Al: First Full Day

Today was our first full day in Japan. We were really tired last night. I figured that Ev and I were awake for essentially 24 hours before we got to sleep in horizontal position. Sleeping in the airplane or bus just doesn't refresh us. We slept in one of the SHASTA houses (Send Housing And STorage Area). We woke at 5 am this morning and started our day. We had time for personal devotions and quiet time before Chieko and Jon Reasoner drove us to the SEND center and served us breakfast. After breakfast Paul Suzuki, the newly appointed head of SEND Japan,shared with us the history of SEND and why he was excited about what the future held in store for mission work in Japan. Jon shared a devotion on Psalm 86. We then listened as Jon and Chieko shared about their call to ministry and their work starting in Okinawa and here in Tokyo. They shared about the work that Jon's father did in the 50's for the mission organization that would eventually become SEND Missions.
After that we bought lunch at a local version of fast food. You selected from about 30 items and the food would be given to you in about 3 to 5 minutes after placing your order.

Randy and Jon figured out how the NBF team would get to Mitaka. While Chieko and I worked out how to send Nozomi to his grandmother's home. Please pray for Nozomi as he is sick and that he will recover quickly at his grandmother's. Although he looks much better today than yesterday, we really didn't think it would be wise to allow him to travel with the NBF team as they have 2 grueling days of travel, orientations with Gerald May, meeting for prayer with the Cornerstone church planting group, sightseeing, and then traveling to Yokosuka on Friday. Pray that Nazomi will fully recovered when he rejoins the TMK team on Sunday and travels with Matt down to Yokosuka.

We bid the NBF team and Nazomi farewell after lunch. The TMK team then spent the afternoon with Jon planning for our pizza party and sharing session with the middle school students on Friday night and for the high school student meeting on Saturday night. These middle school students would be students that have graduated out of the VBS program.
We returned to the Shanta house and everyone just crashed. It probably wasn't the best thing to do since we might have problems sleeping this evening but certainly I was tired and not mentally sharp. After our nap we went to the local supermarket and bought food for breakfast.

Chieko served us dinner and we had a great time of fellowship and a time to really get to know Jon and Chieko better.

We thank you all for your prayers of support as we traveled to Japan. Continue to support us in prayer as we plan for the programs at TMK. Pray for the Engs and Jo Ann as they have a day of travel and some sightseeing as they travel from the TEAM Mission center to Yokosuka. Pray for Nozomi to recover quickly.