We started off the day with another slow morning, which was nice. We then left about 10am for the Kyoto temple, which is about an hour away. It took almost 90 minute to get there as there was traffic. The temple was beautiful as always. We took our official team picture on the steps with the two temples in the background. Then Paul gave everyone a ticket so they could go into the temple and look around. Very interesting to observe things like the lighting of incense (what does it do---maybe similar to the fragrant aroma the Bible talks about that our sacrifices are to him.). The most interesting I found was the place where they kneel to pray and before they pray, they strike a drum to wake up the gods so their prayers will be heard. How sad. There is another place where water is pouring out over a pool and they wait in long lines to get a pole to hang out and catch some of the water and then put it to their mouths and wash with it. Must be special as there was such a long line for it. After the temple, it was off to the game with the Tachibana high school girls. It was played on a large dirt field, which is actually more common that not here in Japan. Hot, muggy, dusty (kicked up from the dirt), but there WAS a good breeze, which helped. We played 3 games of 20 minutes each, with the first two against them, and then the 3rd game we mixed up the teams and played combined. After the game we started with our Bo-te-le-li chant. It was a great ice breaker. Then we did Kimi-Wa and the hippo song with it's translation. We closed with Ella Hively giving her testimony. Once again the team mixed so well with other team and it seemed like some made social media connections to keep in touch. Pray for the seeds planted here, from the Kimi-Wa words, to the hippo song explanation and the testimony. While some of the ministry done here is new, like the futsal with the men the other night, the ministry with Tachibana has been going on for about 14 years and was started because of the connections between BJ and Sera the leader of the team. We decided not to fight afternoon traffic back home, so we found a local sento. It was very restrictive. Normally if someone shows a tattoo in a sento they are asked to leave. They said if WE showed one, the WHOLE GROUP would have to leave. We managed to cover up, but some of the people with more extensive tattoos just didn't go in. After the sento, we went to a local Japanese Italian restaurant, the Saizeriya Ristorante & Caffé. The food was pretty good and surprisingly cheap. The it was back to the church. What could have been a 1 1/2 to 2 hour drive back with traffic, took only 55 minutes. Such a blessing. The team was singing pretty loud as we left. Paul said, give it 10 minutes and they will all be asleep. Never happened. Loud singing all the way back. It is fun to see them enjoy each so much and bond like this.
No comments:
Post a Comment