Hello!

After the Sylvan Way team left, Nate and I stayed in Ishinomaki. I stayed with Ms. H, and Nate stayed in a house specifically for Christian volunteers. There was a lady staying with Ms. H for one night who was there when I arrived, and we spent that night and the next day (Wednesday) together. She spoke some English so we talked a lot. We went to see some of the devastation because it was her first time to see it, and we talked to a man who said that his mother and father's home washed away in the tsunami. After we saw the devastation, we went to a fish market and bought some tuna, which we make maki with (the kind of sushi that has seaweed wrapped around it). Such a good dinner!

Fish market!

 On Thursday a team from Kokubunji Baptist Church came to Ishinomaki. It took them 13 hours to drive there, but they finally made it (usually it takes about 6 hours from Tokyo to Ishinomaki) around 1 in the afternoon. They were all really tired from traveling so we had a relaxing day just spending time together and getting settled. On Friday morning we drove to Minami Sanriku and helped mud out and build a Christian Center there. Our sensei's included a 17-year-old guy who had just become a Christian two months before. While the guys mudded out a gutter, the girls and I became 大工さん (carpenters) and helped put finishing wood on the walls.

Our Sensei's

Carpenters for a day!

Nate mudding out a gutter

After we had lunch, we went back to Ishinomaki and prepared for a kids program in the temporary housing units that we did later that day. For the kids program we made カラフルだんご (colorful dingo - dango are small pounded rice balls that usually come four on a stick with some kind of sauce on top) out of tofu and flavorings, like green tea and pumpkin. Then we played with the kids outside, which was really fun :) Here's a link to all of my pictures of it and of our time together afterwards: https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10150798461996234.403310.608216233&type=1&l=59757c4280
After the kids program it was raining hard, and then there were flood warnings. At 9 pm there was an evacuation of the place the guys were staying, so we ate a quick dinner, packed the guys up, and moved them to a church in a different neighborhood where they could sleep overnight. In the morning the evacuation was over and the sun was out, so we decided to proceed with our plans. The guys cleared out a park and planted sunflowers while the girls did some errands. For lunch we ate at a chinese restaurant, which was really good, and then we went to the temporary housing again for a homework help time, along with some playtime :) I did a short English lesson on food, and then we had a snack and helped the kids with homework. This past week was Golden Week so a lot of the kids didn't have too much homework, which meant that we got some more playtime in before it was time to leave :)
We left Ishinomaki at about 7:30 pm and drove straight through to Tokyo. Usually the drive is about 6 hours, but it took us closer to 8 hours this time. We arrived in Tokyo at 2:30 am Sunday morning. Half of the group went to their own home and half of us stayed at the church for a night. We all attended the church service a few hours later and then went our own ways. I was provided a place to stay last night and will stay with my Uncle who lives in Tokyo tonight, then will head back to Chiba to stay with Tom and Mary Lou again. On Friday I will be heading to South Korea for a few days for some business.

Please pray for the kids in temporary housing, that they will gain hope from the volunteers who come, and that they would see the love of Christ shining through us as we continue to work with them.
Please pray also for safety in traveling as I go to many different places in the next week and half.