Shirley: Day 2, a little rain, but cleared up

It was raining this morning when I woke up, and it drizzled as we drove to the center around 8AM, but by the time we started, the skies cleared and it was another cool, sunny day.

We had 13 kids today. Tom had some special instructions at the beginning, so the kids were better behaved today. My camera ran out of batteries, so I have just a couple pictures for day two.

Things started out much calmer today and the kids were more enthusiastic about the songs, too, so that was a big improvement.

After the VBS program, we had to rush home for Emma's practice with her piano partner "Waka-chan" at our house so we missed the nursing home visit. The VBS team came up for dinner with us and Waka and her mom after practice was done. We had a really nice party and a great chance to talk with Waka's mother, Mrs. U. More than anything, this is how we do our ministry, inviting people over to our house for a meal and introducing them to our friends, basically just sharing about ourselves and what we usually do. Church and service is a very real part of our normal, regular lives. Apparently Waka's mother was comfortable enough with what she heard that she pre-paid for Waka to visit us at VBS on Thursday! Praise God for this and we pray that they would enjoy this very first VBS/church experience!

Matt and Susan had a very interesting and culturally meaningful exchange about a phrase in Japanese they both had been using that Waka's mom told them was not exactly what they wanted to communicate, something about "not speaking Japanese" and "refusing to speak Japanese". I will let Matt explain in more detail.

It was another great day of VBS. It was another wonderful birthday for Emma, the second year in a row we got to celebrate together. Praise God for His wonderful family that is possible because of Christ Jesus. Amen.