Hello everyone!

Well to start out I should explain our outreach to Japan. We knew that God had called a team to go to Japan, but we had no idea where we would go, what we would do, nor had any contacts to meet up with. After lots of prayer we started to get a vision of our time in Japan. We knew that friendship would be a key to getting anywhere with the people of Japan, so we felt that the best thing to do would be to partner alongside an already established church and help build them up. We sent out a few e-mails to the small number of possible contacts and never heard back from almost any of them. Still we decided to move forward with what we felt God called us to do: go to Japan! As I wrote before, the day before we left God answered our prayers and sent us Pastor Curtis. He used to be a Ywammer and has a church in the city of Ichihara, in Chiba Japan.

We were on our way! When we got to the airport in Auckland, everything was going well until we got to the customs line. I gave my passport to the officer and he said in his very Kiwi way, "Aww yeah... umm sorry ta be the bearer of bad news, but your flight's been cancelled." So we spent the night in a hotel provided by the airlines and were set for a better and direct flight to Tokyo the next morning. When we got to the airport for some reason they didn't have my and another girl's name on the changed flights, so we had to get that settled and another girl had to buy a return ticket to her home in Korea in order to be allowed to leave NZ. It was a crazy departure be we all made it safe and sound to Japan.

Our first week of outreach in Japan has gone by in a flash. When I first arrived it felt as if I had been away from New Zealand ages, but the unfamiliar surroundings reminded me that I was new here. The main goal in our ministry was to help build up a church, and we had been in the most intense and longest times of intercession of my life. Since our arrival we have had the opportunity to really pray for breakthroughs in Japan. Pastor Curtis is in charge of three kindergartens that are supposed to be Christian schools. However, he as had little power to direct the school and not been allowed change the traditional ways of doing things in the Japanese culture. We have been going to these schools at night and praying for things to change, and God has shown himself faithful! There have been some important meetings for the school's future this week and Pastor Curtis was shocked at the progress and change, where there was so much opposition before he explained that they have been having the most progress he's seen in two years. Praise the Lord for his wisdom, he surely has sent us to this church and these people to us.

I have to go do some laundry today and so I am going to have to finish this quickly. Thanks for keep up with me and thank you so much for your prayers, they make such a difference. Love you all!