Kelly - Slowed down, but relishing the moment

Today the TMK team held our third day of VBS, it's hard to believe tomorrow will be our last VBS. I've been totally amazed at how quickly the kids (and mom's) have accepted this odd group of asians, many of them Japanese who can't even speak their own language. Our fears that with one less day we wouldn't have time to "bond" with those here are all but gone. I think we all knew by the end of the first day that those fears were gone, but some of us were like Thomas... Today we had 19 show up, "down" from 24 on the first and second days, but we later learned that there was a school activity today that many of the kids had to attend. What turned our "dissappointment" into joy, was the news from one of the mom's (who despite her kids not being there) still came by and told us her kids were wishing they were at VBS with us! Now it could have been that the school event was out in the hot sun in a tent (and we're in a nice air conditioned room) but we're hopeful that it was the Joy of our team that they truely missed. Afterall, it is our joy and our love for each other that will tell the world that we are His disciples, and that He is alive and well today.

One thing Heather didn't mention on her blog (modest her) is how the crafts (which she's heading) are going. With one less session, we've realized that we can't just leave out that days worth of activities since they sort of relate, and so she's had to do some last minute scrambling to make sure it all makes sense. Through our VBS debriefing times we've also learned to rely on Richard, Chieko and Jon's input to review if our messages are coming across - of course this also means we're making more changes and Heather (and her little band of helpers) have been great - going with the flow - and making changes to our last minute changes... And by God's grace it all comes together!

Yesterday and today have been a little bit challenging for me. I guess I've been "horseing" around too much with some of the kids since my knee is rather tender today, so while the rest of the team is out learning more about the culture here (ok, they may be doing some shopping too), I've opted to stay here at the SEND center to make sure I can finish out the week here well, but I do miss being with the rest of the team. I am finding joy during this time too, since it's giving me a chance to relax and blog and pray (ok so I took a short nap as well).

Other challenges have been just trying to remember all the kids names. Tom's wonderful powerpoint with the names of the kids next to their pictures has helped tremendously, but some of us have soo much crammed into our hard drives that we still have those senior moments... wait, aren't we wearing name tags you're asking? Well, we all are (even many of the mom's who are helping out) but when the "cool" thing to do is wear them down around thigh level, ahh, it get's a little tough - especially when some of these kids are only 1 meter tall...

So keep us all in prayer - that we can finish this race with the fullness of God's Love.