I really can't believe it. We're already more than a week into Project. That's 20%. Ack!
Things seem to be going great though. The members of different teams and people in different apartments seem to be gelling well. Speaking of, let me explain real quick how campus teams are working:
The 15 students on our Project are split into two teams. Team 1, led by Kylan and Jess, goes to Hitotsubashi- a predominantly male campus where, ironically, there is more of a Christian female presence and practically no Christian male presence- on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, and Gakugei- another university fairly close-by where there is an established ministry of the "Joyful Cafe" English lunch- on Monday and Friday. Kylan and Jess are joined by Kimiyo, Andrew, Jeremy, Joe, and Josh.
Team 2, led by Matt and Emily, goes to International Christian University (ICU- seriously, they call it ICU). Don't be fooled by the name- even though there is a chapel service (non-mandatory) and an occasional worship event, the vaaaaaaaast majority of students and staff have no Christian affiliation. They're at ICU on Tuesday, Thursday and Friday. On Monday and Wednesday, they are at Gaidai (Tokyo University for Foreign Language Studies)- a more sensitive campus where they have to be pretty careful about how much attention they are drawing to themselves. Amy, Traci, Jack, Kyle, Sammy and Tim are also on this team.
Both teams have had some cool things happen in their first week on campus. On Team 1, Jeremy from Montana State, who played Lacrosse for his school, met the Lacrosse team at Hitotsubashi and even got to play with them for a while! What a great "in"! Team 2 got to meet a guy at Gaidai who is not a Christian but Matt got to invite him to Student Impact (JapanCCC's Campus Ministry- our "Cru") on Thursday night, where he got to watch people worship, hear a great talk on Christ's love, and have the Gospel shared with him by Kylan.
Besides these, there have been a lot of little stories about great conversations and fun friendships developing with Japanese students. It's really exciting. It's been fun being on the Director side of things, where though it's a bit of a bummer that I don't necessarily get to experience these stories too much myself, I get to work with Heather to help make this happen for our team, and encourage them as they experience hardcore, full-time ministry for the first time (for many of them).
OH! I wanted to ask you all to pray for a few people:
- JCCC Staff. They are full-time missionaries in a country where next to no one is Christian, so I'm sure it gets insanely lonely. But they are so on fire! I don't know how they do it, especially with practically no support base. They are wonderful people who have a passion for serving the Lord, and they encourage me. Please pray that they would be encouraged by our time here, and that those who are not at full support would reach their goal soon.
- Scott and Jen Thomson. Scott is the STINT (Short Term INTernational- CCC interns/staff who go overseas for a year or two) team leader. He has been the liaison for me/Heather with the JCCC staff and has been enormously helpful. He and Jen have really reached out to me and Heather to encourage us, and it's been such a blessing! Please pray blessings on them, that they would wrap up the year well (they go back to the US in July), and that they would find great fruit when they move on to be Campus Directors at UConn this next year.
K, I think that's it. Sorry there are no pictures on this post. I'll put some up later this week- yesterday was a really fun tourist day when we got to see some cool places and take fun pictures, so I'll be sure to share those with y'all! :)
God is good.
Sunday, May 31, 2009
Wednesday, May 27, 2009
Meet the Team!
Here's the awesome team we've been blessed with :)
Jeremy Barnekow
Jeremy's from Indiana and just graduated from Montana State with a degree in Chemical Engineering... Smart. Quietly awesome guy who loves to laugh more than one might initially expect. :) He's also one of my roommates. Co-leading prayer team, and is on campus team 1 (I'll explain in a different post)
Heather Brainerd
My Associate Project Director! :) Heather just graduated from USC as a History major with an honors in Multimedia Scholarship. She's one of my bestest friends, and one thing (out of many) we share is that we went on Tokyo Summer Project 07 together as student participants. She'll be interning with me at USC in the fall!
Kimi Brown
Kimi's about to be a Senior studying Theater at USC. She's half Japanese and really started to connect with her roots last year when she came on the 2 week Project. She's helping lead outreach team and is on campus team 1.
Sammy Cunningham
Sammy's gonna be a junior at USC. He was born in Bangkok but has grown up in Pasadena. Another smartie, he's studying mathematics. He's co-leading family team and is on campus team 2. He's also my other roommate.
Tim Daugherty
Tim's entering his sophomore year at Merced College doing general education. He's a very outgoing guy who's just so excited to be here. He's one of our two team journalers and is on campus team 2.
Joe Gudobba
Joe's gonna be a Junior at Central Michigan University (he's one of three chippewas on our team!) with an undecided major. He's a goofball who brings great joy and laughter to the team. Joe's co-leading the prayer team and is on campus team 1.
Andrew Guirguis
Andrew's gonna be a Junior at USC, studying Biomedical Engineering. Born in Egypt, high school in St. Louis. He's one of my AGO brothers who's just been growing in the Lord like crazy since getting to USC. Andrew's helping lead the family team and is on campus team 1.
Josh Jimenez
Josh just finished his freshman year at USC studying Engineering. He's been in the Bible study that Matt (you'll meet him in a sec) and I led all year. He's quiet but hilarious when he opens his mouth. It's fun having him! Josh is co-leading the outreach team and is on campus team 1.
Jess Jury
Jess is another Chippewa. She's gonna be a super-senior and is studying world religions. She's just the sweetest girl and brings a lot of encouragement to the team. She's co-leading campus team 1.
Traci Lawrimore
Traci's gonna be a sophomore at the University of South Carolina- the OTHER USC. She's just got the greatest southern drawl and is a really caring girl who loves to tell stories! She's co-leading the family team and is on campus team 2.
Emily Niemond
Emily's gonna be a sophomore at Eternity Bible College. She's visited the JCCC team before and is loving being back here with them. She brings a great, proactive attitude. She's helping with worship and is co-leading campus team 2.
Kyle Pash
Kyle's gonna be a junior and is our third representative from CMU. He loves theology but loves people more. He's got a great speaking voice. He's helping lead worship and is on the outreach team and campus team 2.
Matt Pfaff
Matt's one of my good friends from USC. He's gonna be a senior in mechanical engineering. Loves being with people and loves to play games. He's got a great head of red. He's co-leading campus team 2.
Kylan Schroeder
Kylan just graduated as a Japanese major from Cal. He's studied here for a year and speaks the language well. He's got a great understanding of a culture and is a huge asset to the team. He's co-leading campus team 1.
and I'm Gen :) But you should know that. Just in case you're a reader referred to my blog by someone else on the Project, I'm the Project Director. I graduated from USC in 08 as a Health Promotion and Disease Prevention major and I've been interning with Campus Crusade for the last year.
Thank you for your prayers- please keep 'em comin!
Jeremy Barnekow
Jeremy's from Indiana and just graduated from Montana State with a degree in Chemical Engineering... Smart. Quietly awesome guy who loves to laugh more than one might initially expect. :) He's also one of my roommates. Co-leading prayer team, and is on campus team 1 (I'll explain in a different post)
Heather Brainerd
My Associate Project Director! :) Heather just graduated from USC as a History major with an honors in Multimedia Scholarship. She's one of my bestest friends, and one thing (out of many) we share is that we went on Tokyo Summer Project 07 together as student participants. She'll be interning with me at USC in the fall!
Kimi Brown
Kimi's about to be a Senior studying Theater at USC. She's half Japanese and really started to connect with her roots last year when she came on the 2 week Project. She's helping lead outreach team and is on campus team 1.
Sammy Cunningham
Sammy's gonna be a junior at USC. He was born in Bangkok but has grown up in Pasadena. Another smartie, he's studying mathematics. He's co-leading family team and is on campus team 2. He's also my other roommate.
Tim Daugherty
Tim's entering his sophomore year at Merced College doing general education. He's a very outgoing guy who's just so excited to be here. He's one of our two team journalers and is on campus team 2.
Joe Gudobba
Joe's gonna be a Junior at Central Michigan University (he's one of three chippewas on our team!) with an undecided major. He's a goofball who brings great joy and laughter to the team. Joe's co-leading the prayer team and is on campus team 1.
Andrew Guirguis
Andrew's gonna be a Junior at USC, studying Biomedical Engineering. Born in Egypt, high school in St. Louis. He's one of my AGO brothers who's just been growing in the Lord like crazy since getting to USC. Andrew's helping lead the family team and is on campus team 1.
Josh Jimenez
Josh just finished his freshman year at USC studying Engineering. He's been in the Bible study that Matt (you'll meet him in a sec) and I led all year. He's quiet but hilarious when he opens his mouth. It's fun having him! Josh is co-leading the outreach team and is on campus team 1.
Jess Jury
Jess is another Chippewa. She's gonna be a super-senior and is studying world religions. She's just the sweetest girl and brings a lot of encouragement to the team. She's co-leading campus team 1.
Traci Lawrimore
Traci's gonna be a sophomore at the University of South Carolina- the OTHER USC. She's just got the greatest southern drawl and is a really caring girl who loves to tell stories! She's co-leading the family team and is on campus team 2.
Emily Niemond
Emily's gonna be a sophomore at Eternity Bible College. She's visited the JCCC team before and is loving being back here with them. She brings a great, proactive attitude. She's helping with worship and is co-leading campus team 2.
Kyle Pash
Kyle's gonna be a junior and is our third representative from CMU. He loves theology but loves people more. He's got a great speaking voice. He's helping lead worship and is on the outreach team and campus team 2.
Matt Pfaff
Matt's one of my good friends from USC. He's gonna be a senior in mechanical engineering. Loves being with people and loves to play games. He's got a great head of red. He's co-leading campus team 2.
Kylan Schroeder
Kylan just graduated as a Japanese major from Cal. He's studied here for a year and speaks the language well. He's got a great understanding of a culture and is a huge asset to the team. He's co-leading campus team 1.
and I'm Gen :) But you should know that. Just in case you're a reader referred to my blog by someone else on the Project, I'm the Project Director. I graduated from USC in 08 as a Health Promotion and Disease Prevention major and I've been interning with Campus Crusade for the last year.
Thank you for your prayers- please keep 'em comin!
Sunday, May 24, 2009
Made it!
We're here!
Praise God! - SERIOUSLY -
We show up to briefing and we're just under 20K short. We tell our team, everyone makes phone calls during every "free time" that we get. Two and a half days later, we're all on the plane. BAM.
We show up to briefing and Jack has forgotten his passport back home and so his mom overnights it to a staff person's parents' house, just 2 minutes from Vanguard where we're briefing. It's delivered to the wrong house by a brand-new mailman whose contact info the post office doesn't have yet so we can't find it. The staff girl goes around to neighbors and asks around- no passport. Friday morning rolls around, we're getting on a shuttle to LAX at 8, but at 645 she calls me with the good news. The story went something like this:
"My mom was going to go buy milk late last night but my dad stopped her and said 'we have enough for our morning coffee- I'll buy some more in the morning.' So he goes to buy milk at like 630, comes home and finds a woman picking snails off his plants. Turns out she's a neighbor who lives way down the street- they know each other a little bit, so they talk. She was there to pick snails off his plants to feed her turtle. Then suddenly she remembers and tells him that she has the package. She'd stuck in in the mailbox so that the mailman would take it back to the post office and resend. But it was early enough so she ran back, grabbed the package and brought it to my dad."
Thank God for hungry turtles! 1 hour before the shuttle, Jack got his passport.
The travel was long but the flight (on ANA- the airline my family flew to immigrate to America) was very pleasant and though we were nervous about immigration taking forever because of swine flu, we flew through it. We didn't have a way of contacting our Japanese staff person who was gonna meet us at our train station by the apartments, so we just told them we'd be there at 8, hoping that somehow we'd get from the airport to that station by somewhere near 8pm. We just buy a ticket for the first train available after we got through customs, which took us to Shinjuku where we got on a train that took us to Nakano where we got on a train that took us to Koenji. We step out of the station- 8:04pm! They were there with smiling faces just barely waiting for us.
Anyway, GOD IS GOOD. We're here, we're excited (though a little tired). I'll be updating as often as I can but keep us in your prayers!
I'll introduce the team in my next post.
Praise God! - SERIOUSLY -
We show up to briefing and we're just under 20K short. We tell our team, everyone makes phone calls during every "free time" that we get. Two and a half days later, we're all on the plane. BAM.
We show up to briefing and Jack has forgotten his passport back home and so his mom overnights it to a staff person's parents' house, just 2 minutes from Vanguard where we're briefing. It's delivered to the wrong house by a brand-new mailman whose contact info the post office doesn't have yet so we can't find it. The staff girl goes around to neighbors and asks around- no passport. Friday morning rolls around, we're getting on a shuttle to LAX at 8, but at 645 she calls me with the good news. The story went something like this:
"My mom was going to go buy milk late last night but my dad stopped her and said 'we have enough for our morning coffee- I'll buy some more in the morning.' So he goes to buy milk at like 630, comes home and finds a woman picking snails off his plants. Turns out she's a neighbor who lives way down the street- they know each other a little bit, so they talk. She was there to pick snails off his plants to feed her turtle. Then suddenly she remembers and tells him that she has the package. She'd stuck in in the mailbox so that the mailman would take it back to the post office and resend. But it was early enough so she ran back, grabbed the package and brought it to my dad."
Thank God for hungry turtles! 1 hour before the shuttle, Jack got his passport.
The travel was long but the flight (on ANA- the airline my family flew to immigrate to America) was very pleasant and though we were nervous about immigration taking forever because of swine flu, we flew through it. We didn't have a way of contacting our Japanese staff person who was gonna meet us at our train station by the apartments, so we just told them we'd be there at 8, hoping that somehow we'd get from the airport to that station by somewhere near 8pm. We just buy a ticket for the first train available after we got through customs, which took us to Shinjuku where we got on a train that took us to Nakano where we got on a train that took us to Koenji. We step out of the station- 8:04pm! They were there with smiling faces just barely waiting for us.
Anyway, GOD IS GOOD. We're here, we're excited (though a little tired). I'll be updating as often as I can but keep us in your prayers!
I'll introduce the team in my next post.
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