January Focus - full version

Happy New Year! We’ve been back in Hiroshima for over a week now and things are finally starting to get settled. Not everything has been put back in its rightful place yet, but we’re getting there (and baby’s napping so I finally get to spend some time in front of my laptop). Yay! 

We praise God for a wonderful 7 months in America. It was great to meet up with old friends and make so many new ones. God knew exactly what we needed and He provided friendships, fellowship, and community through you. He also provided our material needs through you, too. I talked about the $18,000 miracle during our Commissioning Service at LSCC. Hopefully I’ll get to share with all of you someday too. A blog post has been in drafts for the past few months… ^^; 

It was wonderful getting to spend time with family, especially with Peter’s parents, as it’d been four and a half long years since we’d been able to spend time with them. Our kids miss them already! I miss my mother-in-law’s cooking. She cooked so much for us while we were there. So so grateful for amazing in-laws.  I really miss them too. :’( 

I miss not having to cook everyday thanks to food from my in-laws, leftovers, and being treated out by so many of you! I really miss having a dishwasher even though I didn’t use it very often. I really really miss having a dryer!!! But I am very grateful for the mild winter weather that we were greeted with in Seoul for our layover and when we arrived in Japan. Travel and adjusting back would have been much harder and unpleasant if it had been cold and snowy! 

All 3 kids did better than expected in the long haul flight over to ICN. We were so blessed! Your prayers were definitely answered. Sungjae asked me to move my feet and then fell asleep on the floor of my dad's car! After a quick overnight stay at my parent's we were back at the airport, waiting for our flight to Fukuoka.

After a short, but fairly turbulent flight (an absolute MIRACLE that neither Juhee nor I got sick!), we landed in Fukuoka and were met by Steve and Emma who helped us get all of our luggage to the Yamato office where we were able to send most of our bags directly to our home in Hiroshima. They dropped us off at the main Fukuoka train station where we took the bullet train to Hiroshima Station. We then took the local train to our local station where our guarantor picked us up and drove us home. We left SFO morning of the 3rd, arrived in ICN evening of the 4th, arrived at FUK afternoon of the 5th, and finally got home around 8pm that evening. Sungjae's journal entry for that day reads, "I rode an airplane and a bullet train. I rode a train and 3 cars. We came home." :)

We also praise God for an uneventful trip back to Hiroshima. Jiyeon did great eating and playing in her bassinet, which really helped. For the first time EVER, despite so much back-to-back travel, Juhee didn’t throw up AT ALL! She got a little queasy once or twice, but otherwise she was fine. Praise God!!! We didn’t lose Sungjae at any of the airports or train stations so praise God for that too! :) 

Thursday: Juhee's first day back at school. We arrived back Tuesday night, we rested Wednesday, and the kids went to school / daycare on Thursday. I had to pack her lunch for Juhee for just Thursday and Friday. Her new shoes bought in America aren't really ideal for having to change in and out of multiple times a day. We'll see how long she continues wearing them to school! It's causing quite a stir 'cause it's so unique :)

We praise God for so many friends that received us so joyfully when we returned to Hiroshima. One friend even changed our car battery for us so we were able to use our car right away when we got back. Our kids were invited to a takoyaki party at a neighborhood kid’s house the first day we got back. It really helped them to adjust back, not just in terms of remembering the good friends that they have here, but also in terms of jetlag too ‘cause they stayed awake later than they would have if they’d been at home. Our kids still mention their friends in the U.S. and say that they want to go back soon (especially Sungjae, Juhee’s more matter-of-fact about it). 

Friday: School for Juhee, daycare for Sungjae, and Smile Club at Asaminami Chapel for me and Jiyeon. It was good to be back after about 10 months. My friend also joined me for the first time in a long time. We went for our usual udon together and had a good chat catching up.

Sunday: Silliness at home before going to church, playing with Pastor Yamada's daughter after service. Juhee stayed to play with her for the rest of the afternoon. She'll be sleeping over at her for two nights while the rest of the family goes to Fukuoka. They're both really looking forward to it! :)

Monday: the friend that invited our kids over the day after we arrived (Wednesday), came over to our house to play. They just ring the doorbell and walk right in to each other's homes. Our kids go over or he comes over 2-4 days a week. His mom and younger brother have joined us for a worship service at Kabe Chapel too! On this particular evening, the friend's new DS was the main attraction. They were laughing so much (and continuously changing locations)! :D

We’re thankful that we were able to enroll into the Japanese national insurance program and pension scheme. We have two big lump sums going out because we have to back pay two years’ worth for both, but we’ll be saving thousands going forward. We’ll have access to very good health coverage for a very reasonable price now and not have to pay 100% cash every time we go for anything health related. 

There’s so much more that we praise God for but these are some of the main ones, I think. 

Before I run out of time, here are some prayer requests for this month… 

Please pray for continued good adjustment for Juhee and Sungjae. Juhee’s doing pretty well and is working hard on filling in the gaps from when she was away. Sungjae’s Japanese is coming back slowly but surely. He’s having a little bit of a hard time adjusting back to the more rough-housing type play culture here, so pray for physical and emotional protection. They’re also getting used to always having to turn on the heater if they’re the first ones entering a room, always closing the door behind them, brushing their teeth in the kitchen, turning off the heater when we’re done using a room, and making sure Jiyeon doesn't touch the gas heater. Upon return, we realized that our house is not very baby proof! Jiyeon’s having a great time playing with the magnets on the fridge and reorganizing my kitchen drawers. Thankfully, she hasn’t started pulling out all of Juhee and Sungjae’s books from the bookshelf yet… :/ 

This coming Sunday is the annual New Year Joint Service for all four chapels of Hiroshima EV Free Church. Please pray for a good time of reconnecting with the members that we've grown to know I think they’re going to welcome us back and make some sort of formal announcement about our move during the service. It’s already been announced in the bulletin. It’s going to be nice to see everyone again! Morning of the 22nd is the annual New Year Joint Women’s Ministry Service. It’ll be nice to spend some time with just the ladies again. It’ll be really sad too, knowing that it’ll be last one. It was during one of these gatherings a few years ago, that it really hit me – Hiroshima EV Free Church is doing really well; it’s time for us to explore other places where God might want us to be… 

Please pray for our upcoming move! We’re going house hunting to Fukuoka next weekend, from the 22nd-24th. The weather is starting to get really cold, and it’s actually supposed to snow 2-3 days next week in Fukuoka (warmer in Hiroshima, no snow expected). So please pray for health, safe travel, and that we’ll be able to find the right place for the right price in the right location on the 23rd. Juhee will be sleeping over at a friend’s house that weekend so we won’t have to worry about her getting queasy, especially when doing lots of driving locally (constant stop-starts are hard). Hopefully we’ll be able to have a good connection with Pastor Miyauchi of Fukuoka EV Free Church while we’re down there too. We’ll be joining them for Sunday service and then driving back up to Hiroshima after lunch. 

The next few months are going to be pretty hectic with lots of “last”s. Please pray that we’ll be stay healthy in all areas and really be able to take good care of our kids, and meet their emotional and spiritual needs as well as their physical.