Orphan Yuuka

I can't believe I forgot to bring our camera when we visited the Akebono Orphanage for a Christmas party with people from our command and their families. Seven or eight-year-old Yuuka, who sat with us for lunch and performed in an adorable dance in her Santaesque costume, was a memory I regret not capturing on film. The children performed a few dances and songs and we “performed” by singing Silent Night and Jingle Bells.
We spent most of the day at the orphanage and had a smorgasbord of food that we brought and the orphanage provided. We brought PBJs. We sponsored kids and Santa gave them their presents. We had a nineteen-year-old girl, Aikiko, who opened her present at our table without knowing it was us who got it for her. Trish did a great job in picking out a watch, among some other things, that we saw her awe over.
Japan is a wealthy country and so your typical mental pictures of overseas orphanages in developing nations are probably not what it is like here. The children are well taken care of and seemed to be very loved and happy. So that is good to know.
I do not know how much they understand about Christmas. I think perhaps here it is purely a marketing strategy as it has in so many ways in the States. We even saw Christmas sales in communist China. I wish I knew Japanese so that I could tell them about “the reason for the season.” I will have to be content in my prayer that they and unknowing people all over the world will seek out and find the answer to why we truly celebrate Christmas and embrace Him when they do.