Sendai team continues...

Well i'm not sure if this installment will be saner as Natania is not the bringer of Joy or whether the lack of sleep means that it will be worse but we shall see. It is the evening of the 11th and apparently 3 days since our last blog so I am now racking me brains to remember what has happened, not all because it isn't worth remembering but solely because God has done so much in this short time with us that its hard to fit it in the tiny little brain he blessed me with.

The last we blogged we mentioned a Disney theme party at the dorm with the Girls here. It went wonderfully. People started arriving 45 minutes early before dinner but we managed to eat before the rest of them came in. It started rather slowly at first as we were all a little nervous but as the evening went on it became more lively and we seemed to bond. Praise God! I have oftened heard that missionaries use extreme approaches to reach people and that the Lord works in extraordinary ways however I believe we reached new heights! We taught and danced the Macarena and the Birdy dance. It seemed to work. Some ground seems to have been gained and friendships are now being formed, more then we could have hoped for. Personally I was hoping for a begruding acceptance but that will teach me for my lack of faith I suppose! In fact I am watching the team and some of the girls playing Uno as I type.

On Thursday I had a wonderful lie-in as did Hannah and Elaine, however the rest were not so fortunate, for want of a better word. A 6am start so that they can get to English class at Miyagi daigaku University. They went to speak English with his class and met a Chinese Christian girl which was very nice. The professor told us a story about when Mormons visited him. Long story short he made it very clear that he was a committed Buddhist and did not want to be evangelised to but does want to be friends with foreigners. Keep this in mind as I will return to this university in the next paragraph. Elaine, Hannah and I went to another university to a Bible study with Jim and Terui Grace. It was wonderful but small. Only 3 Japanese but it was fully the idea of one Christian girl. She watned to start a Bible stidy because she herself is a Christian eager to spread the word. But of course this is a duanting task on a campus of that size and so the Graces help. Please pray that God will bless it and it will grow. We spent most of the afternoon together flyering around Izumi park town where the Church is based. It was tedious but we will come to see the blessing God produces tomorrow evening at our next international cafe. It was a lot of walking in hot and humid weather; not nice but we were blessed with what we needed I.e. a cold drink once we returned. The evening was more exciting, well on a human perspective at least. We went to Grace Kai,which is a fun evening plus Bible study in English...that's not to say that Bible study isn't fun because it is but just to distinguish it from the superflous fun...anyway! We played that most famous of games:Signs.It took a while to cross the borders but once it did it went down a treat. We studied the account of adulterous woman, excellent stuff. By the way, if you want to know anymore about anything let us know. Its hard to know what to elaborate on and what not to.

OK well on to today. Up at 6am for us all and back to Miyagi Daigaku (university), except Hannah who was at a bible study scoffing snacks after a lie-in, not that im jealous. We went to more English classes today with the same professor so I got to meet him. I thoroughly enjoyed his company and his class was really fun and we got to talk about all sorts of stuff. People asked why we were here so we could share openly. Score! We also got to role play in an english class activity designed to enable the studenst to practice talking to people they are likely to encounter in a traveliing situation. For example, I was an Immigration officer, Phil worked at a hotel, Natania was a flight information clerk and Sere was a tourist information officer. Back to my comment earlier as a "comitted Buddist" who never allows evangelism. We prayed last night that the Lord would open a crack in his class and in the professor and that a seed would be planted. We, being the erring humans we are, forgot about it and were wonderfully suprised later. We were discussing the worldwide reaction to the disaster of 9/11 in his class (strange I know but facinating none the less) and he suddenly asked what we as westerners and Christians though about the world so we all got to share Jesus in a relevant way. It was really exciting as we remembered what we prayed for the night before. Praise the Lord for his goodness to us. This evening was our first international cafe. It was quite well attended and went very well including our moment of ceilidh dancing which was cool. We did an awesome drama which told the Gospel, hopefully this will make an effect. The seed has been planted and if its the right time then God will have prepared the soil. I trust that those here will water the seeds planted. Please pray that they will accept the message with sincere hearts.

Thanks for checking up on us,

Sorry for any bad grammar or spelling mistakes.

God bless!