Weekend in Tokyo

So I'm heading up to Utsunomiya today after spending my first weekend in Japan in Tokyo. Tokyo is big, hectic, and lively. It's neat to experience it and just be around here for a few days, but it's more of a place I'd like to visit rather than live. I've enjoyed my time here this weekend, but I'm ready to go on up to Utsunomiya and get settled into the city which is to be my new home. Anyway, here is a couple of pics from my time in Tokyo this weekend.

Edo Museum

People praying at Meiji Shrine

Entrance to Meiji Shrine

A wedding party getting photos taken at the shrine

A close up of the happy couple


I hope all is well with everyone. Take care and God Bless!

Finally in Japan!

Hi all! I wanted to let everyone know that I finally arrived safely in Japan. The plane ride was great because I got to travel with my friend Debbie whom I met at orientation who will be serving in Tokyo. I'll be in Tokyo for the weekend before traveling up to Utsunomiya with my supervisors on Monday who are going to help me get settled in up there in my new apartment. Pray for me please! I woke up today and realized once again how scary this whole thing is, but also so excited to see what God has in store in the coming days. I mean I woke up and looked out the window of the guest apartment I'm staying in and it finally hit me that I was actually in Tokyo, and I couldn't help but to praise God for how he has orchestrated events in my life to bring me to this place, at this time. Praise God indeed!!!

Anyway, it's a new beginning, but there were a lot of goodbyes that took place in the states before I came over. So I want to give some face time to my family here. I'm so grateful for all of their love and support. Please keep them in your prayers as well as we all get used to this change.

My sister, mother, and me

My father, sister, and me

Mindy and her fiance...er....boyfriend, Jimmy

Me and Mindy

I was dead...but now I live!

I want to share with you all a thought that has continually come to my mind in recent weeks as I look toward to heading to Japan. I can't fulfill this assignment in Utsunomiya. I'm not creative enough to do it. I'm not attractive enough or smart enough either. I have no discernible skills. Despite my best intentions, on a daily basis I fall far short of being the person whom God desires that I be. I'm still bent on fulfilling the desires of my heart rather than the desires of my Heavenly Father. I'm constantly reminded that there is nothing good within me in and of myself.

Based on that I consider it no small thing that Christ sacrificed himself upon the cross for me. What would drive the God of this world to give up his Son to pay for my mistakes, my shortcomings, my failures? It is this amazing grace and amazing love that I'll never fully understand.

I cherish the song by Casting Crowns titled "And Now My Lifesong Sings." The lyrics go:

I once was lost, but now I’m found
I once was lost, but now I’m found
So far away, but I’m home now
I once was lost, but now I’m found
And now my lifesong sings

I once was blind, but now I see
I once was blind, but now I see
I don’t know how, but when He touched me
I once was blind, but now I see

And now my lifesong sings
And now my lifesong sings
And now my lifesong sings

I once was dead, but now I live
I once was dead, but now I live
Now my life to You I give
Now my life to You I give
Now my life to You I give

Hallelujah
Hallelujah
Let my lifesong sing to You

It's the last verse that gets me every time I listen to the song! "I once was dead, but now I live!" Without Christ in my life I would be as good as dead. In fact, that's exactly what I once was. But because of what He did and because of who He is, it is now that I truly live. All that is good and decent in me is because of He who lives within me.

As I head to Japan next week I am aware that if I go in my own wisdom and strength and with my own agenda and laid out plans, then my life will resemble more of that dead man that I once was rather than the new life that I now live in Christ Jesus. Pray that I'll be wholly dependent upon God in the coming weeks, months, and years, and that I'll live out that new life I have in Christ in a way that brings the utmost glory to God.

"But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ..."--Ephesians 2:4-5