I’ve noticed that there’s a lot more wax on birthday cakes in Japan. And it has nothing to do with the number of candles on the cake. Here’s the reason:

It’s the cell phone w/ the built-in camera….before candles are blown out or wishes are made, everyone has to take a picture — or three or four — of the cake. I don’t think that they even sell cell phones in Japan without video cameras built in. And this has become the Japanese person’s everyday camera. Whenever there is something noteworthy happening, all of our friends are opening their cell phones and clicking away. (Maybe this is already happening in the US as well – but it wasn’t last time we were home).

This morning we had a birthday celebration at our house church for four friend’s birthdays. All of their birthdays are within a week, so we celebrated together. Since our house church is called “Vineyard,” Eric and I thought it would be fun to make an appropriate cake: (for some reason the purple color came out blue in the pictures, but you get the idea).

It has been a long time since I have heard Eric get choked up, but he did this morning as he prayed birthday blessings on our friends. Keiko and Hiroshi are our church-planting partners and most-dependable friends; Aiko and George are two of our favorite people ever, and both have joined our family of faith this past year.

It was fun to celebrate them today…Keiko shared with me later that she used to hate her birthday coming each year because it meant she was another year older. Since we have come to Sanda, she said she loves birthdays now. Hey- if celebrating helps ease the pain, bring it on!