Welcome, welcome, welcome!!!

It was awesome to see so many happy smiling faces when we arrived at Hiroshima Airport on the evening of Thursday, November 4th, 2010. All four Murrays were there, Pastor Haitaka, Pastor Kitano & his wife + daughter and Ogawa-san & his wife were there too. Juhee was a bit groggy as it was the middle of the night for her, but she was happy to see Uncle Scott, Auntie Susan, and Sydney & Taylor and she was soon having fun with Rise-chan (Pastor Kitano's daughter). When we arrived at the Murrays, there were three more ladies waiting to welcome us with another bouquet of flowers!

That Sunday (7th) at Pastor Kitano's Kabe Chapel they had welcome signs for us on the door, a special lunch, and both of us were asked to make speeches. The eldest member of Kabe Chapel also made a speech welcoming us as well as another member who mentioned that she thinks that Peter looks like Jackie Chan! :)

Pastor Kitano (standing next to Peter in pic) had to translate for us. He's been translating at church events/outreaches/sermons for
the Murrays for the past 3 years and now he'll be translating for us too!

The lunch was a delicious mixed rice dish but it had finely chopped pieces of the Japanese pink ginger thing in it which neither Peter nor I are very fond of (yet!) but we ate it all. :)




One week after we arrived, the pastors, their families, and Ogawa-san & his wife (deacons in charge of us) held a welcoming dinner for us and we all had so much fun! It was a great time of laughter and fellowship in both English and Japanese. I sat next to Keiko-san, Pastor Haitaka's wife and she is just so gentle and sweet! The ladies took turns holding Sungjae so we could eat and Juhee had a great time playing with Pastor Kitano's kids.

That following Sunday (14th) we were welcomed at Pastor Haitaka's Koyo Chapel with another special lunch including special songs performed by different groups, a Japanese pinata(?)-type ball from which a WELCOME sign came out of when opened (pic), and more speeches. Like at Kabe Chapel, many people from Koyo Chapel also came up to us during the party, introduced themselves, told us how they'd been praying for us and that they are excited that we're finally here.

3 welcome parties in 10 days! We definitely feel very very welcomed and are extremely humbled at the amount of time and effort so many people here have put into making sure we feel welcomed. :)