Sorry for such a long time since the last update!!! Where were we?

Our Saturday Night Theme Night this week was 4th of July and quite thecultural experience! We had hot dogs, a three-legged race, a waterballoon toss that turned into a water balloon fight and me gettingsoaked, and fireworks! The fireworks were the cultural experience. Thepastor told us to take to the kids to the river to shoot them off. Sowe took almost 20 kids, as well as an assortment of highschool,college students and adults through the pitch dark to the PITCH DARKriver front. The kids were running wild and knocking on doors alongthe way to invite even more friends. Once we got to the river theyjust ran crazily through the dark. Then sparklers were passed out andall the kids were running around with them, bumping into each other.Melissa almost had a heart attack. Then to top it off a highschoolstudent started setting off the big stuff. As we left I just prayedthat we had the same number of children as we arrived with and we bothwere relieved when it was over. The pastor was quite pleased and saidit was a success....we were blown away by how chaotic it had been!Apparently that is perfectly normal!

One good part of the evening was that we were able to connect with two girls, Chisaki and Akie. Chisaki is 17 and comes to my t/r nightclass, and Akie is 20 and comes to my Saturday afternoon class. Afterwe prayed for the hotdogs, Akie leaned over and told me that was thefirst time she had ever heard someone pray! We have invited them todinner but haven:t been able to set a date. Please pray that we willbe able to have time to spend with them in the next few weeks and thatwe will be able to have good conversations with them.

Melissa and I also shared a short message in church on Sunday. We shared on Luke 17 and the ten lepers. We got a lot of positivefeedback and will be doing another "devotional" in two weeks. Nextweek we will be giving our testimonies. Neither of our normaltranslators will be in there on Sunday, so a guy from Yamagata City iscoming to translate. His English is not great...I was able to meet himon Monday, so pray that our testimonies are presented clearly and arean encouragement.

Kids classes are great...but many of the kids have been sick! So prayfor that. We are learning about family this week. They all drew greatfamily pics and are learning mom, dad, brother, sister, grandpa,grandma and dog (at their reques). Little Ren who I told you aboutlast week had a difficult time. He drew himself in the middle of thepage by himself. We encouraged him to draw other people that wereimportant to him, like his grandma and aunt who take care of him. Heis a very hurt and confused little boy. Pray that seeds will continueto be planted in his heart as he hears the truth daily through songsand Bible stories.

Language wise, we finally figured out how to use the proper titleswith names! It was quite a breakthrough!

We:ve also started learning how small Kaminoyama is! We run intopeople all the time who come up and try to talk to us, because theirchild, or grandchild, or sibling is in one of our classes.

This week please pray for*

Chisaki - She is the 17 year old I was telling you about. She isextremely smart and would like to study in the US eventually. Praythat we will really connect and that our conversation will

movetowards spiritual things. Pray that I will be able to plant some seedsin her life this summer.

Akie- that we will be able to have that conversation about prayer! Andthat she will gain a basic understanding of who God is.

Toru- I asked for prayer for him last time. He is still coming toclass but has stopped coming to Saturday nights. Pray that he willreturn and the pastor will be able to interact with him more.

Taiga- He is five years old and I teach him 8 hours a week! He comesto every morning class and three afternoon classes a week! He is ADDand can be quite disruptive during the BIble lesson.

Pray that he willbe able to sit quietly during that time so as not to distract others,and also so that he can hear the truth!!

Thank you so much for your prayers!! Melissa and I appreciate them somuch, and they are truly what gets us through the day! Thank you also for all your encouraging emails - keep them coming!

Co-laboring with you,
Anna Martin