The Sweet Dropper

Wednesday, July 22: Jet lag has not been bad, but I am usually wide awake when my 6 am alarm sounds. But this morning I was able to sleep until 8! Nelson and I caught up on some reading and correspondence, then walked to Nisshin Christ Church. Our hopes of viewing the solar eclipse were dashed by cloud cover. We were supposed to have a near 50% eclipse here. We later spoke with some people who caught a glimpse through a break in the clouds. At Nisshin Church we met Peter and Diane Bakelaar, who are members of the Nagoya team. Peter is leading the team while Wayne Newsome is in the States. Their son Evan is the same age as Nelson. The two of them went off for the afternoon. I had an extended visit with Peter and took two of the summer workers to lunch.

The day’s main work for us took place in the evening. Nelson was the invited guest of another English class–this one a bit more advanced than the one we visited the night before. I was asked to teach at a men’s study group. Most of the men are Christians of varying maturity. I spoke to them from Mark 1 about the baptism of Jesus; team member Matt Cummins translated for me. After my 30-minute teaching time was over, we had a 45-minute discussion. The men were eager to ask questions. We covered baptism, the incarnation, the Holy Spirit, and the nature of conversion! One man commented that after tonight’s meeting he should be well on his way to earning a seminary degree. Speaking of seminary, there are seminary classes going on the Nisshin Church as well. I had the opportunity to meet briefly with and encourage a handful of students who were studying together upstairs. The Presbyterian Church of Japan (PCJ) has an extension program that meets in Nagoya.

Thanks again for your prayers.