October, the Warm Welcome

last couple of weeks we were met with the warmest welcomes in the community and church. Many meals, surprise birthday cakes, and coffee dates were had with those in the congregation. Some people have offered to meet with us to connect and help us study Japanese so we have begun setting aside time for that. Hours upon hours have been spent setting up our home and life with the kids. Seven moves and one being oversees brings new emotions and concepts our kids have never experienced. They love it here and have been given many gifts and love, but still have a lot to process for being so little. They've had their fair share of meltdowns and confusion on why they can't go see their friends or family. As much as we'd love to jump full-on into ministry, we realize that a big portion of the ministry is at home with our family, doing what feels mundane at times and bringing consistency and love in. With the start of our third week in Tokyo, we are still setting up legal and practical things like health insurance, bank accounts, school enrollment, and phones. Here in Japan, being a foreigner isn't easy and almost every little task becomes a big one with hoops to jump through at every turn. We hope to begin new rhythms for our family to thrive while completing the needed tasks one step at a time. If all goes well we will be finished by the end of this week or next. Our days are a mix of God time, tasks, family time, connecting and serving the church, studying the language, and meeting workers/baristas in our area for ministry. We have a heart for hospitality and plan to begin hosting young families and neighbors in our home for meals in the coming weeks. In other good news, our teammates the Barbutti's have received what is needed to enter the country and arrive on December 22nd! We are incredibly excited to have them here and begin pioneering an Iris Base with them. They pioneered a base in Fortaleza Brazil and have a lot of wisdom in this area. Much of the first year together will be a slow and steady build of our families, team, and ministry. During this time we will be moving again to be near them, in a more suburb of Tokyo, to do life, build, and dream together. Along with this, we will be serving the church, 21st CCC, who hosted our visas and graciously helped us settle in! Being here for one month we can already see the gap in our finances and where God will need to provide. He has already provided so much and given us an incredible team! Tokyo is one of the more expensive mission fields and we are 61% funded. If you’d like to partner with us one time, monthly, or annually you can do so on our website. We believe being fully funded will maximize our fruitfulness in our ministry and family and keep us on the field for the long haul. You will also find new video updates on the journey page. Each video is broken up into parts due to the website's ability to load only small videos. We have also updated what we need prayer for on the support page and know how important your prayers are before God. Thank you for continuing to be here and supporting our family.