夏 has arrived!

That's right, everyone. Summer has arrived, and it's HOT! :) Perputual stickiness is here. But, I am happy to see the sun, and to have blue blue skies. (left: Lizzie leads the band when suddenly called to at the spur of the moment... good job!)

Unfortunately coinciding with the arrival of natsu (summer), has been the arrival of bugs. I don't know what that's about, but I've been vacuuming up ants for a few days now, and I've seen the giant cockroach, twice. The first time I just stood there for a full minute afterward with a horrified look on my face as it ran into the corner of the window and then out of the house.

The second time I gave out a little yelp and then was like.... why do you exist?!?

And, I've heard that the flying rumors are true.

Last Friday I had a bit of a rough start to my day, which kinda was the story of the day and I don't want to waste your time here by complaining. But let's say that since I felt compelled to talk about joy when comes my time to speak in two weeks, my joy has been a bit challenged.

Finances have also been a bit challenged, which is one of the reasons why my early Friday morning got such a rude awakening. Anyway, I keep telling myself that God is aware of this, and that afterall, He sent me here, and He will provide.

Saturday was a good day. I had Stephanie spend the night at my house after Street Band on Friday night. Oh- and by the way, I ran into a girl as we were leaving street band on Friday that I had met about a month or so ago and made a good connection with. She had been on my mind recently, and she ran up to me and was like, oh my gosh! Do you remember me?!? I was so surprised!! So, I really feel God is connecting us again and that He wants to do something, so I'm planning on staying more in contact that we've already been.

Back to Saturday. Stephanie, who grew up in Japan, is helping us until August. We had a good prayer time on Saturday morning, preparing for the FUSE, and then we headed out. Once again, Yuiko suffered from sickness, so, please keep her in your prayers. She actually had to leave the stage after the first song. I saw her starting to gag during the song, so I ran back to get some water from the bar, but then she was trying to communicate with another girl who does singing or with one of the band members, but they weren't getting it... so she just left the stage at the start of the next song.

But, we have a great team. Stephanie, though she's never sung for FUSE before, jumped up on stage and took over. Since she speaks Japanese, she could do it, and after our ice breaker, Lizzie, who takes turns leading with Yuiko, got up and did the last 3 songs. So, it was once again a good example of team work from everyone.

Mark's message was god-- on Anpanman, a famous character here in Japan, and how Anpanman is helpful and goes around to people who aren't well, and gives them a piece of his head (he is a bread head), and his saying is that he is a hundred times full of life. Anyway, his way of getting refilled again is by going back to Uncle Jam who mkes him a new head. So, you can see the parallels. It was a good message about being filled with the life of Jesus, and what being filled is also not about (not based on study or on doing good works, etc.). (here is Mark giving the message)

Afterward, we went to the cafe where we fellowship afterward. We all started to head out around, and Mark, Joe and I had to go to a party at the Y, where we work teaching English. It was an international party, and so I met people from the Philippines, Ghana, Germany, fellow Americans, and of course, Japanese. It was a fun night, and I made it home around 10, a bit tired and with sore feet after a poor choice of flat sandals I decided to wear. (Here is Baki, really enjoying his noodles.)

Sunday morning I met for lifegroup with Yuiko and then from there I met a group of us who were planning on going to Jesus Lifehouse. It was a good visit there, and the message was good. It was based off of the story of the feeding of the 5000, but from the perspective of the little boy... who was called Bento-boy (bento being a lunch, usually bought from a convenient mart)... so it was amusing with Anpanman for Saturday and Bento-boy on Sunday.

Afterward, we took Mike out to see a little more of downtown and famous areas of Tokyo, since he hasn't had much of an opportunity to see Japan. We took him to a big shrine place, and down through Harajuku and Shibuya. I came back to do lifegroup with Saki, and came home super tired. (Here the guys pose before a statue of the dog in Shibuya)