Day 1, Welcome & Orientation

     Well, we are off and running!  Quite the full house as this year will be the largest number of people taken in the 21 years of Japan tours.  30 tour members and 4 staff.  Housing will look slightly different this year too, but as usual, flexibility is the byword of any missions trip.  The tour unofficially started at 1pm as the ladies arrived in town back from their summers away, and spent the afternoon getting reacquainted and meeting the new freshmen.  There was relaxing out by the pool (for those who could stand the heat) or inside where it was quite cool.  Paul did a welcome before dinner and then the girls were introduced.  Vickie (Paul's wife) fixed a wonderful dinner, followed by her signature brownies.  During dinner, Erin supervised the passing out of the team gear.  This may not seem like much but imagine trying to organize backpacks, 5 different shirts, jackets, pants, shorts, uniforms for 34 people.  Coaches Erin and Katie were very organized.
     After the equipment was passed out, we met back in the main room for some more orientation.  The first part we watched the video "Why Japan?" It is a great video (produced by YWAM), only 4 1/2 minutes, and explains very succinctly why ministry in Japan is important.  If you haven't had a chance to view it yet, it would be perfect to view now to understand why we (& others) are going (it is available on the blog or select the "Why Japan" link above).  After the video, Paul used a powerpoint presentation to give an overall view of the kinds of things one might possibly experience on the tour.
     The rest of the orientation was continued outside by the pool.  It was mostly overview again of the types of things we will be discussing in more detail tomorrow.  The most important emphasis in this was the importance of relationship in Japan and making the effort to try to connect with them despite a language barrier.  Erin emphasized what Paul said by adding that we don't really even need our phones there--maybe for pictures, but not to let the desire to connect back home make us miss what we are really there for.  Even using the phone to try to help communicate might make one miss the joys thru tribulation of trying to communicate and how that can actually help build relationship as you struggle together to figure out words.  Also emphasized was the importance of testimonies, and that it is not just the "wow" testimonies that are important as different testimonies reach different people.  We also had a cultural overview of things we would discuss in more detail tomorrow.  Committees were set up to come up with the team songs and skits that are used as part of means of communicating the gospel, or simply breaking the ice.
     Personally, I am really excited to see how excited the ladies are already and it is only the first day.  Thank you all for your prayers.

Pictures (if you open the individual picture and select the info icon (white circle with an "i") then there will be a description of the picture)
Video Montage, Day 1