I'm done!

So we finished with TREK on June 27 but since then, I have been home resting and getting ready for SOAR South Texas (an MBMSI 10-day mission trip that will be held in my home church/conference). I want to apologize for not updating this earlier but I've been preoccupied with other things.
I will be leading the praise and worship times for SOAR with an awesome team of all either current Tabor students or Tabor alumni. We practiced for the first time altogether yesterday morning, and we were very pleased with how we meshed so well so fast. God definitely had His hand over the coming together of the group. And after practicing in the morning, we came back to my house for lunch, and about 20-30 minutes after lunch, I got a really bad pain in my stomach again, and this time it was as worse as the first night or worse, but it was definitely for a longer period of time, about 8 hours to be exact. It took me back to when our team was in Osaka, Japan at the Hirakata Christ Church and I had felt that pain for the first time. I went to the doctor and felt worse, so then my parents rushed me to the emergency room and they gave me a shot of strong pain killers and some white liquid substance to drink and it was supposed to numb my stomach and esophagus but it also numbed my mouth and throat, so it was kind of a weird feeling.
I'm saying all this to say that the enemy knows that something awesome is about to happen with the furthering of the kingdom of God and he's going to use anything he can to distract us from keeping focused. But as I was thinking in the emergency hospital room: God has big things planned for SOAR and I will stay focused on that. Notice that I said God has big things. I know that God is going to use more than me, more than the worship band, more than the leaders, He's going to use all of us together as the body of Christ for the furthering of His kingdom in South Texas and Northern Mexico.
TREK prepared me for life, not for the 6-month experience. TREK was filled with challenges, struggles, joys, pains, dancing (literally), laughter (a lot of that on our team), etc, and God used that to prepare for the path that's ahead of me. I know life is not always going to be good and uplifting, but if I just search for God, in the hard moments and especially in the good ones, because it's a lot harder to search for Him when it's all good, He will light the path for me and give me hope, faith and love for life.
You have no idea how much I am thankful for all of you who stayed with me throughout these past 6 months with prayer, financial help, reading the blog, sending me emails and letter, etc. God used all of those things for the furthering of His kingdom. It wasn't for me that you did all that, it was for Him and His glory.
If there's one challenge that I want to give you in life, it's this: May your life reflect that of Christ more and more every single day of your life.
Again, ARIGATO GOIZAIMAS (Japanese for thank you very much)!
Blessings upon blessing for you as your reflect Christ more and more everyday!

I'm back in North America!

On Monday, June 16, we left Japan and arrived in Abbotsford safe.......with some adventures, yet safe. And I say left and arrived on the same day because we left Japan at 12:35 pm on Monday, and arrived in Vancouver at 11:30 am on Monday..........time difference if you're confused.
Well, during debrief, I don't really have much time to blog, but I just wanted to let you know that I'm in Canada safe and sound. Thanks for all your prayers. Much love. Blessings.

This is my best friend Breanne typing now:

So toe socks are socks that shelter each and every little piggie, sweet and separated. Ahora estoy en el habitacion de mi chochera Joanna Chapa y Sarita, mi companera de nuestra nido, y Brianna, quien tiene el mismo nombre.

Today is the day...

Today is the day that we leave Japan.
It is insane how fast time has gone by, and as we had an awesome full day at Toyota Higashi Christ Church yesterday, we realized how close you can get to your brothers and sisters in Christ, even though you don't speak the same language. God has done so many things in, around, and through us while we've been in Japan for 3 1/2 months. We've had our trials, but we have definitely seen God's hand in everything.....and I mean everything!
Please pray as we travel for about 25 hours. Pray that we would stay healthy, enjoy each other's company, that our luggage may not cause too many problems and that it gets back to Canada safely, that we have divine appointments with people and that we will be able to share God's love everywhere we go, and most of all, pray that we learn how to trust God in everything....and I mean everything!
Blessings.
Sayonara.

In about 10 days...

In about 10 days, we'll be heading back to Abbotsford, BC, Canada for our 10 days of debrief and then finish our TREK experience on June 27. Even though we only have about 10 days left in Japan, it seems like we have about 3 weeks worth of things to do. But it's all jam packed into these next few days and I'm looking forward to seeing how God works when we just lay down our lives. At the end of the day, we are all tired and weary, but we are glad that we can be "going all out" these last few days that we have in Japan as the TREK team.
As we've talked about the end of our TREK experience coming closer and closer, a lot of us get really sad and almost teary. God placed our team together amazingly and we've had some amazing relationships develop within the group, the missionaries in Japan, and the Japanese people. All of us have learned something and have been stretched in more ways than one, and I thank God for that.
Please pray that these last few days in Japan will be more meaningful than we can ever imagine. Pray also that we may stay healthy and well rested. These days get longer and packed as we go on, so please pray that we also have patience with each other, ourselves, the missionaries, etc. Thank you for staying updated with me and we all truly appreciate the prayers.........more than you'll ever know!
Blessings.
Sayonara!

Last day in May...

Last day in May.......wow! Time has gone by so fast and it is not slowing down. We have 2 more weeks in Japan, and one of our team prayer requests has been to be exhausted, tired, and everything else that comes with that, everyday. We want to do as much as possible these next 2 weeks, so please pray for strength, patience, health, team unity, etc.
This weekend we are at a church in Fujigaoka, which is about 1 hour away. We are doing a children's program on Saturday and on Sunday we are attending the regular Sunday morning service and then after lunch we are in charge of a 1 hour and 10 minute special service for the church people and visitors. Please pray that our visit and ministering together may be of encouragement and a boost for the Fujigaoka church.
Because of our crazy schedule, I don't know how many times I'll be able to post up new blogs, but I ask that you please pray as we want to finish strong and tired at the same time.
I can't believe we only have 15 more days right now......but I know that God is still stirring up some hearts, so please pray that the hearts and lives that we come across may see The Light in our lives.
Arigato goizaimashita (thank you very much)!
Sayonara (good-bye)!
In Christ,
Joanna

Peru in Japan?!?!

I never thought that I would have to speak Spanish in Japan, much less translate it. And I never thought that I would have met a Peruvian, but God is so sneaky!
After practicing with the worship band Sunday morning and waiting for the service to start, Kisuna-san, a lady from the church and one of my English Bible class students, came running into the sanctuary saying, "Joanna-san, Joanna-san, come here!" So I quickly went over to where she was standing, and saw that there was a lady and 2 young girls, who clearly looked like they weren't Japanese. Kisuna-san then asked me to translate into Spanish for the lady. It was then that I met Peru in Japan.
Karina, the mother, came to the church because she was searching for God and searching for people to help her and her life situation that her family is in at the moment. Xiomara and Ayanai were both born in Japan and they know how to speak Japanese, so that helps Karina get along in Japan. During the worship time and testimony we stayed in the sanctuary, but during Laurence's message, I asked Karina to step out, into the foyer so that we could talk a bit more since she didn't understand a thing of what was going on. Laurence gives us his message translated into English for us, but that wouldn't have helped her since she doesn't speak English either.
As we were sitting outside in the foyer, Karina shared her life story with me. She explained why she was in Japan and the situation that her family is in at the present moment. The story is long, complicated and touchy so I'd rather not go into details, but please pray for wisdom on how to help her and her family and how much we and the church should do.
One of the things that Karina told me was that she knew God had her and her family in His hands and that He is in control right now and is in control of the future. It was hard to use my rusty Spanish, but like Karina said, "God had a reason for you being here the day that I came. If you wouldn't have been here, I would've come into the church, and right back out with not having talked to anyone." Karina made it clear to me that she was very appreciative of me helping her, and that she was able to see how God places people in her life for a reason.
Please join me in prayers for Karina, Xiomara, Ayanai, and Karina's husband, and their family situation.

MEDIA FAST AND MID-TERM RETREAT

This past week, our team decided that we should do a media/internet/email/facebook/etc fast. We decided that the two main reasons why we were doing this fast was to grow closer as a team, by not retreating to our laptops, or even feel like we had to respond to people back home. We get so distracted with so many things, and by no means are those bad things, like talking to people from home, but I encouraged the team to think about how much "quality time" we spend with each other and with God. I also encouraged them in this telling them that we only really have here and now, we don't have tomorrow or next month or next year promised, we only have right now.

I have to admit, the fast was hard for me. It was hard for mostly everyone on the team. A little harder for some more than others, but none the less, it was hard and challenging. The reason it was hard for me was because there were some things that were happening at home that I had no clue on how they were going, and it hurt not knowing how things were going. But God brought us threw and drew us closer to Him and to each other. We had some really good conversations within our team and I thank God for the week of being intentional with our time together.

For our "mid-term retreat," we stayed here in Toyota for the most part. We did go sightseeing to different places but we slept in our own beds in our house. The people that attended the retreat were the Hieberts, our team, Sean, Andrea and Wendy (Sean, Andrea and Wendy are in Japan with MBMSI, teaching English as a Second Language), and Katie (a friend of the Hieberts who is from Ontario, Canada). We all shared our life stories with each other at different times throughout the 4 days. I love hearing peoples stories and how they got to where they are at right now that I know them. I love getting to know people at a deeper level and that definitely happened this past weekend. God works in our lives, and it's not until we share it with people, that we see how God works in amazing ways in everyone's life!
God is good...........all the time.
All the time...........God is good.

Professional recording studio

So this past Friday morning, Laurence walked in with a proposal. He told us that Mori Yuri, the most famous Christian artist in Japan, wanted for him to help her with the pronunciation in an English song that she was recording, but he had no time to go, so he asked us. And of course, I wanted to go! So did Simone, so we both headed to Nagoya by train to meet Mr. Oka, Mori's manager, at the station. Both Mori and Ken (Mr. Oka said we could call him Ken) were very nice people and very easy to work with.
As we walked out of the train station, Ken walked us to a building that didn't look like it would be a place where only professionals record. We had to get "buzzed" in through an intercom, and once we got upstairs and into the actual recording studio part of the building, I was going "googoo gaga" over the studio. Once I walked in, it definitely looked like a professional recording studio.
Mori handed both Simone and I an 11-page booklet of the song she was going to record. She sung and recorded phrase by phrase, stopping after each one to ask us for suggestions and corrections with the English and her pronunciation. I have to admit, I LOVED IT! I had never really helped a professional artist record a song and not just that, but correct them. It was a little different than what I've done before, but it was so awesome!
After she was done recording, she sat down at talked with us for a bit and the first thing that she told us when she sat down was, "Thank you for being a part of spreading God's glory to the Japanese people!" I had not thought about this in that way. When she said that, I was reminded of how everything we do, is to point to God and His glory.
Here is a picture of me, Mori and Simone.