Ministry in Osaka

Good day today! We totally had one of those exciting evangelising stories, and if you know me, well, you'll know that I hate evangelising. But today was so cool. We went to a place in town called "AmeraMura" which is supposedly fashioned after America and has tons of stores and young people. It is a huge area of streets just off the Saks Fifth Avenue of Osaka. We split off into pairs, I was with Sarah. We wandered around for a bit, looking for a coffeeshop figuring that it's easier to talk to someone who's just sitting there, rather than trying to stop someone walking around.

We went back to the Saks Fifth Avenue street and found a nice place whose coffee wasn't too expensive. We saw a table with a girl on one side and two on the other so we figured that would be a good spot to start. As we sat down, we said "Konnichiwa" to the girl on her own, who said Hi back and immediately moved over to talk to us, asking us where we were from. We sat with her for about 45 minutes, just getting to know each other a little bit. Her name is Ayako, she's 30 and she speaks fluent English. As soon as we started talking to her, I got this feeling that she was going to do a DTS in Kona someday. That God had his hand on her life and was pursuing her.

She told us how she had spent some time in London learning English, as well as in Australia, that she had done her degree in Commerce but wished that she'd changed it to Professional English because she would rather just know English really well. She had just got back from Australia and was kinda figuring out what to do next. That night we were going to "Funky Night" at the J-House church, so we invited to come meet us there. There focus is on 18-30's who want to practice their English as well as come to find out about God. We got her cell-phone number in order to be able to call to give directions.

We gave her a call, praying that she would be able to come, and just as we started the evening, she showed up. We hung out some more, chatting with her and some of the other Japanese there - they are so friendly. After eating together, we headed upstairs for the worship part of the service. She asked what was happening now, and I said that I thought it was like church. I asked her if she went to church or if she had a religion. She said, no, she was not Buddhist, or Muslim or Christian, but she did believe in God. This is generally rare in Japan, as they equate being Japanese with being either Buddhist or Shinto. I told her how I grew up in a Christian home, but it wasn't until I was 19 that I realised it was all about having a relationship with Jesus. She told me that she had a room-mate a while back who was a Christian and he had always told her about the Bible and what was in there. She said it was very interesting. Sadly, our conversation ended there as the service started.

After it was over, we didn't have a lot of time since she had to go meet her friends, but we are going to try to meet up with her on Sunday night. Please be praying that she opens the door to God in her life. I really feel like He is pursuing her and with her love of travel and English and meeting people, she would make a great missionary.

All in all, it was an exciting day, and I felt the most relaxed I have ever in evangelising. So PTL!

My birthday...

It was my 27th birthday yesterday, and it was actually a good day. We took the morning kinda slow as we got our bus tickets to Tokyo - we leave in 4 days! We are all excited to go to Tokyo. Being with the bigger team here in Osaka has been fun, but it is so much easier in a small group, and way less personality clashes too!

Anyway, we then went prayer-walking in Kyoto, first down-town and then at a Shinto shrine called Fushimi-Inari. It was a really good time of prayer. We then ate out for my birthday! Lots of fun.

Here are the pix:

in japan!

So, here are some pix of Japan. The top one is part of a shrine that we went to in Kyoto yesterday for prayer-walking. The next one is of some "fake" Geisha. People pay to be dressed up like a Geisha and they walk around town taking pictures.

Things have been good so far, though I am ready to go to Tokyo. It's hard with the bigger group and some stronger personalities.

busy...

The joy and elation of being engaged is carrying me through the craziness of my life right now. I just now finished my last assignment for UNISA, we leave for Japan in three days, I'm almost packed, John and I have almost finished our registry, oh and we've set a date: 16th December 2006. Start booking your tickets for the wedding of the century, as my friend called it! I can say that life is glorious and life is busy.

Check this out: our wedding website

And here are the promised pix:

The sunset as he proposed and the meal before:



The act of proposing and the response:



The ring:



The coolest thing about all this is that two days before we got engaged, we were approached by a School of Photography student who wanted us to be in a mock wedding for her photography project that week. And here are two of the pictures (you can see more at my flickr site):

we're engaged

WE'RE ENGAGED!

As of Friday 8th September, John and I are engaged! We went out for a wonderful crepe dinner and then he took me to "The End of the World" where the ocean crashes against the lava rocks and we watched the sunset. John told me that he wanted to spend the rest of his life watching sunsets with me and then he asked me to marry him. It was amazing and beautiful and perfect and I'm over the moon with joy and almost can't believe that we're getting married!

We will also be posting up pictures in the next week of the ring and other things!

I am so happy and overjoyed. I am already having so much fun looking at wedding magazines, and starting to think about details. It's so fun to be talking about honeymoon locations, wedding locations, bridesmaids/groomsmen, etc. Too much fun. I think it will be hard to be away from John during the majority of our engagement period, but I know that this is God's best for us right now and I have peace about it.

I'm too excited right now!