Prayer Request!!!!!

We have an important prayer request! Yesterday when we were at the pool, one of the boys slipped and fell because it was raining, and broke his tooth in half. He’s in a lot of pain right now, because his roots are exposed. Last night he just laid in bed because it was so painful. It is also very expensive to get a fake tooth, and we don’t think his family has insurance to cover the costs. Please pray that the pain would go away and that his family is able to afford the costs to take care of it!

Fun fun fun!

Well yesterday was a fun and very exhausting day! We went to the pool for a lot of fun. It was slightly disappointing that the water wasn’t super hot and there were no kayaks, but they did have about a hundred plastic balls! What started out with two boys playing catch turned into an all out war!

Later we went into the domes and did some neat paper folding that resulted in a cross!

The kids listened and helped act out the story of Joseph, and had another lesson, then we added a new bible verse, “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” “わたしたちが つみを おかしたので、かみさまから、はなれてしまった。”

It was a long and exhausting day, and many people were tired

We were very happy, because one of the boys who came to camp every year (and I homestayed with them) was able to stay over!

First Day of Camp!

Everyone was excited and ready to begin camp! We started off with songs and games, then did an activity where the kids tried to create the different things from the creation story. They found that it is hard enough to make things out of clay, God has to be all-powerful in order to be able to create the actual objects! They memorized the verse “I praise You for I am fearfully and wonderfully made” but in Japanese. It took some time for me to learn it but I finally got it: “あなたはわたしを すばらしく つくって くださった ので、かんしゃします.”

Now it’s off to the pool! And we’ll have another bible lesson tonight; keep praying!

Praise Report!

The past couple years we have been praying for the building where Hope International Fellowship Church gathers, that it would be made available to the church to purchase.  There are four floors to the building, but only the bottom two are used by the church, one floor is vacant and the top floor is a daycare for special needs children.  We’ve received good news that the building is going to be put up for auction!  The government will be auctioning the building and the church has an opportunity to put in a bid.   Please pray that the low bid that they offer would be accepted and that all financing will be possible.  We know that God is in the house and this is His church.  Yeah!

Brad just returned from Fukushima where he was filming the children from a preschool.  He’s busy sending his videos back to the news station in Hawaii, so we’ll have an update on that later.

Prayer Request for the next couple days:  Tomorrow starts the Children’s Camp! Please pray that everything goes well and that we are able to reach out to the kids, because half of the kids that are coming don’t attend church!

We’re Safe!!

Hi Everyone! Just wanted to start off by saying that we’re all safe!  Thanks God for watching over us!  If you haven’t heard, there was a 6.2 earthquake 24 miles south of Shizuoka that hit just before midnight.  Everyone here is safe with no damages, and some of us even slept through the whole thing! Reina and Miyuu knew exactly what to do.  Their phones started beeping so they read the instructions on their phone to open the door and turn on the TV.  They said aftershocks occur almost daily in Sendai

We’ve been very busy here, with so many things going on.  The birthday party on Saturday blessed Tomomi and her friends and I think everyone had a lot of fun.  It was definitely a party; we used mini confetti shooters to surprise Tomomi when she first came in.  This year is an important year for Tomomi, as she tests into high school.  She needs to do well in order to continue her education.  If not she will begin working and supporting herself.  Six children from the orphanage came with their two teachers, and a couple moms from the church came with their children also.

Everyone had lots of fun at the birthday party, and we got a chance to show God's love to the kids from the orphanage

Tomomi is testing into high school this year

On Sunday, Taylor, Courtney, Bailey and Caitlyn helped lead children’s worship, while Uncle Jeff played guitar for the adult’s worship.  The adult’s worship is really interesting, because they sing some verses in Japanese, some in English, some in Portuguese and some in Filipino.  It was fun to sing songs such as God of the City and Oh Happy Day in different languages.  And the service itself is interesting, because first Pastor Dennis would speak, and then Aunty Kaku would translate it into Japanese, and in the background you can hear another lady translating it into Portuguese.

That night, some of the team went to fellowship with people from the community at the community center, and other people stayed at the church to finish cooking for the matsuri.  At the community center, some people played volleyball while others played basketball or hula hooped with the kids.  The volleyball players in Japan are really intense!

We were so thankful for the many prayers for the matsuri.  It was a good time for all!  The weather was terrific (even though it was supposed to rain).  We set up our booth around 2:00 with a slow start on food sales.  The “hyakuyen” craft booth was extremely popular with the children; there were always at least two people there.  Courtney and Uncle Daryl handed out food samples (like Costco) to get people to come.  “IRASSHAIMASE! HAWAII NO RYOURI O DOUZO! CHISHOKU O DOUZO! BUTA NIKU TO KOKONATSU PURIN O DOUZO!” (Welcome! Please have some Hawaiian Cuisine!  Here are some samples! Please try our pig meat and coconut pudding!)  Courtney may have scared some of the people, but with Aunty Francis’ help, they were able to bring people to the booth and by the end of the evening, most of the food was gone – no more rice krispie treats, spam musubi, kalua pig and rice.

At 6:30, the team made its way to the stage area, where Brad and the kids, including Sho Fukuda (with his ukulele) from the Japanese church, let Jesus’ light shine through singing and hula.  Taylor shared God’s goodness and kindness to all with the song, “Born to Be Loved”.   The team invited others to join on the stage as they closed with “Hukilau”.  Good relationship building time as our Japanese friends joined us in setting up together, working together and cleaning up together.  Just like at FCF!

We had a lot of fun performing onstage and spreading God's love and some ALOHA!

Tokyo Images

Check out some of our Tokyo images

THANK YOU!

Reina and Miyuu just wanted to say thank you for sponsoring them to come with us to Shizuoka!

THANK YOU!

Finally in Shizuoka

Sorry we haven’t been updating recently, we don’t have Internet connection at the domes.

Answered Prayer: Miyuu and Reina have joined our team!  We met up in Shinagawa, and they have come with us to Shizuoka, and decided to stay with us til the matsuri (on Monday), although they start school on the 3rd.

We got to Shizuoka safely yesterday afternoon and met up with Pastor Dennis and Aunty Kaku.  We only have one van, so some of us walked from the station to our domes.  Once we got in, we went to dinner and did some planning for the next couple days.

Today, we walked to 7-11 for breakfast as usual. After we finished eating, we had to split up as the men went with Pastor Dennis and Aunty Kaku to buy food for the matsuri, and everyone else stayed back to plan a birthday party for a girl from the orphanage for tomorrow.  We planned some games and decorations, and picked a couple of songs to do for them.  We also had time to practice our songs that we will be performing at the matsuri (or festival) on Monday.

We did a prayer walk at the Shuzenji-Toko Temple

Later, we went to the Shuzenji-Toko area to do a prayer walk at the temple, and walked around the area for a little bit.

Right now, we are at the church (the only place that has internet) getting things ready for the birthday party tomorrow!

Prayer Request: Please pray that everything goes well at the party tomorrow, and that we are able to reach out to some of the kids from the orphanage!

We ran into the Kobata’s friend (and a multi-Grammy award winner) Daniel Ho at the lobby of the hotel in Tokyo!

We happened to run into Daniel Ho in the lobby of the hotel!

Tokyo

Today was a long day filled with a lot of walking around.  Breakfast at the hotel was pretty good (although some people stared at Aunty Sheri weirdly for eating two packages of natto) and then we left to meet Pastor Howard from the Tokyo Musashino Evangelical Free Church in Kichijoji for lunch at a restaurant called Ootoya.  The food there was super delicious, and we all left stuffed and bloated.  After lunch, we walked to the church building and Pastor Howard gave us a tour.  Brad will be going to church there on Sunday before joining the rest of the team in Shizuoka.

We then traveled to the Harajuku area, where we went to the Meiji Temple to do a prayer walk.

Walking into the Meiji Temple

After going to the temple, we met the Kobata’s cousin Darryl and walked through Harajuku and went to a 100 yen store.  A lot of things in the store seem like they’re worth a lot more than a 100 yen (or hyaku en as its called here).  Everyone was exhausted by dinnertime so we ate quickly and caught a train back to our hotel in Shiodome in Shinbashi.

Prayer Requests: Tomorrow we meet up with Reina and Miyu, two girls from Sendai and head over to Shizuoka.  Please pray that we get there safely and with little difficulty!

Saving Electricity!

Everywhere we go, people are saving electricity. Most places don’t have the air conditioning on, or have the lights turned off. At the airport, they only had half of the elevators running.