End of first half of the trip
Hello all, this is Collin updating for the team, giving a recap of the past couple of days. Friday was a relatively light day, as we spent most of the day applying the last layer of paint to the sanctuary. During lunch, Deborah and I went to OPU to hang out with the students and talk with them for a couple of hours. We ate with them in their club meeting room, discussed how classes were going, and played card games with a couple of them (Yabi and Shota). In general, we have been trying to focus more on our ministry to the OPU students, as we are trying to send a couple of people over to hang out for lunch with the students every weekday and build our relationships with them. We also got to visit Seikyo High School later in the afternoon, where we divided into groups with the junior high and high schoolers and asked basic introductory questions and played games. At the end, Aaron Bitzer, one of the guys who teaches English at Hamadera Bible Church, gave a Bible lesson to the students on the wise man who built his house on the rock.
Even though we have not been able to visit as many schools as in the past on this trip, it has been super encouraging to see the opportunities with OPU open up more and to see the relationship grow between OPU and Hamadera Bible Church. They definitely seem to be comfortable coming to the church and visiting us and that is a good sign.
On Saturday, though we had a light schedule, much of our time was spent in transit to and from church to Koyasan High School, the Buddhist High School that one of the church members, Momo, attended many years ago. We traveled a little more than two hours by car to the high school, which was located on a mountainside next to an assortment of large Buddhist and Shinto shrines and temples. After eating lunch there, we went inside to a classroom and introduced ourselves to the students. We then broke up into groups, asked the students questions to get to know them, and then played some simple games with them. Over all, the students seemed eager to meet us and play games with us, but their English was very limited during our conversations. We also wanted to meet with them after class, but none of them came afterwards to hang out with us, possibly due to miscommunication between us and the students and teacher of the class. Hopefully our visit there builds future opportunities to talk with them. At the end of a very long day of mostly traveling, we came back and had Japanese barbecue and enjoyed stuffing ourselves while fellowshipping with teammates. Afterwards, we headed back to the church and saw the mostly-painted sanctuary and it looked good for the most part. The church members were very thankful for our work and we were glad to be able to serve them in that way.
Though gospel opportunities up to Saturday seem to have been sparse in general, we have been effective in building our relationships with the students (specifically ones from OPU) and see many more opportunities ahead of us (and we had plenteous gospel opportunities on Sunday, which will be talked about in the next entry).
Prayer requests:
- For the many students (mostly from OPU, some from other places) that came to church on Sunday to hang out with us and the many gospel conversations we had (this will be covered in the next update). Specifically, the names of the students we shared the gospel to are Shota, Yusuke, Miki, Tomo, Hitomi, Ayaka, and Akira.
- For flexibility in schedule, as we have a pretty open schedule besides visits to OPU.
- For us to keep in mind that God is the one who saves and brings about heart change, and that our responsibility is just to be faithful with the message.
Even though we have not been able to visit as many schools as in the past on this trip, it has been super encouraging to see the opportunities with OPU open up more and to see the relationship grow between OPU and Hamadera Bible Church. They definitely seem to be comfortable coming to the church and visiting us and that is a good sign.
On Saturday, though we had a light schedule, much of our time was spent in transit to and from church to Koyasan High School, the Buddhist High School that one of the church members, Momo, attended many years ago. We traveled a little more than two hours by car to the high school, which was located on a mountainside next to an assortment of large Buddhist and Shinto shrines and temples. After eating lunch there, we went inside to a classroom and introduced ourselves to the students. We then broke up into groups, asked the students questions to get to know them, and then played some simple games with them. Over all, the students seemed eager to meet us and play games with us, but their English was very limited during our conversations. We also wanted to meet with them after class, but none of them came afterwards to hang out with us, possibly due to miscommunication between us and the students and teacher of the class. Hopefully our visit there builds future opportunities to talk with them. At the end of a very long day of mostly traveling, we came back and had Japanese barbecue and enjoyed stuffing ourselves while fellowshipping with teammates. Afterwards, we headed back to the church and saw the mostly-painted sanctuary and it looked good for the most part. The church members were very thankful for our work and we were glad to be able to serve them in that way.
Though gospel opportunities up to Saturday seem to have been sparse in general, we have been effective in building our relationships with the students (specifically ones from OPU) and see many more opportunities ahead of us (and we had plenteous gospel opportunities on Sunday, which will be talked about in the next entry).
Prayer requests:
- For the many students (mostly from OPU, some from other places) that came to church on Sunday to hang out with us and the many gospel conversations we had (this will be covered in the next update). Specifically, the names of the students we shared the gospel to are Shota, Yusuke, Miki, Tomo, Hitomi, Ayaka, and Akira.
- For flexibility in schedule, as we have a pretty open schedule besides visits to OPU.
- For us to keep in mind that God is the one who saves and brings about heart change, and that our responsibility is just to be faithful with the message.