God is so sneaky..

I am trying to think of all that has happened since I last wrote on here. Let's see, last Friday we went to the Toyota main Headquarters and visited the showroom (which they have spent a lot of money on, and it looks great! Anyways, so when we got there, Laurence dropped us off at the door, and there were like 150 guys standing outside waiting to go in I guess. They all parted and we walked through the middle while everyone watched us silently. It was really funny and awkward at the same time. Then while we were in there we kept getting our picture taken, some were trying to be conspicuous, but some weren't at all. It seems that everywhere we go to sightsee, we become the sight to see. Interesting. So when we got to the showroom this guy came up and asked if he could be in a picture with us, so we said yes and posed for one, then with his friend. It was pretty funny! Then I was wating to go sit in the convertible (because it was a really nice car!) and that same guy sat in it with me and took a picture. As he was getting out he said to his friend, "Hot car, Beautiful Girl, It's my dream!!!" We all got a pretty good laugh out of that one :P The picture is of me and the Korean guy in the convertible.

On Sunday we were at church helping out again during lunch and also watching the kids in the afternoon. Ok so one thing is that every Sunday the woman always do the dishes, and we try and help but most of the time we just get shooed away. But this time we beat them to it, we started washing dishes before they were done eating, just because we wanted to. We like being able to serve in any way they can. It was really funny because they tried to kick us out like four or five times (and you have no idea how hard it is to fight with these ladies!! And when we don't speak the same language.) We usually lose the battle. But this Sunday we were determined, and even when they came and bascially grabbed the dishes out of our hands we stood strong and we won. THE VICTORY WAS OURS. It only took us three months! :)

One Wednesday, Brianna and I were invited over for supper to a couple from the churches house (and we teach her daughter english!). They have this small but very cute apartment. They made us a wondeful meal and we enjoyed our time there. I played on a Wii for the first time (I am not very good at it!!). After the games the food we went and sang worship songs in English and Japanese and then we prayed together. It was really great to worship and fellowship them! God has put so many wonderful people into our lives here and we are thankful for any and every opportunity we have to spend with them.

Friday Night we were very sneaky and had a Scavenger hunt prepared for Darlene because it will be her brithday tomorrow. Happy Birthday Darlene! (She turns 19.) It started up at home, went up to the 100yen store and then took the bus downtown to starbucks, then to Karaoke and then back home. We really surprised her and it was a ton of fun! On the bus on the way home I ended up sitting by this Japanese guy who asked me where I was from, why I was here etc. I said I was from Canada and here volunteering in a Church. He asked what Church, I said Toyota Higashi. His face brightened and he said that his wife took a class from Leona and that they knew the Hieberts, and had known them for over ten years! It was so neat how I ended up randomly sitting by him and him knowing the church and the Hieberts. Then we also realized that I helped out in the class that his wife took, so I knew her! That was pretty cool. We got to talk about the whole way home. He said although he and his wife aren't Christians he likes the church and the Hieberts and thinks its great what we are doing. It was pretty neat. It's amazing how things that seem so random to us, and be so right to God. His timing and His ways are always perfect. It's amazing, it really is. And He's so sneaky about it too!!

Last thing for this post, today we were in Fujjigaoka running a kids program all day. We weren't quite sure how it would go, but it actually was great! There were about 20 kids and we had translators. I think that everyone had a good time! We did songs and games and eating and a craft and more songs and more games! Everyone was tired by the end of the day, but as Joanna said it's an answer to her prayers (p.s. She prayed that we would be exhausted at the end of every day....God asnwered her prayers!) There was one girl, Soyoka (Soy-chan) who attached herself to my side all day, it was really sweet.

Being there reminded me of home and the inner city kids and made me miss doing stuff with them! But it was really exciting to be there with these kids and I will cherish every moment we had!

I thank God for all of the wonderful opportunities He has given us here, and I hope that we will continue to have divine appointments while we are here. Please pray for strength and endurance as we finish off our last two weeks here in Japan. We want to finish off strong, and we have a lot planned! Pray that we are able to get everything done, and not just because we have to, but because we want to. We want to have hearts like Jesus and let our every action be out of love for God and one another.