Hope House Cafe and Sing-Along Ministry

Having gotten injured my knees the second time at mudout, I had to stay back to help Satoko, Satoshi and Virginia with their afternoon weekly activities.  It was a blessing in disguise that I got to see what the staff does during the day while the teams our out mudding out with Samaritan's Purse. One of the best moments is when we were walking down the street to deliver a gift to a couple that recognized her when she goes for her daily morning run. As we were approaching the home, a lady who comes to the Takidashi stopped Virginia to give her a pair of pants in appreciation.

She wanted to give Virginia some pants

At the Hope House, which is on loan by one of the ladies from the community hold regular activities.  In addition to the kids program, the two activities that I got to witness were the weekly cafe on Wednesdays and the once-a-month Sing-Along cafe.

The welcome sign to the cafe

Apparently baking in Japan isn't as what we experience in the states. It's a combination that the ingredients are slightly different and the appliances are smaller too as Amy from the SBU team can attest with her attempt to make cookies. By request, the Canadian team had brought cake mixes that Satoko and I made some cakes for the cafe. Our adventures in baking turned out pretty well except that both cakes had risen so high and erupted like volcanoes. Satoshi endearingly called one cake Mt. Fuij and we called the square cake Ishinomaki cake.

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Although we only had the professor and one lady visiting that day to enjoy the cake, the next day we had a full house at the Sing-Along cafe. This is led by women who come up from Chiba to lead the group in singing to all sorts of traditional songs. When I arrived there were 17 ladies and one man who came to sing. Although I did not understand the words the music and joy in their voices was so uplifting.

Neighborhood turnout for the Sing-Along Cafe

These lovely ladies from Chiba spend five hours each way to come up to Ishinomaki to lead this ministry.

Satoko with the women who lead the Cafe Sing-Along