Wow the last week has been kind of insane!
First, we had team changes! I am now on Team ALEPH with 6 other amazing people! We have had some incredible deep and wonderful conversations and God has already been doing some awesome things! The team consists of Ash Owens (our leader), Chris and Chrislyn Clermont, Rachel Krause, Jordan Vernon, Dillon Seeley, and myself!
(From left to right: Chris, myself, Dillon, Rachel, Jordan, Ash, and Chrislyn)
We left our hostel in Bogotá, Colombia at 6pm last Sunday night. We headed to the airport and ended up just sitting in the airport for quite a few hours. As we were waiting at the airport, before even getting through security, a young man came up to us by the name of Alejandro. The first question he asked us was, “Are you guys Christians?” Of course we told him we were and he then began to tell us that the Holy Spirit led him and some friends to the airport to pray for people and when they arrived, the Holy Spirit led him to us. He then asked us to pray for him, so of course we said yes! As we were praying for this brother in Christ that we just met, I became so overwhelmed by how awesome God was that tears became running down my face. We finished praying for Alejandro and his friend Diana, swapped some information and Alejandro looked up and said, “Look at the wall, it says connectivity. God is so cool!” It was quite an incredible experience and I was so encouraged because to me it just showed that the Holy Spirit was just hovering over us and clearly visible in us!
So we said our goodbyes to our new friends and headed on our way, next stop: JAPAN! Well, eventually…
We flew out of Bogotá at around 1:30am November 3rd, arrived in Dallas, TX around 6am, left Dallas around 9:45am, arrived in Los Angeles, CA around 11am PST, spent a few hours in America getting all of the things you like that you can’t get outside of America, like Reese’s! Then we left LA around 9:45pm on November 3rd and flew to the Philippines. We arrived in the Philippines around 4am on November 5th a few of us left the airport for a few hours to explore the Philippines, for me it was really just to get another stamp in my passport! Then we headed back to the airport to wait for a bit longer. Finally, we left the airport in the Philippines at roughly 2pm and arrived in Osaka, Japan at 7:30ish pm!
Now if you read that carefully enough you might be thinking to yourself, “I think Jake made a mistake, it says he left LA on November 3rd and arrived in the Philippines on November 5th.” I can see where you might think that, but no I did not make a mistake. November 4th, 2014 is officially a date that never existed in the lives of F squad. I suppose you can say we were time traveling to the future that day!
We then spent 2 days at a retreat center where we had an orientation to the Japanese culture. Along with a few sessions and hanging out with our hosts we also got to experience Japanese bath time. This consisted of the 9 of our guys all showering together and then hopping in one big bath together. It sounded like the weirdest thing in the world to me, but as they told us before going in, it was actually kind of freeing and fun! Haha
Now we are at our host homes. Dillon and I are staying with Zach (it seems like I will never in my life get away from the name!) who is a former World Racer and Squad leader who now lives in Japan full time. He has been a great host and we’re really excited to see what the next month holds for us. It looks like this will be a month of a lot of relationship building which may be a challenge in itself with the major language barrier but I’m trusting God will make it work out!
I am really excited for our month in Japan! This month will be a month of many new and exciting things! New country, continent, and team! Please keep myself and Team ALEPH in your prayers as we bring Gods kingdom!
