Matt: "I'm Connected; I Have Full Bars; I Have Internet. Oh Yeah, We're In Nokendai."

Oh. My. Goodness. Am I tired or what(?). Today was our last day of Tokorozawa’s VBS…so sad… Man, was it a rushed morning; we still fit in a devotional (heyy thanks, Beth Moore) and a worship time. (Amazing Grace [My Chains Are Gone] and The Anthem, in case you were wondering.) (I’m so tired that I can’t even concentrate…I’ve been watching Kelly do a cheap/100 yen trick for Vincy and Susan.) ANYWAY, it was quite sad to go through the songs, crafts, stories, and snacks(?) for the last time in TMK. After VBS, we had a barbecue with the kids and their parents. Man was the food good. What? What was the menu, you say? Well here it is: barbecued chicken/pork/beef, yakisoba, rice(!!!), and other fun/tasty stuff! Glad you asked.

Something I realized is that it doesn’t take long to cleanup when the workers are all Japanese citizens – EVERYONE helps out.


Once the room was nice and clean, we basically just said goodbye for about an hour. (I also played “A Whole New World” on the piano…it was fun… I also drank an amazing bowl (yes, I did say bowl) of green tea, which made Elaine really hyper…I sure hope she doesn’t read this blog post…

Saying goodbye to the Reasoner’s and Nakamura’s was hard; they had helped us and blessed us so much on this trip. They were truly blessings from God.

Now for the traveling: Higashi-Tokrorozawa to Yokosuka by train. Before I got on the train, I bought a bottle of (carbonated) lemonade for 150 yen. On the train a man asked if he could take a sip…(whaaat???) I…said yes (for one reason or another)… I thought he would “waterfall” it…um…he didn’t. I tried to make him keep it but he wouldn’t…so I threw it away…(It all felt like a dream…like…what the heck just happened there?) Anyway, sorry for the random story. When I looked around the train, I realized nothing changed from last year. The people all looked very tired. Many of them had their eyes closed. And if one were to speak, it would be a faint whisper. All of this was a sad reminder that Japan is very much a dark place in need of God’s light. This was heartrending, but this was also motivation.

It took us a while to make it to the station. We got off one stop too early (actually we got off at the same station…different stop…don’t know how that exactly works out…)

Seeing the Tamura’s again was amazing; it had been so long! We at a “light” dinner and went to see the fireworks in celebration of the summer festival. Their fireworks make Seattle’s look…well, horrible? Haha.

Thanks to last year’s great team member, Amy, we have a wireless router! All of us have internet!

We get to sleep-in tomorrow. Church starts at 3:00 PM! I think I might be helping with worship? =)

I am very tired… I will go to bed…

Thanks! Blessings!
Matt Sekijima