Getting Settled

Well, we made it to Japan. We arrived at around 2:30 pm Japan time last Tuesday and have been pretty busy since then. We have found out that we won't have phone or internet at our place for another week or so and have had a hard time finding wifi hotspots we can use, so we are feeling rather cut off from much of the world right now. But we thought you might like to know a bit about our first few days here.

We jumped right in on Wednesday and went down to the city office to get Christy registered. Terence needs to get his visa changed first and then he will do the same later. Near the city office is a restaurant the boys remembered from our last visit called Dohtonbori. They liked that you cooked your meal at the table. Two unique phrases that emerged from our boys during this meal were "Make sure mine has squid in it." and "Pass the fish flakes."

On Thursday we made our way to one of the preschools we will be working at and used their phones and computers to take care of some business. We arranged for internet to be hooked up at our place and contacted the school the boys will be going to to set a time to come in. We also made plans with the head of the preschool to go to the visa office and change Terence's visa status.

On Friday we went to the boys school, Christian Academy in Japan, and met their teachers. It looks like it should be a great school. Tai is excited that he gets two recesses and Bible classes. Willem likes that he has a locker with a lock (He jokes that in Ohio he had an -er, since it didn't have a lock.). We also got train passes for the boys for their commute and visited the library down the hill from our place to get library cards.

Saturday was a day to shop for school supplies and other necessities for our apartment. Later the boys had a chance to play at the community center across the street from our apartment.

On Sunday we went to church. We got there a little early and found a new little shop selling steamed Chinese buns. The owner was very friendly and invited us in to try the food. Afterward, Christy led a children's Sunday school class and spoke in the service as well. It was great to see the people from the church again after two years. After church we went shopping for the last school supplies for the boys and more stuff for our apartment.

That about does it for our first few days.

Packing and Visiting

Just an update on what we have been up to and where we have been. We left Alabama on October 23rd and headed to Ohio. Our time was spent visiting with family and friends, traveling to churches to raise prayer support, packing, sorting, taking care of details and making decisions necessary to leave for Japan. These three months have gone very fast. We were not able to do all that we wanted to do and see everyone that we wanted to see. Now we are on our journey to Japan. Our shipment is on its way and all of our bags are packed. It is so nice not to be a full-time packer anymore. We flew to Vancouver, Canada on Tuesday of this week. We will be here until the 17th when we leave for Japan. With most of the preparations done we are enjoying a somewhat relaxed time visiting with Terence's friends and family.

As a part of preparing to go to Japan we have had a great time visiting churches to tell them about our ministry there. We met a lot of new people but it was also nice to spend time with old friends. Over the years we have made several friends who are pastoral families. Unfortunately often times Pastors are called to different areas and we don't have a chance to see our friends who are pastor's very often. We visited churches and church groups in Laurel, Mississippi; Decatur, Alabama; Fredrick, Maryland; Scott Depot, West Virginia; Arab, Alabama; Cincinnati, Ohio and Middletown, Ohio. It was difficult leaving our church family at Riverchase but we have learned when you are a part of the family of God you have brothers and sisters in Christ all over the world.

In addition to all of these trips we were able to visit some of Christy's family in Florida and squeeze in a visit to Disney World (thanks to the Give-a-Day volunteer appreciation program). We were also able to take Christy's grandmother with us to Maryland and visit Washington, DC with her.