Today was a pretty typical Sunday. I spent my morning running around making sure everyone had pressed clothes, fixing little girl hair, and locating that missing Patton Leather shoe. Somewhere in all the morning chaos I managed to obey when God told me to put something in the crock-pot for lunch. Then off we went to church; practicing the morning music along the way. Once at church Ryan and I had to wait to do our sound check because the computer that controls the sound booth was down. Typical Sunday morning stuff.
Well the sound check delay caused us to miss Sunday school. So we were sitting in the sanctuary talking with friends and in walked an older Japanese gentleman. Ryan greeted him and the three of us started talking. He introduced himself as Kiyoshi Osada. He spoke English very well. We found out that he was visiting from the west coast of Japan. He had come to Misawa on the bullet train to get inspiration for his writing. He is a poet by trade. He was visiting different regions of Japan to study the dialects. He said they provide great material for his poetry. Church was about to start so Ryan asked him to sit with us.
During church I again heard that small still voice and this time it said to invite him home for lunch. I protested a bit saying “but God the ironing board is still setup in the living room and I did not get a chance to do the dishes before we left”. But God pressed on and I ran out of excuses. So I had Ryan ask and he accepted.
On the drive to our house I asked Osada-san where he learned to speak English so well. He said that he studied it in school as a boy but really learned it when he went to college in Miami. Well hello! God is so cool! He could not believe that we were from Fort Lauderdale. We spent the weekend reminiscing about Florida, The Miami Dolphins, Bush Gardens, and of course Disney.
During lunch Ryan pulled out a Root Beer and offered one to Osada-san. He was very delighted and said he had not had one in about 25 years. Then he started asking about other sodas. He was so excited when Ryan found a Mountain Dew in the cabinet. By the end of lunch the man had about four different cups in front of him. We had so much fun giving him a taste of soda, cookies, and even an American meal with forks, which he had not had is such a long time.
After lunch Ryan showed him Google Earth which he had never seen before. He showed us his house and then we showed him South Florida. He was amazed and had a great time looking at his college and the beaches he went to in the 1980’s as a college student. What a blast!
When Ryan drove him back to his hotel he gave us a gift of one of his poetry books. I can’t wait to have a friend at church translate some of his poems for us. What an exciting and unexpected gift this man was for us today. I could tell that he had a great afternoon also. He said that today he went to church to praise God. He was hoping to find some Americans to talk with because the base was so near, but he did not plan on making new friends. We were sure to exchange addresses and phone numbers. I am so glad that I chose to obey God this morning. The results are always awesome when you are obedient.
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