We are currently doing ministry 5 days a week; this ranges from street evangelism, kids ministry, elderly care home ministry, and worship nights. Why we do street evangelism and relationship bulding with the local almost every day half of our squad goes and visits an elderly home every Tuesday, while the other half has kids ministry on Friday. I am on the Elderly home ministry! It has been so amazing, and the Lord has been moving in their hearts as well as mine.

We go on Tuesdays to the elderly home, and the other day when we went, we brought the guitar, a worship set, and coloring books and crayons, with the hope of bringing these older Japanese folks some excitement and joy. Funny enough, it DID not go as planned lol. It was so unbelievably humid and hot as we started worship. I was personally on the guitar, so as I started playing, sweat just started dripping, and I literally could not move my arms to wipe the sweat off. On top of that, I was so off-beat, as we had no time to really practice all together. The singing was off and very half-hearted and quiet, as we were nervous; it was such a rough start. Halfway through, to my surprise, I looked up to see the big, bright, beaming smiles of these grandmas and grandpas while they all clapped and nodded to these songs they had little to no understanding of the lyrics. Though the jankiness of tempo and voices, they did not care, and all they saw were some loving American kids there to serve them. It was all in my mind. My team's and my perception was that we had to get it right, but it wasn't reality. Reality was just that our mere presence, unrelated to us succeeding or failing in worship, was more than enough encouragement to them. Just our presence. Just us being there in the first place; that's what matters. In that moment I felt the lord telling me to let go, and to just enjoy this time with them, and so I did. It was so freeing, and I was okay with essentially "failing" or not being "good" because in the big picture it the love of Jesus was still being spread so powerfully, and it was glorifying the Lord. Later on, we didn't have enough crayons to really pass out, and they also didn't seem that interested in coloring. As I sat down, though, and filled my flower drawing with only one color, the same theme kept on coming up. I began talking to an older woman, probably around 90, and she was SO sweet. Our conversation was all in Japanese, and at first it was surface level, but then she began using words I couldn't understand. I sat there for 10 minutes, desiring to understand but half pretending I understood as I held her hands and looked into her eyes. THE LORD WAS POUNDING ON MY HEART. Even though I didn't understand everything for her, it was real. The moment, the intimacy, and the conversation. All she needed was my ears not my words. Just my presence and being with her was so impactful. She felt so loved. I found out through our elderly home Host that she wanted to tell me about how the war against America affected her and her family but how she never hated Americans for it. She wanted me to know that she loved American people, and I told her that I love her. The week before we shared the gospel with all of them and we will continue to plant seeds in their hearts over these upcoming weeks.

Please keep them in your prayers! To hear the gospel and accept the love that Jesus has for each one of them.