Ishinomaki 2nd time
08.08
Woke up early. Tried to be at church at 7.30am…. well, it was maybe 7.40am, but a lot of people came after that ;D
We took off in one bus with around 45 people inside.
We were praying for the prefectures that we were inside (Tokyo, Saitama, Ibaraki, Gunma, Tochigi, Fukushima and Miyagi). I was sitting together with Kanako and got to know her more (I was talking with her on Friday and Saturday only a little). Then we arrived at some onsen hotel on a hill/mountain somewhere on the countryside, around 1 hour away from Ishinomaki (called Kashimadai….I guess). Actually the onsen there stopped after the earthquake and the hotel was quite damaged from it as well… but the people there rebuilt some parts of it and we could use it (there was a open bath room but no onsen anymore).
We had some time to get to our rooms (one room for the boys, two rooms for the girls, separated to high school and college girls, everyone had a futon set). After sitting on the bus for around 7 hours…one feels kinda exhausted x.x (we had a lunch break of course but still…)
We ate dinner and then had worship and small group. Chris was talking about loving Ishinomaki, the people in that city and people in general.
After that one day I kinda knew most of the girls… of course especially the college girls. Everyone was soooo niiiice!! And I mostly (80%?) was talking in Japanese hahaha (such a good practice, the whole week. The rest 20% was in English I guess xD).
Then time for bath, time to talk with the girls in our rooms (or outside…but I kinda preferred in our room) and bedtime…around 12pm :D
08.09
Getting up around 6.30am… worship at 7.30am and trying to leave the hotel at 8.30am, eating breakfast inside the bus. It’s great to start the day with worshiping God,
I was in the team that did “work” around Nakazato’s houses (the same place I was in June). We separated trash/cleaned up…well the girls did. The guys did more hard work ^^; Some of the girls did gardening work though. At the end we all pulled out weed around the houses. Quite a lot.
It was really warm, much sunshine…so without some breaks to rest in the cool house and drink something…. it’s impossible!
I had some good talk with the girls ^.^
After that we went back to the bus, had bento lunch on the way to our hotel. At the hotel we had some free time (which I really needed because I had a little headache).
Then it was time to meet for choir lesson. We learned the song “Live for you”. After one hour practice, we had dinner and worship & small group. Chris explained that we aren’t able to love people on our own.
Bath time and room time and sleep.
08.10
Got up around 6.30 again, same as the day before, worship, breakfast in the bus. Then we (my group) went to Nakazato’s house again. This time we didn’t have to ‘work’ but we went around, gave flowers as presents and invited for the festival.
It sounds easy… but it wasn’t. Most of the houses were actually empty. And sometimes people weren’t there or didn’t want to open the door. I went with Mizuki and Mary. We gave flowers to a woman and her mother, they were happy : )
Then we went to a house which was actually a café by volunteers (from a university in Tokyo). We gave them flowers of course and talked a little with them. Since there aren’t many shops in that area again (well it’s mostly destroyed), they made this café. Later we went to a house with some older man. His wife was just getting cared for by a nurse. We talked with him… we went to the backside of the house/garden. There was still a car in the garden that wasn’t been taken out yet. And we saw the apartment of them…they were using mostly one rom. The air con isn’t working anymore…and he showed us the pictures that he ‘lost’ (as in, the color was all over the page and such). We talked a little more…he said that they won’t repair the house because there will be made a street at that place sooner or later anyway (this was actually new to me O.O)…. so sad… we then prayed for him and his wife and left.
We went to some more houses. At one house we were rejected….the man was kinda scary… but some other houses, the women were so happy because they loved flowers ^.^
We did some breaks in between because it was hoooot and we needed some drinks ^^;;
At noon we went to the bus, got our lunch and went to the hotel.
There it was the same, little free time, choir time, dinner, worship/message, small group, bath time and talk in the rooms.
As our time with the small group got longer and longer, the bath time got shorter and shorter ><
08.11
Morning, same as always. Then we went to Ishinomaki. Today my group went to the place where the festival would be. We invited people who lived around there and gave them flowers as well. We were able to pray with three of the people who opened the door for us, we prayed outside for those who didn’t want to talk much or weren’t there…
The area where we were wasn’t thaaat destroyed but the way from the bus to that place showed some destruction….
After that we had some time to eat lunch in a supermarket at some other part of the city and then we went to a part which was really destroyed and had the “ganbarou Ishinomaki” sign (I went there in June too). The area didn’t look much different from before…but I mean, what should they do there except ‘clean up’…
We prayed in groups for the city and its people.
Then we went back to the hostel, didn’t have much free time (because we went to that place) and had the choir, dinner, worship, small group, bath time thing xD
On the day Natsuki came with someone else from TBC :D Because of work she couldn’t attend the first days…
08.12
In the morning we had breakfast at the hotel, then we had morning worship and went on the bus. We drove to the place for the festival, bought lunch in the konbini there and started preparing for the festival. I helped with the massage part and the talk place (?) part (sofa and a table with sweets and such, to sit down and just talk ^^). Outside they had hot dogs, cotton candy, popcorn, water games for kids (and normal games) and such.
Several people came and I got to massage like 5 people or so ^^ They appreciated it : )
In the evening we had the concert. Well, the worship band had. The choir only sang one song…as a choir. Of course we sang every other song too, and jumped and such!! It was such a great atmosphere :3
At the beginning of the concert there were most of the people who came and stayed… but throughout the concert people left :/ But those who stayed REALLY enjoyed the concert and that’s important, right?!
After that we cleaned up…and went back… my last time in Ishinomaki (?)…
The bath time was short again lol
Then, because one was supposed to be able to see stars in the night, Moe-chan wanted to stay up and watch them outside… but there were too many clouds >< We still had a good time together but went to bed too late lol
08.13
Eating breakfast in the lobby again, packing everything to the bus/truck and then last worship…
Then we went home (we thought it would be crowded because of o-bon festival but it wasn’t that bad)….
Thoughts
I’m really glad I went to the camp. Actually I expected we would do more ‘hard work’ (the guys did :P) but it was so nice to see those people who don’t expect to get flowers as present be happy about those flowers we gave them!! And also that some of them opened up to us and talked with us.
The worship time was always SO MUCH FUN! I think that God also had fun together with us!!!! \o/ I also thank Maria, Miki, Pastor Chris, Nori, Connor, Philip and Kosuke for practicing so hard all the time with singing and the instruments!! :D The three singers kinda lost their voice after 1-2 days but God was merciful and at the concert everything was fine!!
The messages from Pastor Chris… well it started with us being supposed to love the people in Ishinomaki. Then it went on that God loved us FIRST (and we didn’t do anything for it… we don’t deserve it at all… but he gives us his love as a PRESENT) and we are able to share love with the love that God gave us.
1.John 4,10 This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. 11 Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.
There is something called sin that hinders us from loving people. You can say that sin is just having a boss of your life that is NOT Jesus, but either yourself or people around you… But Jesus came has a human to live like us and he died for our sins so that even though we are a sinner (and we are NO WAY better than anyone else who doesn’t believe in Jesus Christ) we can come to God and live a life where he is the boss.
I also have to remind myself WHO the boss in my life is sometimes.
Apart from that, completely other part was….a made some new great friends!!! On the bus ride I tried to sit with different people mostly, to get to know more about them. Everyone was sooooooooo niiiiiiice T_T
We also had good talks after the bath time :3
I really miss everyone already… hope to see everyone in church soon again!!! <3
I didn’t have much time to talk with Miki or Maria though…. love both of them so much ///// but those are the ones that I used to talk with most of the time before anyway and I’ll see them a lot again…so that’s okay haha
One week was definitely too short. But I hope we were a little blessing to people in Ishinomaki.
And I really wanna go to Tohoku again!!!!!!! Since I only have baito and no school anymore, let’s see… : )
Woke up early. Tried to be at church at 7.30am…. well, it was maybe 7.40am, but a lot of people came after that ;D
We took off in one bus with around 45 people inside.
We were praying for the prefectures that we were inside (Tokyo, Saitama, Ibaraki, Gunma, Tochigi, Fukushima and Miyagi). I was sitting together with Kanako and got to know her more (I was talking with her on Friday and Saturday only a little). Then we arrived at some onsen hotel on a hill/mountain somewhere on the countryside, around 1 hour away from Ishinomaki (called Kashimadai….I guess). Actually the onsen there stopped after the earthquake and the hotel was quite damaged from it as well… but the people there rebuilt some parts of it and we could use it (there was a open bath room but no onsen anymore).
We had some time to get to our rooms (one room for the boys, two rooms for the girls, separated to high school and college girls, everyone had a futon set). After sitting on the bus for around 7 hours…one feels kinda exhausted x.x (we had a lunch break of course but still…)
We ate dinner and then had worship and small group. Chris was talking about loving Ishinomaki, the people in that city and people in general.
After that one day I kinda knew most of the girls… of course especially the college girls. Everyone was soooo niiiice!! And I mostly (80%?) was talking in Japanese hahaha (such a good practice, the whole week. The rest 20% was in English I guess xD).
Then time for bath, time to talk with the girls in our rooms (or outside…but I kinda preferred in our room) and bedtime…around 12pm :D
08.09
Getting up around 6.30am… worship at 7.30am and trying to leave the hotel at 8.30am, eating breakfast inside the bus. It’s great to start the day with worshiping God,
I was in the team that did “work” around Nakazato’s houses (the same place I was in June). We separated trash/cleaned up…well the girls did. The guys did more hard work ^^; Some of the girls did gardening work though. At the end we all pulled out weed around the houses. Quite a lot.
It was really warm, much sunshine…so without some breaks to rest in the cool house and drink something…. it’s impossible!
I had some good talk with the girls ^.^
After that we went back to the bus, had bento lunch on the way to our hotel. At the hotel we had some free time (which I really needed because I had a little headache).
Then it was time to meet for choir lesson. We learned the song “Live for you”. After one hour practice, we had dinner and worship & small group. Chris explained that we aren’t able to love people on our own.
Bath time and room time and sleep.
08.10
Got up around 6.30 again, same as the day before, worship, breakfast in the bus. Then we (my group) went to Nakazato’s house again. This time we didn’t have to ‘work’ but we went around, gave flowers as presents and invited for the festival.
It sounds easy… but it wasn’t. Most of the houses were actually empty. And sometimes people weren’t there or didn’t want to open the door. I went with Mizuki and Mary. We gave flowers to a woman and her mother, they were happy : )
Then we went to a house which was actually a café by volunteers (from a university in Tokyo). We gave them flowers of course and talked a little with them. Since there aren’t many shops in that area again (well it’s mostly destroyed), they made this café. Later we went to a house with some older man. His wife was just getting cared for by a nurse. We talked with him… we went to the backside of the house/garden. There was still a car in the garden that wasn’t been taken out yet. And we saw the apartment of them…they were using mostly one rom. The air con isn’t working anymore…and he showed us the pictures that he ‘lost’ (as in, the color was all over the page and such). We talked a little more…he said that they won’t repair the house because there will be made a street at that place sooner or later anyway (this was actually new to me O.O)…. so sad… we then prayed for him and his wife and left.
We went to some more houses. At one house we were rejected….the man was kinda scary… but some other houses, the women were so happy because they loved flowers ^.^
We did some breaks in between because it was hoooot and we needed some drinks ^^;;
At noon we went to the bus, got our lunch and went to the hotel.
There it was the same, little free time, choir time, dinner, worship/message, small group, bath time and talk in the rooms.
As our time with the small group got longer and longer, the bath time got shorter and shorter ><
08.11
Morning, same as always. Then we went to Ishinomaki. Today my group went to the place where the festival would be. We invited people who lived around there and gave them flowers as well. We were able to pray with three of the people who opened the door for us, we prayed outside for those who didn’t want to talk much or weren’t there…
The area where we were wasn’t thaaat destroyed but the way from the bus to that place showed some destruction….
After that we had some time to eat lunch in a supermarket at some other part of the city and then we went to a part which was really destroyed and had the “ganbarou Ishinomaki” sign (I went there in June too). The area didn’t look much different from before…but I mean, what should they do there except ‘clean up’…
We prayed in groups for the city and its people.
Then we went back to the hostel, didn’t have much free time (because we went to that place) and had the choir, dinner, worship, small group, bath time thing xD
On the day Natsuki came with someone else from TBC :D Because of work she couldn’t attend the first days…
08.12
In the morning we had breakfast at the hotel, then we had morning worship and went on the bus. We drove to the place for the festival, bought lunch in the konbini there and started preparing for the festival. I helped with the massage part and the talk place (?) part (sofa and a table with sweets and such, to sit down and just talk ^^). Outside they had hot dogs, cotton candy, popcorn, water games for kids (and normal games) and such.
Several people came and I got to massage like 5 people or so ^^ They appreciated it : )
In the evening we had the concert. Well, the worship band had. The choir only sang one song…as a choir. Of course we sang every other song too, and jumped and such!! It was such a great atmosphere :3
At the beginning of the concert there were most of the people who came and stayed… but throughout the concert people left :/ But those who stayed REALLY enjoyed the concert and that’s important, right?!
After that we cleaned up…and went back… my last time in Ishinomaki (?)…
The bath time was short again lol
Then, because one was supposed to be able to see stars in the night, Moe-chan wanted to stay up and watch them outside… but there were too many clouds >< We still had a good time together but went to bed too late lol
08.13
Eating breakfast in the lobby again, packing everything to the bus/truck and then last worship…
Then we went home (we thought it would be crowded because of o-bon festival but it wasn’t that bad)….
Thoughts
I’m really glad I went to the camp. Actually I expected we would do more ‘hard work’ (the guys did :P) but it was so nice to see those people who don’t expect to get flowers as present be happy about those flowers we gave them!! And also that some of them opened up to us and talked with us.
The worship time was always SO MUCH FUN! I think that God also had fun together with us!!!! \o/ I also thank Maria, Miki, Pastor Chris, Nori, Connor, Philip and Kosuke for practicing so hard all the time with singing and the instruments!! :D The three singers kinda lost their voice after 1-2 days but God was merciful and at the concert everything was fine!!
The messages from Pastor Chris… well it started with us being supposed to love the people in Ishinomaki. Then it went on that God loved us FIRST (and we didn’t do anything for it… we don’t deserve it at all… but he gives us his love as a PRESENT) and we are able to share love with the love that God gave us.
1.John 4,10 This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. 11 Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.
There is something called sin that hinders us from loving people. You can say that sin is just having a boss of your life that is NOT Jesus, but either yourself or people around you… But Jesus came has a human to live like us and he died for our sins so that even though we are a sinner (and we are NO WAY better than anyone else who doesn’t believe in Jesus Christ) we can come to God and live a life where he is the boss.
I also have to remind myself WHO the boss in my life is sometimes.
Apart from that, completely other part was….a made some new great friends!!! On the bus ride I tried to sit with different people mostly, to get to know more about them. Everyone was sooooooooo niiiiiiice T_T
We also had good talks after the bath time :3
I really miss everyone already… hope to see everyone in church soon again!!! <3
I didn’t have much time to talk with Miki or Maria though…. love both of them so much ///// but those are the ones that I used to talk with most of the time before anyway and I’ll see them a lot again…so that’s okay haha
One week was definitely too short. But I hope we were a little blessing to people in Ishinomaki.
And I really wanna go to Tohoku again!!!!!!! Since I only have baito and no school anymore, let’s see… : )