A Sunday Blessing

This Sunday we had a wonderful experience at church.  The church at Nishi Kunitachi is not a big church.  There are usually about 6 people from 4 families who come.  Over these past few weeks we have been inviting some of the children from the preschool who don't usually come to church to a children's program.  We have been working on a short musical, half in English and half in Japanese. Several families with elementary and preschool aged children have been coming and having a lot of fun playing and learning together.  We were very happy too when some of the families would stay for the service after the children's program.  We also encouraged the children to invite friends and family to the program, which we had this Sunday. 

What a wonderful surprise we had when we discovered we had set up too few chairs for the service.  In all we had about 30 adults and 15 children at church yesterday.  The children had a great service, and Christy ended with a short message.  After the service a large group of us (over 3o people), including some of the new families, went to a large park for a picnic lunch and a chance to enjoy the beautiful spring weather. It was such a sight to see a big group of us traveling by train to one stop and transfering to another stop and then getting to the large park. There were several strollers and a number of Americans. I now understand why when Japanese people travel they usually go on an organized tour. Getting everyone on the train together was a bit of a challenge. But the result was well worth it.

This was our last Sunday with the church, and it was a wonderful ending to our time here in Japan.