First Weekend

the weekend:

saturday we met at 11 am (by "we" i mean, everyone except jack, kylan and josh, who went to a soccer game, and jess, who was still sick, and kyle, who kept her company) and headed out to do some sightseeing and be touristy. first stop was the imperial palace, where we took lots of pictures of trees and ducks, and the palace (or what we could see). then we went to asakusa, a pretty touristy area known for its huge temples and shrines. it was cool, but when we went into the main temple it was really hard b/c there were a ton of people praying and throwing in money into this huge thing-to-throw-money-in and it was just so sad to see so many people worshipping gods that don't exist and praying to gods who won't answer. most of us couldn't stay in there for very long. but even though it was hard to see, it was a good reminder of why we're in Tokyo, what we're up against, and what God has already conquered. after that we all needed a bit of a pick-me-up so we got ice cream at this place that had the most ridiculous flavors- purple sweet potato, rose, sesame, and others. gen and i got green tea and milk ice cream and were so half-asian. after ice cream we explored the shops and got some souvenirs, then headed home. saturday night we chilled in the apartments, and a few of us watched The Italian Job.

sunday we met up with our smaller teams for planning and whatnot. josh, kyle and i went to Precious Coffee Moments (an awesome coffee place about a 2 minute walk from our apartments- a little pricey though) and got coffee and pastries and discussed/brainstormed ideas for our American-theme/End of the Year party we're throwing june 24th for Student Impact as a part of outreach. we're also helping with Student Impact's Discover Friends party (an outreach party) so we brainstormed for that as well. we left for church at 1 pm to take the train to Ochyanamizu. the last time i was there, the guys had left megan (the other girl on Project) and i to find our way on our own- we ended up going out of the wrong train station exit and walking around lost for over an hour and by the time we found it church was over. thankfully, gen found the right exit to lead us to this time. i really enjoyed the church service, and the worship was fantastic. and they had a worship dance team! it made me want to get up and dance with them so badly! it was really cool, and the message was all about remembering God's blessings He's already given us, because when we forget, we lose trust in God and fear overtakes us. the pastor also talked about ephesians 4:19 where it talks about how our words should be benefiting to others- blessings, in a sense, because our negative words can separate us from God and make us forget his blessings. after church we came home and relaxed for a little while, kylan showed amy and i how to work the laundry machine (after spending about 1/2 an hour trying to find detergent and stain-remover - it's hard when you have no idea what the labels say) and then at 6:30 pm we all met and went to the Mitaka Student Impact Center for some team debriefing time.

please continue to pray for our team this week as we go on campus and try to build the friendships we began last week, and that we'd have more opportunities to make new friends and share the love of Christ with them!