Japanese - Brazilian - American

Happy May Day! The last week of April was a busy one for us (so what else is new!) We spent the weekend over in Kyotanabe as Steve was preaching Sunday at Kyoto International Chapel. So, as on many other Fridays, we packed up our things and drove over in the morning at 5:00 am. You see, Steve has as men's group called Men's Faternity that meets at 6:00 am and it is at least a 45 minute drive from Ikoma to Kyotanabe over mountain roads. Later that day Steve and I borrowed the Hutton's van and ventured out to the grocery store and the 100yen (Dollar Tree) store for things I would need for my up coming American apple pie class. On Sunday Steve gave his message "Balancing Worship in the Christian Life." It was well received and over lunch of curry beef and rice we had some good discussions. Later Sunday afternoon we went with Gregg & Becky and kids to a Brazilian church near Osaka. Now there is a mix - Japanese Brazilians. Many in the congregation are full blooded Japanese but were raised in Brazil and so speak Portuguese better than Japanese. Gregg was preaching since their pastor was on vacation. He spoke in English, Igor translated into Portuguese and Becky translated into Japanese through head phones (like at the UN) We had a great time. Just about every single person in the small congregation came up and gave Steve and I greetings. One gentleman hugged Steve like he was never going to let go. Another lady told us she loved us - maybe that was the only phrase she knew in English. After the service we went downstairs for dinner - and what a dinner. I must learn how to make deep fried rice balls - yummy. They were also celebrating all the April birthdays and so had a large cake and it was oh so rich and good. What was in it? I don't know but it was sweet and gooey and had to of had a bizillion calories. Church was over around 9:30 pm - that's the Brazilian way they tell me. Then Steve and Igor got together and jammed a bit. He is Japanese/Brazilian but didn't know any Brazilian guitar cords and so Steve showed him some that he had learned. Igor not only translated for Gregg but led the Praise Team. He is a super friendly guy and we really enjoyed getting to know him.

Across the street from the church is a KFC and out front is a statue of Colonel Sanders, although you wouldn't of recognized him. He was dressed as a Samurai warrior. You see Boy's Day is coming up and so all Japanese want their boys to be strong and brave like the Samurai. You can see Samurai images everywhere.

On Tuesday morning Steve and I taught English at Ikoma Chapel. It was the beginning of a new term and we had several new ladies. Steve teaches the advanced gals and I have the intermediate class.
We mainly work on "conversation" English getting them to form complete sentences in English. It is proving to be a lot of fun. Then. .

Psalm 17:8
"Guard me as the apple of your eye.
Hide me in the shadow of your wings."

In the afternoon I held my American Apple Pie class and had 5 ladies come. What a great time we had but I was totally exhausted by the end of the day. Most of the ladies could speak some English and all of them understood English and so I didn't need to have an interpreter. Each lady was able to make a small pie that they could take home to their family plus have some extra dough to make a pie on their own. My recipe that I love and use all the time makes enough pie dough for 2 double crust pies. I also showed them how to use your extra dough to make cinnamon and sugar pinwheels. While the pies and pinwheels were baking, Steve entertained us with his guitar and some fun songs like " In The Shade of the Old Apple Tree" and he wrote new words to "Deep In The Heart of Texas" replacing Texas with Nippon, the Japanese word for Japan (apologies to our daughter Heather and family who just moved to Texas) and using Japan and apples in the lyrics. He also led us in some praise songs. After our song time I served up slices of apple pie that I had made earlier with ice cream plus the cinnamon & sugar pinwheels. Everyone seem to have a wonderful time and the next day I heard from one lady that she had 2 slices of her own apple pie when she got home Tuesday. I laughed and said, "Let's see, one at my place and 2 at home, that makes 3 pieces of apple pie." That's OK they were small. The ladies over in Kyotanabe now want to have a class too so we'll have to see when we can schedule that event. Take a look at their finished product. Aren't they beautiful, my ladies and their pies?