Sendai Camp Report

Thank you all for your prayers about Sendai Camp as it was a great time and good weather. The weather forecast was for rain the entire weekend but praise God as it only rained at night and our days were beautiful.

We arrived in Sendai at midnight on Friday. We left shortly after six, and if it were a group of Americans, we probably would have been there by 9:30pm. But as I have started to figure out, Japanese take there time in traveling. We drove about an hours distance and stopped and at dinner which was planned. About an hour and a half later we left there and drove to the interchange at Sendai and stopped to make sure all 9 of our cars were together. After about 25 minutes there we drove through Sendai for about an hour until we all reached the Seven Eleven and we then finally made it to our destination.

I have always considered myself a pretty patient person but I have definitely been stretched over the matter of patience since I have been here. Whenever I go somewhere, it has always been about getting there but to the Japanese it is much more about relationships than getting there quickly. So, for example, on Friday nights when our Bible Discussion groups try to decide where to eat it usually takes about 30 minutes before we finally leave. During this 30 minutes they are enjoying talking with each other and every once in a while someone will ask where someone else wants to go but since they are always concerned about what other people think no ever decides because that is being to outright and may appear rather selfish. Another example is that the students can't imagine being in a car for longer than an hour and a half with out taking a 20 minute stretch break. These things are completely different than the American mindset as we would call them non-decisive and slow but where they actually show more love to each other by being very unselfish and by desiring to get to know each other better.

Back to Sendai. I stayed up till 3:00am before I went to bed and got up at 7:00am. We ate breakfast and had a breakfast partner. My breakfast partner was Mariya who was a freshman interested in going on the camping trip but doesn't seem to have much interest in the Bible right now. After breakfast we started our work projects, which I was blessed to use the most amazing weed whacker ever invented. In America, the average line trimmer is exactly as it sounds. It has line trim on the end to cut the grass. In Japan, the average line trimmer has a circular saw blade on the end and can cut down small trees. By far cooler and a little more dangerous. So my group of 5 guys went and cut down and cleared out trails for the campground. We then had a Japanese barbecue out on the beach for lunch and a watermelon smashing contest as our dessert. Then as usual some swimming and throwing people into the Pacific Ocean for fun. We then had our dinner and Bible Discussion and then I went to bed exhausted at midnight while most students stayed up till 3 or 4.

On Sunday we cleaned up and drove up to Matsushima and had lunch and a little site seeing and then returned home back to Utsu. There are many pictures of our trip and they are being collected by one person and then distributed back out on a DVD. So I will have pictures probably in a couple of weeks to put in my photo album.