Murone Land is this magic
place right outside of Murone city. There, there is a very small church that
could possibly hold 20 people for a church service. But during Golden week this tiny church in the country
turned into a camp for children who has a foreign parent. Using 4 cars we took 22
kids and 8 adults out there last Friday.
Once everyone arrived we had
a prayer service and then headed to an onsen. After the onsen we had prepared barbecue for dinner. These kids can eat! We nearly didn’t have
enough. It was very cold out there so we had the kids warm up in the church before we set off fireworks. It is truly amazing how entertaining fireworks are. After warming up again we
went for a night walk and star gazing. Two of the staff members had decorated one of the cars with lights. They also had put on somewhat
scary masks. The older kids thought it was cool while the younger ones were pretty scared.
The next morning we had a
morning prayer service and then breakfast. Then the kids made fruit
jello to take home to their parents. Everyone was assigned a job such as cutting
the fruit, making shiratama (sweet rice flour dumplings) and preparing the jello. While
the kids were making jello the male staff members prepared the grill to make yakisoba
and BBQ the rest of the leftover meat from dinner. During lunch, again we shown how much the kids could eat. It was entertaining to see.
We then had one last prayer
service. One of the staff members was a priest, Fr. Lee. As I mentioned before all of the kids at this camp were half Japanese which can be difficult sometimes. During the last prayer
service Fr. Lee gave a talk about how none of us are alone. Though we might only be one person
and we think that there are problems that no one else understands, that is
not the case. We have each other. We have God. We can and should navigate this
life together. We should walk together through this life, supporting one another.
Once we cleaned up the church, and packed all of our belongings we headed back to Sendai. The two-day camp in Murone Land was a success.
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| The night parade |
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| FIREWORKS! |
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| Making shiratama |
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| playing soccer in the country |
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| Waiting for the food to be cooked |
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