I was not a Christian when I came to study in the States as an international student from Japan. My friends from the school told me about InterVarsity’s international student fellowship about a year ago, and I started attending.

Two months ago (October 2009), I was still not a Christian when I was introduced to Urbana. I didn’t know what Urbana was, but I was searching for God at that time. I felt like God was with me, but I was not sure. I decided to register for Urbana 09 to try to find more about God.

However, one month ago, I had a bad situation in my life. I was kind of depressed about everything: my studies, my family in Japan, etc. And to add to that, my host father here in the States had a very bad injury, which was a matter of life and death. I didn’t have another choice than to pray. I found myself trying to learn how to pray. So I started praying to God to heal my host father. I was not a Christian, but I started pray to the God of the Christians. In my total surprise, God miraculously healed my host father.

I could feel that God was there with me and that he was hearing my prayers. I could also feel that little by little God was reaching out to me and calling me.

I knew about Christianity even if I was not a Christian before. I just couldn’t open the door of my heart to let God in. For me the Bible was just a fiction fairytale story, not history or a true story.

With my life in America as an international student, I see now that God has orchestrated everything. I can tell it now, as I have seen God answer my prayers and work in my life.

Now I feel that God is always with me, and even when things don’t go right in my life, I can still feel strong. I know that people can leave me easily, but now I have faith that God will never leave me. I feel my life is stable now and at peace. I have the assurance of God with me, because when I pray I see Him answer.

As a result of Urbana 09, I want to meet more Christian friends around the world and share my spiritual journey with other Christians. I want to tell others about Jesus and about the power of the prayer that I witnessed before I even knew personally who Jesus is.

I am still learning how to pray. I just accepted Jesus two months ago after I saw God hear my prayers and miraculously heal my host father. I am a very new Christian and still have a lot to learn about Jesus and prayer. Right now, I think I will prefer to pray in Japanese but I also feel like English is more simple and clear when praying.

Prayer for me is one of the ways to have a conversation with God. Right now I consider myself as a follower of Jesus, which means I can tell other people about Him, particularly those who don’t him yet, those who are skeptical and think that the Bible is a fairytale story or a fiction story, just the way I thought.

Coming to Urbana 09 just affirmed to me that God wants to use me to show his power to others. I am praying to make more Christian friends here at Urbana, to know more about Jesus and his love for me and have more confidence as a Christian and a follower of Jesus.

I sense that God is speaking to me. The country prayer time with Japanese students here at the International Students Track has been a good place for me to meet new Christian friends.

I thank Urbana for helping me to know what God is doing around the entire world and also helping me increase my confidence as a Christian. Now I know that from here I will go to witness to others about Jesus.

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