Love and Cheese...

I got an ad today for a great deal! $27 Large Delivery Pizza from Dominos... and the banner across the ad said exactly that: Love and Cheese. That better be an amazing, true-love producing King-Kong size pizza for $27.

As is typical in my lifestyle lately, I've had a marathon last 48 hours. Since last writing, on Wednesday morning, it took a lot of persuasion to convince me that getting up that morning was God's will for my life. The fact that I only had an hour to get ready for the day and be somewhere was the final deciding factor.

Against the idea of getting up was the fact that I felt like I hadn't slept at all and that it was pouring rain outside... not just the constant, soaking drizzle that had been there the whole day before, but all out rain storm. I managed to drag myself out of bed though.

I know, I should receive immediate sainthood.

Anyway. We had self-study Japanese class for two hours, where I seriously studied some kanji. It might be easier if there was only one reading for each kanji... but the thing is, when you learn it, you need to learn the stroke order of it, what it means in English (a variety of meaning sometimes), and also, the different ways it can be pronounced depending on how it's used.

I'm actually not complaining, but I do apologize if you're unhappy about reading this... because in a few weeks, you're going to start hearing a lot of this kind of stuff about the language.

But you'll also get to read a lot of my mess ups in Japanese... saying one thing instead of another.

So, anyway, then we had prayer and went to Senshu Univ. to do outreach... we didn't get a whole lot done... so no exciting stories... but some days are like that. You just keep pressing on and praying and trusting that God will do something.

Speaking of prayer, Debbie mentioned on Tuesday that she noted that ever since we started prayer walking Machida each week, that that Saturday we've had someone come off the streets to Fuse, that we had met that very day. Last Friday, you know, we had the 12 hour prayer thing, and on Saturday we had 2 people come off the streets.

So, prayer is powerful!

After Senshu, I took Sally back to my house to grab some stuff and we set off to do some quick errands and then go to the church... I made it back 15 minutes before Japanese class started, where one of the guys taught us the difference between particles in Japanese.

An hour+ later, we got out, and left to go to a Bible study. It was the last evening in the session, and we actually finished in good time... by 9pm. When we got back, I helped Christine with some stuff to be mentioned later and then made some truffles-- for 2 reasons.

First, today (now Thursday... ok, Friday, by the time I'm writing this actually) was Mark and Yuiko's 5th anniversary, and she really likes mint. Second, I'm making dinner for our team meal on Friday, and so this would serve as a dessert too.

Okay, so we had originally planned on going to the famous fish market called Tsukiji, and made all kinds of plans of spending the night, but the fish market took a break for some odd reason, and there was no auction. So, we didn't have to get up at 5am as planned, but that's good, considering we didn't go to bed until 2am.

However, the alarm did go off at 6:45. We had breakfast together, which was really nice, and then went to Sagamiono to drop off Mark and Yuiko's "love basket"... that had popcorn, a picture, chocolates and a card in it.

It dawned a GORGEOUS day. Ridiculously beautiful. BUT... out of nowhere, we got to Sagamiono and it started to rain. Hannah had had a dream the night before that we were on the way and we met Mark and Yuiko in the street. So, I just said a one liner, Lord, please do not let Mark and Yuiko leave yet.

We finally made it to Mark and Yuiko's apt., and I do mean finally because we tried a number of side streets until we found THE ONE that leads to their street... all along the way laughing and having fun. We met Kengo at Sagamiono, who was celebrating his one year of being a Christian today too! We were really excited about that, and I had a great time getting to know him today, since a lot of the others know him.

Anyway, we stopped to get some umbrellas again (at the dollar store, and we shared them), but... the wind was too strong and blew them inside out again. Actually, to two of us, it did it at the same moment! We got some good laughs.

So, we get to Mark and Yuiko's house and drop the basket and ring the doorbell, and wait for them. Yuiko was thinking about not opening the door because salesmen had been coming by, but Hannah nudged Kengo, who said something-- who knows what, in Japanese, and she answered the door (we were hiding now)... and they were really surprised and blessed.

As it turns out, we found out that they were ready to leave when all of a sudden it started raining and they were only waiting for it to stop and get a few things together before they left. Hmm... now isn't that amazing? By the way, it had been clear for only a few minutes when we dropped the basket off and it didn't rain anymore.

Stupid umbrellas. :)

I'll skip a lot of the details of the rest of the day and just let you know that I took a quick nap when I finally got home mid-afternoon and then ran to do more stuff this evening. Now, it's Friday morning, and I'm hoping to get to bed soon after I finish one more thing.

I knew though, that I wouldn't have time to post tomorrow, and so, I wanted to let you know about our fantastic activities today.

Oh, and the reason why we didn't do a whole lot of activities today is that it's a holiday here in Japan. It's Shoowa day, a day to reflect on the events of the Shoowa period. It also marks the start of Golden week, which is next week... which of course, falls perfectly to meet our needs/activities... to be discussed lately. Anyway, if you want, google Golden week/holidays in Japan and you'll find out what this is all about.

That's what I did anyway. :)

So, I'll post pictures soon that you'll enjoy, especially per wishes of Vonda... I think God may have heard you? :).... but yes, pics will be posted. We'll all be happy, but... I need to get to bed. Catch ya'll later!!