Hi everyone! We just returned from our annual Asian Access Fall Retreat in Osaka (one hour multi-train ride to Tokyo, then a 3 hour bullet train ride to Osaka).
Now when I mention the word "retreat" to my Southern California friends, they oftentimes will think of a nice area like Arrowhead Springs or some other Retreat Center type place with plush bedding, breakfast buffet, etc. So I must put the word "retreat" in air-quotes. We slept on rented thin futon mattresses on tatami mats, moms and girls in one room, dads and boys in the other. We cooked our own meals, and drank instant coffee (gasp!) every morning. There were 8-inch poisonous centipede type bugs in the women's bath house... twice. The communal shower room was disgusting... I had to go to my happy place in my mind to keep from gagging. It rained most of our 4 nights and 5 days there, and it was cold and damp. Here are a couple photos taken when it wasn't raining...
Camp Nosegawa cabin
Camp Nosegawa playing field
AND I LOVED IT!!!!!! I came home very encouraged, uplifted, and very glad to be a part of Asian Access. Why? The people, of course. I love this mission family. Through the bug incident, I have a new found respect for Reiko Tarui and Wendy Thomson who took turns killing the monster bugs using toilet brushes. You get to know each other pretty well when you slumber together in one big room night after night. And showering/bathing together...well...at the moment, I can't really think of anything good that comes out of that.
Giant poisonous centipede-like bug
Cooking our own meals turned out to be a very fun event! Before the retreat, the missionaries who live in the area, bless them, all went to Costco and filled 7 humongous carts to feed 50 of us for 5 days!!! Each team (separated by regions of where we're serving in Japan) took turns preparing and cooking. Our group made Japanese curry rice with potatoes, carrots, onions, chicken, and pumpkin. It turned out a bit bland, but the process was fun:)
Cooking curry rice with Yuko
The rest of the cooks in the kitchen
We heard encouraging reports from one another of God's work in each area of Japan, shared resources, prayed over one another, learned from a Japanese pastor of how we can better reach the Japanese people for Christ, got a chance to check in with our missionary psychologist/counselor (turns out that Jeff and I are both nuts), etc. It was also a treat to have our new president and his wife, Joe and Silk Handley with us for the entire time! Both of them are amazing people that we all have fallen in love with.
Kids' worship
Focused prayer for parents-to-be
Missionaries sure know how to have FUN!! We had a "Crazy Family Fun Night" that started off with the Okinawa team dancing to Michael Jackson's Thriller! They were awesome!! Stan DelaCour had us rolling in laughter as he acted out "Charlie Spud", the life of a potato from grocery store to digestion and excretion. Zack made us proud as he did a couple of his magic tricks! The children's team did a wonderful skit on our retreat theme of running the race. Here are some shots of the kids practicing their skit.
We usually have a Childcare Team that comes from the States, specifically to teach and watch over our children during the retreat. This time, we were not able to arrange for a team to come. Dorrie and Takeshi Takazawa volunteered and headed up the children's program for all 5 days!! Dorrie did an amazing job with the little guys, and the teens had a blast with Takeshi. The cafeteria tables looked like a VBS hurricane...the children were bombarded with FUN crafts, games, and Bible stories. Zack and Ellie had so much fun that they did not want to leave.
Kids' class
I helped with parts of the kids' class
Ellie under the table during the kids' class
Ellie doing a craft during the kids' class
Zack working on a craft in the kids' class
Here are a couple of group photos. This is our Asian Access family!
A2 Fall Conference 2008 church planting missionaries group shot
Fun shot with church planting missionaries
Thanks to Justin Huang, Faith De La Cour and Dorrie Takazawa for providing some of the photos in this post.
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