"Volunteering" in Japan

By God's grace, we've been building momentum over the last few months in getting to know students. This last weekend, we tried something new to break out of our normal routines, and challenge students to look at their world a little differently. We took a small group into Tokyo to volunteer at Second Harvest Food Bank. It was a great experience!
We worked from 10:30am to 4:00pm, preparing, serving, and cleaning up. It was fun and group building to prepare the meals from donated ingredients (from Costco Japan, etc.).
We then took the train to Ueno Park in Tokyo, where we were all amazed to find ~550 homeless lined up and waiting to receive food from Second Harvest.
It was a hot day, but we were blessed that our part of the serving line stayed in the shade the whole time! :)
Ueno Park is over an hour trip from us, but we had a great time. The experience deepened our relationships with each other, and provided opportunities for types of conversations that don't normally come up during lunch break on campus!

Pray with us that God will use this experience, and others like this (we hope to do in the future), to open students hearts to the power and truth of the gospel - through the deepened relationships formed through serving together.