It is officially our second day in Japan! Our first day was filled with travel and anticipation. As always, going to Japan provides a wonderful opportunity to show people we know and love in the States our commitment to Christ and His greater plan for the world. Before going people were skeptical and even told us that we didn't have our priorities straight. But it has become ever more apparent that we are right where God wants us. Talking about Japan and our mission here always gets me excited because I get to talk with my family and friends who don't have a personal relationship with God about my growth and faith. This year Hawi and Preston had a front (or back) seat to this experience. While driving to the airport I had one of the most genuine conversations about God that I have ever had with my family. I was praising Him the entire time we were speaking. It's amazing the information that can be revealed to you when you follow His calling.
Additional blessings were poured out upon all of us when we got to the plane. For those of you that don't know, the non-stop flight to Narita Airport takes about twelve hours. Joe and I have our nine month old son, Hezekiah with us. We were not able to include him on our original flight reservation through priceline so we had to work with American Airlines and Japan Airlines to add him to all our reservations last minute. The process ended up being pretty smooth, and during the reservation I asked if our group of five could sit together. Then the unexpected happened.
Hawi and Preston ended up sitting next to each other on the left side of the plane, and Felicia and I sat on the right side of the plane with a window and aisle seat. There was also an empty middle seat between us which was an incredible blessing. For the majority of the flight Kai either sat buckled up in the empty seat or sleeping on his belly surrounded by pillows and blankets. He probably slept 8-9 hours out of the 12 hour flight, and he was very comfortable. We later found out that my mom had been praying for this exact situation to occur. There is definitely power in prayer, and God wanted to make traveling with Kai a blessing. =D
Pastor Kishio (pastor of Niiza church) and Tadashi (son of Fukui Sensei, who is coming to America) picked us up at the airport, and drove 2.5 hrs to Tokyo. Kai slept the whole time. Honestly traveling with him has been great thus far. We had dinner at a Japanese buffet with Pastor Fukui, Masako (host family for Preston), and her son Rei who is about three years younger than Preston.
Joe helped Hawi and Preston navigate their first "authentic" Japanese food experience and they were able to find a few foods that they liked such as tempura and udon. At around 10pm (8am CST) everyone when to bed. Felicia, Kai, and Joe stayed in a comfortable apartment above Tamagawa church. Preston stayed at Mikako's home rooming with Rei, and Hawi stayed a 15 minute drive away with Naomi, Nozomu, and Yuki (10 year old boy). We all woke up at 4-5am ish. #sleepy
Day 1 of ministry started with a Sunday church service at Tamagawa Church. It was an amazing opportunity for Joe and Felicia to connect with many friends from ministry over the years and to gently connect Hawi and Preston with mission work in Japan. During service a young female college student named Kai translated for Hawi and Preston. Last year Kai became a christian during the Tamayurishiki camp that we preached at. In the middle of service Hawi and Preston shared their testimonies and why that wanted to step out of their comfort zones to serve the Japanese church. They expressed a strong desire to stretch their own faith and a willingness to let God lead them to serve and grow the faith of others. They did a phenomenal job navigating nerves while trying to share their story. It is very difficult to learn proper pacing when using a Japanese interpreter because the locations of nouns and verbs is flipped from Japanese to English.
After service there was a big pizza party so the church could connect with us. I (joe) had shrimp and scallop pizza, Preston had pizza with corn and potatoes, and Hawi stuck with the 4 cheese (one of the cheeses was blue cheese). Very different from Chicago style pizza.
Then we had a 3 hour Tamayurishiki camp planning meeting. God has built a huge team around this camp which will have around 20 kids.
Please pray for the leaders of this camp:
Makoto Fukui
Sonoko Fukui (pastor fukui's wife)
Sumiko Fukui (pastor fukui's daughter)
Tadashi Fukui (pastor Fukui's son)
Naomi Tajika
Nozomu Tajika
Mikako Sasaki
Rei Sasaki (Mikako's 14 yr old son, became a christian and got baptized two years ago)
Kai Nakagawa (new christian at last year's camp)
Hikaru Kishio (pastor of Niiza church)
Reiya Kishio (pastor Kishio's son who got baptized two years ago after camp)
Gary Sedon (Japanese missionary from the UK that we met 2 years ago)
Naoko Sedon (Japanese missionary who translated for us 2 years ago)
Kai Sedon (Gary and Naoko's 13 month old baby).
Alvin Rival (from the Philippians who is considering being a missionary in Japan)
Mamoru Makita (Japanese pastor who is a retired English teacher and is leading the English activities at camp with Felicia)
Kyouko Katagiri
Hisako Yamamichi
Mika Tsuboi
And the five of us
Please pray for the youth at the camp:
Boys:
Yuki Tajika
Takahiro Daimon
Kou Iwasaki
Kotarou Kokubo
Ryunosuke Kitta
Reiya Kishio
Rei Sasaki
Tomoaki Koga
Hinata Tsuboi
Seisirou kokubo
RyutoSamejima
Girls:
Madoka Inaba
Miku Daimon
Tsubaki Yamamichi
Haruka Tamaki
Asuka Katagiri
Ayaka Tamaki
After the meeting Hawi Preston, Felicia, Kai and I took a nap from 5pm-9pm, then went to bed, so with 13 hours of sleep we should be super productive today. #JesusintheJetLag
Today I will be giving a presentation about the future of robotic surgery at Niiza church to Kishio's "cancer cafe". I will also talk about how I see God using advances in technology to bring healing to millions in the same restorative way as Christ healed the sick. Please pray for Mr. Deura who is an English professor and influencial member of the community who does not know Christ. He will be in attendance and will eat dinner with us. I'm excited to see God move today.
Thanks everyone and God Bless,
Joe, Felicia, Kai, Hawi, and Preston
We will keep you updated with future posts.
Additional blessings were poured out upon all of us when we got to the plane. For those of you that don't know, the non-stop flight to Narita Airport takes about twelve hours. Joe and I have our nine month old son, Hezekiah with us. We were not able to include him on our original flight reservation through priceline so we had to work with American Airlines and Japan Airlines to add him to all our reservations last minute. The process ended up being pretty smooth, and during the reservation I asked if our group of five could sit together. Then the unexpected happened.
Hawi and Preston ended up sitting next to each other on the left side of the plane, and Felicia and I sat on the right side of the plane with a window and aisle seat. There was also an empty middle seat between us which was an incredible blessing. For the majority of the flight Kai either sat buckled up in the empty seat or sleeping on his belly surrounded by pillows and blankets. He probably slept 8-9 hours out of the 12 hour flight, and he was very comfortable. We later found out that my mom had been praying for this exact situation to occur. There is definitely power in prayer, and God wanted to make traveling with Kai a blessing. =D
Pastor Kishio (pastor of Niiza church) and Tadashi (son of Fukui Sensei, who is coming to America) picked us up at the airport, and drove 2.5 hrs to Tokyo. Kai slept the whole time. Honestly traveling with him has been great thus far. We had dinner at a Japanese buffet with Pastor Fukui, Masako (host family for Preston), and her son Rei who is about three years younger than Preston.
Joe helped Hawi and Preston navigate their first "authentic" Japanese food experience and they were able to find a few foods that they liked such as tempura and udon. At around 10pm (8am CST) everyone when to bed. Felicia, Kai, and Joe stayed in a comfortable apartment above Tamagawa church. Preston stayed at Mikako's home rooming with Rei, and Hawi stayed a 15 minute drive away with Naomi, Nozomu, and Yuki (10 year old boy). We all woke up at 4-5am ish. #sleepy
Day 1 of ministry started with a Sunday church service at Tamagawa Church. It was an amazing opportunity for Joe and Felicia to connect with many friends from ministry over the years and to gently connect Hawi and Preston with mission work in Japan. During service a young female college student named Kai translated for Hawi and Preston. Last year Kai became a christian during the Tamayurishiki camp that we preached at. In the middle of service Hawi and Preston shared their testimonies and why that wanted to step out of their comfort zones to serve the Japanese church. They expressed a strong desire to stretch their own faith and a willingness to let God lead them to serve and grow the faith of others. They did a phenomenal job navigating nerves while trying to share their story. It is very difficult to learn proper pacing when using a Japanese interpreter because the locations of nouns and verbs is flipped from Japanese to English.
After service there was a big pizza party so the church could connect with us. I (joe) had shrimp and scallop pizza, Preston had pizza with corn and potatoes, and Hawi stuck with the 4 cheese (one of the cheeses was blue cheese). Very different from Chicago style pizza.
Then we had a 3 hour Tamayurishiki camp planning meeting. God has built a huge team around this camp which will have around 20 kids.
Please pray for the leaders of this camp:
Makoto Fukui
Sonoko Fukui (pastor fukui's wife)
Sumiko Fukui (pastor fukui's daughter)
Tadashi Fukui (pastor Fukui's son)
Naomi Tajika
Nozomu Tajika
Mikako Sasaki
Rei Sasaki (Mikako's 14 yr old son, became a christian and got baptized two years ago)
Kai Nakagawa (new christian at last year's camp)
Hikaru Kishio (pastor of Niiza church)
Reiya Kishio (pastor Kishio's son who got baptized two years ago after camp)
Gary Sedon (Japanese missionary from the UK that we met 2 years ago)
Naoko Sedon (Japanese missionary who translated for us 2 years ago)
Kai Sedon (Gary and Naoko's 13 month old baby).
Alvin Rival (from the Philippians who is considering being a missionary in Japan)
Mamoru Makita (Japanese pastor who is a retired English teacher and is leading the English activities at camp with Felicia)
Kyouko Katagiri
Hisako Yamamichi
Mika Tsuboi
And the five of us
Please pray for the youth at the camp:
Boys:
Yuki Tajika
Takahiro Daimon
Kou Iwasaki
Kotarou Kokubo
Ryunosuke Kitta
Reiya Kishio
Rei Sasaki
Tomoaki Koga
Hinata Tsuboi
Seisirou kokubo
RyutoSamejima
Girls:
Madoka Inaba
Miku Daimon
Tsubaki Yamamichi
Haruka Tamaki
Asuka Katagiri
Ayaka Tamaki
After the meeting Hawi Preston, Felicia, Kai and I took a nap from 5pm-9pm, then went to bed, so with 13 hours of sleep we should be super productive today. #JesusintheJetLag
Today I will be giving a presentation about the future of robotic surgery at Niiza church to Kishio's "cancer cafe". I will also talk about how I see God using advances in technology to bring healing to millions in the same restorative way as Christ healed the sick. Please pray for Mr. Deura who is an English professor and influencial member of the community who does not know Christ. He will be in attendance and will eat dinner with us. I'm excited to see God move today.
Thanks everyone and God Bless,
Joe, Felicia, Kai, Hawi, and Preston
We will keep you updated with future posts.