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).