MARYN RAY
Today was our first day of Gospel English Camp at Setagaya Grace Church. Though we have had an incredible past couple days developing relationships with our missionary partners and learning more about Japanese culture, Gospel Camp is the real reason for our long journey here. We had the privilege of showing these kids the love of Jesus through songs, lessons, and games. One of the hardest obstacles to navigate is the language barrier, but showing God’s love does not require any words to be said. The kids may not have any idea what they are singing since the songs are in English, but they are very determined to sing the words and memorize the hand motions.
One of my favorite parts of the day was dinner. We have had past dinners with Will, Kenta, and Jason, but tonight we got to have dinner with Mitsuo and his son, Daichi. We had to get two separate tables at dinner to fit us all, so we were surprised when Daichi, since he is only six, chose to sit with us instead of his dad. I had the privilege of sitting across from him and although we don’t speak the same language we were able to communicate through hand motions, dancing, and also some Google translate. I have learned the most Japanese words from trying my best to communicate with Daichi. We were probably very loud and distracting to the other people eating dinner since Japanese are commonly very quiet in public. But, it made Daichi laugh, so I didn’t feel too bad.
Michael Bryant2026-02-24T14:59:50-05:00