Another beautiful Sunday

Today was another beautiful Sunday!

今日がすごい綺麗な日曜日。

The flowers at church had started to bloom.

教会の前の花が咲いている。

With such beautiful weather and no lunch after church this week, we decided to go for a picnic in a nearby park.

とても綺麗な天気があったし、教会の食事がないから、ピクニックにした。

After a few tries, we managed to take a 4-person selfie.

３回目にこの写真の中に皆の顔が入れた。

After we finished lunch, we walked around the park and saw what was the world’s longest bench until 2012, when Switzerland built a longer bench.

ピクニックの後に公園に歩いた。２０１２年まで世界の一番長いベンチが見た。今スイスに一番長いのがある。

Lunch with a friend

M and I met up for lunch again.

Mちゃんと昼食へ行った。

We headed into Obihiro, after looking at her café book, with hopes of eating lasagna.

カフェの本を見たら、帯広へ行った。私たちはラザニアを食べたかった。

Sadly, the café had changed their menu.

でも、カフェのメニューが変わった。

I couldn’t decide what to get, so I opted for the food I’d never tried before.

何にするが決めらなかったから、食べたことない食べ物にした。

I forgot what it was called, but it had rice on the bottom, a salad as the next layer and a hamburger on top.

名前が忘れちゃったけど、下にご飯、その上にサラダ、上にハンバーガーがあった。

I thought the toothpick holder was cute. It says “I’m lucky to have so many good friends.”

これは可愛い。

M and I before we headed in our separate directions.

最後に私たちの写真を撮った。

M and I always have a good time hanging out.

Mちゃんと遊ぶことがいつも楽しい。

An HEC Student!

Went to church a couple of weeks ago, during what is apparently summer vacation for university students.

２・３週間前に教会へ行った。大学生の夏休みらしい。

One of the girls who was a junior leader during my first time going to HEC was at church. Her grandmother goes to this church and her mother grew up as a part of it.

最少の英語のキャンプへ行った生徒がいた。びっくり！彼女のおばあさんはこの教会よく行く。

It’s a small world!

世界は狭いでしょう！

Obihiro Bread Shop

I went with a friend to a bakery in Obihiro. It was really cute and felt like we were going on a picnic.

友達と帯広のパン屋へ行った。かわいかった。

Perfect place to sit on a sunny day.

晴れの日にいい座る所だった。

Here’s the bakery, from the outside.

外からパン屋。

The cute sign with the name of the bakery.

パン屋のサイン。

The weather was nice and sunny so we got ice cream.

いい天気があったから、アイスを食べた。

Photo Challenge Day 31

March 31: Sky (Last day of this photo challenge)

The sky was gorgeous today, so there are two pictures: morning and evening.

Shot on my way to church this morning. I love these mountains. Every time I drive this route, I want to stop and photograph them.

Shot on my way home from church this afternoon. I feel similarly about the mountains on this route (they are likely the same mountains, just from a slightly different angle).

*  *  *  *  *

On top of Easter Sunday today, we had a baptism. What’s really amazing about M’s story is that she met Jesus while she was in Africa for a short time. Somehow God provided a translator and someone to mentor her when she came back to Japan.

Here she is getting baptized. Along the bottom are all the other people taking pictures.

Because it was Easter, Sisters Gospel Choir (my church’s Gospel Choir) sang a couple of songs for us. It’s always fun to hear praise songs in English!

Then we started prep for Easter Lunch. It was potluck, so everyone brought something.

Here are a few of the teens and a couple of the little ones at church.

The sanctuary transformed from place to listen to the teaching to party room.

These girls are getting their contributions ready.

She’s making yakisoba – a church tradition for the Easter and Christmas potlucks.

A few more of the teens at church. The one in the green is one who I talk to almost every week. The other two I haven’t talked to very much.

Part of the line up of food. Doesn’t it look good? Also, my friend Maki makes things other than rice in her rice cooker too! There was soup in the rice cooker at the bottom of the picture.

A couple of the super sweet ladies at church. The one on the right lived in the UK for a while and she sometimes translates for me.

Cake!

Maki, the other person who takes lots of photos at church gatherings (actually, she probably takes more).

A fun conversation.

These ladies are trying to decide how to display this cake.

The yakisoba prep.

Two of my favorite kids. They are constantly sitting on me, pulling me along to play or doing my hair.

He is risen!

A weekend update

We headed to Obihiro this weekend for the Fall Meet, here is some fun from Instagram!

The photos are not in this order:

Some fall colors near my bagel shop.

Pumpkin soup from the bagel shop

Two crazy friends

Cake!

The ally we walked down before finding dinner.

Pickles that came with dinner.

Today's green curry lunch.