We have returned from Friendship English Camp. Some of you may be surprised to be reading this. In the last entry, Colby said that we would be back in communication on August 8th. He meant to say the 3rd – sorry for the confusion!

It’s hard to believe that the camp we’ve been preparing for all month has finally passed. We had about 23 kids come for the camp which is a good turnout. In Japan, even when the kids are out of school, there are still many school activities going on and there is a pressure for them to be involved with them. The fact that 23 kids decided to come to a Bible and English camp was a really neat thing! I helped out with teaching English to the 3 Junior High girls that came. That was certainly a different experience! I had never taught English to anyone at such a beginner stage before and since I can’t speak Japanese, it was a challenge at times to communicate with them. Thankfully one of the other missionaries and a bilingual Japanese helper were with me and they could translate through the tricky parts. It gave me some good experience for the future!

Each night one of the Japanese pastors shared from the Bible with the kids. Even though I couldn’t understand what they said, the kids seemed to be interested in what they were talking about. Hopefully seeds will have been planted and lives will be changed. We were all concerned about the weather – I guess in years past it has gotten quite hot at camp and can tend to be miserable. God really answered our prayers though and sent plenty of clouds and cool weather. The camp was located up in the mountains and gave us a beautiful view everywhere we looked. Although it went well, Colby and I were grateful to come back to Hikari yesterday and rest. We were commenting to each other that we certainly aren’t kids any longer and are more concerned with saving our energy than expending it!

Please pray for the kids that came to the English camp that God would remind them of what they learned about Him and use that to change their lives. It was interesting to note that the kids that were new this year knew absolutely nothing about God or the Bible. In America, even if a child doesn’t go to church, most usually they have heard at least a little bit about God, but not so here. To minister here, you really have to start from scratch with explaining about God and the Bible because otherwise they have no idea what you’re talking about. It was a good thing for Colby and I to see that will affect the way we minister in the future.

Thank you for all of your prayers!

This entry was posted on Friday, August 3rd, 2007 at 12:51 pm and is filed under Life in Cross-Cultural Ministry. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.