Well, I was wrong last night when I said how busy today was going to be. That game in the evening is tomorrow night, not today.
When we got up at 8 for breakfast, it was already beastly hot and humid. We left at 8:30, right after breakfast, and on the way (we were delayed because of a traffic accident), Pastor BJ heard on the radio that for today, tomorrow & Monday, the government has declared a national heat alert for our area with specific instructions on how to stay cool. We were struggling yesterday with some heat exhaustion, so today could have been worse, but we were all prepared. Steve Brown (one of our staff) has been all over the States and made 100+ international trips and he said he has never seen heat & humidity as bad as it was today. Please pray for that in particular these next couple of days.
We traveled an hour away to where the clinic was going to be held for Masa's Seahorse Soccer International Club. Masa (& his wife Chie) have been connected with the Seahorses for a long time and are actually on staff. This club was started in 2010 and has grown from 3 to over 50. It teaches both soccer skills and some English and has a chance to tell the kids about Jesus. Masa has even brought some of the kids to the U.S. on a reverse tour. Masa has had some students graduate, so please pray for more students for them. If you are looking for a way to support ministry in Japan on an ongoing basis, it would be wonderful if you would consider joining Masa & Chie's support team through Missionary Athletes International (MAI--the parent organization of the Seahorses).
The clinic was divided up into 3 age groups. We performed a lot of the same drills as before. Freeze tag: dribble the ball and try not to get tagged by non-dribblers, freeze if you are and unfrozen by someone dribbling through your legs--great dribbling skill. Knock-out: protect your ball while trying to kick out someone else's ball--great for ball control. Shooter/keeper: dribble and shoot, taking turns at each--great for dribbling, shooting practice and goalkeeping. After drills there were games played in each age group. Then, there was a game with all the parents. You can tell this is something they look forward to. After the game, it was group picture, songs, testimony (Selah-Joy) and passing out gifts.
We had a bento lunch at the field, and ate in the nice air-conditioned locker rooms. At 1:30, Masa's older students came and also friends of his, and there was a round-robin tournament from 1:30-4. Games were only 10 minutes, playing 2 games against different opponents and then a game break. For our two games, we used different players so as not to over stress any one in particular. It was a lot of fun and gave us the opportunity to sing our songs (with Ayaka explaining), give a testimony (Lizzie), and have Paul tie it all together and connect them with BJ & Masa for followup when we are gone. After the tournament, it was home to get our stuff, sento to clean up and to the large food court for dinner. Tomorrow we split up amongst 4 churches and the have the evening game with Pastor BJ's 50's+ team. They sometimes struggle to get players for their weekly games, but a lot always show up when the Seahorses come, so pray for those that hear about Jesus because of that (maybe for the first time), and for Pastor BJ to be able to followup with them.
We had a nice surprise today as Joe & Naoko Adams (& two of their three children), who live about 10 minutes from where we were playing, came for a visit. Joe is a former Seahorse PDL player from 2008 (he lived with Gil & his wife for a month that summer). Joe's wife is Japanese and the one who became a Christian one summer (2007 or 2008) when Megan became really sick and Naoko was so touched by it that she became a believer. It was great to see them again and a reminder of how the Seahorses have built relationships over the years.
Pictures--7/14
Pictures--All
Video Montage--7/14
Kimi-Wa--7/14 morning
My God Is So Great--7/14 morning
Testimony Selah-Joy, 7/14 morning
Testimony Lizzie, 7/14 afternoon
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