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.