So Sunday morning our homestays (Yuki & Mika), picture above, woke up and made us Belgian waffles for breakfast before church. They enjoy cooking and took the time to make us a very nice breakfast. We enjoyed fellowshiping with them over food before we all ran to the bus stop to get to the train station so we could make it to church on time. Sunday was CRAZY-HOT...it's in the mid 30's which is about the mid 90's with about 70% humidity. It's so hot that when you exit the shower you're sweating and after you've walked one block on the 5-6 block walk to the train station your shirt is dripping in sweat. I think the heat will be the only thing we WON'T miss once we return on Tuesday afternoon to L.A.
We had a wonderful time at church as Takahashi Sensei taught on Luke 22 (which is a passage that John MacArthur has been in for the past year or so...so it was a nice reminder and recap of what left at home before we came to Japan! During church Sensei had Tony and I stand up and speak about our experience helping the church and also to great everyone with departing words. I expressed my joy in teaching the little ones and interacting with the kids and their mothers. Based on the "thank you" cards and kinds compliments I received from numerous parents I believe our impact on the lives of these families was significant. Praise the Lord!
Tony expressed how great it was to see old faces and to reconnect with everyone he's known over the years. He also expressed the fun he had in teaching a baking class to the mom's of the VBS kids and also working with the kids throughout the week in various ways. It was a nice time for us to share our thanks to the church and visa versa.
After church we all went upstairs for a church meal of a Curry dish over rice. It was VERY good. The Curry was prepared by Ms. Omura who was the kind lady who had us over for dinner the night before. So we know the sacrifices she made to have us over the night before she prepared a meal for 50-60 people at church! What's amazing about this church family is how HARD everyone works. Most of these people (moms and dads, widows and singles) all work crazy long weeks and then spend all their extra time at the church serving or serving other church family members. It's such a blessing to see how they all live out the model of a New Testament Church as described by Paul.
Then Tony, Isaiah, Maki, John and I all went to the train station to go shopping! I have to admit the shopping in Japan is soooooo much fun. You can find ANYTHING here and the experience itself is a once in a life time thing. First off, like their food, the Japanese present everything wonderfully. All the stores have very artistic displays of whatever goods the stores sell. Plus when you buy something in a Japanese store everything is wrapped very neatly when you check out. Many stores will ask if what you are buying is a gift. If you respond with "hi" (yes) that means they'll remove the price, wrap it and then write a not (IN ENGLISH) of what the package contains! It's incredible....plus most stores do it for FREE. It makes you think twice about the service you get in the States.
Then that evening we went to the Takahashi's house (Yoshie and Sensei's house) for dinner. The three of us went along with Isaiah's home stay family (the Hosukawa's) and our homestay family (the Fukayas) along with both Takahashi daughter's and one of their daughter's husbands. We had a good size group in a small house. We had a wonderful dinner and then played "Mafia" which actually went really well given that we had two languages to play in! Luckily, Tomo, the narrator was bilingual so she translated for everyone. We really had a blast and was probably there until 10:30 or so.
Thanks again for praying for us everyone.
Frank & Tony
p.s. Yuki and Mika are the couple pictured, Isaiah dressed up in a Yukata (female summer kimono as all the girls were giggling with excitement from all the attention he was giving them), plus some street shots outside Starbucks as the mall and also some shots of fruit displays at the grocery store. Check out the price of the Grapes, 5,200 is about $48!!!)
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