July 25th - Again

Dear Friends – It’s Friday night and there are six of us still up.  Things are winding down and people are writing and having quiet and calm conversations (not always the case with our younger team members).  We have started our practice of going to the onsen (public bath) to close the day’s activities once again.  It helps bring the day to a peaceful and clean ending.
We had a very exciting morning to start the day.  We needed to catch the first of our two trains at 8:53AM – so we caught a shuttle from the hotel at 8AM since we were told it would take about ½ hour to reach the airport.  It took much longer than that.  We were literally running through the airport to catch the train – it was like a scene from a TV program or movie.  We got to the train at about 8:52 – the last people to board.  A minute later and we would have missed the train.  If we missed the first train, we would have also missed the second train – and we might not be in Chino right now.  A lot of the team members were very worried and concerned that we would be too late.  But I was not.  And that was pretty surprising considering I usually get pretty worried about things like that.  But I had prayed for us while we were on the bus when it became apparent that we were running late.  Even as it approached 8:50 and we were not yet on the train platform, I still truly believed we would be okay.  God has taken care of many difficulties and problems that have arisen with our mission.  He would surely take care of our need to catch a train.  When we were all in our seats on the train, everyone had big smiles on their faces and we were all pumped up from the fear and running.  It makes for a good story for the team members to tell their friends and families.
Tomorrow afternoon we will finally begin meeting with people from the Chino area for English language activities.  This is what we’ve been preparing for over the last few months.  I’ll let you know in the next entry how things went.  I’m starting to fade very quickly, so I’ll finish now.  Thanks for your support.  Don