14 Days in.

It's hard to imagine that two full weeks have passed already. Ever since the gospel festival finished I've been helping out in a variety of projects and each has shown me a unique perspective of Ishinomaki, some of which I may go into in later posts.

Last week I helped do some construction work at a local cafe/church that will open in a few weeks. I imagined myself standing behind the counter frothing milk for lattes and cappuccinos and such, but it was the atmosphere of the cafe that struck me. Cafe's are places for people to connect and relax and enjoy themselves, and knowing that I lent a small hand in fostering deeper relationships was encouraging to me even when my work seemed less significant than the contributions of more skilled volunteers. But the boards I helped sand were pretty smooth if I don't say so myself.

I also had the pleasure of leading worship for a networking meeting for local pastors and other people in the area. It was difficult to play and sing songs in Japanese because more syllables are often packed into the songs, but it was an uplifting experience nonetheless. The relatively tiny room was packed with some very refreshing cultural diversity though. We ate delicious, homemade Korean food, with Korean seminary students, English-speaking missionaries, and a handful of Japanese pastors and volunteers, and we sang worship songs in Japanese. It really was a beautiful example of the unity I mentioned previously.

Leading a tricultural worship set.

Last weekend was a whirlwind of fun, music, bonding, and heavy metropolitan traffic. We went to Tokyo to attend and participate in a worship and arts conference, where some of our team would share about the work that's being done in Ishinomaki through music. One of my friends shared about the Liberty Music Program, which seeks to help children learn to have hope and dream again. At the conference, we learned about all sorts of types of art and how they can be applied to the church. A group based in Ishinomaki called the Nozomi Project, had a representative share her testimony and tell about their work, which I will most certainly cover later. I snapped the picture below from a very high balcony in Tokyo.

Said photo from said balcony.

This week I helped out with construction on one of the sheds we have in the back of the main house and I had a revelation relating to the symbolism of construction. "Revelation" may be a bit of a stretch, but I thought the realization was neat. Today I spent a couple of hours working on Japanese worship songs for a prayer meeting tomorrow, which I'm pretty excited for, and then I went around with some of the other interns to visit some of the older folks in the area who may not be able to get out of their houses so much. It was so great to love on people in a really tangible way, and I'm sure it didn't hurt that we came bearing homemade Japanese sweets.

Thanks for reading. :)
-Spencer

It's been raining a ton lately, but with sunsets like this, I don't really mind.