Pharr United Methodist Church invited us to run the VBS program this morning to teach the children a little about Japanese-American culture.  About 8-10 children were there, along with about 10-12 adults.  The adults were attending their ESL class while their children attended VBS but we invited them all to join in.Jennifer and Lisa started out teaching some common words and phrases in Japanese.  They learned  “Good morning,” “How are you?,” “Yes,” “No,” “Thank you,” “You’re welcome,” and of course “Love God, Love One Another.” Jennifer, Lisa, and Barbie wore Kimonos while Eric wore a Happi coat.



Everyone enjoyed tasting the Japanese crackers and Spam Musubi we made.  The children as well as the adults had a great time learning how to use “hashi” (chopsticks) and then putting their new skills to use playing two hashi race games.  After that, they learned how to sing “Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes” in Japanese and they were very good at it! 

Another game and then it was time to settle down and get serious with some complicated origami designs.  Everyone made a samurai hat, a flying crane, and then the group split up to make either the jumping frog or the flower.

VBS was a lot of fun for everyone involved even though there were constantly three languages being spoken throughout the morning.  The adults and children practiced their English (the adults all took notes!) and learned some Japanese, while we practiced our Japanese and Spanish!


After VBS, our group was able to spend the rest of the day doing some touristy sightseeing.  This gave our bodies a much needed break from the exhausting and straining work we’ve beendoing.  So after a lunch of sandwiches at the church, we headed a little farther south to southern-most tip of Texas: Brownsville.  We had been told that walking around downtown would be a good idea, but after about 15 minutes in the scorching heat, we changed our plans and headed east to Port Isabel and then across a mile-long bridge to the chain island of South Padre Island.  There we did some shopping at the beach stores, walked around on the fine white sand beach (a few of us put our feet in the Gulf of Mexico) and had a relaxing seafood dinner on the beachfront patio of The Palms Café.  After about an hour and a half drive, we were back in San Juan and having Wesley time to check in, pray, and then we were off to bed.  Tomorrow should be our last day on the roof!






  
Return to Young Adult Mission Home page