Hello from Nashville!

Hey ya'll! (ok I dont actually ever say ya'll, it just seemed appropriate..)
   I am so sorry that it has been so long since my last post. Life is crazy as usual and remembering to update my blog is not one of my strong points...The rest of our outreach in Japan was amazing. We went back down to Narashino Church in Chiba for our last week there in February, it was there that we debriefed and kind of let ourselves breathe before we went back to Hawaii. We arrived in Hawaii on March 3rd, which was our second March 3rd (time change-we went back in time a day!) I left the next day for Maui, where my family was waiting for me. It was so great to be reunited with them, but it was very hard to leave my Japan Outreach family. Because that is exactly what they had become, my second family. That is one of the factors of traveling and short term missions that I struggle with the most. I get so attached to the people I meet and so leaving is like ripping a piece of me away. But God is good, and shines through that. Amen? Amen!
Anyways, the reason my family was there in Maui waiting for me is because I was planning on moving to maui directly after YWAM, and I didn't know the next time I would see my family, so they used it as an excuse for a vacation and came out. I bet you're wondering why I am writing this from Nashville then..hahah me too! Well, while I was with my family in Maui I was desperately looking around for a job and an apartment, but things were just not working out, so I was praying and I really felt like God was saying "Not yet." It was hard to submit to that. But I have learned my lesson in obedience to God, He knows what's up, so I told my dad and he brought up the idea of going to Nashville. I told my sister Jessica who was already living there and she loved the idea, but my family was going back the 14th of March, and she didn't have a place for me to stay until the beginning of April. I had to decide if I was going to go back home with my parents until April and basically do nothing except for catch up with friends and wait for april to come or couch-surf in maui. But I only knew of a few people I could stay with in Maui and only for a couple of nights, and I had fifty bucks in my pocket, so it was definately going to be a faith journey. When I was trying to make the decision my friend back in Chicago called me up and said she was spending a couple of weeks in Cali with her family and wanted to know if I wanted to join her. She would be there until the first week of April. It worked out so perfectly, but I still had a couple of weeks in maui after my family left that I would be on my own with no where to stay. But God was so good and totally came through. It was one of the best weeks of my life. I made great friends and it was really nice to be travelling on my own because I got to spend a lot of alone time with Jesus. He was my travel buddy. It was hard to leave the islands because it felt like my second home, but I clung to the "not YET" God had given me. I still had that 'yet'...so i have hope hahaha. California was great, I hadn't seen my friend Hannah (the one who invited me out there) since I had left for YWAM in September so it was great to be with her. She is my 4th sister basically. Then I headed over to Nash, where I am now, I am living in a small college town just outside of downtown, I have an amazing roommate, I just got a job as a waitress and making great friends. I don't know what is next, as soon as I am settled I am going to start looking for some kind of internship I could do in another country helping out at a halfway house or something for women who got out of prostitution. Or maybe i'll just go straight to college. God only knows. Much love!
Demetria

me in starbucks in Nashville-

Ishinomaki-shi

Hello again!
Ohio Gozaimasu from Japan Ishinomaki-shi!
We have have been here for a little over 2 weeks now. We are
staying at a home where a missionary family is temporarily
staying, they call it the Be One house (the name of the
ministry they are with) Below is a picture of the room we
(aka my team) sleeps in. We have to pack up all those
blankets and foutons every morning after we wake up so
that we have a little more room to meet in.

We have been doing a lot of hands-on work here.
We have breakfast at 8 then leave for the worksite to
either move rubble to the dump (one of the many huge ones here)
(little fact: the tsunami created the amount of trash that
this town alone would create in over 100 years!) or we gut-out,
or mud-out a destroyed house. We have also been helping a man
named Cameyama-san rebuild his shed for his car shop, which
also involves digging for water lines in rock-soil. So we
have all been very tired physically from all the labor but
it is such satisfying work that you don't even care that
you can't feel your hands or have a forest of knots in your
back. The ministry here is amazing because the people are
so ripe for the gospel. Just yesterday a young woman who hangs
out at the Be One House a lot was asking us openly what we
thought of God and why we loved Him so much. It encouraged
us as much as it encouraged her because we were reminded why
we were here in the first place. We love because HE first loved
us. Amen? Amen!
 Oh I forgot to tell you guys! The last day we were in
Narashino-shi we had a goodbye night with the kids who came
to the church for english class. None of the kids were christians
so before we said our last goodbye we presented the gospel to
them and told them why we were here. Then at the end we asked
them to bow their head and close their eyes and told them
we were going to say a blessing prayer for them and at the end
of the prayer we asked them (while their eyes were closed) if
they wanted to accept this Jesus into their heart, and AT LEAST
2/3 of the class raised their hands! They are young but definately
old enough to understand what was happening. Praise God!
Thank you Jesus we got to see some of the fruits from our
ministry! He is so good and faithful. Please, if you remember,
pray for these children who accepted Christ, that they would grow
up to be strong men and women of Christ, expanding His Kingdom.


We as a team are getting very close too, unity is definately
a gift God has given us. Praise God!
Its snowing here and the heat isnt working so  my fingers are too cold to type
any more, so sionara!
Naturally,
Demetria

Japan! Konichiwa!

I am so sorry that it has been so long since I last posted, but I did not want to put up a new post until we were more settled in Chiba. I am currently in Narashino-shi, Chiba. It is on the southern, more eastern side of Japan. We are staying at Narashino church,  it has a very small congregation, which is not surprising because only 2% of Japan is christian. But because of that, you know that the christians you are meeting are serious about their faith because it is very much not normal to be a christian. It is very hard in Japanese culture to be "not normal" because it is very obvious if you are. Everyone follows the crowd here, and if you don't, your basically an outcast. Which could be a good thing if being a christian was the normal thing.
I love it here so much, we are staying on the fourth floor of the church and the family that runs the church live on the first floor. They all speak english, so that is such a blessing. They do all the translating for us and make it easier for us to understand the culture. The couple, Masako and Cyril have three boys; Joshua, Danny, and Mikey. They are such a great family.
Sorry this is all so scattered, just bear with me.
Japanese lessons in the mornings  are amazing, it has helped so much, and the eldest son, Joshua, has been teaching me more on the side. It is quite a challenge learning this language, because it is nothing like english and even has a different alphabet. Actually, Japanese has three alphabets so it gets even more confusing. But I am making some progress, I can read most of the first alphabet, and I am now moving on to learning the second one. I want to learn the alphabet before I learn anything more because they say it is much easier to learn Japanese, in Japanese, if that makes sense.
The ministry we have been doing is challenging and sometimes quite frustrating, but God is good and I know He called us here for a reason. So far we have been passing out tracks on the streets and caroling and really getting to know and serve the members of the church. There is so  much rejection in passing out tracks, but I believe God can use anything to draw people, so if passing out tracks brings people to Christ, then I will pass out tracks until my hands freeze off. Oh, yeah and it is very cold here, and normally i would not mind, but there is no central heating here except in stores. So you are cold all the time, unless you are getting groceries. But God is good, because when in my weakness He is made strong. We have recently met a young man named Kai, who seems to be seeking (we only know this because he speaks some english) and came to the church Christmas service yesterday and then spent the rest of the day with us. Please pray for him to be greatly impacted and feel very loved by us and ultimately fall in love with Christ. I believe God has a calling on his life and if we came here just to show Kai who this mighty Savior is, then it is all worth it.
We have two more weeks here in Chiba and then we head up north to Ishinomaki in the Tohoku region, where the tsunami primarily hit. It is supposed to be much colder up there and have much more devastation and poverty. Please pray for our transition and the health of our team, because at least one of us is always ill since we stepped on the plane to Japan. I believe God is going to do great things \here. This is His country and He wants to bring it back to Himself.
I love you all and hope you have a great time celebrating Jesus' birthday on the 25th!
Naturally,
Demi-san

Japan! Konichiwa!

I am so sorry that it has been so long since I last posted, but I did not want to put up a new post until we were more settled in Chiba. I am currently in Narashino-shi, Chiba. It is on the southern, more eastern side of Japan. We are staying at Narashino church,  it has a very small congregation, which is not surprising because only 2% of Japan is christian. But because of that, you know that the christians you are meeting are serious about their faith because it is very much not normal to be a christian. It is very hard in Japanese culture to be "not normal" because it is very obvious if you are. Everyone follows the crowd here, and if you don't, your basically an outcast. Which could be a good thing if being a christian was the normal thing.
I love it here so much, we are staying on the fourth floor of the church and the family that runs the church live on the first floor. They all speak english, so that is such a blessing. They do all the translating for us and make it easier for us to understand the culture. The couple, Masako and Cyril have three boys; Joshua, Danny, and Mikey. They are such a great family.
Sorry this is all so scattered, just bear with me.
Japanese lessons in the mornings  are amazing, it has helped so much, and the eldest son, Joshua, has been teaching me more on the side. It is quite a challenge learning this language, because it is nothing like english and even has a different alphabet. Actually, Japanese has three alphabets so it gets even more confusing. But I am making some progress, I can read most of the first alphabet, and I am now moving on to learning the second one. I want to learn the alphabet before I learn anything more because they say it is much easier to learn Japanese, in Japanese, if that makes sense.
The ministry we have been doing is challenging and sometimes quite frustrating, but God is good and I know He called us here for a reason. So far we have been passing out tracks on the streets and caroling and really getting to know and serve the members of the church. There is so  much rejection in passing out tracks, but I believe God can use anything to draw people, so if passing out tracks brings people to Christ, then I will pass out tracks until my hands freeze off. Oh, yeah and it is very cold here, and normally i would not mind, but there is no central heating here except in stores. So you are cold all the time, unless you are getting groceries. But God is good, because when in my weakness He is made strong. We have recently met a young man named Kai, who seems to be seeking (we only know this because he speaks some english) and came to the church Christmas service yesterday and then spent the rest of the day with us. Please pray for him to be greatly impacted and feel very loved by us and ultimately fall in love with Christ. I believe God has a calling on his life and if we came here just to show Kai who this mighty Savior is, then it is all worth it.
We have two more weeks here in Chiba and then we head up north to Ishinomaki in the Tohoku region, where the tsunami primarily hit. It is supposed to be much colder up there and have much more devastation and poverty. Please pray for our transition and the health of our team, because at least one of us is always ill since we stepped on the plane to Japan. I believe God is going to do great things \here. This is His country and He wants to bring it back to Himself.
I love you all and hope you have a great time celebrating Jesus' birthday on the 25th!
Naturally,
Demi-san

Taking Off

And so the day approaches...Tuesday, early  morning I board the plane to Honolulu airport and then to Japan from there. It is so strange to be saying goodbye to these people that I am still getting to know. And as we are leaving others are arriving from their outreaches, I get to see a glimpse of what I will be experiencing when I arrive back here in Kona three months from now for a week of debrief. It is causing me to desire closer and more intimate friendships, which is perfect because that is exactly what I will be experiencing for the next three months ;)
I just found out that we will be having Japanese lessons every morning for the first month from one our lovely hosts, how sweet it is of her to be taking out time of her schedual just so that we can get around more easily. I am so excited, I love learning languages. She teaches ESL so we will also be helping her with that during the day and doing other things to help her church. I have no more details other than those, but I will post them as soon as I get more.
God is so good, I find my stability in Christ so I have no fear of change or of what is to come. It really puts me at ease to know that I know the Creator of the world and He knows me, i have no reason to worry. What an honor, yeah? (<<<had to throw in a little hawaiian) This week I have been talking to some friends about the fact that we are untouchable as christians, because our treasure is not in this world. This means nothing can really affect us! what an awesome thing! hahaha
This fires up my heart to live a life of no fear.
I love you all and miss you so much, but on the mission field is where my heart thrives.
I will have no phone for the next three months so please email or facebook to get ahold of me ;)
naturally,
demetria

Ready!!

Just about two weeks until I leave for Japan with the eight other people on my team. I am so excited, but there is still a lot I need to get ready. I still do not have all the warm clothes I need and other essentials. It will all work out I'm sure, its just that it is causing me to be much more busy than usual.
Last weekend I hitchhiked to Hilo which is on the other side of the island, it took us about three hours to get there, but it was a blast. We brought our hammocks and slept in a banyan tree, which is a huge tree that looks like it could be just a bunch of trees clumped together, but it is all just one tree. They are incredible. Sleeping in the tree was not such a blast because it rains so much in Hilo, so we were wet and cold. I did not bring a sleeping bag because the one I have was much too large to bring, so I brought a thin towel. I was freezing. But the next day we had breakfast at a sketchy diner and then walked around downtown
Hilo. It was nice to be away from the YWAM campus and be in the 'real' world again. But Hilo is a really sad place, it looks like a tsunami hit it and nobody tried to fix it up. The buildings are really old and covered in moss and grenery. Most of the people are homeless hippies, infact one of the guys who was traveling with us talked to this Korean man who did not have a home and then bought him lunch. I felt so helpless because I knew that most of the people in that Hilo were in the same situation as this Korean man. And we couldn't buy everyone in Hilo lunch. We took the bus all the way back to Kona, it only costs a buck! We got back in Kona on Saturday night. It was a wonderful trip, but I don't think I ever want to go back to Hilo. The rest of Hawaii was absolutely beautiful, lots of rolling green meadows, waterfalls, and mountains. :)
This week our lectures will be with the other YWAM DTSers in our main 'Ohana Court.' One of our speakers will be Andy Byrd, a young, really energetic speaker. I cannot remember who the second will be.
Well I have to go to lecture now. Please email me if you have any questions :)
Naturally,
Demetria

Roots and Fruits of Pride

Hello! I am so sorry that I have not posted in a while, I am always crunching on time here, there are always things to be doing! But God is good!
Last week our speaker was Matt Rawlins, he was amazing, he spoke on the Fear of God. This totally rocked my world because I thought to fear God meant exactly that, to be afraid of Him. But Matt turned my whole perspective and gave me the biblical view. To fear God is to revere Him, that means to be in awe of His majesty and power, to be aware of His greatness! Matt also gave us the truth that he lives by, "God is big enough and God is good enough." The way he explains this is, everything is made up of nature (the 'stuff' we are made up of) and our character (how we react to the world around us). God's nature is His greatness, He is omnipotent,and omniscient (sorry for my bad spelling). Think about the universe and the millions of galaxies in it! He created all of that! It shows how great and large He really is. That just what God is. (Our God is big enough.) But God's character is who He is. He is holy, good, gentle, kind, just and loving. (Our God is good enough.)
So if our God is always big enough and always good enough, what have we to fear? I am so excited about this! What an amazing God we serve!

This week our speaker is Faith Dutton from Austrailia. I love listening to her speak with her accent, its such a blessing. She is speaking on relationships. But not just with the opposite sex. She is speaking about our relationship with God, friends, and family also. Because God is a God of relationships. He wants us to have a great relationship with Him and with the people around us. How cool! I can't get over it!
She started out talking about looking for your soulmate. She used this quote which I will never forget, "Stop looking for, 'the one,' and instead be, 'the one.'" Do you want a spouse who has integrity? Start working on how honest you are. Do want a spouse that is selfless? Start putting others before yourself! I love this. It has really put a fire in my heart for righteousness in everything I do.
Faith also brought up the point that most of our sin is stemmed from pride. I struggle with some of this because I believe most of our sin stems from insecurity, but I am open to whatever is really true. Here are some of the things she brought up that shows if you have pride in your heart:
"The Roots & Fruits of Pride,"
by Floyd McClung
1-"I am better than you" attitude
2-Insecurity or low self-esteem (she says this is a root of pride and not vice versa because when you think you are not pretty enough or good enough according to the world's standards you are looking God in the face and telling Him that He messed up on you (the God who has never made a mistake. ever.), His creation.)
3- Ungratefulness
4- A judgemental spirit
5-Envy (rejoice for others instead of being jealous of what they have)
6-Self-Pity (the answer to self introspection and pity is humility)
7-Fear of Man
8- Touching God's glory (taking credit for all things good, instead of giving glory to God "from whom all good things come")
9- A reserved attitude toward others (lack of vulnerability)
10- Unteachable Spirit
11- Sarcastic Humor (Sarcasm is an evil but subtle tool of destruction, especially in the western world. In the guise of laughter, it tears down.)
12-An Independent Spirit (Pride promotes rebellion against authority. Humility gives us the freedom to support someone we don't agree with)
13- Impatience with others
14- Unforgiving attitude
15-Organizational comparisons (Pride says, Our group is better than their's)
16- Island Mentality (Pride says that it doesn't need anyone or anything else. Humility longs for others in an attitude of servant-hood)
17- A Spirit of Comparison (Comparison has only one goal-to see who's best)
18- Encourages Disloyalty (gossip.)

This has really helped me point out and acknowledge the pride in me, so that I can pursue a more humble spirit. Faith was a wonderful speaker and I am so grateful that she spoke this week.

Faith left on thursday, so on friday we had a speaker who was speaking for only one day on Cross- Cultural Communications. It was a overview on how to view other cultures and be respectful. And to also really be like a child in new cultures, trying to learn the culture to the best of your ability and not to be afraid of looking like a fool. I love studying new cultures so this was super exciting for me.
In my attempt to ready myself for Japan, I have been downloading Japanese music and watching some anime and learning some key phrases in Japanese. I love it. So much. I am super excited to go to Japan but I am also going to miss all my YWAM friends who are going to other places for those three months. It is a challenge to get really close to people in three months time and then have to seperate. But now I have good friends from all over the world! What an exciting experience!

This weeks speaker is speaking on destiny, I wonder how this will be...
Naturally,
Demetria