Update

Dear friends and family,
I got some exciting news today, our paperwork for visas to Japan came through! I and my team will be flying to Japan next month! After the waiting and disappointment of this time last year, it's really exciting. Thanks for praying for this coming year.
So, what's next? Though I'm still waiting for a plane ticket and a set leave date, I'm moving forward in the last things I need to do here. I appreciate your continued prayers through this process!

• I'm still raising the money I need to fund my ministry for the year. By God's grace, I am lacking only $548/month in money pledged to be given monthly and $1053 in one time gifts to cover my upfront costs! God knows the timing of things, and I am so much closer to my goal than I was at this time last year. But I must have full financial support before I fly to Tokyo. Thank you so much if you're partnering financially with me to bring the gospel to Japan. If you haven't begun giving please do that by the end of the month. If your curious about supporting my ministry financially, please contact me! Gifts can be of any size and are tax deductible. I can send simple directions for giving online (give.cru.org/give/View/0629228?pp=) or by check. Pray with me that God provides all of my funding by the 31st!

• I'm packing and hoping everything fits in two suitcases! Getting everything in order for a year living internationally takes a lot of time. I know I won't be able to come say goodbye to all of you (and some of you are very far away), but once I have a leave date I'm going to set up a goodbye party in Kansas City.
  

• I am totally free to share about ministry, prayer requests, and all my experiences in Japan. You can read about them here!
  

Praise God for all He's done!

     -Sarah EuDaly

Encouragement from God

from Psalm 18
"As for God, His way is blameless;
The word of the Lord is tried;
He is a shield to all who take refuge in Him.
For who is God, but the Lord?
And who is a rock, except our God,
The God who girds me with strength
And makes my way blameless?
He makes my feet like hinds’ feet,
And sets me upon my high places.
He trains my hands for battle,
So that my arms can bend a bow of bronze.
You have also given me the shield of Your salvation,
And Your right hand upholds me;
And Your gentleness makes me great.
You enlarge my steps under me,
And my feet have not slipped."

This encouraged me a lot as I have been trusting God to equip me for the work He plans in Japan.

Summer Update

Hello friends!
            I’m back in Missouri for a few months! The transition back seemed abrupt because of the shorter time I had working on campus this year. But my summer is off to a good start and I hope yours is too.

            Reflecting on the half-year I’ve had in Hawaii I’m struck at the specific ways God worked through me and my team. Ministry events from Easter performances to cleaning a preschool showed people what CRU is about. The weekly meeting became a consistent place for students to praise God and hear from the Bible. We got to see it grow from 7 students to about 20! One student went on a summer mission trip to Tokyo; another is ready and excited to lead a Bible study next year. These things laid necessary groundwork for fruitfulness in the future.

            God also used the year to grow me as a leader. He taught me the necessity of following Him closely and humbly as I lead. Seeing the strategic way God used the team in Hawaii and the opportunity He has given me to go to Japan makes me so excited! Tokyo is truly a place of great need. With more than 35 million people it has become the largest city in the world while also one of the least reached with the gospel. Less than 1 out of every hundred people is christian, few know the gospel, and suicide is more common than in almost any other part of the world.

            Over the summer I will be raising the funds necessary for me to live and work in Japan. Like many other missions organizations, CRU workers raise money so they can focus on full time ministry. Please consider joining me by financially supporting me for $100 per month, but know that any amount is a great help. Even $10 a month adds up quickly if there are many people giving! If you prefer, you can give specific one-time gifts. Consider covering part of my Team Leader Training July 15-21 ($600). Gifts of any size are appropriate and tax-deductible. Visit https://give.cru.org/give/View/0629228 to give online and partner with me in changing lives in Tokyo!

             My goal is to leave for Tokyo the first week of September. Please pray that my summer would be refreshing and good groundwork for my year in Japan. Pray also that God would prepare the hearts of Japanese people to believe the gospel.

            Thank you for considering my needs. Your prayers and financial support make my ministry possible!  Yours in Christ,

     -Sarah EuDaly

April Newsletter

Next Year
            “I’m tired of not knowing what I am doing next year,” I shared with the team in a fellowship meeting. “It’s like I have to feel both the excitement and sadness of possibly STINTing and the excitement and sadness of possibly not. It’s exhausting.”
            God had consistently met me as I waited. He reminded me that He championed my cause. Whatever decision CRU made about my application for an exception to STINT a third year (internships can only last two years), it would be God’s best for me and not a person’s random decision. I had been encouraged by God, but it was still hard to wait. I emailed Cayla, who coordinated my application, asking where they were in the process. She replied that the procedure was challenging and changes had to be made to my application, but I might have an answer in a week.
            I finally hit a point where it seemed God asked me to start hoping about Japan. I felt like I should look forward even though it risked disappointment if I could not go. Again God grew my heart for Japan: its people and culture.
            At the end of the week I got an email from Cayla. Before reading it I knew it was good news just by the number of exclamation marks; she said, “SARAH!!!!!! WE GOT IT!!!!! After the battle of our lives, we got you approved for a third stint!!!!!! Wohoooooo!!!!!  And, we would love for you to lead the Tokyo stint team with Albert, officially!!”
            So next year I will go to Tokyo and lead a STINT team that will include six people from this year’s team (Amanda, Christine, Amy, Albert, Kylan, and me) along with three or four new people.
            Next letter I will include some great stories from the end of this year, but on the back of this letter you can read some things students said this month. Their words encouraged all of us here, and I hope you feel their thankfulness as well. Thank you for the prayer and financial support that is changing Hawaii.

                                    -Sarah

Prayer Needs:
            Pray for us and students as we say goodbye. We’re viewing goodbyes as an opportunity to share the gospel with everyone we leave.
            Praise the Lord that our visit to the CRU movement on Oahu resulted in a strengthening of ties between the islands. We participated in a fundraising dinner raising over $30,000 for continued ministry in Honolulu and Hilo.
            June 2-6 we go to Maui to debrief the year and say goodbye to the team. Pray that God blesses our time together.
            Finally, praise the Lord that He has brought everyone on my team to consider or commit to another year of full time ministry.

March Newsletter

“Thank you so much for these good friends and a chance to rest from school and have fun together,” one student finished her prayer. She had joined us at a friend’s house in Waikoloa for our spring break retreat. She now sat on the couch sandwiched between Amanda and Kimiyo, but she was a student most of us had met only once.

Early in the semester my team set spring break aside to train students who wanted to lead. We planned seminars that would challenge them to share their faith and lead Bible studies. Originally eight students planned to come, but by the time we arrived in Waikoloa that number had dwindled to two. Hearing this one student’s thankful prayer I realized I had the wrong perspective about the few students, but I still wondered what God had planned for the week.

The next day I went to the beach with this student to ask people if they wanted to hear the gospel. As she began initiating conversations she would ask me questions afterward. Should I ask what they believe? What do I say if they say they already know the gospel? I was surprised at her eagerness.

It was near the end of the week that I finally heard from this girl why she had come on our spring break trip. Circumstances in her life had left her needing Christian community. From her first conversation when she met Nikki on campus, we were an answer to prayer.

Returning from the spring break trip I realized that God had truly blessed us through it. God answered the student's prayer, and all of us were given time to rest and be encouraged by each other before a busy end to the semester.

Thank you for your help in reaching students and equipping them to fulfill the great commission.

                                    -Sarah

February Newsletter

                This morning I sat on the black futon in the girl’s house. Around me the team discussed how we could best use the money we have budgeted for retreats. I looked again at the list of things it was essential we cover in this team meeting. Fly over to Oahu for a fellowship dinner? We were talking about it because we need to buy tickets as soon as possible. Challenge students to spring break, check in on 1000 cranes to Tohoku, speaker for next week’s meeting, evaluate discipleship curriculum, hand off worship during Easter week. I sighed after reading the first half of the list. Emailing the budget information would have saved a lot of time. This looked to be another business meeting ending twenty minutes late.

                Almost every day I see that God’s good work and my failure walk hand in hand. I never expected to lose so many details, struggle in planning ahead, and leave my house so little. I didn’t expect God to use me more toward my team than toward the people we came to reach. On the other hand, stepping into leadership I didn’t expect to know my team so clearly, to hear God telling me how to challenge them forward, and to take such joy in their successes.

                The fruit I see around me confirms that God is at work. The need I see around me says that there is work still to be done. God has not told me to change my work, so I plan to continue working with CRU unless He directs otherwise. There are a few different positions open to me, and I am weighing those, but all of them involve Japan where I feel God is still challenging me to go. Your prayers over my ministry and this decision are so appreciated. Thank you for partnering with me.
                                                                                -Sarah

January Newsletter

                Another student on break asked Storme for a lighter and cigarette smoke began wafting by again. Smoking area equals not the most comfortable place to share the gospel with random people, I sighed to myself.  “All belief is good; God just hasn’t been important to me,” Storme concluded after retrieving her lighter. My inner commentary quickly chimed in, not that easy of a conversation either. I could see she did not care enough about religion to stay through a theological debate; neither did I.
                In many ways, Storme personifies local students. She believes in a higher power reachable through any belief. Religion is a help to life, giving meaning and purpose, not a law that highlights our separation from God. Spiritually, her highest goal is to achieve a checklist of what it takes to be a good person instead of truly knowing God. A checklist cannot give us life. As 1 John 5:11-12 says, “God has given us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. Whoever has the Son has life; whoever does not have the Son does not have life.”
                I didn’t care to debate her statement “all belief is good”, but I realized that I cared about this girl: her broken family, her struggle to be good, and her need for life through Christ. I knew what to ask. “What do you think is the purpose of life?” Storme puzzled over the question for a bit before settling wit;  “I guess be a good person and enjoy the things around you.” I nodded when she had finished then said, “I tried being a good person and it didn’t work; that’s how I came to Jesus.” Before I left the smoking area she gave me her phone number saying she enjoyed our conversation.
                Many times this month I have found myself thanking God for moments where I see Him flow out in ministry through me, but just as often I find myself looking to the bigger picture. Where will my team be at the end of the year and what will we leave behind? Does my call to Japan still stand and is that what God has for me next year? Everyone on the team is beginning to ask similar things.
                We focused our planning day asking God to use us to begin a lasting movement of students who take the light of the true gospel from Hilo to the entire Pacific region. Our God can do that. Thanks for partnering with me in that vision. I’m praying we all come to be characterized by surrender and faith—a place where the Son will be our life.
                                                                                -Sarah

Vision for Your Prayers

Hello friends,
A newsletter will be on its way shortly, but I wanted to give you a preview because many things have happened this month. Thank you for your prayers! God's presence and blessings have shadowed our settling into homes, the first week on campus, many days of travel, and our recent planning.
Our vision here is to see a lasting movement of students who take the light of the true gospel from Hilo to the whole pacific region. The first part I focus prayer on is lasting. We're here for only another four and a half months. In order for what we begin here to last we need God to show up. Secondly is students who take. Be praying for willing and faithful students to step up beside us and ask God to change their lives and campus. We will help raise up a summer mission trip to Osaka, Japan and the students who go will set a precedent for missions from Hilo to the pacific region. Finally pray that we and those we are teaching would proclaim the true gospel in all its fullness and power. We have already seen that many churches and people who claim the name of Christ are very willing to accept all spirituality as possible paths to God.
Here are some more specific things we are asking God if He would do this year. We are asking for 20 new believers. We pray He would use us in student' lives so they will know and experience the gospel, learn how to share it, and actively share it with others. We're praying for Bible studies led by students. Finally we pray that through discipleship students would grow mature and able to lead both now and in a greater way when we need to leave.
Thanks so much for your prayers. My Aloha.

Sing to the LORD a new song,
   his praise from the ends of the earth,
you who go down to the sea, and all that is in it,
   you islands, and all who live in them. Isaiah 42:10

December Newsletter

                 “This last day of waiting,” Albert texted me, “is so intense.” I knew exactly the nervousness he meant. Within 24 hours we would know if a path was opened to Japan or if we would go to Hawaii. An email soon came saying that our liaison had talked with the Japanese Immigration Office. After 4 months of waiting a decision had been made on our visas, but we would not know the result for another day. This was a huge answer to prayer; we could move forward sure that God had opened or closed the door.
                I sat wrapped in a blanket on a conference call with the team when our months of waiting came to an end. Our visas to Japan were denied. It was a huge disappointment to all of us. Our hearts had touched by the needs in Tokyo and a love of the culture. I think we all wondered what God could accomplish by sending us to Hilo, Hawaii. You can read more about our leadership’s decision in the letter from Shane on the back. In the midst of my life and ministry being clearly re-routed by God, I found myself doubting His care for my heart.
                Arijaan scrambled to buy plane tickets for us, the team met in LA for a few days of planning, and not even a week had passed before we were on a plane to Hilo, the big island. We were met at the airport by Lehua and Mat, two students at the University of Hawaii - Hilo, who draped us in leis (picture on the left). They offered to drive all of us and our baggage to an inn which Neil, the owner, had offered at a great rate for the week. Our coming here continues to be blessed by God.
                The next day I wrote in my journal, “I wondered not if God would use us – it was clear He had something in mind – but if He cared for me aside from my position as leader and servant. With that doubt in my heart, I find there is no fitter land for God to show me the opposite is true and woo me with His love.” The island evidences God in its natural beauty, but the work of the gospel is far from done.
                Pray that the current mesh of Asian and New Age religions holding the islands be overtaken by the Kingdom of God. Pray for us as we navigate a highly spiritual but ungodly culture. I praise God that He has planned and directed our steps, and thank you for your partnership in sharing the gospel. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!
                                                                                -Sarah

Thanks to all of you who prayed for me and my team over the weekend. On Tuesday, just before we were going to make the decision to to do ministry somewhere outside Japan, we got a call from our Japanese liaison. Long story short they received our paperwork from the government, but we were all denied work visas. That allowed us to move forward on our alternate location with full confidence that the door to Tokyo was closed. Though not the answer we were hoping for, peace about our decision was a huge answer to prayers.
So on Tuesday I will be leaving to the next closest place where thankfully we can skip time processing visas: Hilo, Hawaii. There are a lot of reasons Hilo was chosen by our leadership, not the least of which is the large Japanese population, but I wanted to post a letter from Shane:

Thank you so much for your investment in our
Stinter going to Tokyo, Japan. As you may have
heard we found out we will not be able to send to
Tokyo this year. This has never happened before
but we do believe God has clearly shut the door for this current school year. This
situation, the government denying the visas, has been completely out of our
hands. As we have prayed and looked at the needs around the world we have
landed on a new location for your missionary. We do desire to send this team to
a place that will have a direct and strategic impact on Japan.
We will be sending this team to the University of Hawaii, Hilo. For decades
Hawaii has been referred to as "The Gateway to Japan". The cultures are similar
and we believe this will be a great fit for this team. We have one staff couple with
Cru working on both the main UH campus as well as the junior college there.
Our prayer is to have this team do what they were going to do in Japan- share
Jesus with lost students, build them up in their faith, and develop a local-led
ministry. We will intently partner with local churches in reaching students as well.
I am personally excited for this opportunity this team has as I have seen how
students from Hawaii have had a direct impact over the last several years in
reaching students in Japan for Christ. This will be a purposeful year for this
team. We are doing everything we can to provide your young missionary with the
best possible care and support through this situation and for the rest of their year.
We are excited to hear many great stories of how God used this change of
course, and the unchanging mission, for His glory.
Please do not hesitate to call or email me with any questions, thoughts, or
concerns you may have. I am available. Thank you so much for your prayers
and support. God will use this team to build His kingdom.
Gratefully,
          Shane Sebastian

I am excited to be moving forward. The guidance from God has been clear and I am sure the result of our labor will bring Him glory in Hawaii and Japan as well!
More to come,
     -Sarah

November Newsletter

                 November 15^th, the extended deadline for our papers to be processed, went by without word from Japan Emigration or reply to our liaison’s questions about the delay. We’ve been assured that our papers are going to be processed, but there seems to no longer be a timeline for what we can expect. All of this has led our Campus Crusade leadership to see a need for alternative plans. If our papers still have not come from Japan by December 6^th, my team will go to a different country. The decision of what country will be approached this week.
                For me this decision comes as both a relieving end to months of waiting and a disappointment that my desire to minister in Japan may not be realized. Reflecting on the time of waiting, it is so clear to me that God has used it. Since June, God has been telling me that this Stint year would be a refining process. Refining does not happen when things go as you want, but when you learn to want God more than your own plans. As a team we’ve been reading A. W. Tozer’s The Pursuit of God; this quote stuck out to me, “We need not fear that in seeking God only we may narrow our lives or restrict the motions of our expanding hearts. The opposite is true. We can well afford to make God our All, to concentrate, to sacrifice the many for the One.” As I let go of my own plans, I am excited at the potential for these changes to give God glory. It’s going to be an amazing adventure.
                Your prayer as we go into this time is vital! My team is working to set up 24 hours of prayer on Monday; I'll post more on that soon. Pray for wisdom and an understanding of God’s will for Arijaan, Shane, and Cam, the people deciding where we will go.  Pray for Albert, my co-leader, and me as we shepherd the team through this transition. Pray for the people of whatever place we go: Tokyo or another city. Finally, pray that the gospel would go out in Japan; we are not the only missionaries with delayed visas. May God continue to call Christians to go there.
           I am newly excited for the things God has planned! By December 10^th I will post where we are headed.  I’m so thankful for your partnership in the things God has called me to do. God will be glorified.
                                                                                -Sarah

October Newsletter

                 I wish this letter began, “After our arrival in Japan, our ministry began…” but I am still in the USA waiting with my teammates for our certificates of eligibility from the government in Japan. These papers are necessary to get our visas. It has been a slow and frustrating process of our papers being submitted late and Japan’s consulates remaining delayed after the Tsunami. I apologize to all of you because I said I would leave in September, and now it looks like I won’t be working in Japan until mid-November. Continue praying that I would leave soon and in the meantime trust God’s timing.

                This Sunday my pastor talked about righteousness as “things being right and whole” both internally and externally. We usually think of the internal part, but what does it mean to desire righteousness, unbrokenness, in the lives of our friends and family and poor and orphans? Jesus says, “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied,” Matthew 5:6. Those words rouse in me a hunger to see people in Japan made right and whole by Christ’s work on the cross. It is not that their brokenness is any different from what you see here, but there are so few people in Japan who know God and have a hope to share.  

                Pray with me during this time! Pray bigger prayers for Japan than I and my team will imagine. There will be needs listed here but for now pray for the first week after our arrival and the students I will meet. I will send out another prayer letter shortly after I arrive in Tokyo.

                My financial support is actually not finished though it is very close. If you are planning to give you can easily do it online at: give.ccci.org/give/View/0629228. Also feel free to email me for details.

                My thanks to you who have been praying and waiting with me. I am praying for you too! God bless,
                                                                -Sarah