Monday, January 26, 2009

day 7

I'm sorry I've been so bad about posting a day-by-day of my trip, but this week it is on my "things to do" list so hopefully I will have shared all 10 days by Friday.
[day 7] A-Z
Our last small group meeting started like all the previous days before, we read from Matthew asked some foundational questions, prayed and sang together. We had divided into 2 groups, women and men, each morning before we prayed and while we were still in our groups Ben gave us each a sheet of paper and wanted us to think of a single word of praise in English for each letter of the alphabet. It was so precious to listen to the women in my group say Japanese and Korean words then smile at themselves when they realized they were speaking their native tongue. Then as we came back together Myoung-Seok was sharing about how praise to God is absent in our lives when we are disconnected from him. She paused, looked down at her Bible and then a smile began to peek from the corners of her mouth and she said, "Antennas never be folded." Translation: We should always be ready to hear from him because when we are in tune with the Spirit how could praise cease to flow from our lives? It was one of my favorite moments of the whole trip.
Needless to say our day with the kids was hilarious again. Arata and I played "parking garage" for 2 hours straight. Yep, we drove the cars into the parking garage [aka: blocks in a square] and backed them out in an orderly fashion. Over and over. Sometimes things would get a little crazy and the cars would go in backwards. He had a story to go along with all his cars. He would talk to me about where they were coming from or where they needed to go. It was great. Arata was the child I bonded with the most throughout the week. One thing we both share: we like for things to be in order. I always considered myself a pretty organized person till I met my buddy Arata, he likes everything organized, from cars to fruit snacks. Here's some photo evidence:

For lunch that day we had a little surprise from Ms. Sharon in the form of a McDonald's cheeseburger and fries. I honestly can't tell you the last time that I ate a McDonald's cheeseburger but I enjoyed the little taste of home. It's kind of sad that greasy burgers remind me of America, but it did.

The rest of the day went really well. I was going through my ABCs almost all day.

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