Konichiwa! We wanted to send an update letting you know that we have safely made it to Japan for our three-month vision tour. After spending a couple of weeks with family over the Christmas holiday we spent two weeks in Southern California with friends. Nearly every day was filled with dinners and visits with many people that we love. It was incredibly humbling and encouraging to us that people were eager to see us. The church there sent us off with prayers and wisdom, tears and laughter. Our flight was uneventful and that’s really the best possible thing that could have happened. Thank you to everyone praying for Alishia as we traveled.
The Lord has used His workers to bless us mightily. One of the missionaries drove over an hour to pick us up from the airport, then drove us to the place we’ll be spending our first month. It’s an apartment that is under one of the churches in Yokohama, it’s not a church that we’re praying about working with, they just had the space and wanted to bless a couple of perspective missionaries. It’s quite a nice place to stay, but the biggest blessing was getting to meet some of the church staff. Our first encounter with Japanese Christians and the difference between them and there non-believing countrymen is amazing. While most Japanese are reserved and even a bit cold, these sisters were warm and open.
We took a couple of days to recover from the jetlag and pray over the city of Yokohama. We also learned valuable culture lessons, getting ourselves on the correct trains and being able to buy groceries for ourselves. In Alishia’s words ‘the Japanese move fast and are extremely deliberate with all they do; we are often in the way trying to figure out what is going on in a world that whirls by.’ We are enjoying the moments of being childlike and know that we have many more of them ahead.
Now that we have caught our breath it’s time for the work to begin. We will be helping at the first of three churches for the next month. I’ll be teaching on Galatians 4:1-7 on February 5th, so please keep that in prayer. We also have leadership arriving on Sunday January 29th and we’ll be taking them several places in Japan to visit with missionaries. We’ll send out another letter soon. Love you all.
