Wednesday, June 30, 2004

Kombanwa 

posted by: maureen 
Hi everyone, Moe is speechless now that she actaully has internet access, so this is Laurel. Things totally rock here, and God has been amazing, totally Womba (we`ll explain later). The thunder storm last night was amazing and Pastor Ito is way cool. So yeah, we miss you all, but it is great to be here, please pray that we would be able to stay focused on the time we have here and that we would be obedient to what God calls us to.

(by the way it's not really 6 in the morning... that's Port Angeles time ... it's 10pm here!)

Maureen says goodnight and God bless!
posted at: 5:58:25 AM

Update 

posted by: court 
Hi to everyone back home! We have not had internet access for the past few days (week?) so apologies for the lack of updates and emailing. We`ve been very busy though meeting new friends and experiencing a lot of culture! This weekend our work will really start when we begin English classes and such. There are lots of things to write and not much time but hopefully we'll be able to get some pictures posted within a week. We're having a wonderful time and have been very welcomed by our hosts!

Thank you for the emails and prayers - keep them coming and we should be able to respond more in the coming days. We appreciate you!! :)
posted at: 5:51:23 AM

Chillin in Narita 

posted by: maureen 
We have been having a great time! Tomarrow we finally get to go to Kaminoyama and the whole team is so excited to meet the people in our church. Hopefully after tonight we will get over our jet lag, with help of the hot springs at our hotel. God has been blessing us so much!
posted at: 1:42:46 AM

Hot and humid 

posted by: court 
It`s a sweltering day here in Narita... we went outside and did prayer walking (during which we mostly sat) and spent some time praying for our ministry. We leave via shinkansen (bullet train) for Kaminoyama tomorrow. Today it`s been mostly TESOL training for our English classes and preparation for the cultural challenge. The Asian Access staff are all really cool and we`re looking forward to tomorrow...

Keep us in your prayers!
posted at: 1:42:14 AM

Hello from Narita! 

posted by: court 
Hello from the future! I am writing to you fom our hotel in Narita, Japan, where it is currently around 9pm (contrary to what the PST timestamp on this entry says!) We landed after a long and mostly boring flight in the middle of the day... the NEXT day... much to the dismay of our bodies. We did take a dip in the hotel onsen (hot spring) which may have cheered them up a bit though. Everything is great, the weather is hot and we are doing wonderful so far. Thank you for your prayers!
posted at: 5:02:48 AM

Live from LA 

posted by: court 
Via wireless web connection... here I am in our hotel room in LA, preparing to go to bed... our long flight to Japan awaits us tomorrow.

Had a bit of a misadventure getting down here this morning. I missed my first plane out of Seattle, creating a terrifying domino effect that caused me to miss all my connecting flights and thus the need to reschedule my entire itinerary. Luckily, praise the Lord, I managed to get on the earliest possible other flight that was available (one that was completely booked! God is good), enabling me to be down here by 5pm... 4 hours late, but much preferred to the 9pm alternative!

Hopefully tomorrow will go a little smoother.... ;)

Off to bed now.... more later! :)
posted at: 11:42:33 PM

The rundown 

posted by: court 
Wow, it's getting to be crunch time. Here's an estimated time frame of how things are going to happen....

Tomorrow - June 18: 11am: Laurel, Maureen, and Jeri will hop in their rental car to begin driving to Los Angeles (LAX). They'll take all their luggage, one of my bags, and one of the two ministry bags.

Monday - June 21 10am: I will hop a plane to LAX with my other bag and the other ministry bag.
11am or so: Laurel, Jeri, and Maureen will arrive in Los Angeles.
12:50pm: My plane touches down at LAX.
Monday afternoon/evening: Training in LA.

Tuesday - June 22 11:30am: All aboard the non-stop flight to Narita, Japan!

Wednesday - June 23 2:55pm Japan Time: We touchdown at Narita International Airport! (No the flight is not more than 24 hours long... we simply go forward in time ;))

We will then have 2 days of training in Tokyo before shuttling off to Kaminoyama, our ministry location, on Friday, June 25. Our first event at our summer home? The Welcome Dinner that night. :)
posted at: 11:50:58 AM

Wow..... 

posted by: court 
We have been so blessed. Today I was notified that we recieved a donation for $1000..... :o I am so amazed at how God has provided for our team. It really blows me away.

Needless to say we are done with our fundraising.

"So let each one give as he purposes in his heart, not grudgingly, for God loves a cheerful giver. ... For the administration of this service not only supplies the needs of the saints, but is also abounding through many thanksgivings to God. ... Thanks be to God for His indescribable gift!" --2 Cor. 9:7,12,15
posted at: 2:09:01 PM

Praise God from whom all blessings flow 

posted by: court 
We made our final appearance in front of church on Sunday. I had to liven up the occasion by tripping up the stairs in full view of the entire sanctuary (and captured on video no less!). I shot straight back up like a pogo stick which drew laughs from the crowd. If anything, it was a good icebreaker, haha.

The talks (in both services) went well and the pastors and elders prayed over us to commission us... having never been officially commissioned before, it was a real blessing for me. But the biggest blessing of all was yet to come...

Yesterday morning the church accountant emailed me with the results of the offering from Sunday. Total donations toward the Japan team totaled $1,620.00 !!!!!

God has completely blown us away with His provisions and His blessings. At the beginning I think we were all faithful, but a little cynical of that huge number we had to raise: $12,654.00. As the days went by and money didn't seem to come in, some team members talked about dropping if we didn't make enough money. But God has provided exactly what we needed. Even those fundraisers that seemed like complete failures were providing just what we needed to make up the balance. Folks came out of the woodwork to help and support us and we are just overwhelemed and humbled. If you have been involved with our team in any way - whether we flocked your yard or you made a donation we don't even know about - we want to say a huge

THANK YOU.

God must have great things planned for us (and Japan) this summer... I am so excited!
posted at: 10:31:53 AM

New stuff 

posted by: court 
Lots of new photos have been added to the photos page... some solo shots of each of the team members and also links to photo galleries from our team retreat (we got into a "scary face" competition at the retreat... so there are some awful pictures of all of us in that gallery!) and our bake sale fundraiser.

Started packing and am quickly discovering that packing for 6 weeks and trying to pack LIGHTLY is quite a challenge. I am a notorious overpacker (what if it's hot? what if it's cold? what if it rains? what if I want to go jogging? what if we go camping? etc) and I also like to have a bit of a selection when I'm picking outfits so it's kind of tough. I threw my "dressy" clothes (for ministry) alone into one of my suicases and it was almost full.. eep... We need to be fully packed 2 days before departure, which for me is next Saturday, and for everyone else (driving down rather than flying) is next Wednesday. Ack!

Please remember us in your prayers! $2000 left to go...
posted at: 3:40:24 PM

2 weeks to go! 

posted by: court 
We leave exactly 14 days from today. Still about $2500 short but it's been coming in... last week alone we made $1700, praise God! The missions board donated $800 and the rest came from in-church donations last Sunday.

We've been "flocking" these past couple weeks as well. If you don't know what "flocking" is, I won't tell you, in case you become a future victim. :) There are photos from last week (and our bake sale yesterday) that will soon be up on the photos page.

Starting to feel a little stressed about preparing for English classes... it seems like there's so much to remember and prepare for and it's getting a little overwhelming.... not to mention the 50 million other things I have to prepare for. BUT God will provide... I just have to trust in Him, and remember that He's taking care of us.

Car wash this Saturday, 10am, at McDonald's. Hopefully it will be a little more successful than our last two, which averaged around $130...
posted at: 3:53:10 PM