Fireworks, Star-Gazing, and Walking Together in Murone Land

Well I returned to Sendai, after being in Nagoya for two months, in time to go to Murone Land. Murone Land is this magic place rigth 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 turns into a camp for children who has one foreign parent. Using 4 cars we took 22 kids and 8 adults out there last Friday. It was a blast.

The two days were spent playing games like twister, setting off fireworks, star gazing, making fancy jello for their parents, eating tons of food and prayer services. It was a success.

FIREWORKS!

All the kids there had one parent who was from an foreign country. Among the staff there were three foreigners, a Filipino, a Korean, and an American. So in one way or another we understood each others problems and difficulties with communication. The kids have had many problems communicating with their parents. Some of the older ones have at one point in time translated for their parents I am sure. Maybe they haven’t been the person trying to navigate a foreign country and language but they can somewhat understand what their parent has been through.

The Korean staff member was a priest, Fr. Lee. During the last prayer service he gave a talk about how none of us are alone. We might be one person and we think that there are problems that no one else understands but that is not the case. We have each other. We have God. We can and should navigate this life together. We should rely on one another. We are here to walk together with you in this life. 

Our parade that drove by us while star gazing

soon to be fancy jello

waiting in line for food

*Golden week is a week in Japan where 4 of the 7 days not including the weekend are holidays. Therefor it deserves the term “Golden Week.”