A quick recap of the major events of the last couple of weeks.
The two weeks of summer vacation for the missionary group in Okayama began on the 13th with a week-long trip to Karuizawa in the mountains of central Japan for Annual Conference. AC is a gathering of all the TEAM missionaries in the Japan field for the purpose of hearing presentations from TEAM Japan’s leadership and voting on business items. Not being eligible to vote (eligibility depends on your length of service) I skipped the afternoon business sessions to hang out with the high schoolers. Interestingly, though, I was ready to go back to Okayama after a couple of days in Karuizawa—not that Karuizawa isn’t a fun place to be, but I’ve been feeling more and more like Okayama is my home now. So by the end of the week I was actually looking forward to the 11-hour drive back to Okayama.
The end of vacation was capped by a very busy weekend. On Saturday we had our day-long Summer Family Camp in Ushimado with an attendance of about 40. After an afternoon of games on the beach we had a barbeque and a campfire in the evening. Yujin and I were the emcees for the campfire time (having been asked to take that role just six days earlier). I think it went well, though—we picked four songs and Yujin came up with a couple of games that everyone seemed to enjoy.
Sunday, aside from having the normal business that Sundays have, saw Street Live after Praise Night. About 8 or so from the church gathered in front of the Takashimaya department store to sing praise songs in front of a busy section of sidewalk. No, this isn’t an unusual thing—there’s usually several different groups or soloists playing in the area around the east exit of the station on any given night. We were there for about an hour and a half—a few people stopped to listen for a while, and almost everyone at least turned to look. (Perhaps the blond-hair factor helped with that a little.) Afterwards Matt hung around for a bit to ad lib with a couple of different guitarists (I interpreted). That sort of thing could really become a good way to meet people interested in music and bring them to church, say for Music Cafe or Praise Night. If only we had some fliers to hand out… /scribbles a note on the todo list