Tuesday, July 18, 2006

A three-fold utopian dream

OK, I know I never see rain at home, but come on! For three straight days it has been pouring down. Not a nice little drizzle either, but a horrendous downpour. It has been a constant stream of wetness, and it is making me sad. My party is tomorrow, and it was suppose to be outside, so it looks like that option will be cut. Oh well, we will still have fun. Anyways, Monday was a great day. It was Ocean Day, and I am sure that no one was out at the ocean. Big surprise huh? Step outside and you could get soaked. Since we walk everywhere, it is a problem keeping our clothes dry. We have umbrellas, but they do not get the job done. Sorry, I got way off topic. Where was I....oh yes Monday. Anyways, I ran out of money so I had to go to the post office and use the ATM there. I got out like 10,000 yen, which is like 93 dollars. I hope that will last me the rest of the trip, but probably not. Tyler and I were hungry so we went to our favorite place-7-11! Who-hoo. Yeah, that`s right, in the pouring rain! The guys came back from lunch with the Okabe`s and we all just hung out at the church. We were getting our postcards written, which were suppose to be in the mail last week, whoops! We were all getting a little bit of cabin fever, so we decided to run to Hitachi. Our train left at 4:46. We went to the 100 yen store and I bought a whole lot of souvenirs. I hope everybody likes chopsticks because I bought like 20 pair. I`m sure that I forgot gifts for some people, so I am sorry in advance. We were all starving so we ate at our second favorite place-McDonalds. Hey, it`s cheap, and pretty good! We were all tired so we hopped on the 6:58 train and headed back home. First of all while in Hitachi (which is about the size of Lubbock) we ran into some of our readers. That was kinda cool. Next, we were inside of this huge mall and we ran into Judith. Small world huh? Then, on the train home we ran into this girl from Oklahoma Christian that is studying at Ibaraki Christian and goes to Taga church. Wow. What a day of "run-ins" with people we knew. How cool was that? Being in Japan for only 4 weeks and running into all these people. Awesome. We walked back to the church, in the pouring rain, and just stayed there for a while. The guys caught the 9:09 train home, so Tyler and I watched a movie and then went to sleep.
Today, I woke up to a now familiar sound-beating rain. I took a shower and got ready for my day. It was pretty busy, 6 readers in all. The one good thing about the rain is that it has cooled off tremendously. Whew, what a relief. The day started off well. I had my 10:00 reader, and then I went to the bank with Tyrel. Our LST funds were dry, so Tyrel went and cashed some travelers checks. We then got back to the church and it was around noon, so we all went to Woody`s again and got some wonderful Italian food. The LST fairy showed up and paid for lunch. Aw, how sweet! I then had a 2:00 reader, and I got some good results from her. She has been really shy, but today she opened up, and asked a lot of questions. What a breath of fresh air. She was wonderful. I then had a break so I went with Tyler to the stationary store so she could buy some more postcards. My 4:00 reader showed up, and she had two gifts for me. She was the one that took me to buy the ukata, the summer kimono, anyways she brought me an obie, it is the tie that goes around the ukata with thje big bow in the back, and she also brought me some sandles that you wear with the ukata. Wow! How sweet is that? The sandles are the traditional Japanese wooden sandles that are very uncomfortable but you only wear them like once a year. It was so cool to get those gifts from her! she is so sweet, but she hates to read. She just wants to talk. Normally that would be alright, but we are suppose to be reading about Jesus (say it with a southern accent, it is funnier and just sounds cool- JAYSUS! Caitlin knows what I`m talking about). Anyways, she is sweet, but lacks motivation. I then had a break, so I walked to the post office to mail my postcards.
My 6:00 showed up, and she is a young 17 year old girl. She is the granddaughter and daughter of church members here and has just recently been interested in Christianity. She is super shy, but today she really opened up. We were on this one lesson, and it talks about the guy who planted the seeds and some fell on the thorns, the rock, and the side of the road, while the rest grew out in the good land. I asked her what kind of seed she was, and she explained that she was the kind that is one the side of the road. She explained that she believes, but whenever something bad happens the devil makes her not believe. She said that she wants to be the seed on the good land though. She wants to become a Christian but is still hesitant. Can I get an AMEN?? Praise God! Wow. What a statement. I love her and I hope that Christ can come to her and offer her some peace. Pray for her. My next reader I love to death! She is like 25 and as sweet as can be. She likes to read the Bible and has been studying it for like 7 years. She is very open to Christianity. God is really working in these two young girls. My last reader I also love. She is Tomomi and she is a blast. She is also a young girl, and the reason she came to LST was for a homework assignment. She goes to Ibaraki Christian and one of her asignments was to go and visit a church. She happen to come on the day of our info meetings and signed right up for classes. I see God slowly beginning to take light in her and she notices it too. She is trying to fight it, but is not doing a good job. Slowly, the light shines through. We went out to eat tonight and she actually prayed before we ate! How cool is that? Anyways, that was my wonderful day. All four of us are so wiped out, and days like this come around and we rejoice and celebrate. God lifts me up just enough to get me through each day. With the rain and the stress dragging me down, a day like today lifts me up! I thank God for things as small as this. This morning was very hard for me to get up, but I can`t wait until tomorrow! Hope all is great with all of you. I mailed out 20 postcards so most of you should get one. If not, it got lost in the mail and I am sorry. I am putting up pictures on the blogsite as we speak, so enjoy those next! Take care people and have a wonderful day as I am about to go to sleep.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Puh-raise Gawd for vittory!

Anonymous said...

Hey Ladybug,
You sound like you had a great and blessed day. Nanna called this morn and said she had a precious young lady call this morn. I wonder who that was??I have my new e-mail danacw@xanadoo.com I LOVE YOU, my sweet precious

love,
mom

Anonymous said...

jordan,aaagggghhhhh! i just lost my letter!! i'm going to learn not to use pappaw's laptop. i lose my writing a lot when i do. i'll just list what i said:
1.r u coming back with an asian accent
2.r u leaving ur readers with a texas twang?
3.so proud of u and ur team-know u've grown so much
4.u've imparted so much to ur readers and they to you
5. will see u in a little over a week-so excited!!!
6.i love you sweetie,
7.nanna
d so much to them and they to u

Anonymous said...

don't pay any attention to the last line of my post!! i lose it when i preview so i didn't this time. sorry
love u much,
nanna