Amy : Happy Birthday Emma!!

< NOTE : This should have been posted last night but I was so tired that I went straight to bed. >

Our first day of VBS was (in my opinion) successful. We had over 20 children show up and even with the language barrier, we found ways to communicate (even without a translator). Sometimes there were blank stares but we did our best. i was helping with the arts and crafts today which were colourful totes decorated with crosses, hearts, and other foam shapes. The kids were very creative with their bags. I noticed that the oldest group (age 11-12) were "too cool for school". They would talk amongst themselves and stand at the back of the room while the rest of us were singing the songs. Sure, it's that age in their life but I pray that even though they are putting up that facade of "i'm too cool for this", that the message of Christ is still being received in their heart.

After our first day of VBS, we went to debrief (no, not removing our shorts) over lunch. we shared with one another what went well, what could be improved. we found that perhaps the hardest thing to do was get the kids to quiet down and listen so we devised a way to do this. We will test it out on day two to see if it will work.

Yesterday was Emma's birthday and Shirley had us over for a BBQ. She said that she would be preparing yakitori for us (BBQ'd skewered chicken strips). We headed up to her condo and watched as she prepared the coals on the BBQ. When it was ready, we brought out two boxes of frozen skewers - 50 skewers in each box. YUM! Even frozen, they looked good! As she put the skewers down, it looked just like a BBQ in the US except that very shortly after putting down the skewers, the flames from the BBQ suddenly started to flare up. We nearly had to call the fire department! Suddenly, I heard Shirley cry out "I bought chicken skin!!" Apparently, she had bought 100 skewers of chicken skin on skewers for dinner! Perhaps it is a delicacy here in Japan. Our team was able to share a good laugh - not at Shirley for her mistake but with her because I'm sure all of us, since arriving in Japan, have made similar mistakes in not being able to read Japanese. I'll grab a picture of the burnt chicken skins when the rest of the team wakes up - currently over half of us are still sleeping. :)

Happy birthday Emma!