Update on Ya-san

So to give you an update on Ya-san...it went really well!!!! Thanks for your prayers!!! We had lunch at a nice lunch buffet, then went to her house to go deeper in our conversations about Jesus. I had to leave after 2 hours and I thought that would be plenty of time, but turns out she wanted to talk more, and so my coworker stayed another 40 minutes after to talk to her about Jesus! It was so great. The whole time I thought, wow God totally set this up! My coworker offered to lead her to the Lord to become a new creation in Him, all in Korean, but Ya-san said not yet. A typical Japanese answer :) But the whole thing went so well, thank you really for praying! Ya-san has called me multiple times since wanting to meet with me, and when we meet we strictly do Jesus talk/study hehe, so I'm so thankful, but our schedules haven't been able to match up!! She is moving at the end of this month to a new place, so we said that we would meet starting next month, except that is when the summer is in full swing with 30+ interns and volunteer teams coming and going that I am not sure when I will be able to meet her. Please pray that God will arrange our schedules so that we can meet again! Thank you!!

Something from the book of Daniel:

"'As soon as you began to pray, an answer was given, which I have come to tell you, for you are highly esteemed. Therefore, consider the message and understand the vision.'" (Daniel 9:23)

This verse made me sit in awe and wonder. God considered Daniel "highly esteemed" that his prayer was answered right away and made clear to him. It just makes me wonder how God views me. Yes of course, I know His love for me is unconditional, but does he view me with "high esteem"? Holy cow, I doubt that. Daniel was so faithful to God for all his life. I use the excuse of my sin as a crutch, but doesn't the Bible say that "if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!" (2 Corinthians 5:17) and that "we can do everything through him who gives me strength" (Philippians 4:13)?? Man Sonya, buck up and be a REAL woman!!

Prayer Request

Hello :) I have a prayer request!

Tomorrow, I am meeting Ya-san with a coworker for our first official Bible Study! [Some background information about her: She is past my parents' age, is Korean, has lived in Japan for about 40 years now, and lives in a very expensive area.] I am a little nervous for our meeting actually because Ya-san is very well off (financially) and the first time I met her, I was completely out of my zone, and I believe I made some rather embarrassing mistakes, which I will not share here :) (run on sentence much?). I don't think I was ever this nervous about things like this, but in Japan, your outward appearance is so important, like SO important, and the culture here can be very formal already, that it just makes me nervous...coupled with the fact that I speak to her in my so so Korean, and I don't know how to handle such huge age gap when I am "teaching" her things...So well, she has expressed a strong interest in learning English specifically and the Bible some as well, but her English ability is low and I'm not sure how strong her interest in the Bible is. Please pray for her heart to be open, for there to be good conversations amongst ourselves.

Sorry if I had lots of run on sentences! I need to sleeeep :) Thanks for your prayers!

New Friends and Reconnecting with Old Friends

Yayy!! All of a sudden, new people and people I haven't heard from in a long time are contacting me!

An older Korean lady heard about me and wants to meet me for Bible Study. She said she has always wanted to study the Bible yet hadn't been able to till now. Please pray for her and our 1st meeting! We'll call her Ya-san :)

K-san is someone I met with once a month for Bible Study until December. She said she would be too busy until the end of February preparing for an important exam, and that she would contact me later when it was all over. Well, it's the end of February and guess what? She kept her word and she emailed me!! Yay!!! Gonna meet up with her March 4. I'm so excited! Please pray for K-san as well that she will find what she needs in the Lord!

I'm meeting with an old friend from the U.S. who turns out is living here as well!