Alpha Day!

On Saturday we had Alpha Day. Usually a weekend away is held during the 12 week course of Alpha, but it didn't work for our church to do that, so we had an Alpha Day instead. It was filled with lots of fun, encouraging talks and fellowship. The place we went to was awesome! Near Sendai there is a place called Akiu and you can rent cabins along the river there to camp or have retreats like we did. It was a great location and very rustic. There were all kinds of trails and paths, a foot pool, parks, a coffee shop and pottery store. All around, it was a wonderful day!

Here's the cabin we had and the view of the river out the front door.

Dan and Manami, one of the church members, watched all the kids of those attending Alpha Day. They kept them busy with lots of frog searching (encouaged by Dan, of course!) and playing while the adults watched and participated in the Alpha sessions.

The adults were able to use the upstairs room to watch the videos and have some disscussion time with the kids used the main floor to run in and out of.

Here we are all together at lunch.

Alpha Update

On Sunday we had another great turn out for Alpha. This week we started small group discussions and they went really well. Dan and another Japanese friend took care of all the kids that came along with their parents. They did a great job at keeping them entertained and fed! We heard great responses to the evening after Alpha came to a close for the evening. We are so thankful to the Lord for blessing this course so far. We are 2 weeks into it and have 10 more to go!

Small group 1
Small group 2
The kids at our house

Alpha Evening

Alpha went GREAT! We had about 22 people that came; five people were non-church attenders. We had a nice dinner and got to know some new people. We are praying that everyone who came this week will continue to come, we are also expecting a few new faces next week. Keep praying that the Lord would work in the hearts of those that attended.

Shopping for ALPHA!

Today, May 6th, we're beginning Alpha at our church here in Japan. We are so excited! It starts tonight at 6:00 p.m. We had 15 people sign-up to attend and a few more that couldn't sign-up. Pray that it goes well! Since Alpha starts the evening off with a delicious meal, myself and two others went shopping yesterday to get the food that will be prepared. We had a fun time! Recently I was sent a "Flat Stanley" by a young girl in Jamestown, ND, so we see her in the pictures as well.

Alpha Team!

Tonight we had our first Alpha training session. It went really well and we are so thankful for the six other individuals that are helping with the Alpha course! From the left: Junko Sasaki, Maya Stensvaag, Manami Sato, Yoko Sasaki, Ayumi and Hiromitsu Sasaki.