The Countryside...

Hirao really is country. I feel it the most when we venture to pass out fliers. Here in Japan, unlike America, it is legal to place advertisements in mailboxes. In fact, it's not abnormal to open the front door and just leave your paper sitting there on the floor! We try to stick to the mailboxes though :) Right now we are preparing to start some new English classes at the church in March, and so in addition to the ad we put in the paper, we're distributing flyers around the neighborhood.
There are 13,000 people in all of Hirao. Small, but not super small. Still, we have no train station, which is basically the marker of whether you are in the 'bush' or not. But here's the deal - and it's noticable when passing out fliers, because - there really aren't any neighborhoods. It's a house here and a house there, and one way over there. It makes passing out fliers pretty difficult. And tiring. Thankfully I am finally familiar enough with the area and all the little roads that I don't have to do too much backtracking to see if there's a house at the end of 'that' street or not... it's taken some time though. When you go out for several hours and only pass out a couple of hundred fliers, it's easy to get discouraged!
But we worked on it today, and will go back out tomorrow in the morning... before the rain comes in the afternoon. We should have a little time left next week, too. But even if just one person comes because of the fliers, it's worth it. We're praying for a bunch though - the more the better! Have to wait and see...