- Sendai 16 -: Sunday, July 24th - A Wonderful Day of Sendai Hospitality

Dear Family & Loved Ones – It’s Sunday, July 24th at 12:30AM. We’ve completed a day full of wonderful surprises and activities in our honor on Saturday. After the prayer meeting and breakfast, we cleaned up the church and prepared it for activities we could watch and participate in. At about 11AM, a group of people came to show us how mochi was pounded and formed into balls ready to eat. For those of you who do not know about mochi, go to YouTube and look up “mochi pounding”. This group brought a bowl and stand made from a single section of a tree trunk, large mallets to pound the rice, and ingredients to serve with the mochi; nori, kinaku, and red bean paste. Although the mochi was already kneaded by a machine, it was fun pounding the mochi with the large mallets. There is nothing like freshly made mochi. At 2PM we had a dancing performance by a lady – is it called “odori”? She performed to two traditional songs that I know my dad would enjoy – “old people music”. There were then three presentations for us to participate in; calligraphy, flower arranging, and a tea ceremony. We split up into three groups and moved to each of these activities. My calligraphy looks like a child had written it. I love when people compliment me even when I’ve made a mess of things. I choose to always believe them. In between the dancing and the other activities, Hiroko gave her testimony to the people who came to share their talents with us. Most of these people are not believers, so it gave us a chance to share with them. After all of this was finished, we put the furniture back in place and cleaned up, so the church will be ready for us to have our meeting and breakfast this morning. We then went to the home of a church member, Kinuko Sasaki, I believe. Many of the people who presented classes for us were also there. We started by singing some church songs together, had testimonies given by Mielee and Shizuka, and a short message given by Nakada-sensei. It was then time for some heavy duty eating. There were three stations once again, just like with our classes. One station had ingredients for us to make our own sushi: rice, nori (seaweed), sashimi, veggies, and other things. This one station would have been a great meal for by itself. There was also a station where takoyaki (?) was made. This is another one to look up on YouTube. The third station had noodles that traveled down a trough in front of you. The trough was made from bamboo, about 5 inches in diameter that had been cut in half. Water carried the noodles down the trough and you would grab some with your chopsticks and place it into your bowl half-filled with broth. I know this is probably hard to picture and even harder to believe, but it was wonderful. Of course if you were at the end of the line, you might be getting crumbs off the chopsticks of the people ahead of you. I was at the front of my line. One of the daughters of our host had cancer during the past two years and was prayed for by the members of the mission team members from Crossway and South Bay churches. She is now doing fine, and to express her gratitude gave gifts to all the team members – very nice gifts. Although it is always a blessing to receive gifts, there was none better tonight than to share the meal and evening with Kinuko and her family – especially the daughter who has received God’s healing. We finished the day with a visit to the….onsen. The onsen is always great, but did not compare to the rest of the day. The days’ activities were a great blessing and fun to do. But the best part of them was how they brought people together. We got to spend time with people who had never stepped foot into a Christian church before. We were drawn closer to Nakada-sensei and his wife and daughter – as well as other members of the Sendai church. And I believe it drew members of our mission team closer to one another through the activities we did together and the laughter we shared doing them. It’s now past 1AM and I’m making more and more errors as I typeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee. Thank you once again for your prayer support – it makes a world of difference. Later this morning we will present the worship service, with Rhemus giving his testimony, the team leading the singing, and Shizuka giving the message. May God be given the honor and glory He deserves through our worship together with the Sendai Church. God bless you, all. Love, Don