arod828's Xanga

Goodbye Xanga

Fri, 29 Feb 2008 08:11:35 GMT

I am officially finished with updating this.

However, you can visit my blog at andymsgf.com.

It's been fun.

Funny

Sat, 02 Feb 2008 11:50:35 GMT

You know how sometimes when you do are doing a quite time you sometimes
have a temptation to stop doing it and do something more "useful"? Well, this
happened to me the other night.

I was in my bed. Reading Matthew. Good stuff. But then I saw it. There it was,
on my desk, begging to be used. It was screaming for me to put down the Bible
and do something useful. And I must confess that I did. I put down my bible,
walked to my desk, got it out, and began ................
................
..............
..............

FLOSSING MY TEETH!!!

January Update

Wed, 30 Jan 2008 10:57:49 GMT

こんいちは
(Konnichiwa)

Well, I am in Japan!! Praise God! Thank you so much to all of you
for helping get here. I am beginning to settle into my room. It is
TINY!!! It is about the size of a walk in closet!! At least it has
heat because it does get quite cold here. Right now I am living in
something like a dormitory, but soon I will be moving into a small
apartment. I get around town on a bicycle, and I am beginning to get
a feel for the city. I have a grocery store 200 yards from my room,
and department-type stores are only about 5 minutes away. If I really
want to treat myself, there is a Starbucks about 10-12 minutes away.
I apologize for not having any personal pictures, but my camera has
been broken. I just got a new one, and the next update will certainly
have pictures of my place. In the mean time, I am working on a
website/blog/online-photo album that I can update regularly. When I
get this up and running I will let you know.

Learning Japanese

If our team hopes to evangelize among the Japanese people, it is
imperative that we become fluent in Japanese. So I have started
language school at The Aichi Center for Japanese Studies. They have a
very respected
school and always have a diverse group of students from many
different countries. If you want you can click here
[http://cts.vresp.com/c/?MustardSeedGlobalFel/6671683044/TEST/c66bd076aa]
and learn about the school and its programs.

I am in class from 9 in the morning to 2:30 in the afternoon. I also
spend between 3 and 4 hours each day studying and reviewing the
material. It is very, very difficult! In fact, I feel that I should
be studying RIGHT NOW!!!! We will have to learn the Kanji as well
as the Japanese alphabets. Kanji are borrowed Chinese symbols that each have different
meaning. Kanji is just one of the forms of writing in Japanese.
There are also 2 different alphabets to spell out words (notice the
word "konnichiwa" at the very top). Learning all of these, the
vocabulary, and the grammar is quite overwhelming for all of us. We
could use your prayers.

Story

A couple nights ago I was studying in the lounge of my "dorm," and I
met a guy named Dan. Dan is an Australian student who dressed all in
black and spoke with colorful language. He asked me why I was
studying Japanese, and I told him that I was here to teach the
Japanese people about what it means to follow Jesus. He went on to
tell me why can't stand Christians, particularly the ones who try to
convert others to Christianity. This is what he said. "The very
reason I came to Japan is because there are NO Christians here!"

I told him I came for the very same reason! We went on to have a
great conversation, but he made a great point. If you want to go
somewhere the odds of you coming in contact with a Christian is next
to ZERO, Japan is the place. This conversation was a confirmation to
me that we are indeed in the right place.

Monday, January 28, 2008

Mon, 28 Jan 2008 07:02:59 GMT

What ever happened to this thing?

Confession

Fri, 09 Nov 2007 23:30:27 GMT

It's a sad thing really.
I'm almost embarrassed to admit it.
But I am absolutely gitty about Garth Brooks being back in concert, and thoroughly disappointed that I will not be able to see him live in person.

For those of you that don't know, Garth is coming out of retirement for only a 9 concert tour in Kansas City, MO. He has already done 3, I think, and his last one is Wednesday November the 14th.

I am a poor missionary living in California, so I obviously will not be able to make any of the shows. However, I have spent hours the past couple days looking for youtube videos of the concerts and reading on blogs and other web sites how the concerts were, what his set list has been, and if he's still got what used to. From what I have seen and read, he does!

Hundreds of movie theaters around the country are going to simulcast his last concert live and then have an encore presentation of it the night after. I may be the only one at the theater here in Valencia, CA (nice suburb of LA), but you can bet your bottom that I'll be there. I may have even gone both nights, but Thursday I will be in Cincinnati with my team.

People here think I'm crazy. Most of you do as well, probably! But I don't care! Garth's back, BABY! And I'm not gonna miss it. Now I need to go check for new youtube videos!!

http://youtube.com/watch?v=PZf0ct5RY00

Check out his opening!

Andy's October 2007 MSGF Update

Sat, 27 Oct 2007 17:11:11 GMT

Dear Friends,

Howdy! Thank you so much for your continued interest in my life andministry. My
time of training in Los Angeles with our team is coming to a quick close, and in
just over 2 months I will be leaving for Japan. In this update I want to give a little
information about what our team has been doing and what my next few months will look like.
Again, feel free to forward this on to anyone who is interested in our
work, my life or urban church planting in Japan.

Training in Los Angeles

Life as a cross-cultural missionary seems to chew up and spit out even the best missionaries.
The average length of time that a person stays a missionary, even for those who committed
long term, is around 1.5 years! Additionally, one study has shown that the majority of
cross-cultural missionaries will at some point in their life develop a psychological
disorder because of stress. Does this surprise you? It
was surprising to me! These statistics seem to say that most
missionaries quit less than two years after they arrive and that those
who stay are likely to end up crazy for doing so! And this doesn't
even talk about being successful as a missionary--merely survival.

The statistics for the number of missionaries who actually accomplish the goals they
set out to meet are abysmally small. Essentially,
statistics show that what we are setting out to do has a high chance
of failure, personal pain and relational strife.

For this reason our team has placed a very high value on preparation.
We are convinced that the harder we train, the more likely we are to
succeed in this endeavor. That has meant meeting with veteran
missionaries for training and council (specifically the members of our
advisory board), lots and lots of reading about ministry, missions and
personal development, living in community and serving with our team
and many other activities designed to prepare us for missionary life.
For the last 3 months we have focused specifically on becoming the
kind of individuals and community that has a strong foundation and can
weather the storms that await us in Japan.

I believe that this time has been a success and that our team is ready
to join together and carry out the vision of establishing
Christ-centered communities in the major urban areas of Japan. Please
continue to pray for us as we leave this time of focused training to
begin the process of moving to Japan and immerse ourselves in our
first major challenge--mastering the Japanese language.

Fires & Fun

Some of you may have heard of the raging wild fires taking place out
here in Southern California. I've been asked if they are close to
where I live, and the answer is YES! While the family I am living
with did not have to evacuate, many of our friends did have to. They
seem to be under control now, so we are safe at the moment!

I still haven't been to a beach yet, but the waters are too cold now
anyway. I am having a great time here, however. Besides just
enjoying the time with our team, I find other ways to have a great
time here. I am, of course still playing baseball every week, and
while our team is not doing the best, I am having a blast and playing
well. Occasionally I will also go out with other friends in the area
and visit Hollywood, Pasadena, Burbank, or Santa Monica. There is
plenty to do here, and I am never bored.

Upcoming Months

Our team will continue to train in Los Angeles until November 15th
when we go to the National Missionary Convention. After the
convention is over I will travel back home to Texas. I will spend the
rest of November and all of December visiting supporting churches and
individuals in order to strengthen our relationship. I will also be
trying to connect with potential new supporters in order to raise the
final amount I need. Lastly, from the middle of December to the first
week of January I will be visiting my family and saying goodbye, as
our plan is to leave the first week of January 2008.

Prayer Requests

• Pray for God to cement the lessons we have learned during our time
of training. Pray that God would make us useful tools in his hands.

• Pray for our visa situation. We are trying to obtain religious
worker visas from Japan, but there are some substantial obstacles to
our organization obtaining these. We have made substantial progress
since our last update, but we still need your prayers.

• Pray for our support needs. Pray that God would stir the hearts of
people and churches to partner with us in establishing new
Christ-centered communities in Japan.

Support Progress

Thank you so much to all of you who have given to help with one-time
costs. I have raised 100% of my pre-field needs, but our team as a
whole still needs around $70,000 before we can all go.

I have currently received commitments totaling 85% of the total
monthly costs needed for my first 18 months of language school and
cultural acquisition in Tokyo. I still have to raise $400 more in
monthly commitments.

I AM ALMOST THERE!! To be at 100% by next month's update I am looking
for:

3 commitments of $25/month

3 commitments of $50/month

1 commitment of $75/month

1 commitment of $100/month

COULD YOU BE ONE OF THESE? If you are not yet a financial supporter
of this ministry and would like to be, please contact me at
andy@msgf.com. Your contribution will go directly to helping me get
to and minister in Japan. Thank you so much for your prayers and
support.

Andy's MSGF Update August 2007

Thu, 26 Jul 2007 22:43:53 GMT

Hello dear friends! I know it is bit early to recap everything that’s happened in July, but there are a couple reasons why I am writing the update now. One, I have nothing else to do right now. Two, nothing significant is going to happen in the next week (hopefully!). WHY, you might ask? Because I am recovering from my hernia surgery!!
Not too many people are excited about surgery, but earlier today I went under the knife to have my inguinal hernia repaired. The past couple updates I have asked for prayers so that I could get it taken care of cheaply since I don’t have insurance. God has answered your prayers. Thank you for praying. My sending church is McKinney Memorial Bible Church in Fort Worth, Texas, and the lady on the missions committee who is in charge of missionary care just so happens to have a husband who is a general surgeon. ☺ God is good! So much thanks goes to Dr. Norman who not only did the surgery for free, but also called the hospital and anesthesiologist and got them to do the operation free of charge.   Now I am at a family friend’s house in Fort Worth recovering for a few days. I will leave to go home in Pipe Creek on Sunday and stay there recovering until the beginning of August. Right now it is pretty painful when I move, so I am lying still in a large bed with my computer, a few good books, a TV with many movies, and a bottle of Vicodin as needed. After recovering I will fly out to Las Angeles and join the rest of our team as we continue our training.

The rest of July was spent in beautiful Colorado Springs at Missionary Training International. Our whole team spent 3 weeks there “learning how to be missionaries.” We were able to spend focused time on the make and break issues for missionaries. Among other things, we learned about dealing with cultural differences, stress on the field, healthy conflict resolution, spiritual vitality, family/singles issues, etc. One of the particular issues I thought was very helpful is how it is vital that missionaries aggressively pursue burnout avoidance. That is a fancy was of saying that Sabbath, rest, and even vacation are needed for a missionary. The “classes” were good in and of themselves, but what made our time there great was the fact that we were able to all of it in community. It was great to spend quality time with the whole team, especially being able to play with the four kids on the team. Except for the fact that there was a flu going around that just about everybody got, it was a wonderful time for all. (I happened to be the one person on our whole team, kids included, not to get sick – I kinda felt bad for them all!)

That’s about all going on these days. I wish there was a way I could let all of you how much you have meant to me. I I am attaching a couple pictures from our time at MTI. One is a picture of me up on some mountain and the second is a picture of our whole team the last day of MTI.

PRAYER POINTS:
•    Praise God that he provided the opportunity for me to receive the surgery. He really does answer prayers, and he is worthy to be praised.
•    Pray for a quick recovery and that the pain would be as minimal as possible.
•    Pray for the support raising efforts of our whole team. We are committed to seeing disciples made and churches planted in Tokyo, and the simple fact is that it is going to take proactive sacrifice on behalf of churches and Christians here to get the job done.
•    Pray that God would be preparing the hearts of the lost souls in Tokyo. Pray that they would realize that no level of financial success will ever bring fulfillment in life.
•    Pray that every day our team will actively pursue knowing God more intimately as we live in assurance that God truly desires to do life with us.

MSGF Update #2

Mon, 02 Jul 2007 14:08:02 GMT

LOOKING BACK
I never though support-raising could be so fun! June was my last extended stay in Texas before our team leaves for Japan. It has indeed been very busy and quite enjoyable. I spent this past month traveling and meeting with churches and small groups and Sunday School classes and individuals sharing with them the vision of Mustard Seed Global Fellowship – namely, to establish Christ-centered communities in the unreached urban areas of the world, starting in Tokyo. I think I have been at a different church just about every Sunday, and sometimes I would drive from one church to another! Yet as many times as I have had to speak about Mustard Seed, I leave each time more excited about what God is going to do.

Nothing has encouraged me more this month than seeing the sacrifice and generosity of churches and faithful followers of Christ. It is as if they actually believe that fulfilling the Great Commission is not just for those who move overseas. I have noticed that when people understand that their role in sending is just as vital as those who are going their giving no longer is an obligation to them, but a privilege and exciting.

Yet, as enjoyable as it has been, it has been equally difficult. It is not an easy task to raise support to plant churches in one of the most expensive cities in the world. And certainly not every church, group, or individuals has shown equal interest in what we are doing. But I have not forgotten what Chris DeWelt, one of our Advisory Board members, once told me. “Never be ashamed to ask God’s people, for God’s money, to do God’s work, for God’s glory.”

LOOKING FORWARD
I arrived in Colorado Springs today, and I will begin MTI (Missionary Training International) tomorrow. I am looking forward to the training that we are going to receive, and I am also looking forward to living in Colorado Springs for a few weeks! But what I am looking forward to the most is finally being all together as a team. I cannot think of a group of missionaries that I would rather serve alongside.

LOOKING UP
By the way, WE NEED PRAYER!! Could you help us out this month by praying for myself and our team? Here are some specifics:

- Pray that financial support will continue to come in. I have around 30% of my 1st year’s budget of $50,000 raised in donations and commitments. Obviously, much more needs to be raised.
- Pray that during our time at MTI we would all grow closer to each other and to God.
- Continue to pray that God would provide a way for me to have hernia surgery, as it will not be covered on my future insurance.
- Please pray for the families on our team who have young children (the Ackermans, the Parsons’, and the Chases). All the relocating we will be doing in the next few months will not be too hard for me, but it will be difficult for them to understand what in the world is going on!

ALSO – our website is finally up. You should check it out. http://www.msgf.com

MSGF Prayer Update

Fri, 01 Jun 2007 20:53:42 GMT

This is a copy of the monthly email that I will be sending out and I prepare for and begin ministry in Japan. If you would like to be added to the mailing list you can let me know here or at andy@msgf dot com.

Greetings! Soon and very soon, I am heading off to Japan. As you probably know, I just graduated from Ozark Christian College, and I have joined an organization called Mustard Seed Global Fellowship. Myself, along with 9 other OCC alumni plan on heading to Tokyo, Japan around January to establish Christ-centered communities throughout the city. This is no short-term trip. We have all committed to being there for the next 7 years.

This will be the first of what will hopefully be many updates, as I keep you informed about what God is doing in my life as I prepare for and begin ministry in Japan. If you would rather not receive these monthly updates, or if I have your wrong email address please let me know.

While my pace of life has slowed down significantly since graduating, I still have been plenty busy. One of the reasons Tokyo has remained the largest unreached city in the world is because it is so expensive to live there. This has kept many missionaries from going there and staying long enough to make an impact. We refuse to let this hindrance keep up from doing the work God has called us to do. However, this means that the amount of support we have to raise is higher than most missionaries. Thus, I spent the last part of May and will be spending most of June traveling to different places throughout Texas meeting with churches and individuals in order to build a support team. When I am not writing e-mails, making calls, doing presentations, etc, I am trying to spend as much time with my family.

Once July hits our whole team will be moving to Colorado Springs for 3 weeks as we attend Missionary Training International (MTI). MTI will help prepare for life on the mission field by teaching cultural acquisition and team building. After MTI we will all move to the Los Angeles area, and that will be our “base of operations.” While in LA we will continue team building and training as we also start learning the fundamentals of the Japanese language! Undoubtedly, we will also use this time to continue our support raising.

I look forward to keeping you updated with our team and what God is doing in and through us. If you ever have any further questions about our team and what we are doing please feel free to e-mail me.

If you could take just a couple minutes today and pray for our team it would be greatly appreciated. Here’s a few ways you can do that more specifically:

- Pray for our team’s spiritual formation during this time. We do not want to become so focused on the task of support raising and team building that we forget to pursue our own intimacy with God.
- I am currently without health insurance and have a hernia. This would be a pre-existing condition that my future insurance will probably not cover. Please pray that God provides a way to get it taken care of affordably and quickly.
- Pray that God would provide us the individuals and churches to partner with us prayerfully and financially. We have much more support to raise.
- I am looking for 31 individuals, couples, dorm floors, families, etc. who will commit to praying (and possibly fasting) for myself and our team 1 day a month so that every day of the year is covered. Just about all of them are open now, so if you would like to take one just let me know which day of the month, and I will write you in.

Update

Sat, 26 May 2007 14:02:21 GMT

I am home now. Texas is a wonderful place. I forgot how much I missed all my dogs.
I think they missed me too.
Graduation weekend was wonderful and encouraging. It was hard, however, saying goodbye to everyone.
Graduates, friends, starbucks employees, church members, mentors, roomates.
I actually think I will miss Joplin. Classes and papers not so much, but everything else I probably will.

During the end of May and all of June I will be spending most of my time building a support team as
I prepare to plant churches in Japan. Time and time again I have been amazed at how people partner with
us as we are getting ready to go. There are few things more encouraging than seeing church members here
actually believe that they play a crucial world in bringing the gospel to all the world. Please continue to pray for more of these, as I have much more prayer and financial support to raise.

I watched the finales of 24 and Lost. Neither of them were all that great. Maybe next year.
Ok. I have to go.