Shirley-NBF Day 4 of VBS

Another wonderful day full of God's grace, God's mercies and God's provision. It was really, really hot today, 35 Celcius which is 95 Fahrenheit and that does not account for humidity. Even at 7:30am, it was already very hot and muggy.

Again, we were out the door on time. The team typically takes the train and I meet them at the center since I drive all the heavy stuff up there in the car. When I pulled up to the center, I saw everyone sitting outside on the walkway. They key was, thankfully, in someone's backpack which was in my car, so one crisis was averted and the first of many of God's mercies and provisions for the day!

Kids showed up on time. We had 19 kids today, total. Mothers and friends from other churches showed up to help translate and do all kinds of things to help make things run smoothly. The morning song time was joyous and fun. The kids are really learning the music quickly and enjoy singing together. Matt had them do some very fun things this morning, a conga line that went through the hallways, then singing while lying on their backs. It was very different, but most of all, lots and lots of fun for everyone.

The morning introductions have been terrific. The stories work and the way they are told to the kids really works in Japanese. I loved the purple box intro yesterday and Nozomi's 5 onigiris and 2 fish was wonderful this morning. Katherine shared her testimony today and got a lot of kids talking again in a very good way as they are trying to understand what she has to go through when her alopecia is in progress.

Noon came quickly today and we ate lunch and got ready for the team to go up to the nursing home to meet Mr. Onoe at 1:30pm. The VBS team was sent off by the kids in the park, which turned into some of the children leading the team to the nursing home. There was some misunderstanding, because I instructed them to come straight back, but Randy called me and said the kids were welcome to stay and sing with them as they were well received and welcomed by the nursing home staff. Well, due to the miscommunication, a couple mothers were upset since they did not know where their children were which was completely understandable and it was not well communicated that they had gone in the first place. In the end, Randy walked all the children back first and went back to the nursing home to rejoin the team. They were able to finish their picture frames for tomorrow, did some very creative fuze-bead crafts and we cleaned up and were out of the center by 3pm. We were thankful that the Lord again provided, praise God!

It is so hard to believe tomorrow is the last day of VBS. A week really goes by so quickly. We see the Lord's hand at work for sure and pray that for tomorrow, each shepherd would feel empowered to act boldly to ask the questions and receive answers that will make all heaven rejoice. We covet your prayers and ask for supernatural sustenance as I know that many on the team have had very little sleep all week and are pretty much wiped out.

Thanks again for remembering us and praying for us!