I wonder what a pickled plum tastes like….

Oh! Like that!

At my Japanese tutor’s home, two of the girls were able to try pickled plums and pickled onions. They said afterward that they really weren’t that bad! Doesn’t her face make YOU want to try one? 🙂

Initiative time!

Part of GRIT involves learning how people work together, as well as how different personalities help or hinder a team effort. Realizing our differences can help us learn about ourselves and others, and how to get along in the best possible way. Various “initiatives” are used throughout the summer.

This year we are meeting on several Friday evenings with Japanese English students for conversation practice. Though not a big group, these students worked hard to communicate in English! Some of the GRIT students found it difficult to word sentences without using slang, idioms, or big words. New friends are always good things to make!

Friday night cafe in Ozu Town

This week, we begin English conversation times with different groups of people.

This is the tiny Gingira shop!

The restaurant is located in an interesting complex of many small shops.

Mingling!

This is their “Dude!” pose.

Wednesday, half the group met at a tiny restaurant downtown to join my regularly scheduled English time. (The other half of the group got to shop and explore a famous shopping area!)

This was our “Gingira” group, named after the restaurant.

The GRITers were able to teach popular slang and phrases to the Japanese in attendance, and the Japanese taught them slang and phrases young people in Japan use. It was a lot of fun!

On Thursday (today), we visited English Cafe, held at the home of a Japanese woman who encourages her friends to use their English each week. I’ve been a part of this group for about 5 years, and they seemed to enjoy talking to new people in English.

On Friday, we plan to host a new English conversation time at a town nearby, inviting specifically the students learning English from our friend Blake. This should be a great chance to meet new people and spread our influence and God’s love as opportunities arise.

As always, the GRIT team helps prepare meals during the summer. Here we see one slaving away to remove delicious citrus fruit from their skins. They are all doing a wonderful job!

Slicing and dicing a very juicy fruit!

The Smith Family

Sunday was a busy day for us. The Smith family put on an hour-long concert at a local coffee shop at 2:00 p.m. The GRIT team joined us to sing one number, and Amanda R. played a piano solo. The GRIT team will also give a concert at this same location in a couple weeks. Afterward, the team had a chance to mingle with the 15 or so people in attendance, most of whom spoke no English. I was pleased at the efforts made in spite of that!

Chloe sang an original song for the first time

After tearing down sound equipment and instruments, we hurried to our Sunday evening Bible study in downtown Kumamoto City. We studied through the first chapter of James, then enjoyed a meal with each other. One of our faithful attenders and helpers in the ministry made a birthday cake for Amanda G. who had a birthday recently.

Today (Tuesday), the team drove 2 hours away to do some general groundskeeping at a camp. The team will return to this camp to lead games during a children’s event in the next week or so.

It’s been a busy start to our GRIT program! We appreciate your prayers. This year’s GRIT team is the youngest we’ve ever had (average age is 19). For most of them, this is the first real trip they’ve ever taken, the first time for a lot of different things. But we pray that they will take back home with them a new desire to serve God more fully than ever before.

Susan isn’t here with her camera or I would add a picture, the GRITers did a great job at Camp Shalom this week! They tore out an old deck, cleaned the camp inside and out (found two mice, one live and one dead, and a dead bird in the closets, fun, fun, fun!), and in general began the process of preparing camp for kid’s camp and teen camp later this summer.

We also studied the first lessons on Devo prep and basic Christian leadership. We are going to have a great time learning together this summer!

As I write this, Norman is most likely on his way back from the Fukuoka airport with four college-agers with severe jet lag! It won’t be getting better for them in the next few days.

They will arrive at our home around 10:30 p.m. (Japan time) after traveling for about 24 hours. Then we get to leave the house at 7:30 a.m. to travel to an ABWE field council meeting 2 1/2 hours away. Following fellowship time over a meal with our co-workers, our family and our “new” family members will drive about an hour to the ABWE camp, where we’ll stay four nights. There are many cleaning projects to do there in preparation for camping season this year. The major project will be tearing up rotten boards of the deck around the fire pit, and possibly replacing them with stained, new boards. In and amongst all of the activity, Norman will be leading the young people in daily discipleship and leadership sessions, encouraging them to make strides in their relationship with the Savior and reach out to others in like manner.

Our children are excited about traveling to camp. They have fond memories of the place, especially building tunnel forts with futons in the huge second floor room! I reminded them that they could help clean, too, but Melodie assured me they’d be happy to stay out of the way playing upstairs!

Please keep us all in your prayers as GRIT begins for another year. The dates of God’s Recruits In Training this year are May 19-June 29. We hope to bring God’s Name glory in all that we do.