Orientation Day 2, July 3

   Orientation began in earnest this morning as we met at the Biola soccer field at 9am.  The whole group is now here (except for the two meeting us in Japan), and it was a time of getting to know each other again (just the ladies), stretching, drills, scrimmaging til about 10:30.  Then it was off to one of the meeting rooms at Biola to do training on how sports ministry works in Japan.  We started with the videos "Why Japan?" and "2017 Ministry Summary Report" (available here on the blog if you want to follow along with what we do), that provided us with the inspiration of why we are going and what we will be doing when we get there.  He read letters from the people at the various locations we will be going telling us how excited they are to see us coming, giving us ideas on how to relate to the people, and what we will be doing when we get there. One of the letters mentioned how the elementary schools that we will be serving at do not like religious(Christian) activities, but they do love sports, and through the sports activities, we ARE able to do things like sing our Christian songs (with an explanation following by the local pastor), and give our testimonies.  Not only does this get the Christian message across, but it identifies to the children and teachers who the local pastor is.  This can lead to the pastor being able to invite them to church (since he has had a proper introduction) or their just wanting to come to church.  Paul also showed an e-mail from the Pastor Hasui in Iwata (our first location) with our church "assignments" for the Sunday we are there.  He has arranged for the team to be split up amongst 6 churches.  This is the most involvement we have had with other churches and was exciting to see how many churches are partnering with Pastor Hasui in this ministry.  Part of our tour is not only to spread the gospel, but it is to encourage the Christians who are there, who deal with very little support as the churches there are very small.

     After the morning session, we had lunch in the Biola cafeteria.  Even that experience was one in which God showed up.  A Biola professor I know was walking by the field and saw the team and came to say hi.  Later, when Paul went to the cafeteria to arrange lunch, his discounted staff card did not work.  The cafeteria suggested that we could use the staff card of another staff.  So, I called the employee I knew and he arranged his discount to get us lunch---just because he happened to walk by the field while we were there.  Small, but just the beginning of God showing up.  After a short staff meeting, it was back to the meeting room for more orientation.
    We did the initial work on testimonies (which we will complete tomorrow morning), and then it was off to Troy H.S. for a game against the Troy H.S. girls.  The game was a great time to learn how to work together as a team, as none of these girls had played together before.  After the game, we went to the home of Mike Silzer, the AD and girls's soccer coach at Troy H.S.   The evening ended as the parents and staff gathered around the players for a prayer of blessing.
    An added story is this:  After the soccer game, one of the parents came and told us about something that happened last night.  Her daughter was receiving her bag of equipment, and when she pulled out her uniform, the number she received at random was her brother's number when he played volleyball---a brother who was tragically killed a year ago in a traffic accident.  It was very special for her and a blessing she considered God gave her for the trip, her brother's number---"at random".  A reminder that nothing is random with God.

(Just a note on viewing the pictures.  Once you select the link, you will see a folder with all the pictures.  Then select a picture for individual viewing.  When you do that, there will be a little icon in the upper-right corner, a white circle with an "i" (info) in the center.  Select that to view the picture description, and use the arrows that will appear in the middle-right of the picture when you put your cursor there to navigate to the next picture.  This keeps the info column with picture description always available.)

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