Dear Beloved in Christ and Partner in the Gospel,
We have finally returned to Japan. Thank you, Lord!
We walked out of arrivals to see our dear friends and teammates, Melanie, Shoki, Kevin and Sarah. Their warm welcome gave us the first feelings of being “home”. This is not our eternal home, thank goodness, but we do enjoy a taste of heaven whenever we are among God’s people.
We’re staying in our mission-owned house in Higashikurume, where we lived in 2014-2015. We consider it a temporary situation as we begin our search for housing in the central Tokyo area but are no less grateful to be here. While we wait, we have the opportunity to work on the house which needs some TLC. Hopefully, this place will continue to serve our team and missionaries in the area for many years to come.
God has brought an old neighbor back into our lives, Setsuko-san, who occasionally brought us garden vegetables out of the blue. She’s continues to be very welcoming toward our family. We are planning to take some baked goodies over to her place in the next few days.
On Tuesday we began the search for housing. In just a couple of hours, we will be visiting our first few properties with a realtor. We’re praying for attitudes that care for our realtor and not just our need for housing. At the same time, we do ask for favor with them, that they would desire to find a suitable home for our family.
We are gathering as a team this evening as the Nakazawa family returns from the US this very night. It looks to be a joyful reunion. Also, we’re looking forward to meeting Colin and Megan Cordill for the first time as they continue their vision trip in Tokyo!
Looking a bit ahead, we’re looking forward to reconnecting with church members, teammates and friends from our old neighborhood. Some of the church members we’ve never met. These are exciting days as we plan these gatherings yet want to balance these opportunities with transitioning well back into life in Japan.
Thank you for your faithful prayers, messages of encouragement and offers of assistance during our time in Canada.
Gratefully,
The Lees
prayYamanote Facebook Group
Find past updates, additional photos and more information at JoJohn.com