Randomonium

Brace yourself for a post with no consistency or theme. Lots of gear-switching.

So, last week I went to an ikebana (Japanese flower arranging) class with a friend. It was great fun. 

Here's the arrangement I created. There are many forms of ikebana, but I only learned the beginner form this time. The style of the arrangement I created is ikenobo. As you can see from the photo, Japanese flower arranging is quite different from what I am used to seeing back home, but I like it. Ikebana focuses more on subtraction than addition. The approach is more minimalist, and in ikenobo, the arrangement follows a triangular pattern rather than a round one.

This past Saturday, we participated in a kickball tournament organized by one of our pals here. We had so much fun! It started out with a fairly small group of 12 Americans, but we were spotted by a large group of Japanese people who were participating in their company's ondokai. An ondokai is basically like a track-and-field day. Cities, organizations and companies all sponsor them. Anyway, we invited the entire group to play kickball with us. It was a blast, but I am still sore from the event. I hadn't run in so long. Not to brag, but I did make a double-play single-handedly. I was pretty excited about that since I am quite challenged when it comes to anything involving athleticism.

For the kickball tournament, we all dressed goofy, too. Here's Travis in his awesome outfit posing next to our 1 Liter Toyota Passo. Yes, I did let him borrow my BRC t-shirt but only for that one day, and I'm not sure if I can allow it in the future. It is my favorite article of clothing afterall.

Another highlight of the weekend was Travis insisting on making me dinner last night. I think it was partly a reward for my incredible kickball skills. He made pancakes and sausage links. The pancakes were sooo delicious. He can be pretty cool sometimes.

While we're on the subject of my husband, I must share a little story with you. Yesterday, we attended the international church I have written about on this blog previously. Every time we had attended the church prior to yesterday, we had either heard sermons by guest pastors or by the head pastor's wife. The head pastor and his wife are American, and he had been absent from the church for several weeks because he needed to tend to their home in America. Anyway, we went yesterday, and it was the first time we met the head pastor. He was moseying through the crowd during the singing shaking hands with attendees. He stopped next to Travis and I, and we introduced ourselves and had a short little chat. Well, as I mentioned in another post, it's customary for this church to ask all first-time visitors to stand, introduce themselves and where they're from. This action is then followed by the first-timer's flag being raised at the front of the sanctuary. So, when the time came, the head pastor called us out (in front of everyone) and asked us if it was our first time. With the entire place staring at us, we shook our heads. We had actually been about four other times, but like I said, he was in America. Anyway, the pastor proceeded to publicly welcome "Evan and Jessica from Missouri." Ha!  Wait, it gets worse. Then, a gentleman from Nigeria stood up as a first-time visitor and introduced himself as Evan. After which, the pastor proceeded to say, "How funny! Now, we have two Evans here." Oh, brother. I know it's proper etiquette to correct someone when they mispronounce your name or say the wrong name, but what do you do when it's in front of a crowd of 100 people?! Just laugh, that's what I say. Travis did have the opportunity to to tell him later that his name is indeed Travis, not Evan. I must say that I got a real kick out of it for a good portion of the service.

More importantly, I also want to share some fabulous news with all of you! Our dear friends from home, Greg and Kim, just had their first baby. They have an absolutely incredible story, and their little Carolina Kimberly is nothing short of a miracle. We joined them and many others in praying that they would be blessed with a healthy baby, and our prayers were faithfully answered. They have been through so much during this process, but I am so excited about the gift that God has given them. I, for one, cannot stop thinking about them and that beautiful little girl. If you're interested in following along with their story, check it out here.