Adagio

Day 3: Wednesday, 24 October 2012

by Jason Tan with Alan Yeo

 

 

Konnichiwa! Today is a good day - the sun is bright and it is like being in an open air-conditioned environment. This was in contrast to the wet weather yesterday that inconvenienced our travels.

One of the highlights of our trip today was visiting the 2 -storey volunteers’ house at Takaido. It is really cosy and nice in a quiet and quaint neighbourhood. The POR team took a slower pace to enjoy the journey and we had our devotion together with the volunteers, Calvin, Kanako and Sing Tee. We were blessed by the devotional sharing of both Jamie Lim and Elsie Yeo. Jamie shared about how God had encouraged her to take up the challenge to share her story at Sendai through the verse – “Be still and know that I am God.” Elsie Yeo shared about her desire to serve God and doing something meaningful in her season of life. For Elsie, coming on the POR trip was a small step that she is taking instead of being a Sunday Christian.

Following the devotion, we practiced singing three Japanese worship songs with coaching from Sing Tee in preparation for the worship at Minato Mirai Samaritan Church. Today, we also had more time to fellowship with the volunteers, Pastor Beng Tian, Joanne and Ezra. Also, along the way to the volunteers’ house, we got to meet Fujiki san, the owner of a yakitori stall in Takaido. He really brightened our day with his friendliness and generosity. We bought some yakitori from him and he was so pleased that he treated each of us to an extra deep fried potato and chicken. It was simply oishii and everyone enjoyed it!

In the afternoon, we took a train to Yokohama and spent some time exploring Chinatown. We had early dinner together with Pastor Yukio and his wife, Kyoko Funatsu before the evening worship service with the homeless community. Whui Xin led the worship service with Sing Tee on the keyboard and the POR team joining in to sing the 3 Japanese songs. Pastor Alan encouraged the people to put their trust in God. How true it is that we need to have hope and faith in God to face the challenges for our tomorrow. Let’s continue to trust God in our lives! The hall was so packed that many of the congregants had to stand behind the hall and some even extended to sitting on the floor right next to the preacher. That’s all for today. Do keep us in prayers as we travel northwards tomorrow for Sendai. Oyasuminasai! (Good Night!)