Konnichiwa! For those of you who might be unawares, I am preparing to go to Tokyo on a one-year mission trip with Campus Crusade for Christ. This past week I was in lovely Chicago, IL with 400 other STINTers from all over the U.S. to get trained in serving as a missionary in another country. We got to hear from some amazing speakers about the four “L”s of STINT: Love the Lord, Love your Team, Launch a Movement and Learn a New World. These will be our overall objectives as we do ministry in Japan.
The whole conference was incredibly encouraging. I’ve been spending the whole summer preparing to go to Tokyo, and I’ve focused so much energy on the preparation that it can be easy for me to forget that the culmination is actually going to be my return to Japan. This week reminded me of my commitment to God and to the Japanese people we will be going to reach out to and serve.
The conference also made the oncoming trip that much more real because I got to meet my team in person for the first time! We had been getting to know each other on Facebook up to this point, but that doesn’t really compare. Let me introduce you to the 2011-2012 Tokyo STINT Team:
From Left to Right:
Albert-Albert graduated this May from USCB with a degree in Chemical Engineering, giving him the valuable position on our team of being one of the few people who are good at math. He was originally the only guy on an otherwise all-girl team (more on that later). Albert is also one of our team leaders.
Christine-Another USCB recent grad. Christine got the pleasure of celebrating her birthday at our briefing conference, and we managed to light all her birthday candles without setting off a smoke alarm in the hotel room and incurring major fines. She is Japanese American, and she is shorter than I am, which makes me feel like we are already compatriots. (Short people gotta stick together).
Amanda-Amanda is my friend from ASU, who after much praying and prodding, was convinced to go on STINT with me. She is the only member of our team who has never been to Japan before (brave, no?) Amanda is an English major like me and she is addicted to all things Star Trek.
Nikki-Nikki got her BFA in theatre from Texas State University. She wants to work in television and film. Nikki almost didn’t make it to briefing, but God brought in 30% of her support in a week’s time in order to get here there. Yay God!
Kimiyo (Kimi)-Kimiyo was on my summer project team in 2009. So cool to get to work with her again! Kimi is the only re-STINTer on our team, meaning she spent the last year in Japan with Campus Crusade as well. Kimiyo is half-Japanese and 100% Texan and 100% USC Trojan.
Katie-Graduated from USCB with Christine and Albert. Katie’s parents were on staff with Campus Crusade, so she was born in Japan and lived there until she was 12 years old. Super cool that she’s coming back to share God’s word with her birthplace!
Me-Hiya. Did you notice I’m the only blonde on our team? I did.
Sarah-Sarah is also re-STINTing, but she spent the last year in East Asia. She decided to come to Japan after visiting her sister, who studies in Tokyo. She has a degree in Equestrian Science from a small school in Missouri and enjoys riding horses. Sarah is our other team leader for the year.
Kylan-Kylan graduated from Berkeley with degrees in Anthropology and Japanese Language and Literature. He studied abroad for a year in Japan before coming on 2009 summer project to Tokyo with Kimiyo and me. Kylan joined the team last minute after Kimi and I sent him a flurry of emails and phone calls when we realized we needed at least 2 guys to have a full STINT team.
This team is awesome, but we left the conference with some frustrating news: our paperwork for our visas got delayed, which pushes our departure date back 4-8 weeks. Not only do we want to see each other and get to Japan as soon as possible, we also want to make sure we’re in country before the Japanese semester starts in October. One of the best times to meet students and have outreaches is at the beginning of the semester, so we don’t want to miss this opportunity. Please PRAY PRAY PRAY that our paperwork gets processed supernaturally fast and we can leave for Japan quickly.
Also, I need to raise the rest of my support in order to leave for Tokyo in time. I still need to raise about $750/month, or roughly $9000 in order to be able to get on a plane to Tokyo. If you would like to help change the lives of Japanese students, please help support me financially and in prayer. The easiest way to give is at this website: https://give.ccci.org/give/View/0646366. I can take monthly gifts or single gifts to help with upfront costs. Any donation helps.
If you are praying for me, please pray for the following:
-Pray that our visa paperwork gets processed quickly
-Pray for all my support to come in, and for my team’s support to come in quickly
-Pray that my team remains strong in faith and encouraged during this waiting period, as we don’t know when we will be able to get our visas and go.
P.S. Those of you wondering about the title of this post may have already gathered that my team has 9 members, and 2 men. That’s right. We’re the fellowship. (For those of you less nerdy in my reading audience, “Rivendell” is a safe haven in the Lord of the Rings series where the Fellowship of the Ring is established.)
