We have some rather big news – it looks like we’ll both be going to Japan in less than two weeks. As I had written before, Matthias was hoping to go to Japan for a few weeks as a volunteer. God has opened a door for both of us to go and work with a church in Sendai; it seems we’ll be there for around seven weeks, longer than we had initially planned.

I have so many friends in Sendai (because I lived there for two years) and I am just aching to see them, to just be with them and weep with them.  I can hardly believe we’ll be back in Japan so soon – my head is spinning and I’m giddy with excitement. We still have to pack, purchase tickets, and say goodbye to our many friends here in Berlin.

We’re still planning to travel to NJ on June 28th. We confirmed that we’ll be staying in Philadelphia; we can rent from a wonderful lady named Sarah who works in full-time with international students. Should be a great summer!

Please pray that we will be a blessing and manifest the love of Christ to hurting, traumatized, broken people. I have a strong desire to work with the children in the evacuation centers and perhaps do some kind of music therapy-type of work with the elderly (which I LOVE to do).

FYI, while we will be very close to the worst-hit areas on the coast we’ll be quite far from Fukushima. We are well aware that people are going to think we have lost our minds, lost our marbles, that we’re crazy, that we’re fools. We’ve had friends who’ve gone to Japan who have received a similar response. However, we are not afraid to go, but only because we know God will go with us.

On a lighter note, last night we had a wonderful little party with lots of yummy Japanese food.  Our Japanese teacher cooked a real feast – I helped a bit but she did most of the work. What a fun evening!

Yasuko and I had fun cooking  – it was  real feast!

Group shot

Matthias and Masaya, our drummer friend