Sick :(...

Tuesday, August 04, 2009
~about 8:50PM~


As you can imagine, I find myself somewhat frustrated being sick while I’m supposed to be doing God’s work. While the rest of the team went to VBS and the retirement home to serve I was stuck at the apartment resting. Granted I slept most of the day which probably means I needed the rest, but I can’t help wondering why I’m sick. While this is yet another question that I will likely never know the answer to… I was reminded of the comparison between the two farmers who prayed for rain during a drought… one of which prepared his crops in anticipation for the rain that the Lord would provide. This came to mind as I replied to Steven’s post on the Kenya mission blog as I told him that God WILL provide. So having rested a day, I am preparing myself both mentally and physically should it be God’s will for me to be able to serve tomorrow.


Anyhow… now that I’ve had a bit of time to rant… on to the things that have been happening (besides being sick of course). Yesterday was the first day of VBS… and it was pretty draining. The kids here are… for lack of a better word… much crazier than the kids in Tokorozawa. Despite this I still can’t help but feeling as though God has some amazing things in store for this week. Already… bonds of friendship are being formed with the kids.


Time for a chronological recap… So… Woke up and showered/ate and got ready… we made it to the train station about 10 minutes early and got on the train and managed to avoid any confusion with the train schedule (praise God!) once we got there we began setting stuff up… banners, posters, music etc. etc…. and everything went pretty well. We stole off to a side room to have a short meeting and talk about any frustrations anyone had been having with the rest of the team as well as addressing prayer requests, then had a time of prayer (a much needed time of prayer…). During this time the first kids arrived… soooo… soon after finishing we went out to greet the kids and the moms that had brought them. (I’m going to have to hurry this up… the Nyquil is beginning to kick in ><)… we did the first song twice… and it was kind of discouraging because most of the kids didn’t do the motions. I was probably just too used to the end of the week at TMK where the kids knew the songs well already and stuff…. Anyways. Then was crafts and story time… during which Matt and I got to act out Jesus coming to choose Peter for the first time (Matt was Jessus… and I was Peter…) which the kids seemed to enjoy. So that was fun. Craft was the fish today…. And the kids seemed almost impatient. Most didn’t cover the fish like they did in TMK and seemed anxious to finish and begin running around. Recreation was the fishing for the fish they made… and it seemed like the kids enjoyed it a lot. There were a lot more tangled lines though, but it was probably because they had to use the long fishing poles since all the shorter ones were given away as prizes… Following that Tom gave his testimony which was short, to the point and very well integrated with the theme of fishing. Lunch time seemed pretty normal. There were a lot of kids that stayed and had lunch there with us, which was a change from the couple of kids that did so at TMK. The kids finished and were all to anxious to begin running around screaming inside… at which point someone said to send them outside, so I told them why don’t we go outside… and they were all too happy to rush outside. I took my disc out and a few kids tossed that around… some kids played on the swings… some just ran around… soon after arriving outside, Tom setup the fishing PE at the Park (which once again was a huge hit). The kids loved it. Even the really shy kids and the little kids tried it out. Granted… some kids liked it a ton more than others… (there were a couple of boys who did it the whole time). It was a lot of fun though! It seemed like a long time waiting all the way until 3 for the moms to show up though. (ugh… brain fading…) after that we headed back… rested… worked on the cross craft as a team, then headed out to have dinner with the Tamura family at a fish restaurant called Kamakura (I think..?). ABSOLUTELY DELICIOUS! The fish there were super fresh… The guy even took the fish that was about to be cooked for two of the meals out and showed us. Shirley explained that they bought the fish from the fish market next door where they catch the fish that day. It was definitely the most food I’ve eaten thus far in Japan. I was stuffed… returned… (barely) and got ready for bed. I showered and hit the sack earlier than usual (probably a clue that I was getting sick) but I thought it was only allergies from the smoke in the restaurant. Watched some debate thing for a little bit with Matt then went to sleep.


And onto today… Basically. I woke up once. Went back to sleep (around the time the team usually gets up and leaves)… woke up again around 12:30PM… walked over to grab lunch… came back… ate and chatted online for a bit… showered and sat in a bath for a while (man… are Japanese baths amazing…) then went back to sleep. Over the next like… 3 hours I vaguely remember the team leaving to go have dinner with the Tamura’s to celebrate Emma’s birthday (which I was really sad to miss…  ) sometime around 8 I woke up and called my mom to figure out what was happening… and she reminded me of the dinner and stuff… then brought me food to eat. As I finished facebooking she fell asleep on a cushion nearby and then I ate dinner… after that I got ready for bed… took some Nyquil… and here I am struggling to stay awake as I finish this blog. Ugh. Okay… almost time for bed….


Just a couple of random side comments! So… according to the rest of the team. I’m going to have a proposal from a three year old girl by the end of the week. Apparently she (Sara) is quite attached to me or something (which is WEIRD… but I didn’t notice until they pointed it out). The good thing is that (according to Elaine) she tends to behave better when I’m around… so I guess that’s a good thing. Anyways. Off to bed so I can be better and back to helping out tomorrow!

P.S. HAVE A SAFE TRIP KENYA TEAM!!!!