Summer!!!

Konnichiwa Everyone!

Sorry it's been so long since I last wrote. I just haven't felt much like writing in my blog. However, I do want to write about some of the places I've been to this summer. Since I have graduated, I have gone to Jamaica, Japan, and my church has had its summer VBS.  I feel like I've been in a whirlwind of activity! I am also an official adult now! Yep, that's right, I'm eighteen!

The first thing I wanted to talk about is Jamaica. Jamaica was a cool place to go and see what a third world country is like. Many people live in places no better than a shack, and yet they are content. Probably because they know no better. Yet there is a resentment towards foreigners coming into the country and using their country as a tourist site. I guess I would be somewhat resentful as well if all my country was good for was for rich people to take vacations. That is the main part of their economy. My heart goes out to them.  

They also have many orphanages. My team went to one of them, and it was called Robyn's Nest. It is a small orphanage literally on top of a mountain! It was really cool to see the ocean from the top. We also had an amazing bus driver named Garry who could navigate the rough mountain roads amazingly well. The orphanage had this thing called pod moms. We were not allowed to hold any of the smaller kids because they have their "pod moms." Pod moms are basically their moms who live and work at the orphanage. They take care for them, play with them, and hold them. They don't allow anyone else to hold them because that would confuse the kids. It made sense, but it was hard NOT to hold those precious kids! They were truly adorable! We mostly helped clean there and help them get ready for the lady who originally started the orphanage to come back, and the couple who was staying there was to leave at that time as well. So they were going through a major transitioning stage, and they really needed our help. We were glad to help. We also got to play with some of the kids at the preschool they had there. Now we could hold these kids because I guess they were at an okay age to hold. Probably less confusing for them then. I played with about three of these kids playing "I'm gonna get you!" They absolutely loved it! And it was so much fun to see their faces when I would jump out and scare them!:-) 

We also went to a lot of public schools as well. We would sing some songs, play some games, and do a skit for them. We would also have some people give their testimonies. That was pretty awesome. On my birthday I got about one hundred Jamaican kids singing happy birthday to me.:-) That was really neat. We also went to the Jamaican Christian School for the Deaf. There were some really precious kids there with some really sad backrounds. It was neat to see how they communicated with each other and with us. It was amazing what you could say to them without using words. I was so impressed by the teachers and workers there. They give up a lot to be there and work with these kids. They have a lot of passion that is obvious in the way they serve and the way they treat the kids. Same for the people who worked at Robyn's Nest.

While we were there we had an amazing lady who helped us out with all the details. Her name is Barbie. She was so sweet, and we really loved her. We welcomed her into our group with open arms. She gave us this devotion called "Know Fear." It was a great devotion, and it touched many of our hearts. There were many tears during our meetings at night, and we bonded together as real brothers and sisters of Christ. We are starting to realize just how amazing our God is. I don't think I'll ever understand how great my God is, but I am starting to comprehend a little of it. 

I also met an old friend from California there. We figured out we were going to be in the same place via facebook. It was so cool because it started with. Oh cool, you're in Jamaica? I'm going too! And it went from there. We were actually staying in the same place called Fairhaven right across from the beach! It was indeed very cool. We finally got the chance to really talk the last night I was there. It was fun just to catch up and laugh at how God works.

I arrived in Jamaica on a Sunday night. I left early on Saturday morning, had a seven hour layover, and arrived back in Georgia around 10:30p.m. The next day, my choir sang during our late service at my church. We met at 4:00 to weigh our bags and have a doctor check on us to make sure we were healthy enough to go to Japan. We went back home and came back 3:30 in the morning! From there we went to the airport to fly to Newark, and from there to Japan. It was about a fifteen hour flight with both flights combined. There is a thirteen hour difference between Japan and Georgia. So when we arrived around 4:00pm on Tuesday, it was three in the morning back at home. Needless to say we were exhausted the first day, but we were told not to nap or it would make the jet lag all the worst. It wasn't easy, but we survived.:-) We had been learning swing gospel music for most of the year since the Japanese apparently like swing music. They like many genres of music, and they also like to learn about different cultures.

The first few days we stayed at Tokyo International Hostel. The second night we were there, we sang at a Korean Church. That was a neat experience, especially since my parents worked at a Korean church before they were married in California. We also got to sing at Hibiya Park. There's a neat story behind that. When we arrived there was a gentle drizzle that looked like it might threaten our concert there, which was outside. So we got together in our "family groups" and prayed for the rain to stop so we could go on with our concert. It started to calm down, and we started setting up for our concert. By the time we started singing, the rain had all but stopped. And when we were singing "Amazing Grace,"  the sun started to come out! I really don't remember seeing this, but I guess it was because I was too concentrated on singing.:-) haha. But I did notice that the sun had come out. We also learned how to sing "Amazing Grace" in Japanese. It was so cool to see the peoples faces when we started singing in their own language.

It was on the same day we sang at Hibiya Park that we went to a temple. This was the first time I had ever seen someone actually bowing down and praying to an idol. It was quite a shock to see this, and it broke my heart. This shows only a part of the spiritual darkness within Japan. They also have the highest suicide rate in the world. The depression rate is also very, very high. They have people called jumpers, who are people who jump into the path of oncoming trains or subways. They have to stop the trains every once in awhile because of these people. It is tragic. They also have a temple completely dedicated to aborted babies. Abortion is the most used form of birth control.  This breaks my heart, it really does.

The same day we were picked up by Hongodai Christ Church buses, and we got a true look at Japan. We got some really cool pictures on the way, and we eventually arrived at Hongodai. The people at the church greeted us there clapping, and we were taken aback by their sweet kindness. We ate dinner with them that night, and that's when I met someone who would become one of my good friends. Her name is Riko, and I love her! She acted as an interpreter that night, and I got to talk to her a bit. We hit it off really fast. Some of the other people I met were Yuko, Hikari, and Jun. I am friends with them on facebook, and I hope I can come back to Japan and see them soon!:-) 

One day we got to sing at the 150th Anniversary of the opening of Yokohama Bay. That was pretty neat. It was so cool to watch all the people that came to watch us, and we even got to sing for the government official that helped us immensely when it came to singing there. We also got to ride a gigantic Farris wheel that day, I think the second largest in the world. I had a lot of fun that night, and now I want to go to the Disneyland there!:-)

On another day we got to sing for the kids at the school at the church we were staying at, and in turn they got to sing for us! That was very special. They also taught us how to play the Hamburger, Fries, and Shake, and I've taught some of the kids how to play it here in Georgia. They loved it! We also got to sing for the Matteru, a group of Down Syndrome kids and their family. I loved it because I too have a little Down Syndrome sister, and I know what music means to them. We got to go down and meet some of them after we were done singing. They were very cute and sweet as well.:-) 

For our fun day, we went to a spa up in the mountains. We left one night and stayed till the afternoon the next day. On the night we were there, those of us who were brave enough went to the naked baths. They didn't have any showers in the rooms, so it was either the baths, or no showers at all. Don't worry the guys and girls were separated. For us Americans it was not easy, but for the Japanese it is just part of their culture. Back then, people couldn't afford baths, so they would have one big bath for an entire community. So for them, it is nothing. However, once we tried it we really enjoyed it. It was a really neat experience. The next day we went to the bathing suit part of the spa. There we reclined in chocolate, honey, strawberry, coffee, wine, charcoal, and green tea baths. That was a lot of fun. I also tried the fish pools were these little fish would come and eat off all the dead skin off your feet. It tickled like nothing I had tried before! It was hilarious though. If you ever go to Japan, you should definitely try it!

To see the pictures from both trips, you can go to http://fbcnewnan.org/. And if you have any questions, please feel free to ask! I would certainly welcome any questions you might have.

Love ya'll!

Keri Lynn