Day 20 - April 14 - Last Day of School & Connecting with missionary friends

At the start of our trip, the vice-principal at KIU had suggested Caia come for either a week or a week and a half. Now, on my last day here, we've decided to let today be her last day, then she can be there to say bye to me when I leave early tomorrow morning for Canada.

It will be hard for me to say goodbye to Crystal and Caia and also to Japan, as it has seemed almost like we were back here living our regular lives here again!

While the girls were at school today, I went over to a nearby city and met a new friend, Kevin Shephard, who is married to a Japanese lady, Misa, who helps at the Japan Mission office.

While Kevin is self-employed, his main purpose for being in Japan is to serve the church, and he is heavily involved at the church we used to attend here in Ikoma, the same city where Japan Mission is located.

Misa joined the Japanese staff at Japan Mission on a part-time basis, after Mr. Fukunaga, the JM office manager and accountant, passed away a few years back, and right up to his death, he had basically been in charge of most of the Japanese side of the office work including the finances!

What a blessing it has been for Japan Mission to have Misa as a part of the staff, especially since she is fluent in both English and Japanese, a real asset when dealing with some of the more complicated matters of life in Japan.

We had lunch together and chatted about life in Japan.

Kevin and Misa have been married for about 5 years, and the story of how they met and how the Lord kept them for each other is quite something, but I'd have to let Kevin tell you that one :)

Of course a big question several people wanted to know was, 'are you coming back?'. Of course, no one knows the future, but for now, both Crystal and I are of the same mind that Canada is where we're supposed to be.

As I mentioned in an earlier post, I had the opportunity to share at the Japan Mission potluck on Monday night and felt that I could share about my time in Japan before, and how the Lord has been teaching me in recent years about my identity in Christ, and that's something that won't change, no matter where I am in the world. This has been a great relief and comfort to me as I seek to serve the Lord where we are at the moment.

Humanly speaking of course, there may be a greater spiritual need in Japan, but as my former boss, David Verwey reminded me once, 'a need doesn't necessarily constitute a call', and those words are often a help when I'm reviewing where I'm at in life.

Caia and her buddy Emma who are in the same grade 1 class at KIU Academy. Emma and Caia hit it off from day 1, and she was tearful today to think that Caia wouldn't be coming back to school again

Thought I'd take one more photo of the front of the elementary building at KIUA. This building is used on Sundays for Kyoto International Chapel meetings