Last night we had a “Youth Party” (the Japanese name for a youth fellowships) here at the church. They played the game “Upset the Fruit Basket,” and it was interesting that the term they use for the time when everyone has to switch is O-Arashi or The Storm. However, the real storm didn’t come until later that night when they announced “Minna-san, tabe masho.” (Okay, everyone, let’s eat.) and 24 hungry teenagers flooded the buffet table.

Chuck is thinking, "I wonder if there will be any food left for the adults?"

I guess that can be expected when you get youth groups together from two different prefectures. This youth party was different from the regular monthly events in that it was a joint endeavor between our church and another one in Hiroshima, about two hours north. Kids came from youth groups in two other cities in Yamaguchi prefecture as well. The Hiroshima church took care of the program leading worship and sharing the message and the Ube group provided the location and food.

One of the most interesting (and sadistic) games that was played was one where five members of each youth group were given item to eat, one of which was laced with something awful tasting (salted coffee, vinegar coke, a cream puff filled with mayonnaise, etc.). All five people had to eat at the same time and try not to react and then the opposing youth group has to guess which person had to eat the altered item. Even though I got lots of practice using the Japanese phrase for “I’ll just sit this one out.” I still got roped into playing, but was lucky and didn’t get the special item in my round.

After dinner, all the kids enjoyed playing in our newly renovated game room. This had previously been one of the storage buildings full of trash that you may remember reading about, but thanks to a lot of work on the part of our team leader and his wife, it has been totally transformed. They even outfitted it with some of the old construction zone lighting that had been left here by the previous occupants.

Pray for the various kids that attended last night. Because group identity is very important in Japanese culture, pray that events like these will help Christian kids to make friends and understand that they are part of the body of Christ. Pray that the unsaved kids who attended will be drawn to Christ by the positive example of the other kids.

This entry was posted on Monday, October 26th, 2009 at 10:46 am 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.