Arrived in Tokyo!

7:30 am Monday – suitcases packed, ready to go – oh, let’s check the weight on this big case – oh, no – 10+ pounds overweight. Quick, get another case. (We didn’t use up more than our allotted number of cases). 8 am Larry and Marilyn are punctual; we didn’t have the traffic issues we expected, so got to the airport plenty early, but Roger’s passport wouldn’t scan. So, we were directed to “special services”. There was no one in line, and 3 friendly attendants got us checked in. We encouraged them to give serious thought to where their last trip would take them. Then, surprise – we both got TSA pre-checked status. No one in line again!

Had good seats, good seat-mate, and good trip with lots of food (2 meals/2 snacks with beverages). The seat-mate was open to spiritual things, too. He took a Gospel of John along. Upon arrival and getting through customs & immigration (finger and eye printed), we bought our bus tickets. Nice bus – cloth seats, seat belts, express route, recliners, heavy curtains to block sun.

Since the bus wasn’t full, we each had a double seat (one of us wasn’t built for the allotted space)! It was 1½ hour trip.

Driving in Tokyo, we saw sights that reminded Heather of Europe – houses squeezed close together in random order; laundry drying on the porches; narrow roads with no shoulders; bikes, people and small shops everywhere.

After arriving at the TEAM guest house, we were served dinner, unpacked and moved in, and then were taken on a long walk to get oriented to shopping. Now we have another hour or so to stay up and then BED!

We're off to Tokyo, Japan on April 8

Why, you may ask, are we heading to Tokyo for almost three months? Well, we have several missionary friends in Japan, and one thing they kept mentioning was the need for volunteers to manage the TEAM guest house in Tokyo. We thought about this for about a year and finally decided that we could probably do that job! After all, it only is a 3-month commitment and anyone could handle that, right! (How about you?). Japan is a country in great need spiritually. Here are some quick facts from the TEAM web site:

-Only 0.43 percent are Protestant Christians.

-Religion does not play a big role in the lives of most Japanese, with many not understanding the main two religions of Shintoism and Buddhism.

-Japan is smaller than the state of California, but less than 20 percent of the land is habitable for its 127 million residents.

-On average, there is a suicide in Japan every 15 minutes.
-The birth rate is just 1.35 children per woman, well below the replacement rate of 2.1.

Our initial request was for 3 months over Christmas, figuring that would work best with our other ministry obligations. However, they didn’t need anyone right then and preferred that we come in the summer.  However, that’s our very busy time for outreach at fairs with Child Evangelism Fellowship.

So, we are leaving April 8 and returning June 18, God willing.

Our job will involve supervising the Japanese housekeepers hired to clean the rooms (20 beds total), collecting the money for guests’ board and room, shopping for breakfast foods, cooking and cleaning up hot breakfasts 5 or 6 times a week and preparing occasional luncheons for TEAM staff meetings. Heather will be doing a lot of this, including keeping track of all the related finances.  Roger hopes to be involved in some English language conversation with the the hope of discussing matters of eternal  significance. He will also likely be doing some facility maintenance and repairs.

Here are a couple a Googled images of the Team Center in Mitaka:

Spring 2018 RV trip 14th – and Final - Posting

In Bozeman, MT, we spent a lot of time at the Museum of the Rockies. Did you know that when a shepherd had 1,000 sheep, he would bell some of them and they would “collect” their group of sheep. So every evening when they circled around his covered wagon, it saved him from counting them all – he just had to check and make sure all the belled sheep were there.

Signs to the Greycliff Prairie Dog Town State Park enticed us to drive there and check it out. The prairie dogs were very shy and warned their neighbors as soon as we got too close, which wasn’t close at all. This one may have been watching the train in the distance. We remembered the story of Lewis and Clark first seeing them (they are unique to the N. American continent), and how difficult it was for them to capture a few to show off in D.C.

Spent the night in Butte, MT, and had lunch at the Wagon Wheel in Drummond at cousin Judy’s restaurant. She wasn’t there, but the food was good! From there we drove to Missoula, MT, and toured the facility where the smoke jumpers are trained. We learned about their parachutes – and how precise the packing of them is. A new packer has to pack 20 of them perfectly, and then he has to wear the 21^st one when he jumps.

The weather was hot and sticky, so we weren’t motivated to drive too far without stopping (at rest stops, McDonald’s, Walmart, etc.). Miss Winnie wasn’t at all happy about the heat, but she kept on moving. The heat gauge was pegged over the top, but we now realize that there is a problem with the gauge – just not sure how much of a problem nor how to solve it.

In ID, we stopped at Wallace for the night. The campground there was quiet and peaceful – with a babbling brook running right behind our R.V. We both slept about 9 hours – very unusual!

The next day we stopped in Spokane at cousin Laura Swanson’s to say “hi” to the family. Home was still too far away, so we spent Thursday night in the rest area in Cle Elum. We did that once before on our trial run with our “new” R.V. It was very loud, and we found that hadn’t changed since our night 2 years ago. So our last night wasn’t as restful as the previous one had been.

We arrived home amid rain and cold weather! But home is home and it’s good to be here. God graciously brought us safely home.

Spring 2018 RV trip 13th Posting

Crossing the mighty Mississippi River from WI to MN was a very fun adventure. We stopped at the visitor center and were told the locks were just up river a short drive. Upon arriving there, we observed a barge with tug boat going through them. It was so large that the load had to be split in ½. We watched the barges getting situated in the lock – with only a total of 5 extra feet of width (total 110 feet wide lock). The lock could accommodate 600 feet of “boat”. Once all was tied tight, the water began to drain – all by gravity. After both ½s were on the same level again, we watched it all being tied back together.

Then they were ready to move on downriver to the train bridge. We followed the barge and saw the bridge opening (it had to swing open) after a very long and slow train crossed! The locks were built in the 30’s and the train bridge was older.

On the way to SD we took a break at a roadside rest stop and saw this truck.

Miss Winnie was most unhappy with the hot weather. We’ve had it in the 90s. The wind (which has faithfully been blowing) cooled us some, but not the engine!

We did arrive at Alan’s and the weather has cooled.

Zoey and Wyatt have been a delight to play with. Zoey likes puzzles, drawing, games (by her rules), and playing hide and seek. That’s a real trick in the R.V. – which they love to be in!! We’ve been trying to show her how letter sounds work, so she can read. Maybe next time…

Now on our last leg home. We’ll take our time and trust the Lord to get us home over the mountains.