“…I was sick and ye visited me…” Matt. 25:36
Sunday, May 27th, 2012Hello again everyone!
Last Sunday after church in Ibaraki, we went to visit a sister in the church by the name of Sister Juliet. She had a stroke about 5 years ago and she’s been in a hospital/nursing home ever since then. Anyway, last Sunday (20 May), we went to visit Sister Juliet in the hospital. There were 14 of us total that went and when we walked in, Sister Juliet was SO surprised!! She was able to push herself up out of bed and sit up. She stayed sitting up until we left. We prayed with/for her a couple times, Brother Okonushi gave her some tapes of the most recent messages that have been preached at Ibaraki UPC, and we just stayed and talked with her for some time.
I think the thing that stood out to me the most about that visit was each time she said, “Oh…I just want to be able to go to church again. I want to go to church again…” There were a couple times at first when she said it that she was smiling but later into the meeting, she would start crying each time she said that. And when she started crying, that got everyone else teary-eyed. To me, it showed me that often times we take for granted the fact that we can go to church whenever we want to. Sister Juliet can not do that. She is one of those people who is like David and will say, “I was glad when they said unto me, let us go into the house of the Lord!”
Anyway, here are some pictures that were taken while we were visiting Sister Juliet.
This was the first time we were praying for Sister Juliet.
Here is Rebekah, Mitsuko, Brother Vic, and Brother Noel.
These two were very happy to see each other. 🙂
She was so sweet….
Like I mentioned previously, Brother Okonushi has been recording the services at Ibaraki and has been saving them to take to Sister Juliet. He buys the tapes and batteries so that Sister Juliet will have a way to listen to some preaching. Sister Kris was getting the tape player ready for Sister Juliet to listen to.
Sister Juliet at one point reached over and grabbed my dad’s hand and said, “Oh Pastor…I really want to come back to church. I wish I could be back in church again.” Then she just broke down crying and we all started praying again.
At the end, we were all giving her hugs and getting pictures with her. I don’t have a picture of the two of us together, but I did snap this shot of Sister Perlita and Sister Juliet together.
After we said our good-byes (actually, we said ‘mata ne’ not ‘sayonara‘), we left the building and saw this:
Then we all wanted to get a group picture in front of the pretty flowers.
Then I got this ADORABLE picture of Justine. Isn’t he such a cutie?!?!
After leaving the hospital, we went to Choshi to see a place where they had a park service right on the beach. And let me tell you something, the beach was SO pretty!! I have a thing for beaches here recently anyway so I always think they’re pretty.
There was even a lighthouse there that you could go out onto the top balcony area. It reminded me a lot of Enoshima Island.
It was very hazy that day but it just made it seem like a lazy afternoon.
After Brother Okonushi, Justine, and Mitsuko walked down towards the water and over towards the rocks, Rebekah and I got the courage to walk down just a bit as well. What I really wanted to do was to walk into the water and get pictures of the waves coming in…BUT that wasn’t an option at that particular time.
You know, you have those certain moments in time when you have huge waves coming in, like the 3/11 tsunami….
…or maybe smaller waves such as these…
…or other times when everything is so sweet and calm…sorta of like our trials in life. Just a Rachel Analogy 🙂
Sister Perlita saw me taking a picture of all of them and posed for it. 🙂
I think this area is so pretty!
That is Brother Vic walking right along the water on the left.
I kind of messed with this one a bit with the contrast and all that. I think it looks neat this way.
I love how the camera caught the wave as it was coming it.
As I was messing around with the picture, I was trying to figure out how to how to make the beach colored but the water black/white. Maybe next time I’ll try to do a colored water, but black/white beach.
Some of the waves that were coming in were pretty good sized. Well, they were nothing compared to the 3/11 tsunami waves, but when you’re standing right there as they’re coming in, they look pretty good sized. Had I been in the appropriate clothes, and not holding my camera in my hand, I would have just stood there and let the waves hit me. But I couldn’t do that.
Justine, Brother Okonushi, and Mitsuko-chan.
I just love Justine!! He’s SO stinkin’ cute!!!
There was an area up above where we were standing on the beach where there were some seashells and some some dollar pieces. Rebekah, Sister Perlita, Justine, and Mitsuko were picking up the shells. That was fun looking for the different shapes (especially heart shapes).
On the drive to Choshi and back to the church in Ibaraki, Sister Josselyn was teaching Rebekah Tagalog. Yes, Rebekah is learning Tagalog. It is kind of funny because I will ask/tell something in Japanese and Rebekah will answer in Tagalog. So I try to guess what she is saying based of what I said or asked.
Anyway, that’s how last Sunday was spent. We had a good time of fellowship all day and a touching time at the hospital visiting Sister Juliet.
God bless you all! I’ll be writing more soon.
Rachel