Eri and I spent three days this week with our team, the Chiba AO Team, in Kujyukuri, Chiba. We focused on team building, resting, playing, and praying together. You can see the Pacific Ocean behind us. It was beautiful. The hotel we stayed at was located alongside the ocean, so we often could spend time on the beach to walk, talk, and pray.

Through the retreat, I once again realized that it was good not to be alone. Spending three days with my team made me think about it. I believe that one of the dangers of working for the gospel is the risk of isolation. Working with godly people keeps me from such danger. I learned that we each on the team were different in many ways: ages, experience, gifts from God, and nationalities. However, God can use us as a group for the gospel for His glory.

It took us a month to finish furnishing our living room! We purchased most of the furniture online, assembled each piece after it was brought to our place, and put the national flags of many countries on the front door, forming “B.I.,” i.e., Bridge International, with them. Our townhouse is a part of a big building where eight other families live. As far as I know, our neighbors are unique and international-minded people. For instance, our next neighbors, Eiji and Sakiko, with four small children, hope to immigrate to Holland in the future for their children. Another neighbor who lives in the same townhouse building is Tomoyuki and Ayako, with a tiny child. Tomoyuki is a former Olympian in Snowboarding who travelled a lot in the world for the competition. Another neighbor is Anri and her Turkish husband – I don’t know his name yet- with a small child. They are an international married couple. I would love to invite them to our place to get to know them!

I made a new flyer for my English conversation club today. I now have a group of 20 people who regularly participate in my club. I hope that more local people join it so that I could get to know them and love them!

We finally moved to Kaneda, Kisarazu, on the 16th of December, about two weeks ago.

We brought our stuff by ourselves but a couple of furniture such as a fridge and a laundry machine moved by a moving company. We still need time to furnish rooms especially our living room as our hospitality place for our neighbours. We would love to welcome our neighbours or our friends not only in Japan but also from all over the world.

A week ago, our friends from Toronto, Rommel and Enrica, fley to Haneda Airport. So, we picked up them at the airport and took them to Kaneda, including our mission house. They were the first guests at our new place. We shared our vision and passion for Bridge International church plant with them.

Since we moved to Kaneda, Mitsui Outlet Mall has become our place to walk around and meet people. We are often able to see Mt. Fuji over Tokyo Bay and Tokyo Aqua Line when we walk every morning. We are excited about what we can do for God’s glory here!

Eri and I finally returned to Japan from North America three weeks ago. We spent time with our three children in their town, Medicine Hat, Alberta, Canada. We also travelled to many cities in Canada and America to meet our friends and supporters. Now, it is time to move to Kaneda, Kisarazu! We are really looking for a place to live there for the missions.

Last Saturday, we went to Kaneda to host my English conversation club. It was the first time I had hosted it since returning to Japan. Several people joined my club, and after that, we went to my favourite café, Dean and Deluca, at the outlet mall.

These three weeks, we focused on finding a place to live in Kaneda, Kisarazu. We visited a couple of houses. And today, we applied to rent a townhouse near the community center in Kaneda East. We will know if the real estate agency will rent us the house within one week.

We walked around Kaneda East, visiting Tokyo Aqua Line and a Hawaiian café. In Kaneda East, you can see many Palm Trees.

This is the townhouse we may live in soon.

Palm tress in front of the Hawaiian restaurant

Tokyo Aqua Line