Staying Awake in Tokyo!

Hello All!

I have been here two days but it feels like I have been here much longer. I am still getting used to the time change and therefore have been waking up at 5:30 in the morning and feeling exhausted during the day. But the Lord has been faithful in giving me energy. Yesterday (Sunday,) we went to Harijuku for lunch. I ate takoyama, which is fried octopus. We also visited a shrine and it was heartbreaking. People were worshipping to deities that don't exist. People would throw money into this box, clap, and say a prayer to their ancestors. You could also leave cards of prayers and leave them for the deities to answer. Some of the prayers were just crying out in need of a savior. I really felt the emptiness there and started praying hardcore. Going there was really good and it rejuvenated my heart to desperately want to share the Gospel with the people of Japan. We then went to church. The service only had about 150 people at it and we were told that is the largest church in Tokyo. The service was amazing and it was in both Japanese and English. It was so great to meet Japanese Christians.

Today we had our briefing with the Campus Crusade for Christ (Student Impact) Japanese staff. Our team is breaking up into three teams and each team is in charge of two campuses. I am with four other people and are going to be on the two top universities in Japan that we were told were equivalent to Harvard and Princeton here. I desperately need your prayers for these campuses.

I will remind you that less then 1% of Japan is Christian. Also, Japan is the least evangelized industrial nation in the world. The two campuses we are going have maybe one or two Christians on. One campus, the CRU staff doesn't even know if there is one Christian on the campus. This is out of thousands of students. On top of that, many cults are invading these campuses and taking on lots of students. Students look at all these cults as the same religion. There is a lot of spiritual warfare.

The first university is called Hetochibachi. It is the school of business, economics, and law. Students coming out of this school will be the top leaders in Japan. This school is comprised mostly of men. This is the school where there may be no Christians.

The second University is called Gaedai. It is the school of Foreign studies. This school is comprised mostly of girls and 30% of its students are from abroad. (There is a good chance I may use my Chinese here.) There are only one or two Christians on this campus. Praise the Lord, there is a professor who is a Christian, and tomorrow, we will be going in to her class and introduce ourselves and share our faith.

Even though there is a freedom of religion, we have to treat evangelism on these campuses like there is not. Especially at Gaedai. There administration does not like any strangers on campus and do not want ANY politics or RELIGION shared on campus. If they find out about us, we will get kicked off immediately. Prayers for protection please.

Even though both of these campuses are very dry and possibly not open to the Gospel, God is FAITHFUL, and I am very expectant at what he will do. I pray that we will see students come to know the Lord and be willing to share their faith with their classmates. I pray that the students we approach will be willing to talk to us and have open hearts and minds. I pray that relationships will be built.

Tokyo campuses are now like the Vally of Dry Bones in the Book of Ezekiel, but one day, flesh will appear on them and they will rise up as a young army for the Lord!

Thanks for all of your prayers so far! "The Prayers of a righteous man ARE powerful and effective."

Here are some pics!


This is me at the temple!


These are the prayers written on wooden boards at the temple!


The Octopus that I ate!


The endless skyline of Tokyo taken from the top of Tokyo Government building!

Many Blessings,

Courtney

Yokoso Tokyo!

Konichiwa!

I just woke up for my first morning in Tokyo! My team arrived safely last night, ate some rice bowls, found our apartments, set up our futons and the crashed! This blog will be short and sweet as I have to go find a power strip that will fit my three pronged power cord to my computer since they don't have any in our apartment! But I want to give you some pictures!



This is my team! We have bonded and have already become great friends!



Here is my roommate, Casey in our small little room with our futons set up!



Here is our kitchen, living room, hangout area!



And here is the view from our balcony!

I am so excited to share this experience with you! Continued prayers that this city is set ablaze with God's Love!!

In Christ,

Courtney

Today is the Day that the Lord has made!

Today is the day that has been long anticipated. After months and months of prayer, support raising, and preparing, my team of 14 other people and myself are heading off to Tokyo! We leave today around 2:30pm (California TIme) and get into Tokyo on Saturday evening around 6pm (Tokyo time.) But it will really be 1 in the morning on Saturday California time. Needless to say, we will be pretty tired. The flight will be around 12 hours long. Even with this long trek ahead, I am so ready to go and ready to serve the Lord and help spread His kingdom.
Last night, we had a time of prayer and send off amongst the other teams who are going overseas as well. Once our team was prayed over, our coach (someone who is not going with us but helped to train us) read us a verse that she specifically had on her heart. The verse is 1 Timothy 4:12-14

"Let know one despise you for your youth, but set the believers an example in speech, conduct, in love, in faith, in purity. Until I come, devote yourself to the public reading of Scripture, to exhortation, to teaching. Do not neglect the gift you have, which was given to you by prophecy when the council of elders laid thier hands on you."

Also, before we all left to back to our rooms and start packing, Revelation 7:9-10 was read over us.

"After this I looked, and behold, a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all the tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands, and crying out in a loud voice, 'Salvation belongs to our God, who sits on the throne and to the Lamb."

This is my prayer: That revival happen on the Tokyo campus. That the Japanese fall on their knees in worship to God. That they choose salvation! THat God encounter them in a whole new way. That the Holy Spirit descend upon them! That God increases and we decrease!

Thanks to all who have been part of this trip through prayer and support. I will continue to keep you updated and pictures will be coming soon! I will be praying that God encounters you where you are at and that He places people in your life with whom you can share the Good News with!

Much Love,

Courtney

"How Beautiful are the feet that Bring the Good News!"

First Day of Briefing:

Its finally here! The start of my journey to Tokyo to serve the Lord! I left Oklahoma City today, said some sad goodbyes and I flew to Orange County, California. It's warm and sunny here! There are palm trees and the beach is only a few blocks away. I got to meet my fellow team members for the first time! They are all so wonderful and its so great to finally see all the faces of the people I will become really close to and have to rely on in sharing the Gospel together. We all discussed why we are going Japan and what we want to see God do there. We all had different things to say but the one thing we all had in common was the passion to see Japanese people come to know Jesus! We leave to Tokyo Friday morning and before then, we will be growing and uniting as a team. I will let you know all that I learn and the preparation that happens these next few days and all the things God puts on my heart!

Prayer Requests: That are team be united! That we learn each others strengths and weaknesses. That we help each other grow and encourage each other to rely on the Lord.

"Then he said to his disciples, 'The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few'" Matthew 9:37

You are all wonderful! Feel free to leave comments! Blessings for all of you! Much love.

In Christ,

Courtney

Tomorrow!

Hey everyone,

Tomorrow I leave to Orange County to meet my mission team and then off to Tokyo in two days! Immense prayer please! I am so excited to see what God is going to do! He is so good and faithful! I will be keeping everyone up to date on all the awesome things that are going to happen and I will let you know about how the training goes in Orange County.
I was reading Psalm 40 today and is was encouraging and perfect to prepare me for this next adventure. I would love for you to read it and be blessed by God's goodness and grace.
I'm so thankful that you are all part of my life!

Blessings,

In Christ,

Courtney

"For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain."

13 days!

I leave on to my next exciting adventure God has for me in 13 days. I will fly to Orange County, California and meet up with my team and have a few days of briefing. Then we head off to Tokyo! I am really excited and yet, it still seems so far off. I am already finished with my junior year of college and made it through my grueling finals, and now I am just spending two weeks in the OKC relaxing and preparing for my whirlwind of a summer.
Please continue praying for my team, the people of Japan, and me.
Pray that I use all this free time effectively and that I continue to spend time with the Lord each day.
Pray that I look at each day as an opportunity to share the Good News, whether here in Oklahoma or in Japan!

God is so good and all Glory goes to Him!

"Like cold water to a weary soul is good news from a distant land." -Proverbs 25:25

Thy Kingdom Come in the Land of the Rising Sun! Pt. 2

Hey all! (Notice I did not say y'all, I'm still a Northern Girl to the core..)

I just wanted to give you a quick update on my mission trip to Tokyo! I have less then a month till I leave and it seems like the time is flying by (especially once I am done with finals this week.) I am so excited to serve the Lord over there and I am so expectant of all the incredible things God is going to do!

Thanks to all who are supporting me financially and through prayer! God is so good and I am almost to 100% in my financial support! Only a couple hundred dollars to go. I know that the Lord will provide in the final push to full support because He is faithful!

Please continue to be in prayer for me, my team, and the people of Japan!
Some specific prayer points are:

1. That I be fully dependent on the Lord and allow him to move in his plan.
2. That I continue to re-learn and review all the Japanese that I have learned.
3. That the rest of my financial support would come in.
4. That financial support for my other team members would come in.
5. That my team be unified as a body when we all first meet.
6. That the hearts of the people that we will be coming in contact with in Japan be prepared and open to hearing God's love.
7. That God be the center of it all and above all, that he be glorified!

Thank you all again and be on the look out for further posts about all the wonderful things God is doing! Glory to him!!!

-Courtney