Konichiwa!

     Konichiwa! We have finally made it to Japan after many months of praying! We are so thankful that God opened the door and that we arrived safely yesterday morning! We had a LONG 24 hours as we left the airport in Vietnam at 1am and arrived in Japan at 7:30 am. Once we arrived we took some time in the airport to figure out the currency and the train system( still trying to learn the trains) and got some Starbucks as we were running off of 3 hours of sleep! 

    We got our train pass cards and we went on our way to meet the pastor of Hope Alive Church.  We got to the church and were immediately welcomed by friendly faces. We spent some time hearing about the church and meeting some of the interns and staff members. We are so excited to be here and it was such a relief to be welcomed by all of these wonderful people. 

    Later that day we got back on the train to get to our basement apartment. We actually did not know where we were going to stay as Tokyo is a huge area. Heath, the pastor of Hope Alive, suggested this apartment in the basement of another missionary family here. We did not see pictures before, which was a big no no in Indonesia, Thailand, and Vietnam, so we were just praying it was going to be good and IT IS WONDERFUL. Such a blessing, we are so thankful. Again, we were met with a warm welcome and the place is awesome! Most everyone we have met are from the south so we definitely felt the southern hospitality which reminds us of home. 

    The next day we went to one of the popular streets next to the train station and held up signs that said        "let's speak English." We had several young adults come up to talk to us! It was so fun and such a good way to meet people and invite them to different events at the church. After that they had a young adults dinner and of course they picked Burger King this week! So we had dinner with about 8 young adults and then had Bible study. It was such a fun time of fellowship, we can't wait for more! 



Brandon and I on our journey to Japan! 

    
                           This was our first Japanese meal and we accidentally ordered liver. Oops.


    There is a church picnic on Saturday at a near by park and then we have church on Sunday and then fellowship for dinner after that. We are so excited to continue to build relationships here and see how the Lord is working in Japan!  

TTYL! 

Mal 

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