray for –

1. Our classes, especially the non-believers in our classes. Pray that their hearts be softened to hear and understand God’s truth.

2. Our team. Pray that we would remember and focus our hearts on the reason why we are here. It is easy for us to just focus on being good English teachers, but pray that our hearts be centered on serving on God here in this community and this church.

3. Safety for tomorrow as we are going on our field trip to Ninja-Iga! Pray that we would have a blessed time with the high school, college students and young adults during our trip!

We have been having a ton of fun here in Japan with the THCC members! Thank you so much for your prayers and support, as always!

Love in Him,

Nihon no team desu!