My trip/travel blog has been updated with a quick rundown of our first week in Osaka! Expect little updates once a week to be posted THERE for the rest of our time in Japan. (the next five weeks!) Catch up, see some photos, and please keep praying for us and our time here!

The first team from our school heads out tomorrow to start their overseas outreach! They are headed for seven weeks in Malaysia. The rest of us start our various outreach trips this week as well. I'll be heading out for Japan in a week.

Its been really neat to see God provide over the past few days- many of us still needed funds to pay for outreach and God has done some amazing things.

Personally I was feeling a little down on Wednesday because I really wanted to give, but as it turned out, the money I had been sort of depending on hadn't come in yet. So, as I tend to do, I was getting a bit grumpy, and maybe a touch sassy with God, wondering why He wasn't "allowing me to be generous". (I'm a brat sometimes, I know, I talked with Him, we're cool- He loves me even when I'm a jerk.) I even had to borrow money to finish paying for my outreach.

So, after a day of feeling like an annoyed person, I woke up to a text from my mom letting me know that the check I had been waiting on? It came! The money I needed and more. So cool.


I'll keep everyone updated as I know details about my trip to Japan. Right now, we're looking at leaving in about a week (plane tickets are purchased!) and we are planning on doing children's and student ministry, teaching English classes and using the arts to minister to the people in Japan. The first two weeks we'll be at the YWAM base in Osaka, and then last four weeks we'll be staying with a fellow YWAMer's family in Tokyo. I'm really excited to see what God has in store for us as a team- I'm sure I will have amazing photos and great stories to share over the next 7 weeks!

As I'm editing and proofing the photos I'm about to post... I have a playlist of my "most-played" songs running on itunes.

Itunes, you're cute. These are all songs that were most played... like four years ago.
(but its kind of sweet and nostalgic. Bon Iver's For Emma, Forever Ago is all over it. John Mark McMillan's Carbon Ribs, Sun-drenched World by Joshua Radin... some Damien Rice and Jon Foreman. Okay- I'm kind of enjoying it.)
















So, today... Thursday... still in that strange state of jet-lag. Sleepy and wide awake at the same time. Orientation and lots to absorb. Lots of delicious food. (Australian food seems to be pretty top-notch, at least here at YWAM.)

I was able to FaceTime with BOTH of my sisters this morning for a few minutes. (one was about to fly out from Thailand, and the other was home in Ohio on the sofa.)

There have been moments today, and the last two days, where I have quickly wondered what this program and trip will entail for me, personally. I am by far, the oldest MAD student (MAD is the School of Music and Arts here on the YWAM base) and there are many 18 and 19 year olds. So I feel a touch of place- mostly, I'm sure, in my own head. Thankfully, there are some wonderful ladies here who I have already connected with, and I know, without a doubt, for whatever reason, God has placed me here.



For what exactly? Well, discovering that is half the adventure...