Intercession - Wednesday

God works in amazing ways! Today, He reminded me that He has a perfect plan for everything. He is so good! Club went better today, much more smoothly. I have one specific prayer request for today and I have a story to go along with it:

This week at Intercession, two of the high school girls taking our class are Japanese exchange students. Ayaka and Saori have only been in the country for 3 months and are leaving for Japan in about 2 weeks. These girls told me today that they took English in junior high and don't really understand a lot of what's going on. They also have not found anyone in the school or area (besides the other 2 exchange students) who speak Japanese. I can imagine that things must be really hard for them. Yesterday, I made a point of going and talking to them, using a few phrases I remembered in Japanese. I took Japanese class for the last year at Bellevue College, but I'm a little rusty on it, since I haven't had a class since December. These girls obviously missed home a lot. Their faces lit up whenever I said a simple phrase or even just one word in Japanese. They sit alone together and are separated from the group a lot because of the language barrier, but they are incredibly sweet and friendly girls.
Last night I was trying to think of some way to help them understand the gospel message we've been teaching. I looked through my Japanese books and found one titled, "Conversational Japanese for the Christian Worker." I seemed to recall that my mom bought this book for me a while back and I had never read it. Thank you, God! I thought as I snatched it off the shelf and started copying down phrases that outlined the message of Salvation. Today, I told Deborah, one of our other leaders, what I had found and she prayed for me. At lunch time I sat down next to the girls and brought a wordless book. I started out by asking if it was confusing. Ayaka and Saori looked as if they somewhat understood. Muzukashii?(Difficult?) I asked. They both smiled and nodded their heads and, as most Japanese girls I've met, clapped their hands in excitement.
So for the next 30 minutes, I pointed to the colors and used the hand motions they had been learning the last few days, along with the Japanese phrases, to explain what it was exactly they were learning, and that we were teaching the kids. The book even had questions like, "Would you like to ask Jesus to be your savior?" And it outlined a simple salvation prayer. So, although I don't know where these girls stand in their relationship with God, I now know that at least they have heard the gospel. I saw real understanding in their faces. After I went through all my phrases Saori said that it wasn't so confusing and Ayaka nodded in agreement. I sat with them for the last 20 minutes of lunch time and we had a mixed conversation of Japanese and English as we talked about our grades, ages, favorite Japanese movies, where they lived in Japan, etc... It was so great to be able to make them feel welcome and just be a friend to them. It really was one of the most amazing experiences I have ever had. God worked it out so well! I have a new readiness to take Japanese for another year starting in the Fall. I wasn't sure if I should take any more Japanese classes, because it wasn't very useful. Perhaps it's more useful than I had thought!

-Please pray for Ayaka and Saori that they would come to a saving knowledge of Christ, if they have not already received Him. And if they have, that they would be able to use what we have taught them, to share His love with others.
-Please pray that I would be able to reach out to them more this week and that vocab and grammar would come easily to my mind.
-And you can Praise the Lord that I took those language classes!
-Continue to pray for the clubs and the kids attending them.
-And pray for the students as they give their time and energy for God.

Intercession - Tuesday

It's a little difficult to get the hang of the schedule for these days, since the two we've had so far have been so different! In the morning, we evaluated the students on the Wordless Book and were somewhat surprised at some of the results. A lot of them had a hard time with explaining certain concepts and we got the feeling that many of these kids do not have a strong, grounded knowledge of their faith. We don't know for sure if all these kids are saved. I know that it's very easy to assume that kids in a program like this are born-again, but we never should.

-Please pray for us, as leaders to have answers to their questions, and for God to use us in the lives of these students, that they may come to saving knowledge of him, if they haven't believed.
-And if they have believed, that they would grow more in that knowledge.

Missions time went much more smoothly today. A new set of faces, the kids who taught as Club Coordinator(the songs and verse and such) during the club today. They seem to be getting the idea of what is expected of them, and most of them are rising to the challenge very well and with much enthusiasm! I am so impressed by their command of the materials in such a short time of training. I hope that some of them will consider attending CYIA (Christian Youth in Action) camp and/or teach in King County this summer.

My group for the clubs had some rocky places, but I only foresee them getting better and better as the week goes. Mostly, the reason they're not doing as well as they could is that they're not really putting a lot of time into it. I hope that today, they realized some of that. Now that they've actually taught some kids and seen what teaching the club is like, they can be better prepared.

-Pray that my fellow teachers and I would be able to clearly present these lessons to them, so that they can comprehend and be able to teach them to the children.
-Pray for the children that they would be open to our message tomorrow.
-Pray for the students to have a right heart attitude when approaching the teaching. That it wouldn't be a chore, but rather a joy.

Intercession - Monday

Thank you for your prayers! Today went very well. This experience was quite different than I expected, but as a whole, things went smoothly. It is an interesting thing to be teaching students who are only a few years younger than you. At first, I think they all thought I was in my mid-twenties, but then they found out I was just almost 19, and some of them had changed attitudes. We broke into groups after lunch, so each group could learn about their part of the 4-day club they were going to teach. I had the missionary story people. I was so intimidated going to the other classroom with 5 teenagers I had never met before. I had been in their shoes 3 times before, but not since 8th grade. We were running so far ahead of schedule that instead of the planned 1, I had them for almost 2 hours! 2 hours in which I was to explain what the missionary story was, the responsibilities connected to it, demonstrate what they would be teaching and the rest of the time was for them to study. I was pretty much done with my teaching in 30 minutes. Apparently, I didn't know that high school students don't like to sit and study for an hour and a half, after being in classes all day. Go figure, right?

-I will be in the same position tomorrow, with a different 5 students. Please pray for me to use the time wisely, and effectively.
-Pray for the students' comprehension. Again, this is tons of information. They'll be getting started on Wednesday's material before they even teach Tuesday's, tomorrow.
-Pray that I would be ready to answer any questions they may have for me.

And So, the Work Begins

My responsibilities as a Summer Missionary for Child Evangelism Fellowship(CEF) start tomorrow. Although really, my missions work hardly ever stops. Which is how it should be, in my mind.

Right now I am preparing to teach at Seattle Christian Schools this Monday-Friday. I will be working in a team, teaching around 20 high school students how to prepare lessons and teach children about God's love. During this week, the students will be teaching children at their school from Tuesday-Friday. I'm so excited for this week of teaching and learning! This is part of an awesome program at Seattle Christian called "Intercession", and the students have a wide choice of opportunities available to them. Our class is just one of many wonderful missions training that is going on this week through the school. As this is my spring break from Bellevue College, I can give Intercession my full attention; God worked it out so well!

-Please pray for the students at Seattle Christian, that they would have understanding and comprehension for these sessions. It will be a lot of information in a short amount of time.
-Pray for the children attending the club this week, that they would be open to the gospel we are presenting to them.
-And Pray for me and my fellow teachers, that we would be prepared, helpful, encouraging and knowledgable.


~Kaitie