THIRTY

6/26/09

Well it is Friday and day two of our intern retreat :) Even though I stayed up late I slept pretty great in my room with Katrina! We each have a twin bed and it is great not being in a room with 10 others girls! Don't get me wrong I love all my intern girls, but being away is always enjoyable :D so we had breakfast this morning at 9 am and goodness it was so great to eat some fruit! In Japan fruit is so expensive and hard to buy with the limited food money that we get, so i was stoked about apples and bananas!!! YUMMY! For sure when i get home this summer I will be headed to the grocery and buying me sooo many fruits :) We had a bible study this morning after breakfast and had worship too! Worship was so great to be in a bigger room and really focus on ourselves and how we wanted to worship our father! I love it :D So i really don't remember how much I have told you about this place we are at, but I know I have shared it is by Mt. Fuji and is a lake! So a small lesson i have learned this week from my wonderful guy interns/brothers in Christ! Many years ago... I do not remember this part of the lesson :D Mt. Fuji erupted and created 5 lakes that look like fingers and today and this weekend I am on one of the 5 lakes! Oh so last night i forgot to share with you that I went swimming in the freezing lake with 2 of the guys and Katrina! so much fun, but definitely crazy! Welp that is me i guess :) After worship this morning we had sloppy joes!!! That is so Texan to me and i love that... haha And we had SWEET TEA!!!! yes, i miss food from home but enjoy Japanese food still! Today the girls, well some of us went to the onsin which is a public bath. there are 5 huge pools/baths that the girls have. It is different experience, but definitely something to experience about the culture. The guys of course is separated and from what I remember them saying they had 4 pools.baths and a sauna like we did :) One of the baths outside that i enjoyed was with 20 other women and filled with roses! So BEAUTIFUL! After leaving the onsin after about an hour we went swimming in the lake with several interns! It was warmer than it was last night for sure! We got out and went to dinner with Caleb and Teron at a nice Italian restaurant and had such a great time! I had a squid and artichoke pizza and loved it :) IMAGINE that! :D We had an awesome prayer time tonight for the nation of Japan after dinner. We just all poured prayer out to Christ and his people here! Then afterward we had a bomb fire together and had roasted marsh mellows! So much fun spending time together and pouring more and more love into each other! I went for a 30 minute or more walk alone around the beautiful lake and enjoyed it so much! To be alone and cry out to Jesus in his beautiful nation is great! :D Tonight was another great night. A few of us sat out on one of the many docks and talked about things and got to know each other a little more! :D

Pr-
.nation of JAPAN coming to HIM
.interns and rest throughout this weekend as we refocus for the next month of the summer
.our contacts as we go back after our retreat
.high school interns and unity

haley!