BJ - First day of VBS and recap of other things

The high school/college night was fun. It was great to fellowship and just have a great time. Matt and Tim played a great session of worship. The game went well and it was fun to introduce something new for them. Here is a clip of a Jon acting for the his team.



The other game was a name game and it was fun. It was awesome to use the environment of the SEND Center so it made it fun and easy to do. Pretty much, you don't know who is behind the sliding door and you gotta say their name. The team that wins everyone over to their team wins.

Today was our first day of VBS and it was chaotic. I tried to help with the worship hand motions and pretty much forgot 40%... yea that wasn't fun, but the kids still enjoyed most of it. We got to play duck duck goose and that was fun.

I think the weirdest part of me is how I've been serving God and not really using my intellect or my knowledge. There seems to be this act of will that God wants me to serve with my body rather than with my mouth and mind. Yet my favorite thing to do in Japan is pray. Prayer is something that I've been learning to love over the past couple of months and I love to pray for others. God's love has shown me a lot and it's changed me in a lot of ways. I'm glad I can play with the kids and facilitate games for them to enjoy. It doesn't seem like much, but God asks me to do it and I have on other skill that I can offer at times. Praise God for his provisions like making up games or using games in my youth :D

Jon's story telling was great and the kids really liked it. They got really into it and were able to listen to what he was saying to them in their own language. Ev's sharing was also great at she was able to share and relate with the kids as. The kids also did their memory verse and it was great to watch and listen to them.

Crafts then lunch and then rec time. I wasn't sure what we should do so I just stuck with the game I planned. Dragon tag was fun and the kids enjoyed it for awhile. But they got bored and we tried playing kickball, but none of the girls wanted to play. So we just kick played a homer run derby style and had the boys run around the bases. After that they played freeze tag and ended up having fun with that. Tim and Andrew were doing all the grunt work while I tried to save my energy thinking of what to do tomorrow and how we can engage with the kids. Hopefully tomorrow's game will go better.

It was fun getting Popsicle afterwards and hang out with the kids and play around. They are pretty high energy and of course Tim and Andrew played with them a lot. It's great to see them really gifted in that. I am able to do it, but just sat there taking pictures and randomly chatting or playing with the kids. I'm glad this team is very balanced and we all had fun engaging and being with them.

We'll see how it goes tomorrow. I'm super excited to see what God does tomorrow and hopefully I can do what he asks of me.

PTL - BJ