What an incredible few weeks it has been.
When the "mega team" came up north, they picked me up on their first day of work. We started one house and was able to finish it in 7 days. We started three other houses and finished one, and almost finished a third house. One top of these four projects, we had several members of our team working on kitchen cabinets for the very first family that accepted Samaritans Purse's help, as well as a few doing gardening with a homeowner. We also did a cafe in Shintate (Dean's "neighborhood" that he works in almost exclusively), and sang some songs for the people there. We sang an English song, a Hawaiian song, and a Japanese song for them. The Japanese song was "Seek Ye First" translated into Japanese. We sang it last so that they could hear the message of the song and remember it.
This mega team was made up of people from Bethlehem Baptist Church in Minnesota, Grace Fellowship in Hawaii, and a few extra members who have connections to people from those churches. It was Yas's last team, so we did a lot of sharing together at night after dinner. Despite the total amounting to 19 people on the team, we all became like a huge family living and working together for two weeks. It was a great time of fellowship and work in Ishinomaki. I gained an entire family in Hawaii, and many good friends on the team from Minnesota (plus rides to church if I so choose!).
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| The whole "block" plus mega team! |
One other super awesome thing happened with this team. On Sunday, as usual, we went to Abe san's church and had a wonderful meal there. Afterwards, before our customary tour of the damage, we went around to local houses and temporary housing and gave out some mini walkers to the elderly. While we were at the temporary housing units, some of the kids I have taught English to and done special events with recognized Nate and I and were excited to see us, so we began playing with them. Some of our team members joined us, and we had a great time of playing with the kids, even though it was short. After we played with the kids and finished giving out the mini walkers, we went on our normal tour of the damage with the team. Later that evening, over dinner at the mall in Ishinomaki, one of the team members (from Chicago with connections to the MN team) named Makoto asked me if we could get things for the kids to play with. He said that while we were playing with the kids (we played one game the entire time we were with them), he asked one of them what other things they like to play. One of the boys said that they'd really like to play dodgeball, but they don't have any balls. Makoto really wanted to be able to give them something to play with, so we went to the store and bought a soccer ball, volleyball, dodgeball, hula hoop, soft baseball bat, frisbee, etc., plus some indoor games like Jango and Uno for the kids. Makoto stayed a few days after the rest of the team left so he could be there when we gave the toys to the kids. It was so fulfilling to see them that happy about things that we take for granted in America, like a ball with which to play dodgeball. We had such a fun time playing with the kids, and because it was my last time to see all of them, they all said thank you to me in English and hugged me. Only one of the kids really hugged me, since hugging in Japan is not very common, but it honestly broke my heart. She was crying when she hugged me, so then I started crying... It was very sad for me to have to say goodbye to the kids, but I told them that I want to come back next summer (2013) and that I hope to see them then. They were excited about that :)
The night before the mega team went back to Tokyo, they dropped me and another member of the team off at Grace Mission Tohoku. She and I have been staying here since then. She will be staying here for another two weeks and will continue to do mud outs and other ministry here in Ishinomaki (she was on one of my grandparents teams last summer, is Japanese, and lives in MN teaching Japanese at Macalester College). I am leaving here tomorrow, which will be very bittersweet for me. I have come to know and love the staff here, and many of the volunteers have touched my life in a very deep way, even if they do not realize it.
This week we've had crazy amount of volunteers staying here. We had teams from Arkansas, Georgia, Virginia, South Africa, Chiba/Saitama (prefectures in Japan), and Juilliard (yes, the one in New York City). I've mostly just been helping out around GMT, since I know how things work here and never really rested from all of that physical work the three weeks before (weeding, mud outs, etc.). We put on Cafes in the temporary housing and here at GMT with the Juilliard students (and grads) performing at each cafe. The people who came loved the music they played, and I did too :)
I'm heading back to Tokyo (then Chiba) tomorrow with the team from Arkansas. It will be really hard for me to leave Ishinomaki one last time, but I have faith that I will be back soon. God works in mysterious ways, and none of us can pretend to understand His timing. My heart is here in Ishinomaki. I want so badly to stay and help more, to make a difference since I know I can help, but right now God is calling me back to Boston for the summer, and then back to school in September. I'm not entirely sure why right now, but I'm praying I find out soon.
One last thought (I love doing this!):
For some reason, God has been putting the theme of love on my heart recently. These two verses have been floating in my head/have been shared with me recently and I wanted to share them with you all.
"And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love." 1 Corinthians 13:13
and,
"Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. Bear with each other and forgive one another if any of you has a grievance against someone. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity." Colossians 3:12-14
I'm not sure right now why these two passages have been on my heart, but I'm wondering if any of my readers have any thoughts on them? They are both fairly well-known passages, but has anyone gleaned any special meaning for their lives from these? I'm trying to figure out what they mean for me, but I'd love to hear what they mean for you!
This will probably be my last blog post from Japan, so I want to thank you all for reading my blog, though I know I can get long sometimes - okay, most of the time! Thank you so much for your encouragement and support for me as I put a hold on my life back home and in school and came to Japan to serve God and the Japanese. I will never forget this adventure, or your help. May God bless you all.
Chloe Milhous
For more pictures of the mega team and my last week in Ishinomaki, here are links to my photos:
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