a full heart

It's Tuesday and I'm distracting myself with a little bit o' blogging. This is the day I've set aside to finish packing and to clean the apartment. I've felt so blessed by this last week and a half. It's been the perfect ending. Here are some final memories:

*Sunday morning, quite a few of my students showed up to hear my final message. One new student, who only started a month ago, came with his wife and newborn baby. His wife quickly offered for me to hold the baby, which kinda surprised me because that seemed like a big act of trust on her part since it was the first time we had met.

*The church gave me a beautiful pearl necklace as a parting/thank you present. One of the church members patted me on the back and said "good job serving the church." I really sensed the Lord's pleasure in this moment.

*Sunday evening was my final Young Time meeting and I was expecting the usual 6 junior high girls to show up and to have a low-key time with them. To make the night special, I thought I'd surprise them by wearing my yukata (summer kimono). I was in the library of the church with my friend who was helping me get dressed. I could hear some kids in the next room and knew that Yudai (my class clown) had arrived since he was repeatedly trying to open the door of the library. When I emerged from the library, I walked into a room filled with kids and moms. Immediately, my students came to me a started handing me cards and gifts. I was overwhelmed. I had no idea so many children would come! There were 18 kids and 6 junior high girls. It was chaotic and beautiful. I loved that the church members put all of this together without my help, not because I don't like helping, but because it speaks to the fact that they are fully capable of leading the children's ministry and to doing it well. I told the woman who was the leader for the evening how pleased I was and how seeing so many children in the church gave me hope for the future. She said that this was a seed that I had planted, which was something I spoke about in my message that morning.

*One of my 8 year old students wrote me a letter in Japanese, so after the kids left the church my friend Masumi helped me read it. The first line says "Watashi wa Millie Sensei ga daisuki desu." Or, "I love Millie Sensei," but this translation doesn't really capture the full meaning. If I asked this student "Do you like puppies?" or "Do you like chocolate ice cream?" she would answer smiling from ear to ear, in a voice as sweet as cotton candy "DAISUKI!" This is the letter that finally broke the dam that had holding back all of my emotions and tears. I was a weepy mess after this.

*A student from Konoike made a really cute card for me and wrote in it: "I feel sad that you're going to leave here. I wish I could talk to you and go to somewhere...but I had a great time with you. I might meet you because of Jesus??" For sure.