Our New Home

Ahhh~ I have much to tell about our perfect new home that God has so amazingly provided for us. It is seriously, the PERFECT home for us. Yes, it does have its down sides, but we really couldn't have asked for a more suitable place.

The owner, a very old Japanese man, was a bit nervous about renting the place out to us as we are foreigners but after a couple of days he came around and agreed to rent it to us. Yay!!! It's actually more common for homeowners to not rent to foreigners so we thank God for his being open to renting to us. The wife is super sweet and has been reaching out to us. She even brought us freshly cut flowers from her garden, the first flowers to decorate our home! :)

Just one story (for now)... At the Pastors' Welcoming Party, one week after we arrived, Kitano sensei, who speaks English and is one of the local Japanese pastors that we'll be working with, spoke about how when they saw our 'wish list' for our home, they all shook their heads and said "impossible". We asked for a one-story house with at least 3-4 rooms (NOT bedrooms!), near a park, walking distance to stores, play area for kids, close to the two current churches & to our future church plant... Just so you know, one-story houses are not common and as Scott, our Team Leader said, he'd never been to one or seen one! But Ogawa-san, the elder who is 'in charge' of us :) looked and looked and looked and he found one! The realtor said that our house was very unusual and that the only reason why a single story family home with FIVE rooms (again, NOT bedrooms!) even exists, is because it's an old home. Houses just aren't built like ours anymore. Kitano sensei that everyone was so amazed when they saw the property! He said that we forgot to ask God to include one more thing on our 'wish list' - parking! Our parking spot is by our owners' house which is just a minute away by foot. We have a lot of shops nearby though so most people have been parking at one of the parking lots and walking over, which is perfect for future parties/playgroups/ministry events at our place.

We'll do a short video tour of the house once it's more presentable. Our 37 boxes arrived today so you might have to wait a while. We also need to get a few more bits and pieces of furniture.

Thanks to the hard work of Scott & Susan, Haitaka Sensei, Kitano Sensei, their wives, Ogawa-san and his wife, and many other of the church members, our transition into our new home has happened so quickly and so much easier because they pre-purchased so many items (like our toilet seat!) in advance for us, even cleaning the place for us and lending us silverware, plates, etc too.

We are sooooo well taken care of. We've come home. To our extended family. And it feels great. We are so tremendously blessed. My heart feels like bursting whenever I think of the number of people and hours that have gone into our coming here. I am so humbled and feel so undeserving. I rejoice that all is being done out of love for our Lord, with the desire to see His Kingdom grow and I'm grateful that awards await them in Heaven.

We look forward to welcoming you to our humble new home! :)