MSN Summer Internship Update #6

Pray for Karis!

ヒックス・カリス | Karis Hicks
インターン | MUSTARD SEED クリスチャン教会福岡

“The mighty One, God the Lord, speaks and summons the earth from the rising of the sun to its setting.” Psalm 50:1

“But this I call to mind, and therefore I have hope: the steadfast love of the Lord never ceases; his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness. ‘The Lord is my portion’, says my soul, ‘therefore I will hope in Him.’ The Lord is good to those who wait for him, to the soul who seeks Him.”

Lamentations 3:21-25

Konnichiwa friends! I am finishing writing this from the plane en route from Tokyo to Dallas, my second of three flights on my journey back to the States at the end of one of the most incredible summers of my life! I still cannot quite grasp how the last seven weeks went by as quickly as they did, and I feel like I have so much to share, so many lessons learned and new prayer requests, but for this letter I will do my best to keep it to the final week!! I hope to send out another letter with final thoughts and some big idea ways to be praying moving forward later:)

The two verse above have really encouraged me as I think about this internship coming to a close. Psalm 71:14 because the LORD is always our main source of hope and because even though it is hard to leave Japan, I have such deep hope in God who is still in control! And Philippians 1:3-6 because not only is the Lord GOING to complete the work He started in Fukuoka, but also in me and in all of you! We are all works in progress, and I am so thankful for that hope!

Thank you for partnering with me in prayer, as friends, as brothers and sisters in Christ, spiritually, emotionally, and even financially to support me and send me to Fukuoka Japan this summer! It was truly a joy to be supported by all of you, and I am praying for you all to continue steadfastly in Christ, He is SO GOOD, so FAITHFUL!

~ Karis Noel 🤍

Updates

Coffee with Sawako
S-son had coffee with Mai, Shania and I on Wednesday and it was another sweet time of fellowship with her! She still desires to come to church after her big test is over this week, please pray that she and her husband will come and hear and believe! Pray for my relationship with her to continue even from afar!
Front Desk Friends
Over the summer, I worked mostly in the share-office space and had the joy to greet the two front desk ladies every morning and tell them goodbye at the end of the day (habit from teaching of course!) On my last day, I was able to give each of them a small card with tea, and they were so surprised! One of them later told Mai that they are sad to see us go, because so many of the workers just come and go and never say anything, and they really appreciated having someone smile and say “Ohayo gozaimasu!” (good morning!) each morning!
Earthquake Update
As many of you know, the region of Kyushu Island (one of the main islands of Japan was hit by a magnitude 7 earthquake with the epicenter in Kumamoto, the highest on the Japanese seismic charting system, around 4:27pm on Tuesday later afternoon. While there were no damaging effects in Fukuoka, we definitely felt the rippling shocks, and have continued to feel after shocks every day since, even as recent as last night. This was a huge point of conversation for several of my non-believing contacts, and several times I had a chance to give thanks to the Lord verbally with them for how He protected us. Please pray for the people of Kumamoto who were hit hardest, and please pray that many more conversations for the Gospel come because of this.
Other connections
The Lord brought so many little divinely- appointed-conversation moments this last week in Fukuoka! From being on a run Tuesday night and making a “quick stop” for a small notebook at a Family Mart (got to know the konbini cashier and invite her to English Connect and Church… mid run, red face out of breath and all ) to a post-Spider Man movie coffee connection time with a coworker of someone in our group (He said he hadn’t been to church in a long time and that maybe this was God’s way of telling him he should go back to church… and I immediately told him with a smile, “No coincidences!!”) to a mess of canceled flight details that lead to me being able to invite one of the Japan Airline workers at Fukuoka Airport to church! SO many moments to begin to make Christ known, and it truly makes me wonder, “Have I been ignoring these opportunities back home?? How can I live more this way back in the States? Growing a living-sent mindset for airports, grocery stores, gas stations, and parks?”

Praises

Time with Jesus!
Time with Jesus, even while being sick (and maybe even more so!) was so encouraging this past week, as I was reminded that the Lord is with us, He never leaves and His mercies are new every morning.

Connections with contacts
Coffee with S-son, who deeply wants to come to church and English connect after she passes her exam this week! I was able to say “see you soon” to A-son and R-son, and gave them both cards. A-son wants to go church again, and H-son came back a day early to be able to come to the airport to say goodbye!

Final English Connect running smoothly
Praise the Lord the last English Connect that Shania and I led went so well!

Final Work Tasks
Praise the Lord for all of the work tasks we were able to finish for the team at Mustard Seed Fukuoka! It was a very fast-paced and hectic week, but it was good!

Worship team updates
With the three of the four on worship team this week (including me!) feeling under the weather, it felt a bit like an uphill battle with the physical limits of our bodies! But the Lord was still glorified and we had a lot of fun!

Thank you, Lord, for friendship and the joy of doing life together with these brothers and sisters in Christ! – Several of us were able to go to a theater together to see the new Spider-Man movie and that was such a blast!! (It had been a hope of mine to see it on release day in Japan, such a cool experience with the crew! And I will 100% be going to see it again in the States

A “See-you-soon” party
John and Jenny Hanson (who host youth group at their house!) so graciously and generously opened up their home to host the “summer crew” on Sunday night, our last night in Fukuoka, as a “See You Soon” get together, not a goodbye! We shared a meal, chatted, laughed, sang together, enjoyed the humor of Just Dance, and had sweet times of prayer.

Airport Send-Offs
Praise the Lord for how sweet, kind, generous with time, loving, and easy going all of our Fukuoka friends were as they helped us tote (or rather drag hahaha) our backpacks and luggage to the airport, rode trains and taxis with us, helped us navigate language barriers, and gave us the biggest hugs as we as the interns headed through the security checkpoint to start the journey home. Honestly in that moment, I felt two things… real and raw beautiful grief at leaving these friends who I have grown to care about so much AND… “WOW, I cannot wait for the New Creation, when King Jesus returns and there will never be goodbyes again!” (AND how thankful I was for the entire summer to do life with them!)

PS EDIT: Safely home and smooth moving!!!
Thank you so so much for praying for both of these things! There were a couple of very last minute flight complications that needed to be sorted out (and a 9+ hour layover in Tokyo Haneda Airport, WOO!) But after 32 hours of travel, and one uber, 4 airports, 3 flights, 2 light rail rides, and one car ride, I arrived back in Northern Virginia, praise the Lord! And less than 24 hours later, a crew from church helped with moving, which went smoothly as well Praise the Lord!!