The people from our Gen X High School years will remember the slow
sway to Boys II Men, and It’s So Hard to Say Good-bye. While it is hard this isn't our sending sentiment… This adventure
is going to be filled with JOY!
On our final day state-side, we were embraced by a fantastic
Bon Voyage Team. Some of my family, Emi’s
Family, and our Faith Village from EBCLA joined us at the International
Terminal to say good-bye and pray over us.
I was explaining this to a tweenaged son of our friends.
Have you ever gotten something you totally don’t deserve? Well, this journey
has been filled with that kind of grace. We don’t deserve people sending us off
from the airport, we don’t deserve leaving with full support after 4.5 months
of fund-raising. We don’t deserve any of this… and yet a full choir of friends
and family were there to represent our sending squad.
Thank you to our churches who are supporting us.
Evergreen Baptist Church of Los Angeles
Wintersberg Presbyterian Church
Japanese Presbyterian Church of Seattle
Lakeside Church of Chicago
Lake Edge UCC (Madison, WI)
Christ Church of Chicago
The church of the Oyama’s
And of course the many friends and family who have believed
in us to go and serve God’s healing love in Japan. Thank you to those who have prayed for us and
pledged to partner with us in many ways. Your grace is what has us going to
serve together
We had to rush through security because we lingered maybe a
bit too long taking pictures and giving hugs. But as I turned the corner to see
our friends waving us good-bye, Emi and I consciously didn’t look back because
it’s not the hard good-bye that we are leaving – it’s taking with us the memories
and love of our community.
We’ll miss you and off we GO!
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