Today was a very bittersweet day. It was my last day of work since I am going back to Tokyo tomorrow. We went to the Abe house and had devotional time with Mrs. Abe-san. Chloe led it and talked about John 14:27 and how God gives us peace and comfort. Mrs. Abe-san, who I will refer to from here on out as Okaasan, seemed interested (but I must note that I have trouble reading Japanese people because they are so polite and do whatever it takes to make you happy). Anyways, she seemed interested as far as I could tell.
After that she went off to work and we got started in on what we ended on yesterday...I finished the insulation for the parts of the wall that weren't set to get bleached. Along with that, the closet with the shrine in it got demolished...oh I should mention that they took the shrine stuff out for us.., the drywall got installed in the first room, the walls got bleached, and the dirt that got left under the floor from the tsunami got removed.
Today was slower going for us, mostly because there seemed to be a ton of little hoops to jump through in order to be able to do the main projects. I also noticed more time was spent talking while we worked, which slowed us down. I liked it, though, because I enjoy hearing about other people's lives. Wayne, our supervisor, told us a lot about his family, and I really enjoyed learning more about his background. He is one of those guys who you have trouble knowing when he is joking and serious..luckily I have had 3 years of experience with that type of personality because my defensive line coach at NWC is the same way. I describe Wayne as my 'paw' (borrowing off his southern accent) and he has been a great leader this week. He is the type of guy that will do anything for you and truly has your best interests in mind.
While I'm at it, I just want to say that I was blessed with THE BEST team. They are all awesome people who love to have fun and joke around by lovingly bashing each other...anyone that knows me knows "lovingly bashing" is right up my alley. On the ride home I was taking in all the memories I could, and I just sat and admired how everyone on the team interacted. I thanked God for giving me the best team I could have had. I will get a picture on here when I get back to the states.
So anyway, backtrack to the end of the workday. We got done cleaning up and Okaasan came home from work at 4. Since it was my last day Wayne asked if I wanted to share a special afternoon devotional. I gladly accepted and chose Habbakuk 1:5 as my verse. I talked about how God loves his children, even if bad things happen sometimes. I then told Okaasan that I am going to miss her a lot and that I look forward to her smile every day. When she looked at me and smiled I almost lost it. But I continued that I pray for her every day and it is my greatest hope that she comes to know God..not god. I said that whenever I remember this time, I would always remember her as my okaasan. Now some background to this.. Okaasan was a new word I had literally been practicing all day so that I could call her my okaasan..when I lifted a board I said okaasan, when I cut insulation I said okaasan, you get the picture...so after all that time, this was the moment I could win her heart...aaanndddd I said "akaasan". GAHH!! Everyone laughed because they knew how much I had been practicing, but Daike, our translator fixed it for me and on we went. Ok, back to how my devotional time went. I thanked her for the blessing it was to be able to help on her house. She told me that I need to come back and visit sometime, and she made the comment that I could sleep there...and I just now fully got the effect of that--I just connected it to the joke we had yesterday, except she was serious this time. I told her I really wanted to come back and see them in the future. The boy was standing there as well, and I told him I looked forward to seeing him golfing on tv in a few years. I thanked them and did the traditional couple hundred bows :) and then asked her for a hug..now hugging is typically not done in Japan, but Okaasan smiled and graciously gave one. After that we loaded into the van, nicknamed "the fridge", and headed back to the base.
We had a great supper and then had a great 30 minute worship time. Afterwards I got pictures with a bunch of the great people I met at the Tome base, and then just enjoyed my last night here.
I would give anything to be able to stay here longer, but I know I can't. I have really enjoyed my time here, and hope to someday return to Tome and Ishinomaki. Tomorrow I head down to Tokyo by Shinkansen (bullet train) and will get to see the countryside. But that is tomorrows blog. Thanks for your continued thoughts and prayers.
Specific prayer requests:
- Okaasan (mrs. Abe-san) and the rest of the Abe family
- Takahashi-san..I haven't talked about him but he is involved with Samaritan's purse and loves being around us..he loves the Bible's teachings and what we live for, but he has not made that commitment. He is a fun guy who is always smiling. I will get a pic of him up too when I get back.
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