Week #19. Back in "School" and celebrating "Bon Odori."

This week had two major themes for us.  We volunteered to help with Vacation Bible School at the NAF (US Navy) Atsugi base and we participated in the Camp Zama Bon Odori festival.  

We enjoyed a week-long adventure entitled "Breaker Rock Beach," which featured themes, songs, dance, games, crafts, and more --all with a good "Christian" flavor of Jesus saves, God's truth is paramount, we are all sinners, and did I say, "Jesus saves!"  The religious content comes from the Bible and is in sync with our beliefs...well, mostly.  We enjoyed working with all the kids that attended and the hardworking (and very sincere and wonderful) volunteers, including the Atsugi chaplain...a great individual.  My job was capturing anything and everything with my camera for posterity and a slide show at the end.  Sister Nelson helped with registration, food prep, and serving, here and there.  We enjoyed it, but it wore us out by week's end....and we get to do it again next week at Camp Zama!   

Concurrently, we were helping with preregistration for the Vacation Bible School that will be held this coming week.  I think after two consecutive weeks of "School," we will have had our fill for the season; however, we will be here for another round come next summer. We have had a lot of opportunities to meet new people and answer questions about who we are, why we are in Japan...and why we like to volunteer.  All good subjects as far as we are concerned. 

We caught a break from "school" on Tuesday because a Philippino sister in our branch invited us, and the other missionaries, to her home for a meal.  It was about an hour on the train, and she welcomed us with quite the feast.  We ate our fill, and hardly made a dent in what she had lovingly and graciously prepared for us. We also helped her celebrate her birthday!

Not a week goes by that we don't get in a little volunteer action with the Red Cross.  We helped with newcomers welcome at Atsugi, an information exchange at Zama, and again during the Bon Odori festival at Camp Zama on Saturday.  For some reason, we were nominated as Volunteers of the Month at Camp Zama.   The Red Cross continues to be a great venue for us to "show the badge" and meet people from across our communities at Camp Zama and NAF Atsugi. 

On Friday we met with our District and Sister Nelson prepared a wonderful chicken enchilada lunch for them. Our district's young missionaries are always very appreciative of the things we do for them each week.  On Sunday, after our weekly trip to Camp Fuji, we had the Sisters in our home for a lesson with one of their friend families that they were teaching.  That was a special experience for us as we helped answer some important questions and concerns they had...and also shared our testimonies. 

Saturday was the celebration or festival hosted by Camp Zama for Obon.  Obon is a Japanese tradition, based in Buddhism that celebrates one's ancestors.  There are traditional foods, dress, music, dance, and fireworks.   We skipped the dancing part but were able to enjoy watching others. It was really hot on Saturday so we didn't really go out into the festivities until early evening and we also had to do our shift with the Red Cross that evening as well.