Surprise Parties, Roller Coasters and Amazing Grace

Hey!
So it has been a while since I updated my blog. I have been really busy lately with teaching english classes and planning. Last week two of the girls on our team had their birthdays so on Friday we planned them a nice little birthday surprise. We had a birthday dinner for them and then took them out for karaoke. For karaoke we blindfolded them and took them to karaoke not telling them where we were going. They had kind of figured out that was what we were doing so it wasn't that much of a surprise but it was still fun. At karaoke in Japan you get a private room for you and your friends and can choose from english or japanese songs. We of course chose english songs to sing along with and danced around singing loud and being silly. On Saturday I taught my travel english class and english music class. Both classe went really well. For english music class we brought the lyrics for Amazing Grace (our student's request) and when Joanna was explaining what the lyrics meant our student started tearing up. Please pray that God would continue to work in her heart and that she would be open to the love and grace of God and the message of the gospel. On Sunday we had church and then went bowling with some of the church members. A family that has their children in one of the english classes we are teaching came bowling with us. Praise God for that and pray that He would use this time to bring them back to the church and ultimately draw this family to Himself. On Monday we went to Nagashima Spaland, which is a large amusement park about an hour drive away from where we are staying. This amusement park has lots of roller coasters and other thrilling rides. It has the largest wooden roller coaster, the White Cyclone, and the 2nd largest roller coaster in the world, the Steel Dragon. We rode the White Cyclone three times and the Steel Dragon twice. The Steel Dragon was pretty much amazing. Words cannot even describe it. I am afraid that I am now ruined for any other roller coasters after this one though. This was also my first time riding on a roller coaster and I must say that I LOVE ROLLER COASTERS!!! We spent all day at Nagashima Spaland and it was really fun. This week we are going into Nagoya to apply for our religious worker visas. There is a good chance that we may not get approved because we are here for such a short time. Please pray that God would give us favour with the people processing our visas and that His will would be done in this. Please continue to pray for our team, the Hieberts, the churh and the people of Japan. Pray for good health for us and continued energy and strength from God as some of us are not feeling well and are feeling a bit weary at some times. I trust that God is going to do something amazing in Japan. We are His instruments. God will do something amazing here in His time. Until next time, Sayonara.