Ward Wanderings

Saying goodbye

We took Teresa to the bus that goes to the Airport and said our goodbyes. Her flights are from Kansai to Korea, then to San Francisco, Finally getting to Houston at midnight Wednesday morning. It has been such a blessing to have her here this summer. She was a big help to us and the church by playing cello every service and doing the chalk art drawing for the children's meetings here and in Kato City. Teresa starts her 8th year teaching in Katy at the end of the month. :-)

July 28th Sunday Services

Some of the special music during the morning service today.

Church Summer Festival

We had a kids' game day this morning. Four boys and their parents came. First we started with a curling games where they rolled a cup with a golf ball under it down the table to the target. Then there was a foam ball shooting target which was not that easy to knock over the various faces. Third was tossing a bean bag through a hole. Last was a Japanese water balloon game. It was very wet. Then Henry told the story of the three Hebrew guys thrown in the furnace while Teresa drew black-light chalk art of the story. She is really good, IMHO.

Mr. Mawatari giving the kids instructions and below demonstrating the foam ball shooter.

Little Yuri tried throwing the rice bags in the hole

This water balloon game is not like any in the USA. The object is to pick up a rubberband string attached to a balloon using a hook with a paper string attached. If it gets wet, the hook can't catch the balloon.

You can just barely see the white outline of Jesus in the furnace with the three Hebrews (under the black light)

After these activities everyone had hot dog and chips for lunch. We had passed out 5,000 flyers last week for this event and no new kids came.

July 7, 2019 and other things

Henry and Teresa played a piano/cello duet by Francis Havergal: Like a River Glorious

The lilies are blooming!

Birthday Sunday for July. Both Fukamoto-san and Komi-san (in red) have birthdays on July 6th. We celebrate with cupcakes :-)

Beautiful July sunset

Looks sorta like a whale, but is a yellow zucchini from our garden

This Asian Longhorn Beetle was sitting ever so nicely on our back deck, waiting for somebody to take its picture. So I obliged.

Kato building dedication and construction photos

We had a dedication service at Kato-shi on June 23. Most of our church people drove up there for the afternoon service.

Group photo of those who attended. Teresa is here until August 6, and Kyle, on Henry's left, is here for 8 weeks as an intern. He wants to be a missionary in Japan.

A hymn we sang for the first service in the Kato building.

A few of the early construction days. Stuff everywhere! Wallpaper and unneeded walls were torn down.

The kitchen sink was moved upstairs where we will have a small area to prepare meals. The shower room is on the other side of the wall there. A plumber has been hired to do that work.

This is Kyle downstairs working on something the first day or two. Below he is upstairs sweeping before the sink got moved. He also helped move a "new" piano upstairs until the room is finished downstairs.

This is James Scott and Saeki-sensei helping with wallpaper removed and other stuff. They are a big help.

New Church plant in Kato City.

This is the front of the building, two stories with about 500 square meters on each floor. Barely enough room to walk around it. We will be able to park across the street in the other direction at a Hyogo-prefecture building. It sits on a busy corner of the main road 175 going through Hyogo prefecture. It's located in the business district. There's two electronic stores close by, a Daiso, an Aeon mall, McDonald's across the street out back, a gas station and a convenience store.

This is the side facing the street at the stoplight

The view from McDonald's across the main road. There will be a sign put on the back of the building

These are the front doors--we will probably use the double doors on the right for the main entrance.

The large first floor. The pulpit will probably be in the corner there.

This is one room upstairs where children will meet. The two doors are a toilet and a closet

This room will be Mr. Fukamoto's apartment on the second floor. It has a shower room to the right in the below photo.

This is where the kitchen sink used to be. It got put upstairs. A toilet room will be installed to the left.

This is the room with most of the wall paper removed and the sticky window covering removed. Across the street is the realtor's office.

The sink unit was moved upstairs. There will be cabinets and a fridge eventually put in here.

Before and after photos of the "back yard" which really ends at the fence on the left. That ditch is rather deep and can run swiftly after it rains.

Coca Cola and Charlotte

We met Lucette Helotie in Charlotte today and spent and hour talking. We last met them when they lived in Florida in 2010. It was really nice to catch up.