Welcome

Welcome to my new place! This is the entrance, just waiting for your arrival.

I have already been blessed by my new place. Every morning I sit and look out the windows at the mountains as I talk to God and have breakfast. Being on the 9th floor has its advantages!

A couple of days ago I met a lady who lives in my building. She and her family lived in NJ for five years and just returned last summer. Her daughter is in 6th grade. Mrs. Sasaki is excited to introduce me to her daughter. She is also looking forward to having lunch together. She said that when she saw my name on my post box she was wondering how she could meet me!

On my floor in my section of the building there are three units. The family in 901 seems very nice. Every time I see Mrs. Tanaka she tells me to ring the bell and come in for tea any time. I am looking forward to doing that soon!

This week Melissa and I took a road trip to Ikea. We had a good time looking at dining room tables and trying out the chairs. I found a table and chairs I liked. I went with the mix and match set:)

So, now that all the boxes are put away and I have a table, when do you want to come visit?

Missing Time

Between packing to move back over the ocean, moving back over the ocean, and unpacking a new apartment on this side of the ocean, I have missed posting about a few events that have taken place over the past month. Since I have a few minutes and am at church using the internet, I thought I'd do a quick update...

A visit to Madison, WI to visit aunt, uncle, cousins and the cousins' children...




A going away party with friends from church-a great evening of fun and entertainment!



Palm Sunday



Final evening with the Bible study group...


Climbing Grandma and Grandpa's tree with the Jones children



Home for Easter

Life

Life keeps moving on, doesn't it?! I have spent most of the time I have been back unpacking boxes and trying to find a place to put everything in my new place. It has been a lot of fun. I am just about finished. Tomorrow Paul is going to come see if he can figure out why the faucet to my washing machine is spraying water everywhere. I guess it is about time to get a cell phone and get the internet connected at my place.

And, while all of this is going on, I have had chances to reconnect with friends, go to church and attend Gospel choir. We are having a concert in July so have started practicing for that. We also have some new members who I am excited to get to know.

As I spend time trying to get everything unpacked I sort of wonder how long it will be until I am packing again. Then I am reminded...
"This world is not my home, I just passing through..."
Do you think I will get to live in the same mansion for all of eternity?!

(I know this is not some of my most stimulating writing, just wanted to give you a quick update before I am away from the internet for another day or so again!)

Home Safely

I arrived safely back in Japan on April 2nd. My flights and transfers all went smoothly. I got to sit on the aisle in every plane and stretch my legs out into everyone's path. The only problem was listening to my movie and my neighbor's movie at the same time. Four of my friends from choir came to pick me up and one even made curry rice for me-which lasted until today!

We had a great day celebrating the resurrection on Sunday. In the morning I got to celebrate with the Kongo Bible Church where everyone warmly welcomed me with hugs and handshakes and lots of smiles. In the afternoon we celebrated at Komyo Christian Church where a new couple came because of a flier they had received!

I had a pleasant surprise on my first morning when I went for a run. The running path by the river has been much improved and they are building a new bridge-can't wait to find out where it leads to! Of course, with the cherry blossoms in full bloom, it was a beautiful run.

The number of unpacked boxes in my condo is slowly decreasing, well, the full ones. Now I just have a a pile of empty, broken down boxes. It has been fun to open up boxes and remember my things and the people who gave them to me and then decide where to put them.

Friday will be the first gospel choir rehearsal of the new year. I am looking forward to seeing everyone again!

Giving a helping hand

Last Sunday after a church visit in Sioux Falls, I got to join up with over 30 people from my home church to give a helping hand to children around the world. (This was after a great pork feed and pie auction to help the youth of the church I visited raise money for their missions trip this summer.)

We gathered in the former grocery store where my sister and I shopped during seminary to pack food. A man from Maple Grove, MN started an organization called Kids Against Hunger. He had several companies help him come up with a meal that can be served anywhere in the world with as much nutrition as possible in one package. It took several years to perfect the meal. Now there are packing stations all across the United States where people can go and pack healthy meals which will then be sent around the world. We were told that the 7,344 meals we packaged will be sent to Haiti.

This capped off a challenge from the missions committee at church to eat just rice and beans for one week in February and then use the money saved on food to donate to the organization. What a challenge!

In 2 hours around 30 people were able to package 7,344 meals! Amazing!

Here are a few pics from the afternoon...

We all got to wear the very fashionable hairnets and aprons! We had three assembly lines which included filling a bag with the four main ingredients, weighing the bags, sealing the bags, putting the bags into boxes, and decorating the boxes-done by the kids.


Filling the bags...


Weighing the bags...


Sealing the bags...


And, decorating boxes...


The whole group

Inside the Japan Room

So, in the last post I talked about the World Tour held in Michigan. I thought I'd take you inside the Japan room. The amazing thing is, the church in charge of the Japan room (as well as the ones in charge of the other countries) did all of the decorating. We just showed up and talked! Well, we did give some advice.

Upon entering Japan, the guests entered a Japanese living room. (We had planned to have them put on hospital booties over their shoes to simulate taking off shoes and putting on slippers like we do in Japan. However, after the first group, the groups were so big we didn't want to take time to do that.)
This is one of the little girls who passed out snacks to our guests.

From the living room we headed into the garden...


After listening to Carol and me our guests headed to the calligraphy/anime area. Two gals from the church dressed in beautiful kimonos had made up some anime coloring pages and had been practicing katakana so that they could write the kids' names in Japanese.


Then the guests were then treated to a martial arts demonstration...


And, finally, the guests sampled some delicious sushi!
(FYI: sushi does not equal raw fish!)


Very fun day!

Missions Fun

The weekend of the big football game I was in the Detroit, Michigan area. The NAB churches in the area work together to host a weekend of missions activities each year. This year was my 3rd time to attend (not 4th as I mistakenly said at the closing service) and each time has been a unique and great event. I am going to post pictures of activities because a picture is worth a thousand words!

I got to attend a school field trip to a saw mill and learn all about the life of lumberjacks.


The missionary guests posing for a picture after the Friday evening opening service which was preceded by an amazing meal.


Saturday's big event, the NAB world tour, Japan stop.


The "in-country" tour guides, Shan and Carol.
Each group that arrived had a tour guide traveling with them from Cameroon to Japan and finally to Nigeria. Then the missionaries were the in-country tour guides.


The Nigerian tour guides, Dave and Mary June Burgess.


The Cameroonian guides, Lori Hiller and Debi and Lance Rundus.


Saturday afternoon/evening was spent with the youth, bowling, eating pizza and sharing testimonies.
Sunday morning we each got to share at a different church in various capacities. Then Sunday late afternoon we had a closing service sharing prayer requests and teaching the children about our countries.
The weekend ended watching the big game:)

Love these churches' heart for missions! Thanks, y'all!