We all made it to the Yokohama City Air Terminal (YCAT) bus terminal at Yokohama station before 11:00 AM this morning, praise God! This was not such an easy task since the team was staying in several locations. We were all there on time and met Kayoko and Yukina and their mothers, the two homestay girls from Soshin who will be traveling back with the team. Saya and Yuko and their parents were there, too, so we had a big group of people sending off the team. It was joyful, exciting for the homestay girls, and a little sad with tears in many eyes of others, but we trust the Lord will bring all of us back together again someday soon. We are so very thankful for the time we had together and for the blessing we received all around from our work together for God's glory. Here are some photos of them leaving on the bus.
Afterwards, we all got together for lunch. It was great to see 4 dads at a table eating together and the moms and kids at a long table.
After lunch, we parted ways. We took Nozomi to the JR train entrance and sent him on his way to his grandmother's house after we put some ice-cream into him and my 3 girls. He called already to say he arrived safely, another praise.
We did not receive any frantic telephone calls from the airport, so I presume everyone made it onto their respective flights on time with all their luggage.
We continue to pray for our homestay students, for their experiences at Warm Beach, Lighthouse, JBC, and with their host families and our extended church families in Bellevue and Seattle. May the Lord have His way with all of us during this time as we each seek to know Him and love Him, and obey Him as He calls us to various work He has planned for us in advance all around the world. Kaoru will join the other students at Warm Beach; he flies out on August 17 with a camp counselor from Warm Beach, another unexpected blessing that was arranged by our Lord back in June. The 2 Soshin students return with the Hwangs on August 25, landing in Japan August 26. The 3 NBF students return on August 30, landing in Japan on August 31. Our many thanks to those who helped arrange all our homestays, especially Mei-Ling, and to the families who are willing to host our students. We look forward to hearing their stories when they return to NBF in Japan. God bless you all!
dear Shirley & family & Nokendai friends,
ReplyDeleteThank you SO MUCH for taking care such wonderful care of our Lighthouse Team! Praise God for the many, many ways He has provided for both the team and the homestay families! Please let the families know that, even as I type, several people here including Mei-Ling, are preparing to go to the airport to receive the team and the students! :) We are SO EXCITED to have them come and look forward to seeing them! :) May God grow all of us in our trust and faith in Him through this homestay experience. May He be glorified by this step of faith. With MUCH praise and thanksgiving, God bless the Tamuras and the Nokendai families!
blessings in Christ,
sharon
P.S. Thank you for posting all of the pictures! It is so good to be able to see the familiar faces of the kids and families! Kelly and I and others miss being there this year but hope to come again.
ReplyDeleteblessings to all of you there!
sharon(WA) & kelly (India)