Prayer Update #2

Hello everyone,

Thank you for all your prayers thus far, we have safely made in to Otawara. God really provided during the journey and we were able to reach the city without much trouble, though overall it was a very tiring 20 hour journey.

From the airport at Tokyo (NRT) to Otawara we had to take a 3 hour bus ride and then a 1 hour car ride. It wasn't particularly exciting but we got to see the Tokyo Sky Tree from a distance which loomed over the entire city as well as a festival happening on the river bank with an enormous amount of people.

We are currently staying at the pastor's house, which is the upper floor of the Otawara church building. The pastor Tomio Ohashi-sensei and his wife Pat usually live here however they moved to their other house in Nasu for the duration of our trip. Please keep them in your prayers as the commute to Nasu is around 45min one way and they are having to make the trip multiple times each day. Ohashi-sensei leads one church in both Nasu and Otawara, and after giving Sunday message at one church will drive down to the other to lead Sundayservice.

The house we are currently staying in used to have rabbits, which one team member is deathly allergic to, so praise the Lord that they are gone. The house still has an adorable ferret however, which one team member is slightly allergic to (it might be a placebo).

The weather in Otawara has been great thus far and we've experienced coldness at times rather than the sweltering heat we expected coming here. There will be a few outside activities with the kids, so please pray that the weather remains temperate and steady during the course of the program.

Sunday service was yesterday. The church is really interesting in that there are a few native English speakers, in particular Pat and someone named Kevin-san. A interesting aside, one of our church members at Harvest has been living in Japan to teach English for Jet and learned that she and Kevin-san are from the same place in the States, just many years apart. Anyways, because the church has native English speakers, they try to outreach to those in the area who might be looking for an English service and to members of the congregation that don't speak as much Japanese by translating all the sermons and schedules into English so that someone can follow along with the message and worship service by reading alongside. The message yesterday was on Isaiah 47:1-7. After the message we had to give our self introductions and then Nathan gave his and it was much fancier.

Once church service ended, there was a make your own hand-roll sushi lunch. The food was really good except for Natto. Natto is an acquired taste.

The afternoon was saved for planning day one of the trip, which included setting the schedule as well as the details of the each part (English, Activities, Crafts). God was really with us during this time and we were able to figure out a lot of things that were unclear during our preparations this year and we hope that these changes and adjustments will make the program more enjoyable for the children as well as less stressful for us.

Today will be the first day of the program. Please pray that God is watching over our hearts and guiding the hearts of the kids and parents through His way closer and closer to Him.