The Fellowship

Meet my team, which we have affectionately dubbed The Fellowship from Lord of the Rings.  Because there are 9 of us, of which 2 are men.  I believe I represent Gimli, mostly because I love him and not because I'm short.  That has actually no bearing on anything and just happens to be an interesting tidbit for your enjoyment.  

I love this team already.  We've only spent a week together at our briefing in August, but we skype and facebook and text and I can feel our bonds growing.  They are all pretty awesome and I can't wait to get to know them better.  And since you don't really know them at all, let me introduce them to you!

From left to right:

Albert-Albert graduated from UCSB in May with a degree in engineering.  Like me, he enjoys watching Psych (and other shows) and we have great fun discussing the episodes via text message.  He is one of our awesome team leaders.

Christine-Christine also graduated from UCSB in May.  She had her birthday while we were at briefing, so we got to surprise her with a cake and a present!  She loves architecture, and thanks to the Discovery Channel she also knows how to make a canoe.  Sort of.  She would also be awesome in the Cash Cab.

Me-Hello. My name is Inigo Montoya. You killed my father. Prepare to die....Just kidding.  I couldn't help myself.  I already did a post about me, which you can read if you so desire.

Nikki-Nikki studied theatre at Texas State University and has an interest in special effects makeup, which she is really good at doing.  She loves film and dressing up.  She also likes the Hunger Games and Firefly, and is really funny.

Kimi-Kimi is from Texas, graduated from USC, and is a huge Trojans fan.  She is re-STINTing in Japan this year, which means that she was in Japan last year, too, so she gets to show us around.  She loves Japan a lot.  She also loves the Rangers, dance, gymnastics, and theatre (her major).

Katie-Katie graduated from UCSB in May with a degree in Math.  She actually grew up in Japan (her parents were on staff with Cru) and is going back!  She likes working with international students, playing sports, and running.  She's also going to be one of my roommates!

Amy-Amy graduated in May with a degree in Creative Writing.  She's my friend from ASU, and one of the reasons I'm on the team.  She is super smart, great at writing, and loves to dance.  She is also the only blonde person on our team, which I didn't notice until she pointed it out.

Sarah-Sarah has a degree in Equestrian Science and is from Missouri.  She is also a re-STINTer, except that she was in East Asia last year.  She's been to Japan to visit her sister, but has never been there with Cru before.  She is our other awesome team leader.

Kylan-Kylan graduated from UC Berkeley where he studied Japanese and Anthropology.  He actually spent a year in Japan on a study abroad program.  He likes to read and write and help other people out.  He joined the team kind of last minute after we needed another guy in order to go.

So there's my amazing team.  The Fellowship.

How I got to where I'm going, aka Japan

I am going to Japan as a missionary with Campus Crusade for Christ.  While there, I will be going onto university campuses and helping with their student ministries, raising up student leaders, planning outreaches, as well as just going out and sharing the love of Jesus with students.  My team and I will also be discipling the Japanese Christians that are there in order to prepare them to go out and reach their families, their coworkers, and the rest of Japan.  

So why Japan?  

Honestly, I never thought I would be doing anything like this at any point in my life, much less right now.  Two years ago, if someone had told me I would be going to Japan for a year as a missionary, I would have told them no way.  But the truth is that God has changed my heart towards missions in a huge way.  Last summer I went to East Asia on a summer project with Cru (Campus Crusade for Christ; I'll probably refer to it as Cru from now on) and while I was there it really opened my eyes to the need in the world for Jesus.  I came back from that trip seriously considering ministry as something I could do after college, at least for a year.  I never considered Japan, though.  

Japan was brought to my attention by two of my friends who had been there on a summer project the year before.  Amy and Jack both fell in love with Japan, and when Amy was deciding to go on STINT there she asked me to consider going there, as well.  Actually, she pretty much just told me I should come with her and I told her that I'd rather pass, to which she responded, "I'll pray you on to our STINT team."  Who knew how true that would be!  For the rest of fall semester, I talked to both Amy and Jack about Japan and they shared their hearts with me for the people there.  Through them, I learned about the need that is in Japan.  Less than 1% of the population is Christian, and there is a suicide every 15 minutes.  The culture emphasizes tradition and a collective mindset of what it means to be Japanese.  Christianity does not fit into that mindset. 

Amy and Jack told me about the students they had met and how they felt empty inside, with nothing to look forward to except a potentially dead-end job.  They told me how they did ministry in Japan, building up relationships with the students.  And the more I heard about the need in Japan and the people, the more I connected with it.  I felt drawn to Japan.  

So I prayed.  And prayed.  And prayed some more.  For a while, I was very much convinced that I was going to stay at ASU and intern here instead.  But then I went to San Diego Winter Conference just after Christmas and God moved in my heart.  There were some amazing speakers there, and during one of the talks I was seriously convicted.  The talk was about leaving everything behind and following Jesus.  Following Him with your entire life.  And it made me think about why I wanted to stay in Arizona.  I realized that most of my reasons were selfish.  My friends were here.  My family.  My community.  My church.  It would be easier to stay here.  I realized that I wouldn't be giving Jesus my all if I stayed here, and it was at that point that I accepted what I had known for a while but refused to accept.  God was calling me to Japan.  

Even after that, it took me a while to fully embrace the reality of what that meant.  I procrastinated on my application.  I kept praying and waiting for a different response from God.  Even when I had finally submitted my application, I still wasn't sure that this was what God had in mind for my life.  

And then the tsunami hit.  Three days after I had submitted my application to STINT in Japan, I received a text message from a friend telling me to look at the news because an earthquake had hit Japan.  I remember looking at multiple news sites for hours instead of doing my homework and crying as I watched footage of the tsunami wipe out cities.  Everything was sort of up in the air.  What did this mean for STINT?  Were they still sending a team to Japan?  Was the radiation a serious danger?  What was going to happen?

I was still waiting to hear about my application while all of this was going on, and still I doubted.  I asked God to not let me get accepted unless I was supposed to go.  And eventually, I got my phone interview and my pre-acceptance and then a follow up phone call and my actual acceptance and then an e-mail telling me my placement in Japan.  We were going.    

So here I am.  That's how I got to where I am now.  Going to Japan. 

Coming next: My team!

These are the voyages of...

Hello dear friends! Welcome to my blog!

My name is Amanda Sever and I am a 22 year old from Tempe, Arizona. This past May I graduated from Arizona State University with a BA in English Literature and a minor in Business and I will be shortly leaving for Tokyo, Japan for a one-year internship with Campus Crusade for Christ called STINT.  This blog will keep track of my adventures there and (hopefully!) beyond.  Since this is my first post, I'll explain a little more about who I am.

First things first, I guess.  The most important thing is that I love Jesus and it is my desire to follow Him in everything I do.  I am continually learning what it means to be in a relationship with Him and experience His love in my life.  Even though I mess up a lot and get things wrong, I know that His grace has me covered.  It makes me really excited to think about how I will grow in my relationship with Him and how I will get to know Him better as time goes on.  I can't think of anything better.  

Second thing.  Stories are my passion.  I adore books and reading and words.

The best moments in reading are when you come across something - a thought, a feeling, a way of looking at things - which you had thought special and particular to you. And now, here it is, set down by someone else, a person you have never met, someone even who is long dead. And it is as if a hand has come out, and taken yours. 

-Alan Bennett

I also really enjoy TV shows and movies because they're stories, too, just as much as books are.  Character development is my favorite thing ever, and I love seeing the relationships between characters.  I'm a big sci-fi and fantasy fan, and I like to watch crime shows.  Some of my favorite books and shows are as follows in no particular order:

Lord of the Rings-absolute favorite. so. good.

Chronicles of Narnia

Redwall series

Harry Potter

Artemis Fowl

Star Trek: TOS and TNG-HUGE fan.  I wrote my thesis for the Barrett Honors College on Star Trek. :)

Horatio Hornblower

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2k3 series)

Avatar: The Last Airbender

Transformers

Psych

NCIS

Boston Legal

Doctor Who

House

Castle

Merlin

Firefly
Random British Television

If you talk to me about any of these, I will probably get really excited and then spend quite a long time talking about the different relationships between characters and how I see different characters and why they are great (or not great) and how various things relate to what is happening in the world and what that means and how all of this is REALLY IMPORTANT.  Among other things.  

Those are probably the most important things about me.  I like to play volleyball, and just be active in general.  I like to be outside, but I'm pretty much a city girl.  I can, on occasion, be funny.  I tend to be shy and I'm quiet, especially in groups, but that can change with a little bit of time.  I'm an introvert.  I procrastinate a lot.  I read fanfiction a lot.  I like food, especially my dad's cooking.  I also like coffee.  And ice cream.  I really like spending time with my friends and talking about God and life and why I wish Vulcans were real.  If you want to know more about me, ask me!  Or hang out with me.  Which might be hard while I'm in Japan.  But maybe when I'm not in Japan, we should hang out sometime.  That's all for now.  My goal for this blog is to update it every other week, so hopefully that will actually happen.  Coming next: why I'm actually going to Japan!  

Thanks for reading!

Amanda