Church with a View (Kawanaka location)

Today, while I (Aki) was at church waiting for one of my students to arrive, I had a nice chance to stop & take in the view that I too rarely take notice of from the 2nd floor of our church. (In the shot w/the black car & our church sign, that's my student arriving:) These photos are different views from diff sides.You'll see we have bars on the windows upstairs (I took some shots from between the bars). There are no bars on the downstairs windows. I mentioned to Taka one day that that seemed "backwards." He said the bars are not to keep burglars out, they're to keep people from falling/jumping out windows. Always learning. The picture with a frame of blue is of the sky! I was going up to the 2nd floor & looking up at that window in the stairway, the beauty of the blue sky caught my eye. One of the other shots shows the sunlight coming in from that window onto the wall. In the shot where you see the roof w/the sun setting in the background...the background is also the sea.

Wasps, Typhoons, Earthquakes & Sun

Thank you for all of your prayers and concerns about our safety here with the recent typhoon & earthquakes. We are OK. The typhoon actually passed under us. It has been raining/pouring what seems like non-stop for weeks, but we were thankful to be spared of the typhoon. We are also not near where the earthquakes occured.
I was kinda hoping that the typhoon winds would blow off a wasp nest that made its home on our balacony...but those winds didn't come...so Taka took charge & used this bazooka-like wasp spray. Thankfully it worked, so I could hang laundry on this, the first day of sun in a long time, without fear of being attacked by wasps! The other 2 photos are of the apt. balconies...everyone's happy the sun is shining so they can ,dry their umbrellas, do laundry & hang out their futons!

Another Anniv. Treat

One of our church members surprised us by making reservations for us at a fancy restaurant on Friday night. The waiter even brought us a bouquet of flowers she had brought for us. This is a picture of my dessert plate. It says "Takayuki & Margaret" (for some reason she gave them my first name) and on the bottom it says congratulations in chocolate. She's so sweet.

Two Years....

We celebrated our 2nd anniversary on Tues, the 10th.We went out to an all-you-can-eat chinese buffet for lunch on Taka's "lunch break." We love the view, the food, and I (Aki) esp. like the soft serve ice cream! We celebrated at lunchtime because Taka had youth group that night & I had Japanese class. Taka got me some beautiful roses.I took a photo of them with a funny kind of Pepsi I discovered,"ICE CUCUMBER PEPSI" Do they have that in the States???

World Festival

On Sunday, the 8th, we had a "World Festival" after the service. Each member of the Edge team (summer missions team) & missionary set up a booth representing different parts of the world (China, Canada, Philippines, Albania, Germany, France, Yemen, Mexico, and the US). Each had some connection to the country. Church members also made some crafts &/or donated used goods to be sold at a "bazaar booth."
In the 3rd photo, Taka is preparing the "prayer points" that were put on the wall near each "country". The 4th pic. is of the reception table. You can see Matthew 16:15 written in Japanese under the world map. Taka's walking by carrying a table. He's so strong:)
These kids helped afterwards with the tear down. It was a busy, but fun day of fellowship and outreach to the neighborhood & the host families of the Edge team members. It was also the church's 18th anniversary. It was a great way to celebrate, remembering that "God so loved the WORLD, that He gave His only Son, that whoever believed in him would not perish, but have eternal life." (Jn. 3:16)