This past weekend we participated in the Hakone Bible Camp for the Ochanomizu church. Hakone is near Mt. Fuji and has a crater lake, Lake Ashi. It was a famous check point during the Edo period under the Tokugawa Shogunate for those traveling from Kyoto to Edo. It continues to be a very popular place to visit. We took a different route this year and were able to cross Lake Ashi by boat.
We traveled by bus from Ochanomizu in the heart of Tokyo to Hakone. It takes a little over two hours if the roads are not crowded. This time in August is the obon holiday so the highway and rest areas where we ate lunch were very crowded.
The theme for this year’s camp was “Building Up the Church Which Is the Body of Christ’ (｢キリストの身体なる教会を建て上げる｣). The theme verse this year is Romans 12:15 – “Rejoice with those who rejoice; mourn with those who mourn.” Dwight spoke twice from Romans 12 – Foundation: Romans 12:1–8; Community Life: Romans 12:9–21.
The second night we broke up into two classes, men and women. Josephine had the devotional for the ladies’ class followed by a time of discussion. Her devotional topic was “An Enemy of the Devil” from Ephesians 6:10–20. Dwight met with the men and discussed the Sunday morning worship period. That discussion generated some very good comments about the importance of the Lord’s Supper and being on time for the assemblies.
There was much good time for fellowship. There were 50 who attended ranging from 3 years old to 80+ years old. The food was delicious and the ofuro (hot spring bath) was great. The sad thing was that we did not see Mt. Fuji at all even though we were very close. But that is quite common for this time of the year.
Children’s class singing a song about Zacchaeus.
