Weekend Away
This past weekend Colby and I had some fun away from the apartment spending time with fellow missionaries a couple hours away in the town of Yanai. They had invited us to come see a famous bridge called Kintai, which, as you can see below, has five arches spanning the Nishiki River. The bridge is shaped the way it is so that when the water level rises from the typhoons, it doesn’t get swept downstream. To the credit of fine and careful engineering, this bridge has only been swept away twice since its construction in 1673. We enjoyed our time with our friends and spent the evening with them and two other missionaries eating tacos and playing games.
Colby and I at Kintai Bridge
The next day, we had the opportunity to visit one of the churches we first visited when we came to Japan two years ago. It was so neat to be able to go and see the members again, but this time to actually be able to talk with them a little bit in Japanese! We spent the afternoon with our missionary friends and then went back to church that night for a BBQ. This was an outreach they had for their English students and church members’ families and they were pleased with how the evening turned out. This was not your typical BBQ though – there was plenty of meat and vegetables, but they were all cut and grilled in order to be dipped in a special sauce and then eaten. Even though I came expecting cheeseburgers, everything was delicious. Here is a picture of our Field Leader Bob valiantly stoking the flames in preparation for grilling.
Our Field Leader Bob
We are heading toward the end of rainy season here and soon we will have abundant sunshine, along with abundant humidity and high temperatures. God has blessed Colby and I with two wall unit air conditioners. We haven’t needed to use them as of yet and we are going to hold off as long as we can. Some of you are shaking your heads thinking “of course they would do that”. Well, don’t worry, even though electricity is on the expensive side here, we will certainly make good use of these once the extreme heat and humidity come. Until then, as the Japanese say, we will try to ‘gumbatte’, which basically means we will try to do our best.
Once again we want to let you know how much we appreciate your prayers for us, our language, and our ministry. Please pray for the English students and family members of the church people who came to the BBQ on Sunday that they would become more and more interested in who God is. Please pray for Colby and I for special patience and energy as we head into this difficult weather.