A Funny Story from the Road
So it’s been a while since I’ve last blogged. A real long while. It’s not for a lack of things to blog about as much as just laziness. So sorry. I’ll try not to be this lazy in the future.
The last few months have been a blur. At one point I spent 21 out of 22 nights sleeping away from home because I went on a missions trip to Japan followed by a wedding in New York and a vacation in Boston. Needless to say, I came back exhausted.
But Japan was great. I really feel like we’re making great progress there and I can’t wait to go back next year. There are many great stories from Japan and rather than try to write all of them now, I’ll give you a funny one to start out with.
One of the great things that Pastor Ohigashi is doing in Sapporo is encouraging the house church movement. So one day during the middle of the week we drove out to Yoichi to visit them and stopped along the way in Otaru town.
Because there were a bunch of us going out to the country, we took two cars. In our car we took along a man named Mr. Honma. I love Mr. Honma. He is a man after my own heart. I guy loves to eat (all the omiyage he gives us is food). He has even been known to leave church (while it’s still in session) to go and find something to eat. Needless to say, the man is hungry!
That’s Honma-san on the bottom
Cruising the streets of Otaru
Here’s the exciting menu board
Dural wasn’t playing any games and got the five flavors
Akane opted for a more modest three
But as luck would have it (because I’m sure some of you are feeling really sorry for him right now) David, another team member, was already in line and Mr. Honma got to have a soft cream like the rest of us.
Once we got on the road again, Mr. Honma shared his feelings toward almost being left out of the soft cream party. Through our translator Akane, he said his spirit became sad when he saw all of us happily eating our soft creams. He asked God, “Why? Why can’t I have a soft cream too?”.
Then, he said, when he say David come with a soft cream for him, he was overjoyed. He said he wanted to jump up and down but he was afraid that he might drop his soft cream and become saddened again.
So I told Mr. Honma, “Well you know, we did order for you the soft cream the first time, but the person who failed to get it for you is sitting right next to you.” To which Akane, who was sitting right next to Mr. Honma sheepish looked at me and said, “I’m not going to interpret that.”
And she didn’t. Poor Mr. Honma will never know why he didn’t get to eat soft cream with the early crew.
One thought on “A Funny Story from the Road”
Thank you for sharing that deeply interesting story, I didn't know that!!