We walked off the plane a little dazed & confused, but a familiar face greeted us...Matthew Bachali! We were so glad to see him as we arrived in Tokyo on Wednesday, 12 June. After juggling our suitcases and getting through customs, we drove to our new home. When we arrived at the Lighthouse (the name of our ministry), we were greeted by 40+ folks to a "Welcome to Yokosuka" party. We enjoyed a fabulous dinner and met several people that we will be doing life with here in Yokosuka.
Our first few days with Matthew & Yukie have been fabulous! We are so grateful for the ministry that Matthew & Jill, Carolyn & Yukie have done in this past year. We are inheriting a very healthy ministry, a fabulous leadership team and a beautiful home. We have been very busy with transition items: getting alien registration cards, learning nuances with the house, transfering bank accounts, utilities, cell phones, etc. Matthew & Yuke have pulled together a wonderful transition plan that we are marching through day-by-day.
In the midst of that, we have become settled into our apartment. The Lighthouse is unique to Cadence. It is a ministry center, that includes 2 apartments for the Cadence team. Yukie lives in the 4th floor apartment - a nice 2-bedroom place. We have the the 3rd floor apartment - a lovely 3-bedroom home. We have unpacked all of our boxes and put our pictures on the wall. We have some final touches to truly call it home -- but we are quite settled now.  |
| Beth & Jennessa with the "work of art" |
As we unpacked, we experienced some "love" from our Ktown family. We would open drawers and find a picture of scary dragons and on the flip side was a note from someone in our ministry in Ktown. It's a very long story, but these sweet ladies pulled a prank on us in Ktown with this picture. They tried to convince us that this was a gift from an Air Force man that was part of the Ktown ministry several years ago. The hospitality house was integral in his adjustment to Germany and he wanted to thank us by giving the house an original work of art. The young man even showed up to our home one night to see where we had hung his masterpiece. Beth had us going for a while...Jennessa played innocent; but the truth finally came out. They found this "work of art" in a dumpster and as good youth workers decided to prank us.
How fun it was to find these pictures throughout the house and receive words of love, encouragement, prayers & support from our Germany family! Saying good-bye to to our Ktown family was so hard and we miss them very much. God is good! He has used our new Navy family in these first few days to make us feel welcome and He has used our Ktown family to feel loved and to remind us why we serve the military!
No comments:
Post a Comment