SEVENteen :D

6-13-09

Today I actually got to meet my team that didn't show up last night! They ended up coming in about one hour after I had left their hostel and they got my message so that was good! The new team is a group of 4 men ranging in age form 25 to about 65 and they are great! We started orientation this morning with them at 9 am and things went great from there. We were able to sit with them, Jeff a M here, Brain and I and train them in our mission work and our vision for Tokyo this summer. The leader of this team was actually a M here in Japan 11 years ago and he was here for 12 years! How awesome is it that God has placed him here again this summer! Anyway after our meetings this morning we went ahead and ate some yummy food and found them a friendship party site for Friday night! We decided on Friday night at Shakey's for the party! We started off their week with 5ME and they loved it! One of the guys, actually the oldest one was so good at it! He just has a sweet amazing gentle smile and the Japanese people seemed to love him! the team was able to invite 3 or 4 people to dinner tonight at a different station! After 5ME we headed to our park! This sis the first time our team has been to our park because each Saturday we have been assigned something different to do. So we were all excited to go to the park for the first time and I love our new park! There are so many things to do at our park and this makes me happy! As we walked into the area there were so many merchants and little activities going on that we decided to tour the whole park before doing anything. The tour actually took our entire time and that was okay because now we know for next Saturday what we can do! There was a man painted white doing what you would see in NY. Different posing positions for long periods of time and just making money off his focus and ability to hold the pose. There was this awesome yoyo man that would throw his thing so high in the air and catch it and keep it going. There was the little face figure artists that draw your face and then cartoon your body. there was a violinist playing beautiful music which was so awesome. Probably only my family would know this but I use to play the violin so I was so amazed at this guy! Anyway Rachel and I decided that we were going to do face painting at our park this coming Saturday for FREE and see how it turns out. There are also paddle boats in the shape of swans for rent and I thought it was SO CUTE! I will do it sometime this summer :) We are praying about this face painting ministry and will update you guys on how it turns out. Anyway after touring the park and thinking about ideas for our ministry area there we headed to meet our new friends for dinner at the station. The 3 or 4 people that were invited didn't show up, but it is okay! The NC team was not discouraged and we went ahead and had some dinner at the station! Chinese dumplings = amazing :)

PR:
-New NC team and their obedience to come work this summer
-Strength to go throughout the long weeks they will have here with us
-Our team as we lead these 4 men throughout their time here
-New contacts at our university and train station
-swine flu at our university
-Interns and our love toward each other :D

haley michelle