Oct 2 - Update of our trip to OHsaka

Dear friends and family,

We're in the midst of preparing to go to Japan, and we wanted to update you on some of the highlights of our preparation.

At the end of August, Peter finished his role working with the Youth. It was very bitter sweet knowing that we will be leaving our beloved students to follow His leading to a new life in a distant country. After a much needed break, we began to prepare in earnest for our initial trip to Japan. Our original plan was to leave the US on September 30th and return mid-November, but we’re still here! =) G- had other plans for us, and through us postponing our trip for a couple of weeks, He has shown us once again that He is perfect and His timing is perfect. You see, unbeknownst to us at the time, two big family gatherings were being planned for each side of Jenny's family at the end of November. Attending these two events will allow us to meet both sides of Jenny’s family in two gatherings instead of having to arrange seven separate meetings with family members, saving everyone a lot of time and energy! How perfect! Leaving later also means that the flights are cheaper, we'll have time to recover from jetlag in Seoul before going to Osaka, Sara Juhee can eat a greater variety of food and it doesn’t have to be as soft, and we just found out today (Oct 2nd) that there's an important meeting next week that would be very beneficial for us to attend in terms of a possible future business venture in Japan!

The new schedule is to leave the US on Tuesday, October 21st, arriving in Seoul October 22nd, and then returning to the US on Tuesday, December 2nd. During this 6-week period, we’ll be spending 4 weeks in Osaka, Japan, from Monday, October 26th – November 24th. Through friends and the internet, we were able to find affordable small apartment-type accommodation for our stays which will allow us to not burden relatives in Seoul, allow us to have alone-family time in the evenings, Sara Juhee will have room to crawl around and we’ll have a kitchen, washing machine, etc allowing us to feel more at home than if we were to stay at a hotel. We still don’t know what we’re going to do and who we’re going to meet while we’re in Osaka, but we know that He will send us the right people at the right time in the right situation to enable us to find out what job He wants us to have while we’re there, the right documents in order to obtain our visas upon our return to the US, and the perfect place for us to live in when we return to Osaka in early 2009.

After our initial trip, we'll have a better idea of when we'll be returning to Japan for the long-term. We're currently planning our return for late January or early February, but we'll remain open to His timing. We'll have plenty to keep us busy, and we're hoping we enjoy every bit of it. When we return to the US in December, we’ll be busy preparing for Sara Juhee’s 1st birthday, Christmas, New Year’s celebrations but also for our move – visas, packing & shipping boxes, studying Japanese, learning more about the culture, people…

There are still loose ends that we need to tie up here before we can go on our initial trip, and we also have lots of arrangements to make for while we’re in Seoul and Osaka.

One “loose end” that is very close to being tied is our condo in Sunnyvale. Thanks to a referral from friends, we’ve now hired a property manager who specializes in rentals and we have every confidence that He will send the right tenants through her in the very near future.

It’s the beginning of a new life for us and we’re very excited! We’re so grateful for your pr-er, your advice, your contacts and your support.

We have so many pr-er requests... Please pr- for us to remain humble, open and obedient to His leading, that His will be done – even if it means taking a leap of faith! As for some specific pr-er topics, please pr- for our condo to be rented out quickly to the right tenants, for a safe and pleasant journey (especially because Jenny has a bad case of motion sickness), for Him to provide divine appointments with the people He wants us to meet, for Him to give us wisdom in speech, and for Him to provide a means for us to have a long-term visa for when we return in January.

We’d love to meet up and tell you more so let us know if you’re available sometime!

Grace and Peace,
Peter, Yeonsook Jenny, and Sara Juhee Oh