08/02/2002 09:52 AM - submitted by Phil It's been a busy couple days. Yesterday we spent the day in Kyoto and Osaka. Today we went to a hot spring and some other sites in the mountains. As a result, I'm pretty tired, as I'm sure we all are. Tomorrow should be mostly a free day so I'll try to write more. Please pray for our rest in these last couple days as we prepare to leave and things get hectic. Thanks! 08/07/2002 12:37 AM - submitted by Phil Praise God! I am sitting at LAX right now waiting for my flight back to St. Louis. Yesterday we had debriefing in Tokyo with all the other LIFE Ministries teams and as I sit here right now, I am already feeling the effects of re-entry. Often times I am quite an independent guy and enjoy my solitude. However, there are also many times when I struggle with loneliness, especially after a big emotional high with lots of friends. Case in point: leaving the church in Tokushima was sad, but I was okay because I was with my team and soon we were with LIFE staff and all the other Japan teams also coming back from emotional and spiritual high points. But now, here I sit, alone, with nothing to do. For the first time in a month, I am truly alone and it doesn't feel too great. As I look around at the business people on their cell phones, I find myself scared of returning to that life. For the last couple of days I've been seriously thinking of returning to Japan. The question is for how long. Another four week trip next year? Six weeks? Or maybe I should drop everything and just go to Japan for missions. Or maybe sign up for an English teaching program. When people have asked me whether I want to return to Japan, the above options quickly come out of my mouth. But when people ask me what I'm going to be doing when I return home, the answers don't come freely. What do I want to do? Return to work or not? Where should I live? When should I go back to Chicago? What will I do there? To be blatently honest, I'm scared. As I sit here on the floor at LAX, I find myself on the verge of tears. I don't know what's coming next and I don't know what to do. I don't know what to say about the summer to people that I meet, especially non-Christians like my Dad who will pick me up in St. Louis. All I can do is spend time in prayer and time in reflection about my summer so far. Please continue to pray for me this week. This is the week that may be the most difficult and the greatest opportunity for Satan to attack. Please pray that I would spend the time I need with God and the time I need to rest. On the lighter side, I am strongly encouraged by Poyao who told me and the LIFE staff that he is very interested in going to Japan to serve again next year, either as a team member or perhaps by leading a team of his own. Similarly, many of the people that I met from other summer teams are equally interested in returning for summer teams if not for other longer commitments. Praise God for all the work He has done this summer. Please pray for all the LIFE summer teams as we return home and prayerfully consider the next steps that God is calling us to. Also, continue to pray for the people of Japan in general, as well as the people who I have met this summer. My flight will be boarding soon so I must go. I will write more when I get home. Thanks to everyone, very very much! 08/07/2002 9:35 PM - submitted by Poyao Hi! I want to thank everyone for their support through prayer, encouragement and care. I'm in Taiwan right now eating lots of food, but I still really miss Japan. I think about all those people that we still need to reach and I want to just stay longer! So.... maybe next year I will lead a team or go with another team again. I know God is working in people's hearts at this very moment and the seeds we planted are starting to grow... it is difficult to wake up and not to see Tokushima every morning but that's all the more reason for us to continue praying for Japan. I hope all of you have been keeping updated with the pictures. Our last few days will be getting up soon with Fil's camera first and mine later. Our last days in Tokyo were for re-entry and they were just awesome. Just sharing about our experiences and testimony was great and others had great stories too. There is NOTHING more exciting than hearing about God's work and I hope you all feel that way too. Maybe next year you will also feel a burden to come to Japan and hopefully we'll have a team go from our church (TPC). This will not be our last posting here as I am sure more pictures will appear and we will update people with testimonies of God's blessings in Japan. So keep coming and God loves you! 08/07/2002 10:43 PM - submitted by Phil Hey everyone! I'm safely back in St. Louis (and more stable mentally). I spent the evening telling my parents about my trip and showing them my 300 or so picture slideshow. Now I have to begin to unpack and go through all my stuff. Hmmm... I wonder what I should do tomorrow. It turns out my dad is leaving for Taiwan tomorrow for a week! I wonder when I'm going to be able to get my car and go back to Chicago. Anyway, it's good to be back home and now I have to start working on a prayer letter and a formal slide presentation and editing the video footage. Hrmrmmm... much to do... And next week I have a wedding to go to and VBS at Bethel. Hopefully I can spend the rest of this week in St. Louis well! 08/12/2002 03:11 AM - submitted by Phil Hey everyone, I spent the last two days working on editing the video/slideshow from Japan. I've done the bulk of the work, but I have a feeling that the tedious stuff is just starting, particularly picking, timing and mixing the soundtrack as well as insterting and timing the subtitles and labels. Hopefully it will be almost done in a day or two. 08/14/2002 10:09 AM - submitted by Phil I have completed editing the video, however I still need to add in labels and subtitles. Hopefully I can do that in the next couple days and then I can hopefully put it on-line for everyone! 09/18/2002 10:35 AM - submitted by Phil Here is the short version of our Japan video. Right click to download. You will need a DivX 4 or newer codec from www.divx.com. Once installed, you can play the file in Windows Media Player. |