August 1

Dear Friends – It’s 10:15PM Friday night – half of us are still up after a long and tiring day.  It was the last day of EEC and there are mixed feelings about that.  We’re happy to be finished – it’s been extremely tiring, but it also means we will not get to see all the kids for the rest of the mission.  Today was “Crazy Hair Day” at EEC.  The adults and children looked terrific.  I was considering participating but having crazy hair implies that you have hair.  The time seems to be passing so quickly and we want to slow it down.  Monday morning we will be leaving this wonderful community and these marvelous brothers and sisters in Christ.
Tonight we had a barbecue for the mission team members, and children and their families from the EEC.  We have this at the end of every mission to Chino and there were 40-50 people in attendance.  It is a great time of eating and spending time with the parents of the children from EEC.  There are always some who speak English, so it is great to speak without having to go through a translator.  The weather was great when we set up in the late afternoon, but black clouds rolled in very quickly and we had to move everything inside.  It was amazing how fast we were able to make that change.  We looked like a colony of ants at work.
After the barbecue we considered going to the onsen.  The only problem was the time – it was already 8:20PM and the onsen closes at 9PM.  To close at that time they stop admitting people at 8:30.  If you thought we moved fast to move the barbecue inside, you should have seen us rushing about to get to the onsen.  The clerk didn’t want to let us in, but Kaori talked with him and promised we’d all be out on time.  A lovely smile on a lovely lady can work miracles.  It’s a good thing we didn’t have Koby trying to get us in.
Tomorrow is a free day for us.  There are no planned ministry activities, so we get to do “touristy” types of things.  Egawa-san wants to take us on a hike in the mountains beginning at 4AM.  He says he can have us back at the church by 7:30AM.  It looks like there will only be 2 or 3 of us joining him.  I’m glad Danny is such a big, buff guy.  He can easily carry me on his back when I can no longer walk.  Then at 8:30AM, the whole team will be traveling to Matsumoto for a morning and afternoon of sightseeing (possibly the castle there), shopping, and eating.  I know that Danny can carry me on his back again.  I need to get to bed so I can get in a few hours sleep before tomorrow’s hike.  The blessings we’ve received so far during the trip are much more than we deserve and could ever hope for.  Thank you for your prayers that are so important for all we do.  Love, Don