Seven Independent Baptist Japanese churches joined together for the annual Youth Camp for these three days. This year the camp grounds were located in Tanbata area of Hyogo prefecture. It was about an hour's drive northeast from our church. It is a beautiful camp area in the mountains with running water going through it. The local farmers use it for irrigation so we were admonished not to throw anything in the streams. The giant riverbed, however, was dried up. Maybe in the summer it runs.
The grounds itself have a small pond and a flock of ducks (or is it a gaggle?) and the lone mascot--a wild boar in a cage. He looked so sad being cooped up in a cement-floor cage...no dirt around at all.
A very bored boar.This video was actually the last day of camp. The brothers sang the theme song Press On! with the teens from Senri New Town Baptist Church in Osaka.
The Herbster Trio, Matthew, Mark and Mike, were the camp speakers; each spoke twice and challenged hearts every time. Each speaker emphasized the importance of serving God when you are young and letting God use you to impact or influence the people around you. Good, solid, Bible preaching. Several teens made decisions to follow Christ and put Him first. On the last day, five of boys indicated they were called to be preachers. They range in age from 17 to 25 and one will be starting Bible college in a couple of weeks. Let us pray this is the start of a revival here in Japan.
The group activities were a blast! We first played volleyball with a huge ball and it was so fun. It did hurt the wrists the only time I got to hit it. The kids loved it. We had a Blue Team headed by Mark and the Red Team headed by Mike. The Blue Team won that contest.
Big Ball Volleyball
We next played a game called Tagalot. One team is sitting back-to-back in chairs spaced about 2-3 feet apart down a long line. The other team is to run between the chairs trying not to get tagged by a baton the sitting team uses. The baton holder cannot go through the chairs buy has to hand it to someone seated and then take his/her place. The new baton holder tries to tag the runner and it goes until that happens. It was tons of fun and very tiring. The Red Team won that one.
TagalotThe second day after the morning service we went to the ball field and played Three Ball Baseball. The object is that three members at a time of the batting throw or kick a ball to the outfield. Then they run the bases trying to make it to home plate before all three balls are thrown to three people from the opposing team and put into a bucket near home plate. If the runners stop at second and third they get points and 5 points for making it home; no points for standing on first base. The Blue Team one that one.
Three Ball Baseball After the evening service there was a Bible Quiz game of sorts. The questions were all about the messages the Herbsters preached. The first one to stand got to answer the question and if it was correct, they got to play a computer game called Sorry, Pig! The winner could choose different colored circles and if what was behind it was an animal with a number, they got points, or double or triple points. They could choose to stop or try again. The animals kept moving around so it was not certain where the Sorry, Pig was. If you got that, you lost all your points. The Red team won that one.
The last game of camp was dodge ball.
The Red Team won Dodge Ball. Actually this photo is from the Red side looking at the Blue Team. We appreciate the Herbster Trio taking time out of their schedules to minister to us here in Japan. They were a blessing to everyone; their singing was superb and harmony was great. They have such a happy, fun, positive attitude about Christ and life in general that we hope it is contagious to the Japanese who tend to take a more serious and fatalistic approach to life. We pray God will use their time here in a great way so that the church can see an increase for God's Glory. Thank you for coming!
These two videos are of the Herbster brothers singing in Japanese. They did a good job!
Mike and Mark singing Be Not Afraid in Japanese.
This next one is the Herbsters with Isaiah on the left and Elijah Ogawa on the right singing It Is Enough.
