Yabuki Breeze Blog

Sharing Christ's Love with International Students in North Texas

About

Here are a couple of articles introducing you to us…

We are the Yabukis! – Introductions

What is Your Job and How Do you Do What You Do?

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We are the Yabukis’!

Old News Letter

 Roy & Lisa

Lisa was born and raised in Orange, California, in a Christian home. She invited Jesus Christ to be her Savior at age 10 after attending church summer camp. Graduating from Biola University in 1988, she felt led to pursue a career in teaching English as a Second Languge.
Roy, born and raised in Los Angeles, California, received Jesus as Savior when he was 12 years old. Roy’s parents were international students from Japan many years ago. While studying engineering at Princeton, he dedicated himself to serving the Lord in whatever pursuit God called him to. After post-college studies at Moody Bible Institute, Roy moved back to California and worked in engineering for 8 years at Parker Hannifin. Even in Texas Roy continued consulting with Parker until 2004.

How we got together

Roy and Lisa met in 1990 at a Bible study in Fullerton, CA, and discovered that they had in common going on summer missions trips to Japan.Roy invited Lisa to a picnic for international students as their first “date.” There they met the Gonzagas, their mentors in International Student ministry, and became active in the Friends to Internationals outreach of Calvary Church of Santa Ana. They married in 1994.

The Kids (Jonathan, Timothy, & Charis)

Roy & Lisa welcomed their son Jonathan in 1996, then Timothy in 2000.
Their daughter, Charis joined the family through adoption in 2004. (click on the name of the child you wish to learn more about) We also have several pets including fish, a turtle and a cat named Belle.

How we got into ministry to international students

Recognizing God’s hand in bringing students from around the world with open hearts to hear the Gospel, Roy & Lisa joined ISI as part-time staff in 1996. They moved to Arlington,Texas in 1998 to re-start & direct the ministry at UT Arlington (UTA). Royalso entered Dallas Theological Seminary. They fellowship at Fielder Road Baptist Church. In addition to a weekly student gathering in their home, they helped to mobilize several churches to reach many of the nearly 3000 international students at UTA.

How we minister to international students now…

In May 2002, ISI challenged Roy to serve as the DFW City Director. Still serving at UTA, he is also responsible for directing the metroplex team of 10 in ministry to the 10,000 students in the Dallas/Fort Worth Area on six major campuses. As a result of Roy’s increased role, Roy & Lisa are currently in the process of raising up financial support to be full time in the ministry.

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What is Your Job and How Do you Do What You Do?

One common question that Lisa and I hear from students is, “What is your job?” and “How are you able to do what you do?” We even get these questions from some of our friends from church and even some of you. Well, this post is a bit of an expose… Or maybe better, a FAQ or Frequently Asked Questions post. So here it goes

Do you work for the university?

Since we are so closely tied to the local university, many people ask if we are employed by the university. We are not. We do not work directly for any specific university. We work for a Christian organization called International Students Inc. (ISI – isionline.org) As it says in our mission statement “ISI exists to share Christ’s love with international students and equip them for effective service in cooperation with the local church and others.”

Do you work for your church?

While our church in Arlington, Fielder Road Baptist Church(http://fielder.org) supports us in many ways and they graciously allow me to use one of their offices, we do not work directly for Fielder or for any church. Fielder and many other churches and individuals are part of our support team and while we are of course first responsible to God, practically we directly “work for” ISI, a 53 year old national christian organization based in Colorado Springs, CO, with nearly 200 staff around the country focused on touching international students.

So, what is your job?

Lisa and I are Campus Ministers for ISI. We directly minister to international students but just as importantly we help others catch the vision and to be equipped in also helping international students and showing them Christ’s love. Roy, the DFW director, is also responsible for the team of 10 who do the same on 8 campuses in the 6 county Dallas/Fort Worth area that have around 10,000 international students.

How are you able to do what you do? Do you do another job to make this possible? How are you paid?

While for 8 years we did this as volunteers and another six years Roy worked part time as an engineering consultant to supplement his income with ISI, over the last four years, Roy works full-time for ISI. ISI is not like a church in that it receives general offereing and then we receive a salary from that general offereing. Our financial resources come from several sources.

  • First, some churches including our home churches in California, and our home church in Texas as well as one small foundation support us as missionaries. This is a real blessing to us and really makes a difference financially but also in emotional and spiritual support (letters, sermons, e-mails, contact with our kids, prayer, etc.)
  • Second, quite a few friends, family, and just “People Who Care About Students” (PWCAS) support us with monthly financial gifts. Some give as little as $5 a month and others as much as $500 a month. All make a huge difference and their gifts comprise the majority of our funding. Of course there is the tax benefit for them, but most give because they care about us or our ministry. Some give online at our website www.yabukibreeze.com, others give using payroll deduction, and others give via good old snail mail to our home office designating our ministry as the recipient of the funds.
  • Third, a group of friends, family and PWCAS’ give maybe special one or few time gifts or perhaps gifts that regularbut only once or twice a year to help us in our ministryonline, using payroll deduction or through the mail. We have had gifts as litttle as $5 and as much as $5000.(which happened to be in the form of stocks)

Through this community of people, we are able to do what we do. focusing our time on students.

How do people know to give and can you make enough that way to live and do what you do?

We pray for opportunities to share about what we do and we try to talk to people who seem interested. We also share about our ministry through this blog, through a weekly and monthly (more or less) prayer e-mail and through a quarterly mailed newsletter.

While many in our team receive enough support for full time 40 hrs/week support, we do not. We currently have enough support for Roy  to “officially” work 27 hours per week but Roy in reality works 40+.  The amazing thing is that even though we are not yet at full budget, God has always provided just enough to survive. (with a relatively small amount of debt) Still, our desire is to some day be “officially” working 40 hours a week so we don’t have to “be filled with anxiety” about our finances any more.  Still, we believe in God’s provision and His place for us here right now so we are not worried. He always takes care of us. Still, if you are interested in learning more about helping us, please let us know.

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