Hope for Japan

Since the last update, my mom has been transferred back to Des Moines from Iowa City (which is 2 hours away). This has been great for my family to be close by (and for my dad to have his own bed and shower to use). For those in Des Moines, she is at Mercy Hospital.

Her surgery has been postponed much longer than expected. It seems like it might be 3 months until they operate on her neck, which seems due to concern about her recovery. They chose not to do the second skin graft due to potential complications. But, it sounds like she is recovering from the burns, though I am not sure what the permanent damage might look like.

Due to the stroke, she is still unable to move her left side. She is undergoing rehab with a number of different therapies. With time, it appears like she should be able to walk and move her arm, though her brain is not sending the signals to move them at the moment. She is confined to a wheelchair and the hospital bed. Now that my dad is retired (literally a week ago), he is constantly there with her, which is comforting.

My mom’s speech is back to normal, along with other mental functions and memory. She even asked how my Japanese language study is going. Though it will be a long and difficult road ahead for her, we are amazed at her recovery so far and  how your prayers and God’s hand have pulled her through what we thought might be the end.

After now living in Japan for one month, we are finally feeling settled. On Friday, we received our couch which made our home now feel a bit more complete. This month has been filled with countless meetings and errands. We have taken Allie to the clinic three times already for registration and immunization shots, visited the Ward office (like a City Hall) three times to fill out various forms, went to the Immigration Office, and a number of other trips and meetings in order to adjust and settle into our life here.

Now, we feel more poised to start some ministries. Before jumping into a flurry of activity, we have been praying and talking with the pastor and others to get a sense as to the need and opportunities in this community. Interestingly, today a lady who was referred from a church member came by the church interested in learning English. Another person has also shown interest in our language cafe. With dozens of teens walking by our church everyday to the nearby high school and junior high, we also are thinking of starting a language cafe for them after school one day.

Another critical area that we want to devote primary attention to is a young adult ministry that may be the start of our future church plant. We were able to meet with an old friend who lives in Tokyo today to talk about the possibility of her joining this core team. Our hope is that this will become a ministry that teens and young adults can join as we initiate relationships with them. The thought is having an intimate community that explores the Christian faith while allowing nonbelievers an opportunity to hear and experience the truth.

The doctors checked on my mom’s progress in recovering from the skin graft surgery recently. Turns out that some of the grafts did not take and will need to be redone on Monday. This does not appear to be too serious but emotionally frustrating for her and a delay in the surgery for her blocked artery in her neck. It looks like it might be another two weeks before they can do that operation. So, she might be in the hospital for quite a bit longer than expected.

My dad told me that she is in pretty poor spirits. She really wants to go home. They had a breathing tube and a feeding tube in her until the last few days. Now, she is able to eat solid food, though she dislikes the hospital food. She is unable to stand up or move her left side, due to the stroke. They think she should recover from this with rehab, but it must be frustrating to not be able to move her left arm or walk at all. The delay in speech seems to have faded, although she is very tired and only says a few words at a time.

Please continue praying for my family and my mother, especially as she undergoes another surgery tomorrow.

I was able to talk with my dad last night. Seems like things are looking positive for my mom at the moment. She is recovering from the surgery, from which the burns went all the way to the fat tissue. They said that the burns could have killed her if she didn’t get them treated within a week or two. Amazed at how quickly they were able to work on her.

It will be another week or two before they can address the blockage in her neck. They are closely monitoring her, so that another stroke will not occur, or at least be addressed immediately.

My dad and uncle were there with her. A few pastors from my parents church came all the way over (2 hours) from Des Moines to visit and pray with her. As a minister, I especially appreciate how much time they were able to spend on pastoral care for my parents in this difficult moment.

Please continue praying for her recovery from the burn and that everything will go smoothly leading up to the next surgery soon.

We are now settling into our life in Japan. After arriving on September 30th, we have been extremely busy just trying to adjust to life here, furnish our place, meet people, begin language school (for Grant), and of course take care of Allie (which is a full-time job in itself).   We finally got our internet and phone installed this past Wednesday, which has been a relief. With IKEA only 20 minutes away, we have also been grateful to get some basics for our apartment like a bed, table, etc. We still need to get a few more things like a couch, but are beginning to feel at home here.

Our location has been very fortunate. We are only 5 minutes drive to a nearby mall with a nice supermarket, walking distance to a huge park (where Allie will be able to play and Grant to run around the path), 15 minute drive to one of Miho’s brothers, 30 minutes from Miho’s parents, and only a few stops (or about a 30 minute train ride) for Grant to get to his language school.

Grant’s school is perfect. He came in 2 weeks behind the class but has already caught up. It is with 9 other missionaries, most of whom work with YWAM. He goes Tuesday-Friday from 9:30-1 and is really seeing improvement, though it is very tiring.

We have now been able to see all of Miho’s family. Her parents have been incredibly helpful, coming over to cook for us, clean, or watch Allie while we run errands. Allie’s cousin Ryu seems to love helping her out by sharing his toys or reading books to her. He also enjoys not being the youngest in the family (as he was born a month before we got married five years ago).

We have also been getting to know our neighbors. Miho has talked with a few of the families that liven nearby. She has also met with the daughter-in-law of a church member who has 2 young kids.

Family Time with Allie's cousins and wider family

Today, Grant got to preach at our church where Miho interpreted for him. He spoke from Ephesians 4:11-16 about God’s hope for the church. We wanted to begin our ministry here by stepping back to look at what God desires the church to become. This passage expressed the hope that everybody is equipped to serve, is united in their faith, and grows into spiritual maturity. This is our hope for both this church and the church we dream of planting one day in the future!

Supporter Dinner Meeting

Sharing at Supporter Meeting

Sunday Worship at Highrock

Speaking at Highrock

Dessert with Monadnock Church

Japan Initivative Team

Our 3rd week in Boston was another eventful week.  We had a church-wide supporter meeting at Highrock where we first shared a meal and had some laughter playing a Japan trivia game, and then we informed everybody about how we spent this past year in Edinburgh, Allie’s birth, Japan Covenant Church visits in January, our church of service (Tsurumi Covenant Church in Yokohama), and our ministry content for the next 2 years as well as our big picture vision of future church planting in the Tokyo-Yokohama area. Then, we concluded the meeting with a time of prayer.

Despite the fact that it was a week night event in the middle of summer, there was a big turn out of over 40 people.  Our core support team did a fantastic job setting up the place, preparing a meal, arranging other logistics, and making the night truly memorable and phenomenal. We felt very encouraged by all these people who have come out to see us and pray for us.

After spending our first 2 Sundays at other churches in New England, we finally got to worship at our home church, Highrock. During two of the morning services, we were able to recast our vision for Japan.  It was really good to reconnect with old friends and meet new members of the church.

One exciting meeting we attended was a kick-off meeting for Japan Initiative ministry at Highrock.  There are currently three other Japanese members from Japan as well as a missionary kid who grew up in Japan and now is studying to teach ESL.  Given the fact that Arlington is saturated with Japanese Ph.D students and their spouses, we are trying to seize this opportunity to reach out to the Japanese locally.  How cool would it be if these Japanese began coming to church in Boston, and once they return to Japan, they already have a church to go to (which is our church!).

We also had a chance to visit another supporting church in New Hampshire, Monadnock Covenant Church. Over delicious homemade desserts, we were able to introduce ourselves and share our passion for Japan with a group of people from the church.

Everything went smoothly this week except that Allie screamed for 20 minutes on the way to New Hampshire when we got stuck in traffic.  There was a time when we had to get off the highway to pull over to the side of the road to stop her cry, but this time, there was nothing we could do as we were running late for a meeting.  But overall, we are very blessed with a very cooperative baby. 🙂

Good News/Bad News: After over a month of waiting for our appointment with the immigration office in Boston, we finally received our letter today. We are scheduled to go down on September 27th! Though we planned on getting to Japan by the end of August, this delay has now set us back for the end of September.

The upshot of this whole wait has been the blessing of spending time with close friends and supporters here in Boston, while also having the chance to be with family in Des Moines for a week. Now, we can finally have an end date for our time here and have an answer when people ask how long we are here (of which we typically say, “Perhaps another week or two”).

Feasting (and later praying) with our Core Support Team

Core Support Group Meeting

Meeting with Jamaica Plain Church (Pastor and Missions Leader)

Visiting Highrock Brookline

Visiting Highrock Brookline

JFK House (one block from Highrock Brookline)

Our second week back to Boston was packed but filled with great moments together with friends and churches. We were able to enjoy a fantastic BBQ (something we didn’t really get to enjoy in Scotland) with our core support team . These close families and young adults have been crucial in our adjustment back to Boston, helping coordinate meetings, finding key baby items, and providing a home for us.

We had a wonderful evening eating, introducing Allie to them, sharing about our past year and what is coming up, planning the larger support meeting, and praying together.

The next day, we were able to catch up with another ECC church in Jamaica Plain, a southern part of Boston. Though we preached there last summer, it was enjoyable to meet with Pastor Fred and a missions leader, Kim, to update them on our lives and ministry plans.

On Sunday, we attended Highrock Brookline (a church plant from Arlington 2 years ago) for the first time. We were amazed at how many people we have never met before, which is a great problem to have with a new church! Allie got to meet so many new friends, as many of our old couple friends now have babies too. We enjoyed talking to a few college students who are interested in serving in Japan in the future, as well as young adult who is moving to Paris soon and wanted advice on churches and ministry there.

This church meets in an elementary school that happens to be one block away from JFK’s birthplace, which is now a museum. Being cheap, we took photos outside but didn’t pay to go inside 🙂 We first thought that Allie might not be able to become President since she was born in the UK, but we found out she is a “natural born citizen.” Who knows, maybe we are holding a future leader of the free world or a Japanese Prime Minister 🙂