Of music and badminton...

So, just a few hours ago I returned from Nozomi summer camp, which involved spending a couple of half-days and a night at a retreat center in the mountains. Yesterday we all piled into cars with a lot of vegetables for the BBQ (for some reason, Japanese bbq's have no hamburgers and a lot of vegetables...), random sports equipment, my guitar, etc. etc., and we headed off...

The camp, in and of itself, wasn't really that interesting, but two grandkids of some of the church members came along to camp (an 8-year old boy and his younger sister), and it is actually for them that I've even sitting down and typing this.

I don't usually like roughhousing with the kids so much...in the past, I've left it up to Jenae, and now I can leave it up to Lindsey, but this 8-year old boy ended up being something akin to a "kindred spirit"... He's been playing piano for like, a year, and he's amazing! I was not faking it at all when I just sat and listened to him, spellbound, for a while. The joke of the night was Cindy pestering him to play a waltz so she and Niwa-san (a really genki church lady) could dance...the boy played and laughed.

And then bring in the badminton matches...ow! I think I can say with certainty that during many hours of badminton, I got my butt kicked by this kid. But mostly, we laughed and laughed... Whenever I was in the kitchen trying to help the ladies and be "grown up", he would come up to me, pull my hand, and say, "Let's play!!"

But beyond the "kindred spirit" bonding, there was this strange recognition of the fact that this kid could and should be a minister to other children...the perfect missionary to send to his age-group, ne? This kid has the music, has the joy and kindness to work with other people...now we just need prayers for his heart...

After the waltz, Niwa-san pulled at the boy and said, "Listen and remember this song: Haidee's gonna play you a really good song." So, I played part of "Inori" for him while he listened. It was funny to watch his face...a mixture of deep thought and appreciation of the music and processing the words...which probably wouldn't be funny, except for the fact that he really is 8 years old and most 8 year-olds that I know would listen to an adult playing a slow song on the piano and go "blah!"...

Anyway, this feels like randomness...actually, more traditionally-exciting things happened at camp too, like my student making it clear for the first time that he wants to study the Bible. Yay! :) But the thing that hits my "intuition spot"...maybe I should just say spirit? is that too far out there for most people?...is this kid...prayers for him and his sister, please!

(And if I'm going to have any future connection with him, maybe you should pray for my badminton ability too...) :) And now, after so many vegetables, I'm going to go consume some chocolate. :)