After about 23 hours of traveling, I`m back in Niigata! I love this region. I love the low green mountains, the cool humidity, the large flat bright green rice fields underneath clean blue skies with large white boyant clouds. It was so refreshing to find myself at Sayaka`s familiar doorstep after a long trip across the Pacific with not much sleep. I was able to sleep the entire night. That first solid night of sleep has really helped minimize the jet lag.
Sayaka, being a Master Planner, had the next four days already scheduled for Mari and I. Here`s what we`ve done so far:
We spent Wednesday with Megumi and read the bible together. I played a song for her that I finished writing on the airplane and she loved it. That evening we visited a mother and daughter that are devoted to prayer and ministry. They pray together every morning and recently finished a time of fasting to seek God`s direction. We had a really wonderful time of fellowship and prayer.
The next day we had breakfast with Sayaka and read the Bible together. Sayaka had a lot of really good questions about the scriptures and I did my best to answer them. In the course of conversation I ended up talking about how important it is to read the Old Testament. Many of her questions about the New Testament were related to the Old Testament and I realized that, in order to really understand the New Testament, we need to read the Old Testament. I thought to myself "Amen, Jayne. If you want to understand the New Testament, you`ve got to be studying the Old Testament." I learn so much from the things I say to help other christians.
That afternoon we visited a large commercial pear garden run by an elderly couple and their christian daughter Shoko. To call this garden "commercial" makes it sound mechanical, but this is one of the most beautiful cultivated areas I have ever seen. This is a garden like you would expect Solomon to have owned. We met Shoko last year and helped with some of the work for a couple of days. This year we had less time together, but it seemed that our fellowship was deeper and our prayer time together was really sweet.
That night we met with two of Sayaka`s coworkers. Sayaka travels between elementary schools in the area teaching english. Her two coworkers are Americans doing the same thing. We were able to testify a little to them, but it was mostly just fun to talk and laugh together. One girl is actually from Coppell and studied for a year at UNT. She has a friend that just opened a restaurant in Denton called Mi Taza that I want to visit when I get back. My Denton friends should go and tell me how it is! If you meet a girl named Andreina, tell her that Cailtin says hello. :-)
This morning we had breakfast with Sayaka`s mother and it was so much fun talking to her. This woman is so gracious and gentle and hospitable and has a great sense of humor. She`s got spunk! This afternoon she is taking us to a traditional Japanese restaurant for lunch. I`m looking forward to it. Sayaka`s parents have very fine taste. Over the years, they have treated me to the best food in Japan.
Tonight Sayaka`s father will drive us to Sendai - a five hour trip - and we will meet up with Tai, Noriko, Yuriko, and a few other Japanese believers who are all leaving from there to go to the conference tomorrow. I`m really looking forward to seeing each of them! Mari and I prayed together this morning and I think God gave me the central verse for what I can speak on at the conference. More on that later. ;-)
That`s all for now! Jah-neh! (that`s a casual goodbye in Japanese)
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