Day 2

Today we spent most of the day at the VBS.  There were more kids there than they expected (about 20 or so).  The morning session started with music.  All of the songs were recognizable English songs with Japanese lyrics.  Then Pastor Tanaka (an elderly gentleman from one of the local churches) gave a short lesson to the kids.  I was only able to understand about every tenth word but he used his hands a lot and acted out the Bible stories for the kids with hand motions and funny voices so I could make out that he was talking about the blind man in John and Jesus being the light of the world.  The kids also did several crafts and games.  In the morning they tie-died T-shirts and then used spray paint and a stencil to write "Jesus loves me" in English on the front of their shirts.  They also took a paper mache sheep and glued cotton balls on it to give it wool.  Afterwards Gordon and LeeAnn took me to see Kanto Gakuin University, which is a school that was started by the Baptist Theological Seminary of Yokohama. For dinner we ate shabu shabu, which is where they bring you a plate of thinly sliced meat (pork beef or both) and there is an electric stove built into the center of the table where they boil a bowl of water.  You get a plate of different vegetables and put them all into the boiling water, then dip the meat in (with chopsticks) and stir it around to cook it.  Once it's cooked enough you dip it in some sauce and eat it with rice and vegetables (should be a picture of this hopefully).  Tomorrow we will be attending church at Every Nation Church Yokohama.