God is good!

The final meeting of our Bible study went well. Despite a few strange distractions, several ladies were able to open up a lot and share some of their most serious questions and struggles with the things they have studied in the Bible. Although we won't be formally meeting in that group again, we will be following up with them... and of course we know that God will continue to pursue them! Please keep praying that He would give them the faith and courage to believe and follow Him!

On Easter Sunday we hosted a brunch for everyone in our apartment building. Leading up to it we received 3 notes from people letting us know that they wouldn't be able to come. Even if no one had come, I would have been excited about those notes because people cared enough and were brave enough to write back in English to their foreign neighbors! That's a big thing! BUT people did come!! Even better :) We had one couple about our age and a young mother with her two kids. It was awesome to have them in our home and to be able to get to know them a little bit. God is continuing to give us new relationships within our building. It is cool to see that happening because it is something that we started praying before long before we ever stepped foot in Tokyo. God's plans are perfect, and He is faithful!! Please pray with us for these friendships we are making with our neighbors.. please pray that they will see Jesus in us.. that we will be bold.. and that their hearts will be soft, good soil for the Gospel!! The couple who came has invited us to have dinner with them on April 5. Please pray for us on that day!

This past week was also incredibly special because two of my little sisters came to Tokyo to visit for their Spring Break. We had so much fun together, and it was such an encouragement to me to be able to spend time with them. Here are some of my favorite pictures from their visit:

Courtney and Hillary playing soccer with Trent and his friends!

All of us in Shinjuku.

Some very fresh tuna at Tsujiki Fish Market (the largest fish market in the world!)

Sisters at Tokyo Tower

One of our "purikura" pictures.

I just can't tell you how much I have missed them and how wonderful it was to have them here. Already I miss them so much.. saying goodbye was sooo hard! But I am really thankful for the beautiful memories we made while they were here. What a precious time!

Thank you for reading, caring, encouraging, and praying. We love you!

PS: The cherry blossoms are blooming this week, so you can expect some really beautiful pictures soon!!!

5 changes in me

This week will be our "5-month-iversary" of living in Tokyo! Lately I have been reflecting on ways that I am different since moving here, so I will share some of them with you. These are not deep spiritual things, just funny things I have noticed...

1. All of my socks are filthy-looking. Trent's are the same. Believe me, I clean our floor and I do laundry regularly.. but walking around with no shoes on all the time just messes up your socks.. there's no avoiding it.
2. I used to completely hate tea, but now I love it! (Well, I love hot tea.. I'm not still not fond of iced or sweet tea.)
3. I have become an expert at converting US measures to metric measures, mostly thanks to cooking. I can tell you the number of grams in a cup of butter, pound of butter, tablespoon of butter.. I can convert grams to ounces in my head.. I can change Fahrenheit to Celsius for my convection oven. These are things I am teaching my students in 7th grade Math, so I guess I'm a little late on acquiring these skills, but better late than never!
4. "Close" has become a relative term. I thought everyone was crazy when they told me I would just "get used to" long train rides and long walks everywhere.. but they were right. Whereas 10 minutes in my car used to feel like forever, now an hour on a train flies by and if it's within a 30-minute walk, it's close!!
5. I have learned to live without TV, radio, and movies. That's not to say that we live a totally media-free existence now.. but so many of the things we used to depend on for entertainment are just not convenient or affordable now (i.e. $1.99 TV show-episodes on iTunes, $30.00 sub-titled DVDs, $20.00 movie tickets). So we live without them.. and ya know, it's kind of freeing :)

Tomorrow 2 of my sisters are coming to Tokyo to visit us over their Spring Break!! Will you please lift them up throughout Wednesday and Thursday as they are making the loooong trip here and adjusting to jet lag??? Also please pray that we will have a great time together and that their visit will be encouraging and refreshing for Trent and I! THANK YOU!!! (Maybe after their visit I will actually have some new pictures to share with you finally!!!!)

Love, Lindsey

PS: Our prayer requests and praises on the left hand side of the page have been updated!!!

semi-busy bees

Right now we are between our two busy seasons here in Tokyo (Christmas & summer), and as we have mentioned before, the universities are having their term break until the new school year starts in April. But don't worry, we're not bored :)

Last weekend we had an awesome volunteer team here from the great state of Texas. Wow, were they an encouragement! They shared so boldly and passionately with anyone who would listen! And God is faithful to His promises --"Whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows generously will also reap generously." (2 Corinthians 9:6) In just three days they saw 5 people profess faith in Christ! Thank you Lord!!

This week I made a huge batch of cupcakes and delivered them to some of our neighbors- some we knew already and others we only knew their names because they had replied to the Christmas cards we sent them. I knew it was risky trying to deliver them, knowing that I wouldn't be able to communicate very much.. but I tried! I got a variety of reactions.. one woman thought I was a new neighbor coming to introduce myself (which is customary here), and since I didn't know how to tell her otherwise I guess she still thinks that! A young mother looked completely awed to receive a present for no reason! An elderly lady just laughed her head off at me.. not exactly sure why. But the best was an older man who just moved in next door to us. He wouldn't answer the door when I rang the bell.. of course I had no idea what he was saying over the intercom.. so I just left the tin of cupcakes by his door with our business card. Well today he came over to tell me that someone had delivered this bag to his door by mistake, that it had my business card on it so it must be mine! It took forever for me to figure out how to tell him that it was ME who made the cupcakes for THEM! But finally I did, and he accepted them with a smile :)

It is difficult right now because of the language barrier, but we are really trying to come up with creative ways that we can reach out to the people in our apartment building and try to begin new relationships. Please pray that God would give Trent and I wisdom as to how we can minister to them! Also please pray that He would give us favor in their eyes, that they would see Him clearly in us, and ultimately that He would open their hearts to receive the Gospel. We're praying about showing the Jesus film in Japanese at our apartment Easter weekend and inviting everyone in our building. Will you pray with us that God would use this special holiday as a way for us to share the Truth with our neighbors??

We would also love for you to pray over some of the other activities we're involved in!

• We have been having a Bible study twice a month with some ladies who live in our area. A couple of the ladies have expressed real interest in becoming Christians, but they are very afraid of what it would mean for their families. We only have two more meetings left. Please pray that God would give them the faith and courage to follow Him whatever the cost!
• For a couple months Trent has been playing soccer with a group of guys every Saturday morning at a park near our house. Recently they invited him onto their university campus to have lunch with them - now he is going every week to spend time with them. In a few weeks we will be going to watch a concert they are putting on. Please pray that God would continue to deepen Trent's friendships with these guys and that He would give Trent opportunities to share about his faith with them.
• Trent also plays basketball with another group of guys on Wednesday nights. Several of them have been asking a lot of questions about why Trent is here and what he does. Please pray that God will give Trent boldness in witnessing to them!
• Although the campuses are closed for the break, the students of ICU and Tsuda are still very much on our hearts! We're already anxious to reunite with our friends and see how God has been working in their lives! Please pray for the students of these campuses, especially M-san from Tsuda and G-san from ICU.
• In April Trent and I will start working at a new university, Seikei. Please start praying with us now that God would prepare students there to follow Him with their whole hearts!
• And of course I am still homeschooling 4 days a week, so I would love for you to lift up that role of mine! Being a teacher takes an unending supply of wisdom, energy, and patience.. so please ask God to give me all three :)

Well wow, that is a lot of prayer requests! Please feel free to focus on just one or two that stick out to you.. or pick something different each day! Whatever you do, please know how thankful we are for you! It is through prayer that Japan will be reached with the Gospel! Thank you for being a part of it!!