The Long Awaited Update

Well what can I say...? I decided to start writing again on this blog because there are some that have brought it to my attention that they regularly check my blog for updates. So I thought I'd give it a try...

Life has been truly crazy, for lack of a better word. Working two jobs has really stretched me... not only physically but mentally. I'm now not only working at the Restaurant full time as their Pastry Chef but also the country club in their grille as their part time Pastry Chef. Working 7am-midnight between the jobs with no breaks really tolls on one but as always the Lord uses our various trials and circumstances to bring us closer to Him.

It is now Christmas Eve and great not to be working as I prepare for Round 2 as New Years rapidly approaches. But, as always, God is GOOD! He is faithful! He constantly provides me with the strength to keep on going! And currently He is providing the patience not only for me but Frank as well as we are home visiting with the parental units for Christmas and through our Birthday on the 27th.

I am so thankful for the Lord and His constant provisions, for family and for such wonderful/cherished friends. However as the Christmas season has come so quickly, especially working so much without a chance to breathe, it is hard sometimes to remember why we really celebrate Christmas. But to God be the glory! For He is good!

Well we're home!

Sorry it took so long to post this but the last week was super busy and then when we got home Isaiah and I both hit the ground running. We flew into LAX on Sunday August 5th, it was actually kind of funny, we landed in CA technically before we left Japan, time wise that it.

But in regard to the last week in Japan, there was much to do and many folks at the church wanted to spend time with us. We got back from camp on Tuesday, tired and drained, and ready for a good nights sleep. Isaiah and I moved to a new home stay the Hosokawa's. A really sweet couple, Mrs. Hosokawa is saved but her husband whom she refers to as Mr. Bear is not. It was so wonderful though sleeping in on Wednesday morning, some much needed sleep was achieved.

Wednesday was a pretty kick back day. Isaiah and I spent a good 2 hours at the 100 yen store near our homestay then headed to church to meet Sensei. We had planned to take him out to lunch but something had come up so Isaiah and I just went ourselves to a little restaurant (Sensei's favorite) called Coffee and Curry. Also Wednesday night was our last time with the church for their weekly prayer meeting. It was a great time of prayer and fellowship and afterwards we went out to dinner (around 10pm) with Sensei, Yoshie, Maki, Tomo and Jon.

Sensei and Yoshie took Isaiah, Kai and myself out for an outing in Tokyo on Thursday. We had a great time. We went to the famous Meji Temple, Tokyo Tower and a cruise out in Tokyo Bay. The sky was beautiful, and crystal clear, being that a typhoon which was headed north was on its way. All in all we had a wonderful day with the Takahashi's. Then Isaiah, Yoshie and I went grocery shopping for our baking "party" the next day.

Friday, Yoshie had set aside time for me to bake with her, along with Hiromi, Akiko, Tomoko, Kai and Isaiah. Our first obstacle was trying to figure out how we could get the Kitchen Aid to work with Japanese power. Yoshie and Isaiah ended up running out to pick up a power converter to convert 220 volts to 120 volts for the kitchen aid. However, once we got it working things went much faster, rather then if we were using the hand mixer. Since 2 years ago Yoshie had been wanting to bake with me, so finally we had a chance. When I first got to Japan I gave her my recipe book so she had about 3 weeks to thumb through it and there was a bunch she wanted to do. However being that we only had about a 4 1/2 hour time slot we didn't get to do all that she wanted. But we did make; Pumpkin bread, carrot cake, white chocolate cheese cake, creme brulee, and Tira misu. So got a few things in. I was actually amazed how much we got done, because Japanese ovens are so small, but apparently I timed it right.

Saturday was a blast because we had a wedding at the church. Two of the church members, Eriko and Shige were married that day. It was a so much fun to participate in a Japanese wedding and not only that but a Christian one! However it ended up being the hottest day of summer, well over a 100F. There were a lot of unsaved there but I think the church was an awesome testimony to these people in the way that they came together to put this wedding on. It was beautiful. I had the pleasure of also making some dessert for the wedding, i made my famous chocolate torte which was a huge hit. But I can't emphasize how neat it was to see the church come together. I looked at it and thought, this is what a church should be like, sure they have their ups and downs like any other church. But when you compare it to your average American church, they don't match up. There is a self sacrifice that you don't see in America and that's due to the individualistic attitude of "it's all about me." However, Japan, like other Asian nations has a collective mentality which actually works really well with Christianity and I think we're witnessing this in China today, as China has the fastest growing church in the world. Anywho, the wedding was great!

After the wedding Isaiah and I had the pleasure of being taken out to dinner by our homestay the Hosokawa's. We went to a restaurant where Mrs. Hosokawa explained that we would see another Isaiah, which ended up being a big fat raccoon on the porch of the restaurant, it was pretty funny and she had us take pictures with it.

Sunday was the day of our departure. Thankfully our bus was not leaving until 1:45pm so Isaiah and I had time to go to church and enjoy a quick lunch with the congregation. It was a great time of fellowship and goodbyes. The church was also enjoying the company of the newly weds from Saturday who were playing a slide show of pictures from there past. Isaiah and I did have a chance to say a little something before the church to let them know how much we appreciated them allowing us to come and how much so we wished we could come back.

It was an awesome trip and I didn't think I would want to come back as soon as I did, but after being at work for one day, all I could think of was Japan. Not the country itself but the people. Such wonderful people, the Lord is doing a great work over there, yet there is still so much to be done.

Thank you everyone for your prayers!

Camp is Over

Well the 2^nd and 3^rd day of camp went well We’ve had on off rain, so it’s been a bit cooler, which is really nice, but our rooms are sweltering… and there’s no air-conditioning in them. For the counselors, our day starts at 7am as we meet together to discuss the schedule for the day, the message that will be given later that evening, and the cabin time from the night before. The cabin time is a time we have at night with the campers to see what they thought of the message and answer any questions concerning their faith.

After that the campers are up and we take them to breakfast. In between each activity there’s usually a little bit of a break for the kids to either make their way around and or get a little rest, or like most of them go play games.

English lessons are next. From 9:30am-12pm with a 15 minute break starting at 10:30am. Because we have such a wide range of the level of English speakers the 15 kids have been broken up into 4 groups. 3 who are completely bilingual in English and Japanese so they just play games with Isaiah, 8 who are beginners and split up between Kai and Jon, and 4 intermediate level kids who have fallen into my care. They’ve been great and they know much more then they think but because they’re so shy it takes them a bit to warm up. I usually get them going with a game, it makes the “warming up” process less painful.

Anywho, next they have lunch, and of course everything has an American tough being that its runs by mainly Americans. From 1-3 is rafting or swimming time. This has been a favorite however Monday’s rafting was rained out and Isaiah and his raft, which was filled with all the boys manages to tip over. One boy floated down the river, but was recovered. I unfortunately didn’t have time to go rafting though I really wanted to. Electives start at 3pm. The kids have a choice of either; Volley Ball with Isaiah, Games with Kai, Crafts with Katrin, and of course cooking with myself. The Sunday we made Chocolate Mousse and today, Monday, we made Zeppoles, Italian Dough-nut holes.

From 4-5:45pm the kids have free time and at 5:45 the kids go to dinner. At 7pm the kids have fun time. The first night each team was given a few items and they had to concoct something to hold a raw egg that would sustain being dropped from the second story of a building. It didn’t go so well, we had scrambled eggs and sadly no one received any points. They kids were given a ruler, plastic bag, 2 pieces of paper, a pencil, scissors, some tape and a balloon.

Around 8pm we have worship time and a message is given. Usually around 10pm the kids go back to their cabins and we have cabin time with them to discuss the message. Tonight however we got to have a bon fire where the kids shared what they learned at camp, we sang songs and made smores… as it started to rain.

All in all it was a great time and there still is much more that went on but words can’t give you the big picture of what the Lord is doing here. Tomorrow the kids go home and really all we can do is pray and hope the Lord will move His Spirit upon them and some may come to know him. Thank you for your prayers. Tomorrow (or I guess it's today now being that it's 12:15 am here Tuesday morning) we head back for Tachikawa.

1st Day of Camp!

Today was the first day of camp at Okutama Bible Chalet. We’re are now about an hour out from where we were, Tachikawa. It is amazing how different the landscape it, but Japan is like this. One moment you’re in a city and the next you are in the countryside seeing awesome landscapes.

Before Isaiah and I came to Japan, Yoshie Takahashi told us that she was asked to lead the Jr. High camp at OBC, and she asked if Isaiah and myself would help. Of course we said yes, how could we say no? Anywho, we’re here now and the first day has just finished. We have 15 Jr. Highers, 7 boys and 8 girls. They’re a great group of kids coming from many walks of life and ethnicities. Also, OBC, Alongside our camp is running an adult English camp. So it is a bit crowded on the grounds but it seems to be working so far.

We had American food tonight being that this camp is run my Send International missionaries who are American. However we have Japanese staff working alongside us as well as a German girl named Katrin, who is actually my co-leader for my team. My team has chosen the name “Black Hole” to be their name, as opposed to Isaiah’s team who have chosen “Yummy” and Kai’s team who’ve chosen “Heptagon.” Interesting names but there shouldn’t be any confusion, hopefully.

The kids came at 3pm and registered. We played with them and got to know them as they arrived, and “interviewed” them to see what their English speaking levels were. Tomorrow they start English classes they’ll be placed in accordance to their various levels.

Well, I am getting tired and it’s late here and there is much to do in tomorrow and like every camp counselors have early meetings to attend… Your prayers, as always are coveted.

Oyasuminasai! Good Night!

VBS is Over! But Here We Go Again!

VBS is over. The last day was yesterday, Friday. It was an awesome day. The last day is always busier, because it goes longer, therefore he part of the program goes a little lone. Plus we give the kids and their moms a full lunch. We gave them hot dogs, potato salad and potato chips. They really enjoyed it.

Also, it was the last day of the creation week, so we went over the creation of man. We were blessed to have sensei give the lesson. He not only went over the creation of man, but the fall and redemption. When we had asked him to do it early, he said “great, you guys get to talk about Creation and I’ll talk about the Fall of man…” He said he’d throw in redemption to end on a happier note. Many of the mothers had questions so it was a great time to witness to them.

For the craft we had the kids make shirts. They placed their hands in paint then placed them on the shirts to get hand prints. We then wrote on the shirts God Made Me and Genesis 1.27. They loved it! It got a little crazy, but in the end it came out great. God is so good! Oh and we had about 22 kids too. So we ended with a good amount and some said they would be back next year. Unfortunately we do not know if there is going to be a next year… We’ll see what the Lord has in store for the program.

Afterwards Yoshie treated Isaiah and I to coffee at Starbucks and we discussed Okutama Bible Chalet. One program ends and another one begins. We are headed out today to Okutama Bibe Chalet, about an hour from the church to help a camp that is run by Send International. We have 16 junior highers, not too many and they’re older, which should be a bit easier. However they arrive today (Saturday) at 3pm. The camp is 4 days and there’s much to do, so prayer will be much appreciated. I will try to keep you posted. Oh and I will be working on dessert here for the wedding we are having at the church next Saturday, August 4^th.

Thank you all again for your prayers for VBS, it was a hit, a lot of work but well worth it.

Jamatanae. (See you later.)

VBS Day 4; Still Going Up!

Thursday was even better. Our numbers continue to go up, made it up to 22 kids! God is so good. There are also many mothers and I think we had a grandma today as well. It is such a neat opportunity to be able to witness to these souls. Mainly by us serving their children, when you do something nice for someone child, they remember you. Some great words of wisdom that someone told me before that I would like to share, for those of you who have close friends that are missionaries. When your missionary friends are home in the States, or even when on the field, always take the time to remember their children. Even if it’s something simple like buying their kids a new pair of shoes or something that gives them a little memory of home, like peanut butter!

Anywho, back to VBS! Today, Thursday, was the fifth day of God’s creation, the creation of the birds and sea creatures. Therefore, we had small ceramic animals for the kids to paint today, oh it was a hit.

We found these awesome little animal cookies at the supermarket that had the English names written right on them. They were perfect. It is amazing how much the Lord provides, especially when we’re going into the unknown sometimes.

My English class continues to grow to as we have more kids, it’s really nice. However now that I have more kids we can’t cover as much material. I had 8 kids in my class today, which is 4 times more then I had on the first day. God is good!

After VBS, we went out to lunch what an experience today. First Isaiah and I trekked over to the Panya (Breadshop) and got some luscious bake goods, that words and pictures just cannot describe. I of course got some melon bread and I sweet conical shaped bread dipped in chocolate and filled with a chocolate custard. Then we headed over to the 100 yen (under $1) Soba shop and got a bowl of soba noodles, and we stood while we ate. I don’t think I ever ate something this fast before at the scorching temperature it was at. Don’t get me wrong it was great but I like to chew my food… but I’ll go back again.

Thursday evening Mrs. Omura, one of the widows at the church) invited Isaiah and I to here house for dinner. Akiko the girl who rents from her and who also attends the church joined us as well. We had a wonderful time of fellowship, food and a few games of chicken foot. For those of you who do not know what that is, it’s a fun game with domino’s. But I can’t even begin to describe to you how wonderful the dinner was, I would be here all night and it is already 12:20am here Friday morning.. All traditional Japanese food, I’ll post a picture and let it speak for it self.

Please pray for our strength tomorrow as we finished our week of VBS with a fun filled day of activities and lunch for the children. WE have much work to do and as soon as it is over, we have to do some planning for our camp that we leave for tomorrow. Much to do and so little time…

Thank you all! P.S. scroll down to see more pictures!

VBS day 3 Our Numbers Doubled!

Praise the Lord our numbers doubled! Monday we had 12 kids, Tuesday we had 9, and yesterday (Wednesday) we had 19 kids!! It was a wonderful day. What is really interesting is that most of the kids that are coming are coming from other cities. Even though we only passed out fliers in Tachikawa we are having many kids coming from elsewhere which is great. Because that means the word is traveling!

We had Christian woman who came from another city. She had call the day before saying she would bring about 10 kids, we were blown away. The next day she showed up with about that many kids and about 5 other moms. It was really awesome. Her children are fluent in English, so the English lessons don’t really pertain to them, but they had so much fun the first day and they said they would be back the next day and they would come with more kids. And they did! Thursday they were back and the two little girls brought their older brother as well.

But I don’t want to get ahead of myself here. Wednesday was really great. It was the fourth day of Creation, therefore the Sun and the Moon were created along with the stars. We bought fans from the 100 yen store and sided them with black paper leaving the back white. Therefore it portrayed day and night and they got to decorate them, they loved it! The snack was goldfish, what kid doesn’t like cheddar cheese crackers shaped like fish.

Anywho, Wednesday was an awesome day. To top it off we finished the evening what a wonderful prayer meeting at the church. Every Wednesday night at 7:30 pm a few gather to share, pray together, and Sensei gives a short lesson. It is a wonderful time of fellowship.

VBS Day 2

Well our 2^nd day of VBS went very well, and most according to plan, except no more kids. We had some new ones, but about the same number, only around a dozen. So we are determined, we dropped a couple hundred flyers into some mail boxed around the city. Hopefully this will draw in more children. However, if we only have 12 or so, they’re still precious souls and they’ll get even more attention from us.

How VBS is broken down;

We all stroll in around 8:30am to do some final touches on our lessons, crafts, skits and what not. Some children usually show up early, while others a little late. We only had one kid on time today, and we were getting a little worried, because today we had a lot of help and not so many kids. But, God is good, and he brought us more a little after the start of the day.

So 9:30am is the start time. Children come in grab their name tags, which have little folded pieces of paper in them containing the stamps they have each received for the various things they had done and have completed. Then we play games and sings songs.

10:00am is English lessons. They children split up into their various levels and we teach them. I teach the older kids. Today we did the responses to “How are you?” and weather, such as “How is the weather today?” and I always have them finish with the alphabet.

10:30am Snack Time!!! One of the favorite times for not only the kids but the hungry leaders too. Today we had alphabet and number cookies. I nice little find from our escapades at Costco the other day, cinnamon cookies with the hint of nutmeg. They were great, however I think the kids had more fun making words with them then eating them. So much so that most of them had to take their cookies home in plastic bag because they were taking to long to eat them.

10:45am is the skit and lesson. We did a funny skit today which the kids really didn’t get, but we found out afterwards that it was because the kids didn’t understand “skit” and really didn’t know what to do and or what was going on. Tomorrow we will explain the purpose of these skits are to make them laugh. For the lesson, Isaiah taught the 3^rd day of the Creation week. Land arose from the water and vegetation filled the earth.

11:00am is craft time. Today the kid got jars and filled them up with colored salt (dirt/earth) mixed with glitter, and placed small fake flowers, plants and leaves in the. Then on the lid we wrote the reference from today’s lesson Gen. 1.9-13 and their names in English. Surprisingly the boys had a ton of fun with this and theirs came out prettier then the girls.

All in all it was a great day, hopefully tomorrow will go just as well.

Afterwards we went and got lunch together and talked about day 3 of VBS. Then Isaiah, Jon and I worked on crafts for day 3. About 1-2 hours later we needed a nice break, so we went and did Kareoke for hour. Jon, Isaiah and I had a blast doing that, it's always fun to reminisce with old rock 'n roll songs.

VBS

So today was our first day of VBS the Joy English Club. This is one of our main ministries that we come to help with. Also VBS is completely left up to us to organize, granted we do have some Japanese helpers, but it is mainly us putting it on.

Our theme for the program this year is the Creation week (Genesis 1). However, we only have 5 days for VBS, so we taught the first 2 days of Creation today; the creation of light and the separation of waters and the expanse.

How VBS is broken down is as follows; the children arrive at 9:30am, and periodically stroll in as the day progresses. We play with them for a few minutes to try to get them more comfortable. The Japanese are very reserved people, quite and humble, however their children are just the opposite, I don’t know what happens to them in the growth process but they get that way. We started by playing some games mixed with songs. Many children that come, come from unbelieving families, however, they are attracted to the English and Americans teaching it.

After teaching the kids their body parts in English we started singing songs like Father Abraham which gets the kids involved. Then we started playing games, and everything we do we incorporate English, the parents really like that and we get to minister to these gets just by speaking English to them.

The kids are then sent off to English lessons. We divide them up in the specific age groups and levels of their English. Being that we only had about 12 kids today we only had 2 groups, young and old, and most were young. I was teaching the more advanced kids and I only had 2 of them. We went over greetings, introductions, farewells, and the Alphabet. They did very well and I had Megumisan helping me, she is a member of the church here and a native, so translations were great.

After the English lessons we had snack time, and being that light and darkness were separated we did Oreo cookies for the snack. I think the kids really liked it. When the kids finished their snack Isaiah taught the first two days of the Creation week and I prepared the craft upstairs. As soon as the lesson was over the kids headed for the fourth floor for craft time. Monday’s craft involved filling a plastic bottle with the children’s favorite color of glitter. Then we filled the bottles half with water and half with oil so you could see a separation to achieve an effect of light and darkness.

When craft time was over so was VBS, so the children came up to each of the Americans and say goodbye to us in English and left. It was a great time, and being that it was the first day of VBS went rather smoothly and we hope that tomorrow will be just a great. I will keep you posted what happens tomorrow. Thank you for your prayers.

Day 8

8 Days now in Japan, though is feels like we’ve been here longer. It is Saturday, even though it’s technically 12:15am Sunday morning here as I am writing this.

Saturday was a little more laid back. We did not have to be at the church until 3pm to meet Yoshie to go over VBS curriculum and what not. So we, (Isaiah and I), spent the morning and early afternoon with our Home stays, just the children actually both Mr. and Mrs. had to work. The Japanese have a work ethic that puts ours to shame; however, I can see how it can affect many families. The Kato’s whom we are staying with seem to balance their schedules pretty well. The kids kept us busy throughout the morning and afternoon. We played games, watched TV and ate with them, so much so, that Isaiah and I passed out before we needed to meet Yoshie.

Once 3pm rolled around we trekked over to the church where Kai and Yoshie were already waiting for us. We spent a good 2 ½ hours going over the schedule for VBS, curriculum, snacks, crafts, songs and games. Then being that we were all together we took the time to go over our schedules for Okutama Bible Chalet which we will be going to next weekend. It was a productive afternoon, however, much is still to be done before Monday when VBS starts. On top of that we have to come up with skit for Sunday school too, which is actually in a few hours for me, which means I need to get to bed.

Saturday evening we spent at John Robinson’s House, a new missionary through Send international and friend of Isaiah. A few of the college students from the Church’s college group met us there, 9 of us total. It was a wonderful time of fellowship. We had pasta for dinner, which I will admit was a little of a relief being that I have been desiring some more hardy food. After dinner we had a prayer meeting, we shared prayer requests, broke up into groups and prayed for one another, it was a great time.

We got back late that night to discover the whole Kato family still awake! All the kids were still up which is a mixed blessing. They’re so cute but tiring… Anywho, God is good and we had a wonderful day. Tomorrow is the Sabbath and it will be another great day. I move to the Tsuda’s home for 2 days, they are a non-Christian family who I had the pleasure of staying with last time I was here. Mrs. Tsuda is very close; she will be baptized soon which is going to be a great day!! Anywho I must get to bed. Thank you for all of your prayers!!

Day 7

Thursday we continued to pass out fliers. We went to another elementary school, the children were quite receptive at this school. Isaiah had even recognized one of the little girls from years passed and she was pretty taken aback that Isaiah remembered her name.

Afterwards Isaiah and I, guided by Yoshie Takahashi, went shopping for VBS. It was amazing how much we found at the 100 yen store that will work perfect for what we’re doing. It was a lot of fun and when stuff costs only 100 yen you just keep throwing it into the cart. It does add up though as we discovered when at the cash register. We then hit up a local supermarket with the intent to find some snack food for VBS each day. We found one snack, but we are going to attempt to go to Costco (Kostoko), being that we can purchase stuff in bulk, however Costco isn’t a hop and skitch away, it’s about an hour away. So are chances of making it are slim.

Our days are filled with preparation for VBS however; our evenings are spent with our homestays. Isaiah and I are currently staying with the Kato’s, who have four children. So our evenings, besides the wonderful Japanese meals we have, are filled with entertaining these crazy little rascals. Don’t get me wrong they are cute and very precious, and it is so neat to see a completely Christian family in Japan, which is very rare, but goodness they ware us out every night! Between the decibel level and physical ware and tare we are pooped by the end of the night.

Friday was a rare treat. We had the pleasure of touring a little of Japan with Shigea, Yoshie Takahashi’s father. What a neat man. He was in his teens during WWII and 16 years old when he watched the American bombers completely obliterate his house, Tokyo and the surrounding cities with fire bombs. And yet he holds no animosity toward Americans, he has even visited the states and loved it. I had the pleasure of meeting him 2 years ago, while this was Isaiah’s fourth time seeing him. He is not a believer but he loves hanging out with us and he cannot understand why we love to hang with him because he is old, but he is really sweet and humble. On top of that his English is great! So he took us around today Ueno, which is smack dab right in the middle of the Tokyo prefecture. We went to a museum; visited some landmarks, shopping districts and a 60 story building that gave us some great panoramic shots of the city. It was a great blessing to visit with him and I can only hope that we were great influences on him as much as he has been to us.

Thank you all for your precious prayers! Sayonara! (goodbye).

Day 6

Wednesday, Isaiah, Kai, John and myself continued to pass out fliers at a local elementary school with the help of Tomo Takahashi. It went quite well. Thursday we will go to one more school and then begin distributing fliers into mail boxes, which thankfully isn’t illegal here.

We also said goodbye to Makoon who had been with us since we got here. Ma is a Korean gentlemen who had been here visiting, with the intent to return shortly as a missionary. There’s something to say about the passion one sees in Asian believers, it’s a passion for God unlike any other I have seen. It is unfortunate that it is not as common in the states. My guess would be that it is because many of these souls have seen much persecution as opposed to persecution being pretty much non existent in the States.

Lunch time rolled around and as we were walking down the street we ran into Sensei, who happened to be looking for Yoshie to go out to lunch. As he departed from us one minute later we ran into Yoshie as she was looking for Sensei. Not too long after we realized they were following us and we all had lunch together. It was a great time of fellowship and of course good food.

Later on in the afternoon, Isaiah and I scoped out the local Camera Store (Bic Camera) which is a 7 story building not just filled with cameras. 2 of the floors are actually dedicated to art and crafts supplies, which was great for us as we continued to hunt for VBS supplies. We found some stuff we wanted but decided to check out the 100 yen store the next day to compare some prices and get more ideas. However, I must admit and gave into the temptation of materialistic idolatry and purchased a new camera… But my camera had broken so I think the purchase was justified. ;-)

Anywho, that evening we had our weekly prayer meeting at the church, and it was an awesome time of fellowship and worship. As we sang, heard a short message from Sensei and prayed together. How neat it is to be sitting in a room with souls praying together in multiple languages and yet still praying to the same God with a common purpose. One can really experience the body of Christ when serving abroad.

I do have to share an experience though. Wednesday was a day filled with culture defining moments. I don’t think I could have felt more American. I was carrying my laundry around in a plastic Wal-Mart bag and had McDonalds for dinner…

Thank you again for all of your prayers. Jamatane! (See you later).

Day 5

Tuesday started at the church at 9am to help Kanadasan cut a door down so we could get it to swing open nicely without scraping on the new carpet. Most of the time we watched, because it was a one man job until the door needed to be moved and clean up. However, it came out great and he treated us all to lunch at a Chinese restaurant and then coffee at McDonalds.

Soon after be began to pass out fliers, it went great, except we couldn’t figure out when the school was getting out so we stood around for a while. Most of the children are quite receptive; however, some always ignore you and run. When we speak English to them they get interested, then they start speaking to us in English and usually they know quite a bit. We really surprise them though when we through out the little Japanese we know, then they run off screaming wow (Sagoee) in Japanese.

Further, we had another American join us, Laney Stroup who had been ministering in Nagano. After we warmly greeted each other we headed back and on the way stopped at one of the local Panya (Bread shops) for some famous Japanese Melon Bread. Imagine warm bread, topped with a sweet green melon cookie crunch on top, soft as cotton but as sweet as honey that melts in your mouth. It is heavenly… for lack of a better term and so worth the 8 minute wait, because it had just been pulled from the oven. After having such scrumptious bread wad had to wash it down with some gourmet coffee so we went to go visit Tomo Takahashi, Sensei’s daughter, who happened to be working at a local coffee shop.

On our way back to the church the group spilt up and a few of us, Isaiah, Maki, John, Ma, and myself decided to hit up some Karaoke. We had a blast, and how cool is it to be singing Karaoke in three languages, English, Japanese and Korean!

We then made it back to church and headed out to our various home stays. Isaiah and I went back to the Kato’s where we Isaiah kept the kid entertained and I helped Mrs. Kato with dinner making pasta and garlic bread. The four kids; Seji (2), Hitori (4), Yukiko (9) and Yuki (14) kept us up until 11:30pm, I couldn’t believe they stayed up so late… and Isaiah and I still had showers to take and laundry to do. We pushed the laundry off, took our showers and went to bed. It’s now Wed as I am writing this and I am sitting here with a cold, I would appreciate prayer as there is still much to do a head of us. Thank you all and I will attempt to put another post up tonight (Wed). We have a prayer meeting at the church tonight which will be a great time of fellowship.

P.S. I apologize for the lack of pictures; I have to go to the local camera store to get a something to hook the camera up to my computer… so soon!!

Days 2-3

Sunday was a great day of welcome. The Lord blessed Isaiah and I with wonderful hospitality of from these people. They welcomed us with arms wide open and it was really neat to see a lot of them again.

Isaiah had stayed at the church that night so we had no commute for the morning, which was nice. However we did get up early to go to the bread shop down the street from the church, but after walking in heavy rain in shorts, t-shirts and sandals we soon discovered it had not opened yet.

Sunday was also the first day with our homestay the Kato’s. They are a wonderful family and all are Christians which is rare in Japan, the husband and wife and their four children, whom are really cute and sweet. But boy do they have energy, they wore Isaiah and I out yesterday. They then fed us some authentic sushi for dinner with misu soup, it was great.

Monday we helped carpet the church. We did the second floor and the flight of stairs upto the third floor. Very tiresome but great. We had to rip up the old carpet and scrap all of the padding and glue off the floor. I was one of the sweepers, and to this day I still don’t understand why the Japanese continue to make brooms so short. The broom I used today was like 2 feet long so I was hunched over all day, I felt like a midget. God’s humor I guess, what better way to work in a church but in a constant state of being prostrated… a very humbling experience. It was so much fun working with everyone, it’s amazing how the body of Christ just comes together like a puzzle even though we’re all so different and yet at the same time so alike. God is so good! We then got to spend time at Sensei Takahashi’s home with his family for dinner and we had a wonderful time of fellowship.

Oh and for any of you who are worried about the little earthquake we had, don’t be. We didn’t even feel it. Japan may be an island but it’s not that small. The church didn’t even shake and Isaiah and I didn’t even hear about it until about midnight that day, so it obviously wasn’t too out of the ordinary. It is a shame though that a few lost their lives. God’s time table though not ours.

Well please pray for us, as tomorrow we begin passing out our flyer's for our upcoming VBS program and preparing for it. We have much to do, the time is going fast and there are very few of us to run the program. I would write more but it is very late and I am quite tired. May the Lord bless you all!

P.S. Oh and feel free to check out Isaiah's blog the link is below. I believe he has picture's up for today, I haven't had a chance to upload some.

Day 1

We made it safe and sound! We arrived in Tokyo at about 5:30pm Japan time Saturday 14^th. The flight was awesome, Singapore Airlines was superb. However, we did run into some choppy turbulence due to the Typhoon that was hitting Okinawa and the southern island of Kyushu, it’s due to hit Tokyo sometime tomorrow. So we are due for quite a bit of rain and stormy weather. Every time we were served food on the plane the turbulence kicked in, God’s humor. Isaiah and I had a lot of fun with our drinks, a memorable time that involved coffee cups dancing in the air and many napkins.

The flight was shorter then expected and when we arrived we were greeted by the muggy humidity of Japan’s rainy season, rain, and a nice temperate condition of about 70ºF. It was actually quite enjoyable encountering some rain, being that it has been about 6 months since we’ve seen some good rain in L.A.

Yoshie Takahashi met us at the airport. We then hit up Starbucks and then headed out for our two hour bus ride to Tachikawa, in which Yoshie updated us about everything going on at the church. As we arrived in Tachikawa we haled a cab, being that it was pouring rain and we didn’t want to walk in it, to take us to the church where Isaiah and I would stay the first night. It was fun seeing stuff that I recognized and also seeing new buildings arising with the new development.

When we got to the (Ekimae Tachikawa Christo Kyokai) “Christ Church of Tachikawa in front of the station” we were warmly greeted by Sensei Takahashi and a South Korean who is also staying at the church. Sensei and Yoshie then treated us to a nice Japanese dinner. Afterwards we returned to the church being that Sunday is tomorrow and Isaiah, Kai, and I would be acting out some skits for the Sunday School classes. It has been a long day and we are tired and I am ready for bed. So hopefully tomorrow sometime I will have time to post again.

Thank you all again for your prayers and your thoughts. God Bless you. Jamatane “See you later!”

How could someone say no to such a cute kid!? Much of our ministry is children's ministry with kids as cute as this. This is a picture I took when I was there two years ago, just to give you a feel and a face for the precious souls we are serving.

Mt Fuji Sunrise 4:30 am August 2006

Super Missionary Ninja

Well I am leaving for Japan on Friday the 13th... what more can I say until I get there. Pray and pray hard for the salvation of Japanese souls, and the glorification of Jesus Christ.