Day 1 - Saturday, March 26

Today was an early start, with Caia getting up at around 4am, but Crystal and I were able to stay in bed for a few hours longer, and managed to avoid getting up properly until around 6.30am!

The day started slowly, with a trip to a local 100 Yen (Dollar Store/50p shop) that Caia had been begging us to take her to since we told her about it.

These stores are all over Japan and represent the finest that China has to offer ;) by way of extremely cheap (mainly plastic) goods of all sizes, shapes and purposes.

It is nice to be back in the town where we spent 6 years together serving the Lord in various capacities, from English teaching, to school teaching, to office work and volunteering on the board of a local Christian Elementary School.

We were thrilled to take part in Japan Mission's first ever 'Easter Egg Hunt', where Alex & Eri Verwey (the founder of Japan Mission's grand-son and his wife have been seeking to make friends with local neighbourhood ladies and their families, and took this opportunity to organize a bit of a Easter Egg Hunt party, where children searched for 60 eggs filled with candy that had been hidden.

Alex took the opportunity to briefly explain the meaning of Easter. For many of these ladies (around 6 families from the neighbourhood), this would have been the first time they heard the true meaning of Easter. Like the west, many Japanese will see the word Easter written in shops and around the place at this time of year, but yet the typical association with the season is 'spring', 'bunny rabbits' and possibly easter eggs, but nothing of Jesus and the new life He came to give us through His death on the cross.

Driving in the neighbourhood, we've already seen several people we know from the time we lived here and look forward to what God may have in store as we seek to re-connect with these individuals.

One such person is a lady called Mrs Ogura. Aaron met her one day while he was out walking in the neighbourhood. He gave her the monthly Christian pamplet 'yorokobi no Izumi' that the mission prints each month, and as a result, she asked if she could receive it each month, so for several years, Aaron delivered the leaflet to her door. After we adopted Caia, we even had the opportunity to meet her husband and were even invited into their home on one occasion.

After our Easter egg hunt, we were treated to a delicious lunch at a local Japanese restaurant where we ate Caia's favourite meal of 'tendon' which is lightly battered vegetables and fish over rice.

Tomorrow is Easter Sunday, and we trust and pray we'll have opportunities to share something of the Easter story with the Japanese we meet.

Aaron will be teaching an English class in the morning to 4 or 5 Japanese men who come along each week to brush up on their English. None of these men know Jesus yet. Pray that God might do a work in their hearts and that He might speak to them and others of the life-giving message of the Gospel as they hear.

What a privilege to be in the 'land of the rising sun', but oh, that men, women, boys & girls would know the 'risen Son' in their hearts and lives this Easter time. We know that only God Himself will give that ability.