First, we want to thank all of you for supporting us on this trip, both in prayer and financially. We hope that as you follow this blog it will help you to not only appreciate what your tour member is doing and learn about the Japanese culture, but that it will spur you to prayer for us as we minister in Japan.
Just some notes about the blog. If the blog gets completed before I go to bed, then it will be available in the U.S. sometime between 8-10am. If I don't complete it until the morning, then it will be available sometime between 2-4pm. Each day there will be pictures to view with a link. There will be one link for the pictures for the entire trip, or if you just want to look at that day's pictures, there will be a link for that. While the pictures may be self-explanatory, if you want to see the description, select the picture, then select the little icon of an "i" and you will see the picture information with the description.
Well, enough business. As you read this, we covet your prayers (as time is not important to God) for several players who are waiting on passport/visa/other issue to know whether or not they will even be able to go. The next blog will let you know what the outcome is. This group is a great group with a lot of energy. It has been evident in our sessions. Monday was filled with cultural orientation, getting to know each other, drills, dinner, and more cultural orientation. After dinner in the Caf, we had more orientation and then passed out equipment (there was a LOT of it). Tuesday started with breakfast at the Caf, a morning workout and a discussion of our schedule for our time in Japan. We also discussed skits and songs we will do as they provide opportunities, in a fun way, to be able to share Christ.
After lunch at the Caf, Paul led a discussion about how relationship is so important in Japan with several examples. We then had to pick a song to sing. Since we deal with a lot of kids, we picked the kids song "Hip Hip Hooray Hippopotamus" (you can see the previous version in songs and skits--2010) The key is that God's fingerprints are everywhere which gives us an "in" to talk about how they can see the "God of the Bible" in their everyday lives. The serious skit (one with a gospel message) the men chose is David & Goliath. The message being what are the "giants" in their lives that they don't think they can overcome (sadness, sickness, greed, price, bullying, loneliness, etc). Then we picked the funny skit. This works great as an icebreaker and shows that we can have a lot of fun. The skit we picked was "Little Nemo" and also can be seen in the "Songs & Skits" tab on the blog from 1999.
After picking the songs & skits, there was time spent on testimony workshop. Most tour members will have a chance to give their testimony. The workshop consisted of helping craft a testimony for the Japanese. Things to consider are avoiding "Christianese" (terms unique to Christians/Americans); How to refer to God ("God of the Bible") as they have many gods; How to explain sin ("the wrong things we do") as they do not have a concept for sin; and How to keep the testimony short enough because with translation, every testimony ends up twice as long as written. After testimony time there was about a 2 hour break followed by a scrimmage and then the send-off dinner. We did have one answer to prayer. One of the players who we thought might not be able to go found out at 4pm that everything was a go! Continue to pray for some others still having passport/transcript issues.
There will not be another entry for a couple days as we are traveling and not a lot will be happening.
Pictures Daily (8/5-6)
Pictures Complete (today's link has the same pictures)
Video Montage
God speed!
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