Day 12, Morning Clinic, 2 Preschools, Masa's Soccer Club

     Well, the slow mornings ended with a crash this morning.  We had to be ON the bus by 7am this morning.  We didn't even have time to eat breakfast here at the church.  BJ had packed two coolers full of drinks, fruit jellos, fruit, and bread, which we ate on the bus on the way to the early morning clinic.  This is the same clinic that the 5 girls went to yesterday, except that today we took the whole team.  On our way to the clinic, we passed by the huge building that is the headquarters of the Shinto cult that rules this area.  We ran the clinic from 7:30-8:05, and concluded with our song and a short testimony by Paul.  While BJ would not be allowed to say anything, it was OK for Paul because he is a foreigner.  As small as it may seem, it was actually a big step forward for BJ.  In his testimony, among other things, Paul mentioned that BJ was a pastor.  Several of the boys came up to him afterwards and said that they didn't know he was a pastor.  At least the word is out, the initial seed has been planted, so pray for BJ that he may have opportunities to water, cultivate and eventually harvest.

     After the clinic, it was back to the bus for a ride to two different preschools.  We split up the group with 2/3 of the group going to the Mukonosho preschool with 60 kids, and the other girls going to the CCC preschool with 17 kids.  While these are Christian preschools, teaching (among other things) Christian songs and Bible verses, the majority of the kids do not come from Christian homes.  I was at the CCC preschool, so you will get the report from there.  The children had a program for us with songs & Bible verses.  We then sang our team song and Japanese song.  Afterwards, we walked to the local park and played soccer games with the kids.  Since the kids are so young, it may not seem like there would be much direct impact, but it was obvious from the leaders that they were encouraged to see us there.  This is definitely a part of our ministry---encouragement of the believers---who labor so faithfully with so little support.  

     We ate a bento lunch at the CCC preschool (the other group having joined us) and then had about 45 minutes to rest before the next activity.  Masa's soccer school has elementary aged kids and some older kids.  We played a game against the older kids from his school.  According to Masa's wife Chie, these kids are from a variety of nationalities, languages, and religions.  She expressed surprise that these kids keep coming back, but they do.  We told her that we think it is because they notice that there is something different about Masa.  We were sure that it gave Masa some status to have a team of girls come.  We won the game 3-1, with goals by Ashleigh, Deanna & Kalaila.  After the official 2 30-minute periods, we played another 30 minutes with mixed teams.  Morgan finally got the goal that had eluded her all day just 5 seconds before time ran out.  After the game we did our two songs, Breeanna gave her testimony and then Paul followed up with an emphasis to choose God that Breeanna had mentioned in her testimony.  Paul directed them to talk to us after the game, or to Masa or BJ.  More seeds planted.

     The day ended with a trip to the food court for dinner, the sento for showers, and then a short team meeting to discuss tomorrow's busy schedule.  We had had a game scheduled for tonight also, but BJ canceled it as it would have been too much.  Well, I wrote that last part before it happened.  Flexibility.  We had a time of worship which was to be followed by a time of sharing, but the captain of the team  we will be playing on Sunday, Mr. Mizuno, showed up unexpectedly with gifts of ice cream for the team.  So, we presented our gifts to him and discussed other matters.  Then we canceled our sharing for another day as we all need our sleep.  Thank you all for your prayers.  The group is wearing down, but still doing a great job.

Pictures

Day 12 Video Montage