-d-a-y- TEN!

I am still trying to catch up on my blogs so this is for Saturday 6/6/09

Well today was a rocky day for our team, but we pulled it all together at the end of the day! I love my team--Rachel and Brian and we are daily growing closer to HIM together! So today we were with another team from Higashikoganei to work with the CBU choir team! We went to the largest temple in Tokyo and it really broke my heart. So we broke into smaller groups of 2 or 3 with the CBU students and prayer walked all over the temple grounds for about 2 hours. So I will start off by telling you a little about the temple. You enter into the temple grounds by going under a huge lamp. This lamp is for lighting the path for their "gods" to enter the temple and provide for them enough light. I found this pretty ironic considering the one true God is the light in our life. It is sad to see these people worship these many gods of Japan and be so lost. As you enter under the light there are two huge demon statues on the left and the right o the lantern. these demons are standing there on guard of the temple gates in order to keep the demons out of the temple these people are worshiping. As you enter into the temple grounds you are surrounded by so many booths and stores selling small gods and small replicas of the temple and little things people buy. The money that is made off all these profits is put towards building a bigger and bigger temple and adding on to it. We made sure not to buy anything, so that if people saw this they wouldn't get it confused with us supporting the temple. Anyway as you enter and walk further there is a children's daycare on the actual temple grounds. This broke my heart to know that these children under 5 years old see this temple everyday and are raised watching people worshiping the many gods that are not even there! So finally I got closer to the large temple doors and before you enter there are many "stations". There is a place you go pay money to get your fortune, you shake up the jar and a fortune pops out. If you do not like the fortune you are given you tie it on a rope and if you do like your fortune you take it home with you. If you leave the bad fortune tied to the rope and do not take it home, it is said that you will not have the bed fortune and it will go away. Sad stuff that these people are being fooled. Another area is the burning of incense. There is a large tub of burning incense that smells so bad or did to me. the Japanese people come to this incense and loft it on themselves or touch the ashes and rub it on themselves or their hurt body parts. They believe that the more that is on their younger children the more power they will have... There is a station to wash their hands and cleanse themselves right before entering the temple. As I walked into the temple I was very overwhelmed by how many lost people were in there searching for a got to answer their prayers. I wish that we were given the opportunity to share with everyone of these lost souls that the only god that will ever answer their prayers is the one true God. there are two large money pits that people throw their money into to get good fortune back to them and they bow down to this huge alter. I was hurt to see the LARGE amounts of money these people would throw in to this false god. beside one of the alters is the abortion candle chamber. The people pay money to light a candle for their aborted baby. It is said that if they light the candle the spirit of the aborted baby will not come back to haunt them. This made me cry inside to know that these Japanese people felt haunted by these lost babies. It was very sad to see so many people walk up to this area and light the candles. As we were in the temple we prayed allover these stations and the many gods that were all over the temple grounds. We were able to pray specific prayers for people and their needs. Throughout the summer I will be going to this temple often, so I know the Lord will show me many more things that need prayer.

After spending the morning at the temple, oh and seeing a wedding! We went to eat as a team then headed to the park for evangelism with the CBU team. The choir didnt get to sing to many people but they were able to sing to some walking by. It was a slow park ministry day but there were several opportunities still presented to us through the singing! there was a little down time while at the park so Katrina and I, one of my good intern friends, went around and took pictures and enjoyed the beautiful day together with this team! They were able to practice several of their songs together that they will be performing later this summer in front of crowds! Tonight was the CBU team's first friendship party and it went AMAZING! As these teams make contacts they invite them to friendship parties and we give the mangas like I have said before! We actually didn't bring enough mangas for the number of people that showed up! Christ really blessed their party and allowed more contacts to be added! We ended up having to break into two groups at two different restaurants to fit everyone inside to eat! The day ended much better than it started and we were all tired at the end of the day!

PR:
-The friendship party went so well... pray for these contacts and their interest in learning about JC and the opportunities that arise!
-CBU choir team and their dedication to serving this summer here in japan
-The temple grounds that one day these walls will fall down and the many gods will be vanished form this nation!
-Team unity :)
-Park ministry and ll the opportunities that arise from this!

haley michelle