Tiger Athletic Missions Experience Blog

Day 6 Blog
Bailey Snow - Sophomore 
Hailey Strole - Sophomore
Emily Buffington - Junior

Tuesday, August 6, 2019
On Tuesday morning, the ETBU Cheer, Pom, and Acrobatics and Tumbling teams traveled to Nagano, Japan, where they will serve at a youth camp for the remainder of their trip. Sophomores Bailey Snow and Hailey Strole provided their reflections below, as well as Junior Emily Buffington. 

"Today we traveled about five hours on a bus to Camp Buttobi in northwest Japan, where we will help at a children's camp for the next four days. On the way to the camp we stopped and ate lunch, that had a beautiful, scenic view of the mountains.  
When we arrived at the camp, we unloaded our bags and headed to work in the cafeteria to prepare the dining room for everyone to eat dinner.  After we ate dinner, Pom and Acro performed for the children at the evening session. The performances were high energy and fun for the entire crowd. Later in the night, we all worshipped with the kids and we were all so moved by the worship and willingness of the kids to praise God. I am looking forward to playing games and interacting with the children this week. So far this trip has been incredible and the people of Japan have been so welcoming and loving towards us. I can't wait to see what God has in store for the rest of the trip," Bailey Snow said. 

"This morning we woke up in anticipation of leaving to head off Camp. This journey was filled with nervousness and anticipation, but God showed us he was working through His creation on our path. Midway through the lengthy trek to Camp, we stopped and ate lunch next to a beautiful lake. We took this time to enjoy God's creation and refuel our bodies before arrival. 

Upon arrival, the children were beyond excited to see us and they were bursting with laughter and joy. Once settled in, we began training for kitchen duty and I began wondering how I could possibly be serving the Lord in this gymnasium. Horseflies began biting many of us and it was unclear on how the Lord would use us who are not used to being in this environment for His good. This feeling was flipped once the campers entered the room because of their excitement. After dinner I was one of the lucky few chosen for dish duty, which included a few of us elbow deep in murky water and at that moment I could feel the Lord working through us. I have never felt so much joy from people working in a kitchen. 

After finishing up the dishes I was able to catch the tail-end of my teammates performance and not only were my teammates beaming with joy, but the children in the audience were too. After the performance we went straight into worship and during worship it did not matter where you came from or what language you spoke because we were all worshipping the same God and energy filled the room. The campers loved us joining in and dancing and singing their songs with them and praying with them, but they have no idea the impact that they have already made on me the first night here," Strole said. 

Junior Emily Buffington added the following, "During tonight's worship with the kids, there was a time where we were all singing 'Hallelujah' and I just felt a sense of peace throughout the room. In that moment, I closed my eyes and listened to people worshipping.  It felt the presence of God in that room and it just felt like heaven. We were all praising the same God and we were all the same, no language barrier, but just all God's children coming together to worship him."