日本

Gabe and I in Pai, Thailand... fixie bike rollin.

SO I decided i was long due to write another blog... last time i wasn't so faithful. Too busy with DTS (a christian discipleship training school) in New Zealand to keep it updated. But now I have a lot more free time.

It's now been a couple months since traveling Thailand... which was a super revolutionary time. Learned about simplistic village life, (it should be a requirement for every human to live in a village for a month.. you learn so much about life, and values) and had many talks with travelers about their world views.

Tonsai - Lived here for a month- rock climbing paradise

Backyard Bar... best reggae in the jungle

 The great thing about backpacker culture is that everyone is so relaxed and open to talk about anything, the conversation usually ends up pretty good. It was tops. I would spend our days hanging with the random travelers we met, and the nights hanging in Thai bars, listening to live reggae and having some proper conversations. We also spent about a week in Laos, which was like being at a college party 24/7... Drunk westerners everywhere, and some bars even had drug menus... you could order a shroom tea or a bad of weed to go with your chicken sandwich. The one cool thing about Laos was the tubing... you tube down this river, lined with bars on both sides, and people will throw you a rope to pull you in. Beautiful country, but the scars left on the town by the party scene was visible. 

As some of you may know, I'm a christian, (not as in I go to church every sunday, (1 hour a week christian), but as in I believe in the redemptive truth of Jesus, and that to be a disciple is to live within but apart from secular society. This means that I study the bible, try to live out my faith, and commune with God). So my time in thailand and new zealand was partly to see the world, but mainly to learn about the bible, and discuss my beliefs with people around the world. I had long conversations with friends, vagabonds, and hipsters and about their thoughts on sex, weed, politics, religions, religion as a society, and different christian views. 

After T land I ended up driving a rented car around new zealand for 2 weeks with three others who i consider family, (Mary Lloyd, her mother Holly, and my brother Evan), along with some hitch hiking. Hostel hopping was surreal! Community meals with people from around the world, good stories, and had some kosher hostel jam sessions with random travelers, when we could track down a guitar. 

All this traveling has made me realize some things... one of which is that if you feel God calling you to something, you need to go for it. A second one is that life is pretty much pointless if you are going to school to work, working to survive, and surviving for the main point of not dying. So this, along with a spiritual calling, is why I have decided to move to japan.... Tokyo, the city of at the end of the world. Its time to step up to my beliefs, to live life for a greater purpose, to act out what it means to be a true disciple of Christ. Although every year I take off from school is another year that my scholarships won't pay for, and I'm already broke, I feel like it's time to make some steps toward living how I've been saying  and realizing is the way to live. 

In response to all this, I have applied to Paz Japan Missionaries, and been accepted! I am currently fundraising to spend around a year in Tokyo, working for Fuse Jesus Community... a church plant and community centered around sharing Jesus' love. But for me to do this, I need a community of supporters... so currently I'm searching out people who will support me month to month in Japan. I will be going out to the disaster area about once a week, bringing food/water, helping clean up, and just being there for those who need it. The rest of the week I will be working with the churches ministries, such as street ministry, evangelism, youth ministry, and college ministry. 

If you feel called to bless me through promising a monthly set donation, please do! Here are the ways to donate....

How to send a donation to PAZ Japan Mission
Four Options:
1. Mail a check to our mission account in Peoria, IL, with a note saying who it is for, and the missionary can access the money here in Japan. Here's the address of our mission:
PAZ Japan
c/o Project Amazon
P.O. Box 3253
Peoria, IL 61612

2. Donation by credit card, Gail Hodel (Project Amazon and PAZ
Japan executive secretary of our headquarters in Peoria, IL) runs
credit card donations from the PAZ office twice a month (10th and
the 25th). If you choose to utilize this option, please call the office
at 309-263-2299, to give your credit card information, since she doesn't recommend sending credit card information via
email. She works part time, so if she is not in the office,
please call and leave a phone number and she will return your
call.

3. Donation online through our website, using Paypal, use:
www.pazjapan.org (but you will, again, have to send a note saying which missionary or which project it is being sent to.)

4. In case there are problems sending online through our website,
you can send money directly to PAZ Japan using paypal (and not
going through our PAZ Japan website), using the email address:
projectamazon@gmail.com
This puts the donation into the PAZ account and it will be
tax-deductible. Send Gail an email specifying that your donation is
for a certain missionary or project.

If you have additional questions, please call our PAZ Japan
headquarters: Gail Hodel, 309-263-2299,
or send an e-mail: dove@dpc.net

heres a random video made by Paz Japan

Support Promo from Fuse Jesus Community on Vimeo.

Thanks for reading, hope this gets you stoked on what people are doing around the world! If you agree with what I'm doing, check out these sweet links! Christine Huber's blog, a missionary I will be working with... http://www.ekklesia.cc/amazing_grace/, and the Fuse Jesus Community website! http://www.thefuse09.blogspot.com/
 If you don't agree with what I'm doing, shoot me a facebook message.... I would love to hear your thoughts.