Second Week in Japan

Hello Friends and Family,

I hope that each and every one of you are all doing well. I thank God for each of you every day and the blessing you have been for me in supporting me in this journey as a missionary. I can not express to you enough, how thankful I really am.

Well to start out the week last week, we went about our busy Sunday. On Sunday, we have four different services. The first one involves the normal Sunday morning service. However, Sunday night, we have an English service, a Japanese service, and then a special service for one of the members because she has to work. The best part of the entire service last Sunday was the special service. In Japan, work is very important. Therefore it is hard for some people to get off work and go to church on Sunday's. However, this woman makes time after her long day at work to come have a small service. The best part of last week was that it was her husbands 50th birthday and he decided to come with her. While he is not a Christian, it was great to have him come to visit.

Monday came and it was my first holiday in Japan. The holiday was pretty much Old People's day in a round about way. I spent a majority of the day talking with my family and friends back in the states. It was nice and try to catch up on rest too since I had a very busy week for my first week. I was even able to get a lil American football in when I didn't think I was going to get any at all.

Dallas vs. San Francisco Game

As Tuesday came, we went about our usual business teaching classes. However, I had made plans to go visit Ibaraki Christian on Wednesday to go and get a schedule worked out at the college and to see some old connections. However, we were hit with a huge typhoon that came in. While it was a strong typhoon, the only damage that caused any problems was part of the roof coming off the garage at the church which is made with plastic and will be a minor fix to repair. After the crazy typhoon had passed, we were also hit with a 5.3 earthquake. Not too big, but big enough to cause some things to move. After we had our morning class and lunch with our only student that showed up, we went home for the day which became like another holiday because no one likes to get out in typhoons. Once Thursday arrived, I was able to go to chapel at Ibaraki Christian the next day and take care of the plans I had made for Wednesday and get back in time for my night classes. During my Thursday night class, I teach an elementary school student class and a mentor class for a high school student who is trying to go to OC next year as student to get his ministry degree. This is extremely uncommon for people his age to be a Christian yet alone having the desire to be a minister. I will get a picture with him soon and tell you more of his story.

On Friday, it was the Autumn equinox which is a Buddhist holiday which also means that we got another holiday. During Friday, I spent the time with one of my old friends from America who is originally from Ethiopia but was adopted in his teenage years. He was once a Muslim but now a very devout Christian and a huge encouragement to be around. We were able to spend some time together through encouragement and prayer. During the night, we went with his wife and friends from Mito church who has been working with some girls from Fukashima who were hit when the tsunami and earthquake occurred in March. While I am not sure of their entire story, we had a great time together. I was also asked but one of women if I would be willing to study the Bible with her because she is interested in knowing more even though she is a Christian. I am also looking forward to helping follow up on this interest.

Spending time with Allen

Going to Dinner with Allen and Friends

On Saturday, we spent another pretty slow day relaxing for the most part and enjoying the weekend. Overall, the week was pretty slow and a lot of down time due to the typhoon and two holidays we had including a Saturday. It was kind of nice so that I could really get back up on my feet and kind of overcome some of the leftover jet lag I was facing from the week before. It has also been good for me so far this week as I am fully rested and ready to go.

Well thats all I have for this week. I will be back next week with another blog with many more exciting things that I have been working to try and get going. I hope to share more of this with you next week after I have been working on it for a few days. Thank you all for all you do.