103... Do we have to go?

Today we had one of those days in which we had to ask ourselves, "Why are we leaving?" and we also remembered, "Oh yeah, this is why God has brought us here!" It was one of those days that makes us super excited and joyous but also makes our hearts break as we think of the impending good-bye.

Sometime last month, one of our English Club students asked us if the students could have one of the English Clubs in December to do something for English Club. Of course we said "Yes!" excited that they were wanting to plan and run an English Club. Up until a week ago we had no idea that they were actually up to something quite suspicious. After seeing them come in and out of the teacher's room numerous times a day to discuss things with the Japanese teacher whose the head of English Club and having them dodge us in the hall with things hid behind their backs, we realized, "Oh, maybe they're doing something special for us." But of course, we had no idea what this would entail.

As we entered the English Club room today they informed us that we-Travis and Angie- would be partaking in some special games:

The first game: Taboo, in which the first round we could only say 1 word to describe our word, and the second round we could only do gestures. Sounds easy enough, right?! That's what we thought, until for the "one-word" round they had their own names, Mickey, and other famous characters, and then for the gesture round they had things like, shrimp, Snoopy, Obama, and compass! Yeah, they definitely made it harder on us than we ever do on them! But, we all had great laughs as Angie tried to act like a shrimp and Travis frantically crawled around on the ground like Snoopy!

The second game: Treasure Hunt, of course also had a twist. To get our clues we had to partake in mini-challenges or answer a question about English Club; for example, "Where was the first English Club party held?" or "Whose speech title was, 'Studying Abroad?'" We had untli 4:30 to find 9 clues, and we made it back at 4:26- just in time!

Our last hint for the Treasure Hunt led us to unlock the English Club room, where we were surprised with confetti, poppers, baked goodies, and shouts of "Congratulations!" That's when the party took on a more serious tone and the tears started coming. Each of the students went around and shared their favorite memory or experience about English Club and gave us a "good-bye/thank you" present, including a memory book with each of their pictures and a letter.

Needless to say, this was one of our best experiences in Japan, not because of some cultural experience or some awesome sight-seeing place, but because of the love that we felt from our students. Times like this remind us why God sent us here and shows the work that He has done through us here. We know that God has reached each one of those students and each student has grown because of it, and we are excited to see how much more God has in store for them in the future.. . even if we aren't here to witness it first hand.