Judith Alexander, a missionary who currently works with the Taga church and helped us arrange our travel, was a great friend we had made there during our short visit in 2006. We were able to catch up with her as well as the preacher, Sugao Tadokoro. They treated us to lunch and great conversation at Woody’s (just a few blocks from the church building), before having to head back to the bus station. Judith drove us to the bus stop (after first making a detour to the beach), and they sent us off with hugs and greetings for the Haruna church.

Below are two pictures from the most recent trip and two from the previous trip. Clockwise, from upper left: 1) The Taga church building, 2) Sugao preaching on Sunday morning (this trip), 3) Saito-san, a wonderful elderly couple in the church (from last trip), and 4) Sugao and Judith (from last trip).

Mike and Tomoko have three lovely daughters, Ana, Erika, and Kiara. They volunteered–on very short notice, mind you–to keep Samantha and me for a couple nights when we went to Hitachi to visit our brothers and sisters at the Taga church. We were so blessed to have this opportunity to get to know them better on this trip, and they really treated us like family. They were such a joy to be around, and we definitely feel like they were more of an encouragement to us than we were to them.

Thank you, Mike and Tomoko, for opening your home and hearts to us, and we give thanks to our Lord for the blessing you gave us through your company. God bless you and your family!

After dinner there were games of ladder ball and volleyball, and then singing! A group congregated around the gentleman in the cowboy hat, pictured below. He is a fantastic cowboy singer, and taught/sang us the history behind our state song Home on the Range. There were a few sing along songs, too.

The fireworks show happened in between rain showers, but didn’t last too long! When we first arrived the all-day downpour had finally let up, but only to start again right as fireworks began. Everyone relocated into the shed for cover from the rain to watch a few more fireworks before the wicks were put out by the rain.

It was a great evening–thank you Tristan and Leslie for inviting us!

Thanks for reading!

Old Cowtown Museum has an Old Fashioned Christmas each year where they show what Christmas would have looked like in Wichita in the 1870′s.

Our friends Ben & Kelly invited us to go and we had a fantastic (but COLD!) time. We enjoyed homemade hot chocolate, Christmas caroling, some Irish step dancers in the Saloon, and even a retelling of “‘Twas the Night Before Christmas” in the old one-room schoolhouse. We rounded out the evening in the old farmhouse where they were roasting a Christmas turkey in the kitchen lit by oil lamps.

We had so much fun with Ben & Kelly; it was a really great way to get in the Christmas spirit. So much fun, in fact, that we completely failed to get any pictures of our own, so here’s one we found on Flickr.

(So where are we going next, guys?)

I was really craving a #47 Roly Poly last night after my workout – not just craving, but rather a nagging feeling that I couldn’t shake. I knew that we should probably eat at home, but I convinced Ryan and we went to Roly Poly. We had to hurry since it was close to closing time!

Let me give some back story before going too much farther. We’ve been going to Roly Poly for several years. While the food is very fresh and healthy, we really enjoy seeing the owners. An older Asian couple owns the shop, and the wife is extremely good with names. Every time we walk in she says “Hey, Sam and Ryan!” She is so joyful and kind to everyone. She even knows the exact sandwiches we like and at the end of each meal she brings a candy dish over to us. You might say we go there too much, but really we don’t – she is just that good! Her husband is more quiet, but one day as I was by myself waiting for my order during lunchtime he asked me where I worked. I told him where and what I did and he told me that he used to be a mechanical engineer for Coca Cola! And one evening when Ryan and I went together he happened to be there and he came over and asked Ryan about his job and we all talked together for a long time. I said all that to say that they have done a great job getting to know their customers, but we on the other hand have not done a good job getting to know them.

Back to the story. When we arrived there were new people working and a new woman took our order. As we sat down the Asian woman came over and said how happy she was that we were there that night because it was her last night as owner! Their 5-year lease had run out and they sold the business to these new owners. She thanked us over and over for being such good customers and made us promise that we would give the new people a try. She even gave us a coupon for a free sandwich to make sure we’d come back at least once! We told her how much we would miss her smile and she started to tear up. It was so sad! She disappeared into the back and Ryan and I just sat there, stunned. Even then we still did not know her name (or her husband’s), and now we would never see them again. We were really ashamed of ourselves for missing this opportunity.

But then it struck us that we should get her address so that we could send a thank you card. When we got up to leave she came out to say goodbye, so we asked for her address. As she was writing it down, we noticed that it was the next street over from our house – they lived in our neighborhood! Just a few doors down from us! They’d lived next to us for all these years and we didn’t even know it.

Just think, we could have gone to any other food place or eaten at home and we would have missed this experience. Because of the way all these things happened we know the Holy Spirit led us there for that purpose – this was no coincidence. So now we will definitely have them over for dinner and get to know them!

To read about their successful mission work in Scotland visit their website The Block Letters.

Make sure to check out their website, The Block Letters.

“After this the Lord appointed seventy-two others and sent them two by two ahead of him to every town and place where he was about to go. He told them, “The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field. Go! I am sending you out like lambs among wolves.” Luke 10:1-3