Matt: "Grape Jello and Coin Purses...It Rains in Japan?"

Hello! How are you? Me? Oh, I'm doing well; thank you for asking...

Okay, let me give you a rundown of my day today! I woke up at about 6AM...this time I blame the timezone switch... (Actually, I first woke up at like 5 because Mr. Morning Person Tom Higashi was up early on the computadora.) I played the guitar and helped "cook" breakfast ("cooked" potatoes; are you proud of me, Mom???).

After we ate, we took off for the Send Center to set-up the VBS.
(I got a little distracted by the amazing YAMAHA grand piano...such a beautiful piano...I think I'll take it home with me.) We had an intro to the upcoming week of VBS and then went to a market to buy food. Oh, yes! You're probably really excited because I'm gonna tell you ALL about the food! I bought chicken karage, gyoza, and two trays of rice...it was SOOOO good! The chicken had this ginger thing going on and it was quite tasty. Don't worry, the gyoza and rice were good, also. I really wanted to speak some Japanese so I went up to some woman who worked there and asked her if my gyoza plate was gyoza (even though I knew what it was...yeah...I'm not weird at all...) ...I'm pretty sure that was a run-on sentence...oh, well...


Later, some of us went to a park. I drank this bizarre grape/jello drink (ew) and went to a 100 yen shop. I bought a coin purse!!! Ah, so awesome!!! I went outside to find it raining (what the heck?) and hung out there for a while.

Now, I'm back at the Send Center. I'm looking forward to tomorrow...it IS what we came here for...I'm praying that God will use us as He desires and that He will reach the children of Japan. I know He is sovereign and powerful; I can't wait to see what He will do here. (Okay, g2g [haha], Tim wants his computer back...)

Blessings!

Matt Sekijima

Shirley: Welcome JMT to Japan

We prayed for you exactly at 3:30PM yesterday at NBF, just as you landed in Narita International Airport. That is our usual prayer request time during our service, so call it coincidence or something only the Lord could time so exactly.

We are thankful for so many answered prayers already, your safe arrival, travel, sustained health, and housing up in Tokorozawa with the SEND missionaries. We will continue to pray for a fruitful week of VBS at TMK this week and look forward to seeing you all down in our area the evening of August 1. By the way Janis, there are fireworks at 7:30PM in the park across from our place that evening, August 1, just so you know. Hope you all will have enough energy left to go watch with us!

Many blessings,
Shirley

Tom: We made it!

We made it to Japan without any problems. Don't believe weather.com or weatherunderground though. They were only off by 10 degrees. Todays high was 96 not 86 as those weather websites said. We were met at the airport by Richard Nakamura, one of the missionaries here. We are getting settled in a great apartment about 20 minutes from the church where are to do our first VBS. We are next door neighbors to our host, Jon and Chieko Reasoner. Thanks for your prayers and well wishes. I will try to keep you informed as the days go along. I'm a little wasted now. I'm the only one of the team that didn't sleep on the trip over. I will be writing again soon.
In Christ,
Tom Higashi 東

Matt: " 'The Wolf That Cried Liar' - I Can't Connect to the Internet From My Mac - It's Tylenol's Fault"

Hi! My name is Matt Sekijima and I'm sixteen years old. (Just thought I'd introduce myself.) Okay, I’m all over the place right now (;)figuratively, of course). The time zone change and ten-hour plane ride have totally messed with my head. About three hours into the flight, I took two Tylenol (oops, false advertising) PM. After about fifteen minutes, I started loosing it – just ask Sharon. Then, I fell asleep. That was probably one of the deepest sleeps I’ve ever had – just ask Tim, he could hardly wake me up for lunch. Ever since then, I’ve been acting kind of interesting. I blame the Tylenol. (The team’s been telling me that I’m talking weirdly and not making much sense…ridiculous…I always make sense…and boy, do I love sarcasm…) Oh, I almost forgot, here’s a (cool?) story about my retainer! Ready? Okay, I put it in a napkin on the tray and it got picked up later by a flight attendant. I didn’t realize until minutes before we landed that I lost it. I went to the back of the plane to look for it (in the tray carts) but I had to go back to my seat. Instead, a really nice flight attendant looked for it for me…nice guy… I went back to my seat and I felt the Lord telling me to look on the ground under my seat. There it was (in the napkin, don’t worry), my first God sighting of the trip! I was sooo thankful!

Anyway, today was looooong (as represented by the extended “long”). We’re at the house and the team’s been making fun of me because I can’t connect to the internet from my beloved Mac… EVERYONE else can get on except for me! They’re never gonna let this one go... I’m really tired and should probably go to sleep. Sorry that this blog hasn’t been very entertaining or informative…again, it’s Tylenol’s fault… Thanks for reading!

Matt Sekijima

Elaine: Thank God

Thank God for get us to Japan. It's night time and we are all on-line and having so much fun. Thank God for providing Housing for us.

Susan - First day in Japan

We arrived safely in Narita airport and met up with Richard Nakamura. We took the limosine bus down to Tokorozawa which is about a 2 hour ride to the Send Center. The team are staying at a missionary house next to the reasoner's. It's a nice spacious house. The guys are sleeping downstair and the girls plus Kelly & Sharon have the upstair room. It's been a long day traveling and we're all pretty tired so I'm going to wash up and get some sleep now.

Shirley: NBF's VBS Flyer

Here is our postcard flyer for this year's VBS program. Registration ends July 31, so we pray lots of kids would sign up before then. Summer break has just started, so we are working hard to enroll new students now.