another miracle

That is a picture of our friend K who today accepted Christ with Audrey and I in the middle of Shibuya! All three of us were in tears.. what a special moment! Please pray for K, just as we have asked you to pray for T and Y this week! Pray for God's protection over her especially in these first few days/weeks when Satan will no doubt be trying to discourage and dishearten her! Pray that God will give her a desire to share with her friends and family from the beginning! Pray that God would be so near to her!! And please pray for Audrey and me as we begin meeting with her this coming week for discipleship!


"I revealed myself to those who did not ask for Me; I was found by those who did not seek Me. To a nation that did not call on My Name, I said, 'Here am I, here am I.'" ~ Isaiah 65:1


Please continue to lift up this nation. The Lord hears us and is answering our prayers!!

God is moving in Tokyo!

We are so excited to be able to tell you that tonight we have two new Japanese brothers in Christ!!

This afternoon our team was doing what we call "Five Minute English" outside Shinjuku station (the busiest station in Tokyo!). Basically we stand there holding signs and yelling, offering free five-minute English lessons to the people passing by on the street. We pray that through short conversations we are able to plant seeds and establish contacts with many Japanese. Today God gave us so much more than that!!

As Trent stood there yelling, God brought two young guys to him, Y and T. After joking around for a minute, the conversation turned to why we are in Japan. Trent shared that we love Japanese people and want to make friends here. He also said that we sometimes study the Bible together - that really intrigued them. One of the guys told Trent that his goal is to become very rich. Trent said that he used to feel the same way, but he realized that when he dies he will not be able to take anything with him. They agreed and were excited to hear about where Trent’s hope comes from! When they heard that we can all put our hope in Jesus and that He will never fail us, Y and T began discussing this concept in Japanese.

After hearing what it takes to be saved, they still seemed hesitant. Then the Holy Spirit spoke through Y, and he said, “If this is not true, then there is no risk. But if it is true, then we can be with Jesus in Heaven.” Then both prayed to receive Christ in Japanese, as Trent led them in English! They asked God for forgiveness of their sins and committed their lives to following Jesus!

As they left, they already seemed enthusiastic about telling their family and friends! Trent exchanged contact info with them, and they have set up a time to meet and begin studying the Bible together this week! When I (Lindsey) met them, Y said, “I feel like a new man!”

Trent will meet with Y and T this coming Sunday; in the mean time please pray often for Y and T!! Please pray that Satan will not succeed in attacking and discouraging these new believers! There is no question that he will be trying to do just that, but John 10:28 says, “I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one can snatch them out of my hand.” Y is 21 years old, and T is 27. They are roommates, so their coming to Christ together is particularly awesome since they are best friends! Please pray that they will be an encouragement to one another as they learn and grow in their new faith! Please pray that they will support each other in trials that may come! Also please ask God to raise these two men to be great men of faith in within their nation and culture! Ask that God would give them a desire to share their faith with others from the beginning! And please praise God for answering our prayers and drawing Japanese people to Himself!!!

We love you!! Thank you for praying!!

PS: Go check out this video on YouTube (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xdIiA2F05Kc) from our Thanksgiving party!!

Thanksgiving, Tokyo style

Last week we celebrated our first Thanksgiving away from home. Of course it couldn't be the same without our families, but God has given us a beautiful family here. Thank you for praying for us - we had a really special day! Our team had a traditional meal together and watched the Cowboy game from the previous week (downloaded from the internet). Everything was delicious and maybe even extra-special since we had to work so hard to find some of it!! How cute are those turkeys??

Then on Friday night our team hosted a Thanksgiving party for our Japanese friends. We made all of the traditional foods and talked about why we celebrate Thanksgiving. You can see that we had quite a turn out!! (That is not even the whole group!!) It was such a fun night, and many new friendships were formed! In the second picture you can see our cross-cultural Thanksgiving dinner in progress: eating American food.. but on the floor and with chopsticks!

Please continue to remember our Japanese friends in prayer. Many are interested and seeking to know more. Also please remember us and our team as we try each day to love them as God does!



Here are some things you can give thanks to God for with us:

• A smooth transition and great first month here in our new home.
• A comfortable apartment in a neighborhood we love.
• A neighbor who speaks English and her family's hospitality toward us.
• A team that has helped and encouraged us greatly!
• New friends at our target universities.
• Many chances to share the Gospel and some encouraging responses.
• Language teachers we love and good progress in learning so far.
• Our beautiful families back home and their love and support for us.
• All of the people in all of the churches who give to the IMB and allow us to be here!

And of course we're so thankful for each of you that prays on behalf of us and this nation! We love you! Happy Thanksgiving :)

exploration

Slowly but surely we are making our way to the many diverse "ekkis" (train stations) that Tokyo has to offer. Hopefully by the time people start visiting us we will have decent knowledge of what is where :) Now please enjoy a few pictures of our explorations...

This is Shibuya, home of the busiest crosswalk in the world or something. We took this picture in the middle of the daytime, so it really does not represent Shibuya well. Imagine like 5 times as many people and lots of lights and you'll have the night life of Tokyo: Shibuya.

This is Shinjuku, another really popular but maybe somewhat seedy area.

This is the view of Tokyo from a restaurant in Yokohama (the second largest city in Japan). Wow!!

Here we are with a Christmas tree in a very fancy hotel downtown, near Tokyo station. Christmas decorations went up the day after Halloween here since there is no Thanksgiving to look forward to.

This is the Tokyo skyline at dusk as captured by my brand new "keitai" (cell phone). Not the greatest quality, but you get it!!

Personally I can't believe we can call this place home! Crazy!

Go see more of our pictures at: http://picasaweb.google.com/trentandlindsey

another praise!!

You may remember us asking for your prayers for our friend T, who Audrey & I (Lindsey) shared Matthew 11:28-30 ("Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest..") with at a university. He said the verse brought peace to his heart! Well after that meeting, when Audrey invited him to study the Bible more with her, he said he was too busy.. Disappointing! BUT this week God changed his heart and he attended a Bible study with Audrey and some of her friends. What an answer to prayer! And not only did he attend, but Audrey said he was very engaged and asking many questions.. God is surely seeking after him!!

THANK YOU for praying about these requests that we share.. we know they are making a difference in the lives of our Japanese friends!!

Please continue to pray for T!!!!!

thank you

Thank you for praying about our dinner with our neighbors on Friday. We had a great time!! Although only Mrs. O spoke English well, we managed to have some great conversations with the family. Hopefully this is just the beginning of a strong friendship with them! Please continue to pray for our relationship with them!

prayer request update

We have an official dinner date set for this Friday night with our Engish-speaking friends, the O family! It is SO unusual for a Japanese person to invite you into their home, especially considering we are basically still strangers, so this is a really special opportunity! Who knows what God has planned??! The couple has an 18 year old son who will be there and will possibly be bringing some of his friends! We're so excited about these new relationships! Please pray about our dinner with them this Friday!!

foreign vs. familiar

Today we had our first Japanese lesson. The main thing I learned... Japanese is hard!! We have been working on learning the 2 basic alphabets (called Hiragana and Katakana), so that we can read our textbooks. Knowing those will also help in reading street signs, maps, and food labels. There is a third set of characters called Kanji (which comes from Chinese) that we would need to know in order to read anything complex, but there are literally thousands of those.. so we're not exactly there yet. Right now we're trying to learn both the basic writing system and common conversational words/phrases/questions/etc. Please pray for us as we are doing lots of memorizing.. pray that God will help us to grasp this new language.. pray that we will be brave in using what we learn.. and pray for patience! Studying is mentally draining, and it can be frustrating to feel like we are moving slowly! Check out Trent's awesome reading material:

In our new home where most everything is foreign, it's amazing how good it is to find something familiar! For instance, the other night I made Mexican food! I have to say, it was some of the best Mexican food I have ever tasted!! It's true what they say, that you don't really appreciate things until they are gone.

This weekend we went to a fall festival at Trent's focus university, ICU, with some friends that we made there a couple weeks ago. It was fun getting to know them a little more, and they also introduced us to more people on campus. Please pray for our new friendships with these girls and others that we meet at ICU! Here's a picture of all of us:

To see more pictures from the festival and other random things, go see our picture page: http://picasaweb.google.com/trentandlindsey. And for more ways to pray, read the right margin of the page! Thank you for reading and for praying! We love you!