Monday, May 09, 2011

Going to Japan

God has done it! Celia and I are going to Japan on July 1, 2011, with 4 one-way tickets (one for me, one for Celia, one for Celia's cello, and one for Celia's viola da gamba) for our initial four year term. Today is the day we were supposed to meet all of our deadlines, and we were nervous and excited at the same time to see how God was going to supply for our financial clearance (we were at 90% a week ago and 97% yesterday morning). By yesterday night, we received the final pledges needed to meet the minimum financial requirements to go to Japan, and this morning our OMF boss gave us the green light to go to Japan!

So what do we do from here? We pack, move, travel, say goodbyes, cry (a lot), fill out paperwork, and leave. When we get to Japan, we will deposit some cellos and other luggage, and then head over to Singapore for our month long orientation course (OC). Singapore is where the OMF International headquarters is, and OC is meant to train OMF missionaries about procedures of OMF and allow us to get acquainted with the OMF staff supporting us and the other missionaries entering the field with us. After OC, we hop back to Japan where we will hopefully do some initial relief work for a few weeks (Celia playing cello concerts in the shelters and Keith doing manual labor). By mid-August we should be moving into our new home in Sapporo, Hokkaido, and starting language study.

Right now we feel like this: dancing to the jukebox in the basement of Keith's parents' house with long hair

やった!

3 comments:

Rosie Perera said...

Hi from a fellow Regent alum. You will probably get to know, if you don't already, my friends Dieter & Shelley Schmidt, who are with OMF in Japan.

Celia said...

We do know them. In fact, we lived in their house when we were short-termers. :) How do you know them?

Rosie Perera said...

Wow, small world! Shelley's dad was the pastor of the church I grew up in (in Pittsfield, Massachusetts). She and Dieter were my Sunday School teachers when I was in high school. They got married at that church. Have stayed in touch over the years.