preparations...

We are preparing to leave Hachinohe- it is a rainy Monday morning here, and there is last-minute packing and cleaning and praying to be done. Many of our readers and church members will　be meeting us at the Shinkansen train station to say final farewells, though the church gave us a touching goodbye yesterday. I don't think any of us are prepared adequately to say good bye. We are all praying for another opportunity to share time with the people in this community.
We are thankful for members like the Matzuzaka's, Masako, Masayo, Etsuko, and Chieko for preparing our lunches during the week and for anwsering the church office phone. We are thankful for the futon beds they prepared for us when we arrived two weeks ago. We are thankful for their generous hospitality. We have seen the fruits of the Spirit in abundance here. The gifts have been physical and rich and also spiritual and of the kind that we will treasure in our hearts for much longer.

Please pray for us, as we travel. We will go by train to Sendai, fly from Sendai to Tokyo, and fly from Tokyo to San Francisco. Sometime late tomorrow (maybe technically Monday night??) we are supposed to leave San Francisco for Dallas, where LST will hold the end meeting. (Our layover in SanFran will be until very late and we are arriving in Dallas at midnight!!) We should leave Dallas Tuesday afternoon for Los Angeles and Boston (Tomi is headed out that way.) Pray for Tomi, who is busy preparing for studies at Oxford in the summer. Pray for Dennis, who has a small pain in his hip, that he is comfortable. Pray for me and Lisa, that we can find some sleep and comfort while we travel!!

Finally, pray for the church here in Hachinohe and for the non-Christian readers who we have met. Pray for the church to grow and to be motivated by our presence to continue shining light over this city. Pray for our readers, who are all special for so many reasons, that they continue to think about what we have read and shared with them, and that fires will be lit and kindled. Pray for bravery and confidence, especially for those who are open to Christ but who do not make the next step because of familial pressure and Buddhist/Shinto roots.

I will try to be thinking of this verse as I travel:
"Glory to God in the highest,
and on earth peace to men on whom his favor rests."
Luke 2:14

Lake Towada Photos!!

Konnichiwa!!

We are sorry that we haven't updated our blog! We have truly been busy- yesterday our team had a combined total of 18 Bible study hours with our readers!! Each of us has a story of at least one reader that we have connected with on a spiritual level as well as in friendship. God is working here in Hachinohe! Which makes it hard to leave- we are in the home stretch of our trip and I have to remind myself that we were leaving as soon as we entered Hachinohe, and that God will continue to work here even after we leave!
Sunday was a busy day for us- we had our "4th of July Party" which included a great seed-spitting contest! (Our guests take games very seriously and are very competitive!!) Masako, who won our jelly-bean guessing game contest, was only one number away from the correct jelly bean count!

Please continue to lift us, the church, our readers, and this town up in prayer. We are praying that the seeds that have been planted continue to grow. Pray that those who are Christians grow stronger and that those who are thinking about becoming Christian are brave enough to take the jump into that pool of living water!!

Photos from Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday

Our lessons have been great and we are all very excited about the weekend because we will go to Lake Towada on Saturday, and on Sunday we are having a 4th of July party!! (We are planning chips/salsa, pigs in a blanket, a jelly-bean counting contest, watermelon seed contest....) Our relationships with our readers have been a blessing and everyone here is very generous- they are generous to give us rides to the grocery store or ATM, generous to help us use Japanese phones, and many readers come bringing gifts! (Especially sweet gifts like cookies and cake!!) We are so thankful!

Slide show of Sunday and Monday

Here are some photos from our trip to Japan and our first two days in Hachinohe with our new friends!

We are here!!

Greetings from Hachinohe Church　of Christ!! It is hard to believe that we have been here for almost two days! (It is Monday afternoon here but Sunday evening back home!) Today was our first day with readers and already we have each met with at least one reader- I have met with two different readers and both have rescheduled to come back again this week!

Yesterday, we were warmly received by the Church- we each introduced ourselves at the morning service and everyone here is so kind and happy to receive us! We also enjoyed a very delicious (oi-shi) meal of rice with a curry stew prepared by some of the women from church. Already we are getting have been blessed by amazing Japanese hospitality- good food and tea and everyone wants to serve us. Yesterday we also went to the Hachinohe shopping mall and to the store for some basic needs. We went with Masayo and the Nakamura sisters and had a lot of fun enjoying their company, especially when we went to a hamburger place called "surprise donkey"!

This morning I read with Yui, an elementary teacher who teaches the same age that I teach in Sunday school. We read about the Prodigal son and we talked about how a father would react in our world if his son was so foolish. I talked to Yui about how I felt more like the older son who sees the younger son as a fool, but Yui reminded me that we all are like the younger son at some point in our lives. She is not Christian but she is very open to the word and I am very excited about our next session.

Please pray for us, that we are well rested and that we are able to help the readers with their English. Pray that we find ways to understand each other, when things might get lost in translation. I am praying that our readers will see God working and that I will be a good example as a Christian woman.

What Awaits Us

Greetings, this is Lisa! I'm writing this with about 2 1/2 days separating my team and me from some of the most amazing people in Hachinohe, Japan. I was blessed to have been there last year, and I think my return for a second year can go to show how much I saw the Lord working in these people, not to mention the wonderful relationships I formed and have maintained with so many of them. Hachinohe is a very small, rural city, and I absolutely love that...not to mention the friendly people that greet you, no matter where you are. My team and I are very eager to see what the Lord has in store for us for the coming two weeks. Please pray for us as we travel (for many hours!), and get settled, while simultaneously preparing to start class the next day with our 33 readers. One of us will definitely update this upon our arrival. Thank you all for your support, without you, we would not be this prepared and ready to do God's work. Domo arigato gozaimashta (thank you very much). Above is a picture of the side of the church where we will be staying and having class. It used to be a pre-school!