Ramen with Taka

Tonight after we finished our reading sessions we went to dinner with one of Lisa's readers. His name is Taka. He is a single college student. He took us to a Ramen restaurant. It was very tasty. The kids loved it! I'm not sure Taka was ready for noodles with young children with chopsticks. (can you imagine the mess we made?) Kelsey and I were so busy trying to contain the mayhem that we forgot to take pictures.

Sushi Train

You may not be able to tell from this picture, but we are at a Sushi train restaurant. Behind us is a conveyor belt that carries small plates filled with different kinds of sushi. You just grab what you want, and then pay by the plate. All the plates stacked on the front of our table are the things we ate. Pretty fun! Kelsey and I really enjoyed it. The kids weren't huge sushi fans. We went through the KFC drive-thru for some chicken nuggets for them :)

The people we are eating with are Paul and Mitsuyo Mawatari. They are retired ministers from Sendai, Japan. Now they're working to start a Christian school in the northern part of Japan. It was a fun evening with them.

Sleeping through the night

The kids both slept through the night last night! We may be over jet lag...

Old Friends

When we met our new readers, Kelsey was surprised to see an old friend, Itaru. When we came to Japan in 1998, one of Kelsey's readers was Itaru. Kelsey and Itaru studied from the summer of 1998 until we moved from Japan in the Summer of 2000. Kelsey's having lots of fun renewing this friendship, and hopes to be able to have lots of deep conversations with him. They already had one today! They were studying about Jesus struggling in prayer in the Garden of Gethsemane. Itaru said he discovered a new truth today about prayer.

The Gang's All Here

We're all here! Sorry this post is so slow in coming. It has taken us a few days to get settled and connected.

Our (the kids and Lisa) travels went really well. The kids were amazing on the plane. We had our moments, of course, but overall they were happy and easy to please. As soon as we arrived at the airport, Ezra and Kelsey hopped on a train to go to Mito. Kaylen and Lisa traveled to Mito with all the luggage by car. Ezra was so excited to get on the train. It added an extra hour to the trip, but it was definitely worth it!

We got here on Monday evening. We settled in to the home where we're living on Tuesday morning. We're staying with some friends who have a great house. They have 3 boys, all 3 and under, so it can get crazy at times, but Ezra is loving having some playmates.

On Tuesday night we met our readers for the first time. It was so exciting to see who God gave us to share with. Only 6 of our readers came to the information meeting, so we have some calling to do to make appointments with everyone who signed up. Kelsey and I are acting like 3/4 of a worker together. We take turns being with the kids and taking readers. We usually stay home with the Huddlestons in the morning, come up the the building at lunch time and begin reading at 2:00, and take readers until 7:00. We use our time in the morning to get some of the energy out of the kids since they will be at the church building all afternoon. In the afternoon, Kelsey and I alternate with readers and watching the kids, and then in the evening we take care of e-mail with the office, family and friends, and with the other teams around Japan.

We're all feeling much better. We're healthy, happy, and enjoying our time with our readers. Thanks for the prayers! Keep them coming!

Hello from Japan

Hello Friends and Family,

I am in a new city today. I arrived in Numazu at about 4:00pm today after five hours on the trains. It was a good trip. I am feeling a little better. Thank you for your prayers. I did have to go to the dentist this afternoon, and I have a slight problem. I may have to have a crown removed and some things cleared up tomorrow morning if the pain has not gone away. Pray the pain goes away.

Yes, I feel a little bit under attack, but the work is going so well here. The Osaka, Kojima and Numazu teams are doing so well. The Osaka team has about 50 readers, the Kojima team has around 80, and the Numazu team just got started today and they have around 45 signed up. The missionaries are very happy and the LST workers are doing great! I will be visiting three different teams tomorrow.

Did you know LST has about 90 workers in Japan this summer at 14 different churches on 19 different teams. Think of all the seeds of God's Word being planted. Please join us in giving God all the praise for the wonderful work He is doing in Japan!

Thanks again for all your support and prayers. I will post some more stories and news later this week.

Kelsey

Kelsey's There

Just wanted to let you all know that Kelsey made it to Tokyo at about 1:00 in the morning our time (about 1 in the afternoon Japan time). He stayed at the airport for a little while and met a few teams. Then he got on a train and traveled to Osaka. He's spending tonight and tomorrow morning in Osaka. Tomorrow afternoon he'll travel to a city called Kojima to visit the church and team there.

I'll let Kelsey tell you some stories from his trip later, but I just wanted to put up a post to ask you guys to keep praying. Kelsey is still not feeling great. Pray that he wakes up well-rested and feeling good in the morning.

Kelsey Leaving Tomorrow

Nothing like waiting until the last minute! Kelsey just finished packing and we're about ready to go to sleep. Kelsey gets on the plane tomorrow morning at 10:00AM

Keep us in your prayers this week. We've both been hit with some pretty serious allergy trouble and it's really slowed us down. Pray that we'll be healthy and full of energy this week. Kelsey has lots of traveling to do. He'll be visiting eight LST teams in eight different cities in the next seven days.