"Kiseki wa okiru, shinjireba. . ."

Yes, that's the song that's been running through all of our heads this past week. . . the Japanese version of "When you believe" from "Prince of Egypt". It was kind of our theme song for the 3 days of Summer Kids' Club this year. . . Making pizza the second day -- these girls were so artistic!
Things went really well -- both the kids and adults had a lot of fun, I think (maybe the adults even more than the kids sometimes! ;-) I had the brilliant idea of a "staff wheelbarrow race", which I thought would be fun for the kids to watch after they were done theirs. . . think the kids weren't quite sure what was going on, but we had a great time! We also had team colours during the week, so the leaders got pretty competitive at times. . . This picture is us making garden stones. . . just like the Israelites!
Game time upstairs. . . duck, duck goose can work miracles. ;-) But according to the YMI team (from Canada and the States), since the kids didn't really say the words, you had to distinguish between the pat and the slap on the head, as to when / if you should run!! It was soo nice to have the church building this year, since before this, they have always used a community centre.
I was so thankful for all those from the church who volunteered their time in working with the kids, making meals, and just pitching in (especially the Sunday before when it looked like I was going to lose it!! :-b) It is a blessing to be part of such a family, and for connections to be built between the kids and people in the church -- I pray that those will continue from here as well. The YMI team was also amazing -- a group with servant hearts, wanting to be a blessing to those they meet here in Japan.
Just one of the things the YMI team added to our week was the "Pharoah Pharoah" (now "Paro Paro" ;-) song. . . the kids just loved it (as you can see in the group picture)! For the last afternoon, we went to the park, played some water games, had a watermelon breaking contest (the other kids "coach" the blindfolded one towards a watermelon lying on the ground, who takes a whack at it).
Thanks everyone for your thoughts and prayers -- God is so faithful, and He provides much more than we could imagine.
I leave Toyota in almost exactly an hour to go to the airport for Canada -- yay!! Can't wait to see you all. . . hoping you are having a great summer too!