House-Cleaning

Since late March of this year, in preparation for our anticipated trip to the U.S. in order to join the summer conferences with ABWE and begin pre-field, our family has lived in what I call the Waifu (pronounced “wife”) House–named thus for its location in the neighborhood of Waifu in Kikuchi City, Japan. This house was purchased by an ABWE missionary for the purpose of supporting other missionaries and interns. (And what a blessing it has been!)

Living out of suitcases and a few boxes was fun for a while. Knowing, or at least thinking, that we would be on our way to the U.S. before too long made it feel adventurous. We were going to be in Oregon soon. Then “out East” for the missionary conferences in Pennsylvania and Maryland. Then pre-field!

After two attempts at obtaining a business visa for Azusa–once in May and then again in June–we realized that we were not going to be leaving Japan anytime soon. Suddenly the adventure of living out of suitcases was not so adventurous. God was doing other things than we had planned. We needed to adjust.

Through talking with our Japanese church, we concluded that the best decision for us would be to move into the church building: It would put us closer to where we have been working, make it easier to spend time with people, and help us financially. So we decided to begin preparing for the move.

It took several days to clear out the office and the Sunday school classroom–both to be used as bedrooms–of an accumulation of decades of things. In clearing bookshelves and moving out items we found loads of mold and gecko … um … gecko stuff. And it smelled bad. After using the better part of a bottle of bleach the smells were gone and the shelves, walls, and floors were looking great.

Now we are in the process of getting somewhat settled, unpacking a few of our necessities, and making the our home church (building) in to our home. We are so blessed!!!

Please Pray:

• for our children’s adjustment to the new living arrangements
• for wisdom how to use the space God has given us
• for joy for all of us as we continue in this adventure

We thank you for your prayer support!