Dear Loved Ones - It's 5:30PM and we've had an evaluation meeting for our first day of EEC. People are resting and mingling about - waiting for dinner at 6PM. Yesterday, volunteers began arriving to help us out - a senior gentleman from a sister church of the Sendai church. Sendai sent out fliers to their sister churches asking for people to come and help out at EEC. This man rode a bus for six hours to get here. He is a very interesting guy with a great heart. Another car drove up from Tokyo after a six hour drive. There is a pastor, three seminary students, and a member of their church. These young men have been a great blessing to our mission - the kids are always drawn to cute young men of strong character. We also have the new pastor from Chino Christ Church - participating in the type of program that was at his church the last nine years. Maybe we are headed back to Chino again next year. We also have a young woman, a freshman in college. She is a terrific artist, hopefully headed to a career in graphic design. Her warmth and kind heart win her over with the young children in her group. We also have some mature women from the Sendai church helping out with the five groups of children. Their love and enthusiasm touches my heart deeply. And then we have the church members who are helping out in the kitchen - preparing food for the mission team members and for the children at EEC. This is a great mission team. I don't have specific duties for EEC - my title is director. I get to observe all the groups as they go to the five different activities. There are no weaknesses in the leadership of the groups or the activities they attend. The reactions of the children as they left today, picked up by their moms, was very positive - with a lot of smiles and enthusiastic waves. I will have to stop for now. We are getting ready to have dinner.
It's now 7:15PM, we've finished dinner and cleaned up the sanctuary, vacuuming and mopping the floor, and are now waiting until 8PM when we will go to the onsen. The onsen might seem like a luxury, and it is, but it would be extremely difficult for 25 people to share one shower at the church. So we will make the sacrifice of going to the onsen again tonight.
Today during lunch, an incident caught my eye that choked me up. A little girl, about 4 or 5 years old was crying, from a toothache, I believe. A member of the Sendai church put her on her lap as she sat on the floor - with the little girl face to face with her. I could see Kinuko whispering to the little girl, then close her eyes and begin praying with her. The little girl was quiet and seemed to calm down and be at ease. That image continues to make me choke up. It is just one of the many, many things that I witness on the mission trip that bless me greatly.
Dinner was great tonight - the food was very tasty as usual, but it was the conversation with a couple of the men from Japan that fed my soul as the food fed my body. It's hard to believe that our time in Sendai is about half way done. The time is going by so quickly - I want to slow the clock down and stretch out time. Shizuka and Tsuguru are teaching some of the songs we sing with the kids to the men from the seminary. It is a sight to see these grown men singing children's songs with great enthusiasm. I have to run off now. I'm going to end for now. Life is good - God is good. May God bless you as we have been blessed in Sendai. Love, Don
No comments:
Post a Comment