Thursday, July 26, 2012

Parachutes, water balloons and sight seeing



Over the last two week we have been super busy.  There was a missions team from New Hampshire that came to help with Vacation Bible School.  They were here for 12 days. 




We started off with an International Children's Day at the town community center.  We had a good turn out of parents and kids.  We played games, sang songs and had a Bible story.  It was a good chance to meet many people from our town. 

Playing the Waddle Walk game.  She was so excited.


Playing a game with the parachute.



We then took a few days to take the team sight seeing.  Over two days we visited Karatsu, Arita, Nagasaki and Beppu Japan.  We had a chance to tour a castle, visit a pottery village, see Peace Park and the Peace Museum, play with the monkeys on Monkey Mountain, and see the 7 jigoku (translated hell) hot springs. 


Armor from the castle in Karatsu


The pottery village in Arita - made to look like Europe.



A monument in the location of the bomb drop in Nagasaki, Japan



1000 folded paper cranes for prayers of Peace.
Makes me think -
No God, No Peace.  Know God, Know Peace.


A monkey in Beppu, Japan


Soaking our feet in water from the hot springs!


Then we had a two day Vacation Bible School, called Summer Splash!!  With our church building being so small we had to break the VBS into age groups.  This way we could have more kids attending all day long.  ::This also meant we were at the church for 12 hours each day putting on the VBS::  So we started the day with ages 3-7 for 2 hours, then 8-12 for 2 hours and then 12-14 for 2 hours.  It made for a long day but the kids had fun and were able to hear about Jesus. 





Even in the rain the kids wanted to play with the parachute!!


The older (and last) group of kids had fun with the water games too!


One thing that made a huge impression with the Japanese kids was the parachutes the missions team brought with them.  Most of the kids and parents had never played with a parachute before.  They loved it!!  It was almost as big a hit as the water balloons.  Mike and I are looking to get one now.  There are so many games that can be played with the parachute!!  This would be awesome to use with the park ministry.  The kids would love it!! 








A few from inside the parachute.


Here is a video of some of our high lights from the last two weeks.  Thanks so much to those of you who help to support our ministry here in Japan.  This is why we are here.  Because of those who have never heard of Jesus. 

 Thank you!!





PS - the story of the little girl in the video is of me!! 

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