Halloween Pictures of The Paul Family

Gospel Festival

This last Saturday our team put on our special singing voices and became the group known as "Offering." Every year for the past few years, Sendai City has been hosting the Sendai Gospel Festival. There were 54 groups that sang in various areas downtown. People can walk around listening to different groups. We sang twice this year; once at 3pm and then again at the "Final Stage" at 5:30pm. I'd say that at least 60 gathered to hear us both times. Here's a few pics.

One more thing. Erica's family got into Japan tonight. Their flight was delayed 6 hours! Anyway, thank God, they got in safely and they're staying at a hotel near Tokyo tonight. They'll take the train up to Sendai tomorrow. I'm excited ... Erica's REALLY excited!!

Watage!

"Watage" means dandilion. The idea is that people who struggle with various difficulties can come, receive love and help, and then fly off somewhere where they can put down roots and live a happy and productive life. This is where Joel and I volunteer once a week. I teach this English conversation class. I bet that if you guys joined sometime you could really learn a lot!

Here's a shot of yours truly teaching a bit of English to the kids at Watage. In this particular lesson we were studying sentence patterns like, "This is Vincent Van Gogh. He's not a truck driver. He's a painter." Notice my pointing stick -- it's a shoe horn.
Here's the best part of the class...the kids. Average age of about 17. And we have any where from 5 to 20 kids who attend each week. We have lots of fun playing games and enjoying each other!
This is a picture of what my black-board looks like sometimes. I try to make it as enjoyable for the kids as I can. One of the reasons that I love this class is because it helps the kids become comfortable with me. Some of the best conversations happen with them because they've learned to trust me and know that I care about them.

Slightly random stuff

A Butterfly we found just floating around. It just happened to be in an artificial habitat in a museum, but very much alive. At the Fair in September, Hannah was having fun chopping carrots. Why? I dunno, looked like fun I guess.
August to September we had to gut our upstairs bathroom, due to the wax seal in the toilet being corrupted and then leaking under our linoleum and destroying the subflooring. I learned much about home repair. He he he, ouch.
Here is Ella sitting on a bable at the fair playing with some sort of wooden thing, and it looks like she is trying to make fire, but I'm not really sure.

Couple of Weirdos

We thought that you guys might want to see some pictures of us. Well, here we are! A couple of pictures in the park, a picture in Hachinohe, and a picture in the car. God's been so good to us, and we pretty much love being in the same neighborhood! This way we're able to annoy each other with much greater frequency. But seriously, we're having a great time and loving serving the Lord over here together. Love you guys!
Ben & Erica

Here are more pic's. Yesterday was my mother's birthday, and Thursday is my father's. I am happy for their birthday's and wish they would wish each other a happy one as well, but I know they won't.

Ella is learning to use the potty, and the other day after having a successful attempt, she decided that she was a big girl now and put her sister's panties on over her pajamas. It was/is very cute.

I also have found a fishing companion that knows where to fish, and is willing to take me, so he does not have to fish alone. This is one of the 8 chum salmon I caught over the period of 2 fishing trips within the last 8 days. Whooee that was fun!

Butch Here, thought I'd get in on the action, and responding to one of Dad's comments, yes Ben you are beautiful.

Well as you can see we have been busy at the pumpkin patch this year, and having a great time exploring the changing of the seasons. Hannah (age 4) and Ella (age 2) love being outside and ballancing pumpkins on their dad's head. Surprisingly enough they also enjoyed scooping the insides out of the pumpkins. We had quite the good time and then for fun on October 31st they dressed up as Fairy Princesses and we went over to a friend's house for some Harvest Festivities. Enjoy.

Out of town - AGAIN!

Am I ever really in Sendai? Sometimes I wonder. Tomorrow Erica, Joel, Debi and I are going down to Tsuchiura (Ibaraki) to continue our bi-monthly "youth" gathering time. This time we're going to be with just two kids, Emi and Eichi. Great kids. I'm really excited to see them! And our theme is going to be prayer. Hopefully I'll be able to post some pictures when I get back. O God, move powerfully and intimately among us. Mold us into men and women of prayer. Take away our barriers and expand our horizons. In Jesus name, amen! Love you guys!! Looking forward to reading your entries! Great job, Nessa!
I'm out!
Ben

Summer is Gone!

Well, I obviously need to get some more recent pictures developed! We now have camera phones, but don't have the cord to hook it up to the computer yet. Anywho - this is one of my favorite pics from the summer. It was at a waterpark for BJ's company picnic...we had soo much fun! Gavin loved all the different activites there; the merri-go-round, train, bumper cars, and water play area. Hopefully we will find something fun to do together this upcoming winter:) Soon I will have pics from the Pumpkin Patch we went to with the congreation to share with you all!! WE MISS AND LOVE YOU!

I'm Here For You

Okay well. Might as well just go ahead and make it! This is a little space for all of us to post pictures, thoughts, and what not. We'll give it a go for a while and see if we likes it, precious! Just one thing ... I'm the second born of the four siblings and don't forget it! Yeah, that doesn't really mean anything, but that's okay! It's our blog and we can write whatever we want! With a big portion of my love, Ben