Iwata Day 4, July 10, Kakegawa School Clinic, Kakegawa Castle, Tahara F.C. Clinic

     This morning we were picked up at 9:30 by missionary Paul Bostrum (who we have worked with before) and he took us to the field where we did the clinic for his Kakegawa International Christian School.  It was really hot even before we started, so we were quite pleased that when we got there, there was some cloud cover part of the time and also a slight breeze.  Paul B. had a tent up for some shade which was nice.  We broke into several age groups and did some skills, fun games and then some soccer games.  It was relatively low key.  Since it was so hot, we then went back to the school for the rest of the program.  They treated us to taco salad for lunch and then we did our program.  This consisted of our first performance of our team skit ("Burdens", see video).  After performing the skit, Addison did an explanation of the meaning of the skit (as it was done without any talking).  Next, Kaelyn did her testimony and Paul followed up with a charge to them to consider Jesus.  We did our team spiritual song with them joining in the 2nd time through.  Then we presented them with gifts.
      After the clinic, we had an opportunity to do our first sightseeing as we were taken to the Kakegawa Castle.  We took another team picture and had about 30 minutes to look around.  It was fun for the girls to get a chance to experience some of the older Japanese culture.  Note the steepness of the stairs in the tower, said to be on purpose to make it harder for attackers if one needed to retreat to the top of the tower.
    We left the Castle and returned to the church to rest for a couple of hours, and then it was off for another clinic with the Tahara F.C. (football club), who we have worked with since 2002.  We broke into six groups and did various skills.  Every 10 minutes or so, the kids rotated between groups.  The evening finished with six different games.  Joining us were some men (1 in each of the six games) who are part of a 50's+ team that we have usually played a real game against after the clinic, but not this year, so they just joined the games with the kids.  After the games, we did our team spiritual song (My God Is So Great), testimony (Paul Gizzi) and passed out gifts.  Then it was off to Joyful again for dinner and then the sento to clean up.  It made for a long evening as we didn't get back until almost midnight.
      Tomorrow morning we leave for Osaka.

     As a side note, we, or rather Carol, had an interesting day today.  She is Brazilian and speaks Portugese.  At the Bostrum clinic, there was a young student who had only been at the school for a month, and she spoke Portugese so Carol was able to communicate with her (she doesn't know much English yet).  When we got back to the school, she found one of the teachers was Brazilian.  At the castle, she met and talked with an entire Brazilian family, and then at the Tahara clinic one of the coaches was Brazilian.  What are the odds! (Well, with God we know there are no such things as odds)
     Please continue to pray for the health of the team and for there to be no serious injuries.

Pictures--7/10
Pictures--All
(The video montage is longer today, almost 14 minutes, because of multiple venues (where I did longer panoramas to get an idea of the variety of places we have served) and with two clinics with multiple groups, each contained many short scenes to ensure each tour member was in them.  No team song today (you've seen it before :-) )
Video Montage--7/10
Testimony--Kaelyn
Testimony--Paul
Team Skit--"Burdens"