A New Source of Protein....

I entered my Intercultural Communication class today with a stomch full from SDR tacos and still plenty of coffee left over from the morning to find that my professor had brought us a little snack. As she spooned a few little brown balls into our mouths, she restrained from telling us what this little things were. As a class we chewed and talked about what we thought these things were. They had a very unique taste and we all agreed that they tasted a bit like a lake. We all finished chewing and the true identity of these brown balls were revealed. They were in fact silk worms, a common snack in some parts of China. Now I know that I can indeed stomach a silk worm if ever offered one.

I got all my paperwork and a schedule back from Japan this week. The plans turned out to be a bit different than I thought, but I'm excited. I'm going to be teaching Enghlish as an outreach for the Kaminoyama Bible Baptist Church in Kaminoyama Yamagata Japan. Also unlike I was expecting, I'll be going there alone. We weren't going to be able to get the required 72 hours of teaching time in for the three of us in one location, so we had to split up. Park is going to be teaching in a church right near Tokyo. I'm going to be in Kaminoyama which is a few hours northeast of Tokyo, and they still don't have a location for Anna yet. Pray that they will be able to get a location for her soon! I'm still hoping that they'll work out a way to have us in the same place, but we'll see...

I'm pretty excited about what I'm going to be doing at the church. The church currently is running a kindergarten class so I will be teaching them some English and the church is soon going to open registration for summer ESL classes. This is a way for the church to be involved with people in the community. I've been thinking a bit about my role and what my teaching is actually going to do in the long run and it made me see how important of a job it is. For the beginning at least, I'm going to be the representative of the church that these students will interact with. I'm only going to be there for two months. Right now I'm praying that God will use me as a means to connect my students with the local church in Kaminoyama and also that my Christian witness will be stong in my teaching and that I will be the aroma of Jesus Christ to my students.

I'm currently have over three times my goal in prayer support and I'm at 80% in my financial support...I'm psyched about this. It's all due May 10th. Please pray that the last 20% comes in on time. This is my first time going on a mission trip and it really has been a blessing to see the body of Christ come around me in prayer and support. I've been truly encouraged in the process and I feel as if I'm being sent off really well. Thanks!!!

Melissa

*Side note prayer request-I need to have the money for my first two school bill payments for July and August in my bank account before I leave so I'm looking for a little extra work to show up before then.

Please Pray!

We had a change of plans with some of the plans in Japan. The trip coordinators in Japan are working hard to get locations and teaching hours finalized for us. Please pray that God will give them guidance and that the plans will be set. We should have all our info by the end of the week!

Melissa

My Class

This is my English class at the Indo American Center. They're a good group of people. They're mostly from India, Pakistan, and Nepal (except the white girl in front...she's Ula my teaching partner) and they're in the highest level of English classes. We're working a lot now on refining their reading, writing, listening, and speaking skills. It's been a blast getting to know them this semester and I'm looking forward to being with them in the fall as well.

On another note...

Now is the time where my advisors at Moody are really wanting all of the details of our internships hammered out. We've been doing a lot of paperwork and stuff, but we're still missing a lot of the information they want on our internships. We still don't have dates, tickets, exact location and cirriculum set in stone yet. Theres a lot of ideas, but nothing quite certain. My teammates and I are in a period of waiting since WorldVenture is still waiting to hear from the field about all of this...and then the information will stream through quite a few people before it gets to us. Please be in prayer over this.

Also, praise the Lord! I got a large gift toward my trip this weekend and it put me at having 60% of my financial needs met! I am psyched about this. I still have a ways to go and only 19 days to get there. Please pray for this too.

Also, please pray that the Lord will be preparing us for this summer- that we will love well, teach well, and that we will be faithful in the duties He has given us.

Thanks,

Melissa

Time

4 weeks left of school. It's hard to believe....it's also hard to believe how much there is to do in those 4 weeks.

6 weeks from Saturday I'll be standing next to my best friend watching her get married.

56 days -If all goes according to plan, I 'll be getting a plane in 56 days to fly to Asia.

It is going to be an wonderfully eventful 2 months. Difficult and emotionally challenging may I add, but wonderful.

We're kind of at a standstill with the internship stuff. Haven't gotten tickets yet. Don't have dates, teaching sites/contexts, etc set in stone yet. Just waiting.

If you would, could you pray for these things? It would be nice to have things lined up soon so we can work on preparing.

Also, by May 10th Anna, Park, and I need to have 100% of our support in. I'm currently at 31%. Three weeks will fly by. Could you pray for this too?

We know it's all in the Lord's hands.

Thanks and blessings,

Melissa

WooHoo!

Just a week ago I was surprised to hear that I needed to raise $1000 dollars by about now and I was amazed to see how the Lord provided just shy of that amount by today. It was incredible. All throughout the week I had a variety of different people talk to me about my internship and then say that they wanted to support me prayerfully and financially. I even have one person tell me that they had been saving since the beginning of the school year for it. I was so encouraged this week to see God's work through the body of Christ and I feel blessed by all the support I'm going to have when we leave. Also, I had a goal of having two people pray for me every day of the week while I'm goin and I have almost double the prayer support that I'm looking for! Praise God!

Please be in prayer for....

The rest of the $3500 each of us need to raise to come in.

That we would know what level of student we will be teaching so we can plan accordingly and get the supplies we need before we leave. This may not seem too important, but it really is!

We will probably be buying plane tickets this week...it would be nice if we could find some cheap ones!

That the Lord will be preparing Anna, Park, and I for what He has for us this summer

Thanks!

Melissa