6/30: Sunday - Ishinomaki and Onagawa

Today is Sunday, so our team had the chance to visit two different churches.  Mike and Gordon went to J-Cafe, a new Calvary Chapel church plant in the Watanoha neighborhood of Ishinomaki, an area that was completely devastated.  Meanwhile, Sylvia and I went with Gilberts to the well-established Ishinomaki Baptist Church in the Hebita section of Ishinomaki, an area that was untouched by the tsunami.  They said their service was informal with about a dozen people there, while ours was more traditional and had around 15 people there.  However, Pastor Kaneya of IBC is a wonderful guy with a terrific message, and exhibited lots of grace and joy.  Wish more pastors were like him.  

We grabbed some obento lunches, and headed out to a temporary housing site at an elementary school in Onagawa.  Again we set up the coffee van, and this time Kathrine came along to do kids face painting.  For a while, nobody showed up, then little by little, people came to enjoy the free coffee.  Andy asked us to sing, so we pulled out the hats and did some more sing-along songs.  Again, happy faces and lots of joy.  We included the Japanese version of song that curiously is quite well-known here, What A Friend We Have In Jesus. After we finished singing, I noticed a lady singing that song to herself - wow.  

Andy connecting with temporary housing neighbors

Kathrine entrancing kids with face/hand painting... and temporary tattoos!

Everyone is loving it!

Proud of the result

Chatting with Suzuki-san, a key leader in Onagawa

More sing-along songs

Kathrine joined us on Amazing Grace

The lady next to Sylvia told her about losing 3 neighbors in the disaster

 By this time, quite a crowd had gathered, and Andy had promised to do bingo with them, so we launched into that.  What fun for everyone, and again you could see the effectiveness of the strategy to boost morale and build relationships.  It's quite amazing.

We came home for a Japanese BBQ supper at Gilberts house.  It's similar to American BBQ, but instead of hamburgers, etc., it's small slices of beef, chunks of chicken, and loads of sliced vegetables.  All of us (Gilberts crew plus our 4) were there, and we finished the day sitting in a big circle talking about the week past and the the week to come.  Nice.