E-TEAM Hokkaido News Archive 2007 ETEAM HOKKAIDO GOES TO SCHOOL!

June 23rd, 2007

On Friday morning we went to a Japanese elementary school. We were divided into three groups - each group went into a 4th grade class. We had a time of sharing with the Japanese students. They asked us questions about Japan and then about the United States. We then played some games together, both Japanese and American games. The Japanese children are so cute and so friendly. We didn't want to say good-bye. We had a great time with the students and they presented us with gifts of origami, pictures and games. We left the school at lunchtime and made our way to our "first" meal of genuine Japanese sushi! Everyone tried a variety of sushi, including fish eggs, some kind of "brains", shrimp, crab, eggplant. There was even "horse meat" sushi - but we're not sure if anyone tried that or not! In the afternoon we went back to the schools and passed out flyers to the children telling them about the Carnival on Saturday.

We also celebrated our leader's (Seldon Buck) birthday on Friday night. Missionary Sandra Bishop baked a chocolate cake and all of the missionaries and OA's and team members had cake and ice cream after supper to help Seldon celebrate his birthday.

On Saturday we set up for the carnival in the morning and worked the carnival from 1:00-3:00 in the park. About 200 children attended the carnival! We hope and pray that some of these children and their parents will desire to learn more about Jesus Christ and visit one of our churches in Hokkaido. After the carnival we went to the Ebetsu International Center and had supper with some Japanese high school students. Most of them spoke some English. We exchanged greetings and then shared a little bit about ourselves. After supper we played some games together and then went outside and shot fireworks! We had a great time. We invited the young people to Ebetsu Alive tomorrow night and to our goodbye party.

Tomorrow we are dividing into several groups and going to different churches. Tomorrow night will be Ebetsu Alive and our "goodbye" party! We can't believe our time here is coming to an end! This has been an awesome experience for all of us.