Church3:5-11

Today was our first church service since we've arrived in Japan. Pastor Takahashi preached on Colossians 3:5-11 and discussed living as a Christian in a society of idolatry. Not only amidst the idolatry of lust, greed, etc but also within an idolatrous culture that's rooted in Shintoism and Budhism. It was a very encouraging time and the church family said goodbye to a young family that is moving to Seattle for the father's work at Microsoft. In addition a missionary family from Hong Kong was visitng and an American exchange student is coming back home to America as well. So after the service they had a lunceon with the whole church to celebrate the goodbyes and welcoming of us.

The church also had a cleaning day today so the four of us helped scrubed windows and tidy up different areas of the church. While the rest of the congregration spread out over the four story building to make sure the church looked it's best for the rest of the summer. The handyman of the church installed a new (large) gas rice cooker along with a new stove top and soon to some stove for Tony to use this week at VBS to make cup cakes.

We're getting ready to teach tomorrow morning at VBS both English and Bible lessons. We have to be pretty flexible since we don't know how many kids will be showing up in addition to what age groups. Albert and I worked on writing out songs and making the crafts for the week as Tony, Isaiah and Yoshie went to Costco to get the supplies for snacks each day at VBS. So we're feel relatively ready for the week but ask for your prayers as we get all our ducks in a row each day this week.

Then Kanadasan, one of the handymans at the church took all of us, including the pastor's daughters and friends out to dinner tonight. We had a long table with two griddles on it where we cooked, beef, seafood and veggies together into patties with eggs, soy sauce, noodles and different broths to create a really good traditional Japanese dinner. We all had a great time together eating and practicing Japanese.

Thank you all for you thoughts and prayers.