That's right, I've been telling Eli almost everyday that we're going to Japan. We've been wanting to go to Japan for a few years now. Last time I was pregnant we chose to take a 3 week trip to China instead of Japan and in one way I'm glad to be able to see my Godmother one last time before she passed away last month.
Japan, yes we are excited because we are visiting our friends Jin and Mark who are full time missionaries in Tokyo working with Japanese college students. We are going to be working along side with them for the 2 weeks that we'll be there in October. In addition to being of any kind of help to them, I'm anxious to see real missionaries in the field living out their daily lives. We'll be staying with them, with Eli in tow. They have 3 children, the youngest is Eli's age, and their neighbors and co-workers the Hayes also have 3 young children I believe... it's going one fun and crazy ride.
What we'll be doing I don't have all the details yet, but I keep thinking about what we can offer them. Calvin can help them out with computer issues and lead bible studies (he's good at that). But what can I do? One thing that has crossed my mind is a chinese book that I've read only the first few chapters... (not because I'm lazy, but because that's all the chinese I've retained to carry me through chapter 3 I think) The gist of the book is that the ancient Chinese knew of God and his promise of sending his son as an atoning sacrafice for our sins through the examination of the original Chinese written characters and how they were conceived. I thought the Japanese students might also find this interesting as I have since they use part of the Chinese characters in Japanese. I'll need to re-read this book and maybe get some help with the more difficult Chinese in the later chapters.
