America, America
We have been in the USA for a month and have covered a lot of ground. We started in San Jose and drove down the coast to the place we lived from 2016-2020.
It was a sweet reunion with old friends. As a family of six, we are a lot to host. Some of our great friends brought us in and we enjoyed that time with them so much! It was great to see that God is drawing people to himself in California. The church is thriving and there were even preaching and evangelizing out in public. We’re inspired by that boldness! Jesus is coming back soon!
On our way back to the airport, we were drove through one of most beautiful pieces of highway in the country — US Highway 1 through Big Sur. The views from our minivan were stunning. When we lived in California we used to drive through that area as a vacation. We ate delicious food, had long conversations and wrapped up our time in CA.
Our next stop was Tennessee. On the way to seeing family in southern TN we went north for a few days into a small town in Kentucky. For the past year and a half we’ve been watching a pastor with a powerful message of faith for the church that really lit a fire under us. He wants to see the church thrive and the believer know their identity and authority in Christ. He was preaching for a week at a church and we were close enough to go. We spent 3 days at the meetings there. He taught from mid morning to afternoon and then came back to preach several hours in the evening. It was powerful. We really want to bring more of that passion to see the gospel go out into our ministry in Japan.
From Kentucky we traveled south into Nashville, Tennessee where Steph and I met and dated in 2011-12. We saw a few of the sites that were memorable for us and met up with Stephanie’s cousin who drove us down to Chattanooga and even bought In-N-Out burgers along the way — they recently came to Tennessee too! Several members of Steph’s family have migrated from CA to TN in the past few years so there are plenty of people to see.
Stephanie’s brother and sister-in-law put us up in their two spare rooms. Their house has a big yard with swing set and play house and big covered porch so everyone can find a space. Uncle Johnny and Aunt Chelsea are so good with the kids. There are crafts to do, coloring, video games and fishing to meet everyone’s summer dreams checklist. We’ve even gotten to be a part of the kids church and VBS that Chelsea leads at the church. It’s been fun to meet other Christians and see how God is the answer for each generation and everywhere you go.
The family is steadily growing and new changes are happening almost daily — especially with Eden. He’s almost walking but still pretty content with a fast crawl. He has become friends with Jon and Chelsea’s dog who is also a ground dweller. They share toys, and sometimes food. The older two kids are moving through their 1st and 4th grade school books. For them summer holidays have a few things they must do. Last year when we visited America, we took almost the whole time off school. Now we’re trying to be a little more committed even while having fun. They all caught some fish the other day and have ben making friends at church.
Thanks for reading and keeping up with us! We love you!
