Days 3 & 4 - Easter Monday & Tuesday - March 28 & 29

Leaving from Ikoma Station

We've been looking forward to this day since we started planning our trip to Japan. Longtime friends the Rudolph's from Washington, are working and living in Japan and seeking to live out the Gospel in their every day lives.

Lilly and Caia enjoying some home made 'okonomiyaki'

Enjoying some down time at the river

After walking around at Kobe Zoo 

Expertly parked by Julie outside their apartment 

We believe they are doing even what many missionaries set it to do and that is to be salt and light in this world where God has placed them. They are not technically 'missionaries' in the sense that they haven't been sent by a church overseas, however, in every other sense they are very much missionary minded, with hearts and lives that seek to live out the Gospel where God has placed them.

We are thankful to God for their influence in our lives and for the many times we've had to connect with them over the years even since we left Japan.

We spent most of it time either catching up on the past 6 years of life or sharing a meal together, though we also had a chance to have a nice walk in their neighborhood and to visit the zoo in Kobe together on Tuesday.

One other wonderful opportunity we had,while in the Ashiya area was to meet up with some other longtime friends Ronnie and Anne Cairns who are in Japan for five weeks for ministry at the church in Ashiya and also at several other churches in Kansai.

Ronnie & Anne Cairns outside their apartment and the building that Ashiya Grace Church meets in

Ronnie was one of my (Aaron's) first main influences in Japan and I spent my first five years attending the church in Ashiya while a missionary in Ikoma. The church in Ashiya were able to find a beautiful new building to rent for considerably less than they were paying, in a location close to the train station. Ronnie is praying that the Lord will provide a missionary couple with excellent Japanese who can come and do ministry from the apartment.

Even though we've only been in Japan for four days, it seems as though we've packed in a lot of different things into our trip.

We are certainly very blessed to have friends we can reconnect with all over the world and we are reminded of the global nature of the church and that our identity is in Christ and not in a nationality, country or culture.