Dear Friends - It's now 5:20AM, Tuesday morning and we're in a different church now, in the city of Toyama. We are the guests of another Kobayashi family - not Koby's. Kobayashi-sensei, the associate pastor of this church, and his wife have welcomed us with a place to stay and rest for two nights while we spend time during the day sightseeing.
The last day in Chino is always hectic - we start the morning with breakfast and then clean the church. We clean the church every morning we are there, but the final morning we do so more completely - not wanting to leave the Kawanos with extra work to do after we leave. After that, we must rush to get our luggage together and get to the train station. Yesterday, there were members of the Chino church to drive us to the train station and to see us off. We only had a short time to say good-bye and get the last minute photos taken before boarding the train. This year is different than others because we are leaving Chino and going in different directions. Shizuka, Koby and I rode the train to Matsumoto and then transferred to come to Toyama, on the west coast of Japan. Along the way we connected with Kagiwada-sensei and Monica from the Sendai team and will spend the rest of the week sightseeing. Yumiko and Pastor John left Chino on a different train after us to visit family and friends and will reunite with us on Saturday for the flight home. Kaori caught a train to return to her home in Tokyo. She will come back to live in the U.S. in December. Erica will spend the next 2 or 3 weeks in Japan visiting family and friends, but is still in Chino right now, guest of the Yumoto family. After selecting the two teams for Chino and Sendai in March, spending four months in preparation, and spending a week and a half serving in Chino, our mission to Chino Christ Church is now over. We had a marvelous mission - all the programs and activities we presented went very well. Everyone did a great job of preparing and serving here in Japan. There is so much to be thankful for and to celebrate. But right now my heart aches as I miss my brothers and sisters of the Chino church - especially the Kawano family. This is my fifth year of serving in Chino and every year it is harder to leave them. I would love to have the members of the Chino church transported to the San Fernando valley to become a part of our church family - to spend the rest of my life on earth with them. But I must be patient and wait for the day that we are taken home to our God and can be together for eternity. Right now, God needs them to continue the work of sharing the gospel of Jesus Christ with their loved ones and their community. May they serve the Chino community with the same spirit, joy, and love as they have served us these past ten days.
Kagiwada-sensei and Koby are now awake and we'll be having breakfast and then going out for the first full day of sightseeing. I hope to tell you about our last Sunday in Chino in a later blog. Thank you for your prayers - they were answered on this mission trip. God bless you always. Love, Don
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| A picture of the Chino church members. It was taken from the pulpit as I had the opportunity to share with them. |
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