We had a great week at our Asia Area Retreat in Malaysia (MTW has these area retreats for missionaries every 4 years). God blessed us with great speakers, seminars, and times of worship, as well as some fun time together as a family and with other missionaries. We left with refreshed souls and excitement for what God is doing in Japan, as well as Asia.
This was Noa’s second flight ever. We have figured that in 3 weeks we have spent 28 hours on planes. Talk about a lot for a little less-than-one-year-old to handle but she did great. We are so proud of her newfound traveling skills. She finds ways to keep herself busy on the flight.
And this time, they gave us a seat at the bulkhead (I think thats what its called) where Noa could have a little bed to sleep in. Very nice perk to the flight, if you ask me.
This was where we had meetings every morning and late afternoon, and some evenings. Both Dr. Paul Kooistra and Pastor Joseph Wheat were the featured speakers. It was really encouraging seeing the missionaries from other regions in Asia-Pacific.
Below is a picture of our new friend, David Cunningham. He and his family are missionaries in Australia and he gave a testimonial one evening. Eric really appreciated the caution he gave to young missionaries about burn out and the encouragement as a man to make family a priority.
We loved getting to spend time with our team, and it was a special treat to be with the Dingle and the Pfeil families, as they are in Karuizawa at language school and won’t be joining us in Chiba til next year. Both Rebecca Dingle and Sarah Pfeil are expecting their third children this coming spring so we’re excited that this next batch of team kids will be so close in age. Noa got to spend some time with Annabella and Olivia Pfeil and she loved it! Big girls are just so much fun to watch!
While there all the missionaries are given a “day off,” and we went to a neat water park/amusement park/zoo called Sunway Lagoon and had a great time playing in the water all day. Actually, the water and the sand. Here is another picture of Noa just enjoying Olivia so much.
We stayed in the water park part all day as that was the most fun for Noa. She even took a little nap on the beach. We were blessed to have Grandpa, Uncles Mark and Micah, and Aunt Hannah along for the trip so of course Noa had lots of people to watch her and play while mom and dad went down some water slides. At the end of the day, we had the special treat of eating at Pizza Hut. I can honestly tell you that pizza never tasted so good. What a blessing! 
Most days we were pretty busy with meetings and worship services, which was a tremendous treat and so refreshing for our souls. One afternoon, however, Eric and I took a date into the city, leaving Noa in the capable hands of Micah, Hannah, and Mark (and all their MK friends).
We thought it would be pretty cool to go to the top of this tower, the KL TOWER, FOURTH highest in the world (impressive, huh?). Well, we weren’t as capable as we thought and it ended up taking a bit longer than we suspected to get to the tower itself.
The KL tower sits on a large hill in the middle of the city and we ended up having to walk halfway around the hill and then up the whole thing… quite a hike! On the way we met this little guy. Which we thought was pretty cool until he started following us on the wires above the path. All of a sudden I was imagining headlines of “American Couple Mauled By Monkey in middle of Kuala Lumpur.” Maybe thats why it was such a tiring hike… I made Eric run half the way to get away from the monkey!
It was pretty cool to be at the top of that huge tower and the city is so beautiful! There is a ton of history that we learned and it was neat to see the beautiful creation all throughout and in the distance.
These are Malaysia’s “Twin Towers”
We had such a great trip, but it was also exciting to come “home,” anticipating making this home as we have time now to actually settle. The plane ride back was pretty uneventful. Here’s a sweet photo of Noa and one of her biggest fans, Uncle Micah.
Our whole team rode on the planes together, so we made quite a crew. This photo doesn’t really capture the 35+ adults and children that we traveled with. Pretty fun…
Continue reading about MTW Asia-Pacific Area Retreat in Malaysia
Hello everyone!
Sorry that we have not updated in a while. We want to thank you for your prayers and e-mails and comments over the last few weeks. We have been so encouraged and felt the Lord’s blessing through that.
Seth is doing well. We haven’t seen him since we have been back yet but hear that he is in good spirits and starting to learn to use his crutches. He is still in the hospital because once they started him on crutches, realized that he has a small broken bone in his right hand. He hadn’t felt it before that because the pain in his leg was too great. Anyway, his hand is doing much better (its so small they didn’t need to treat it, just time to let it heal) and so he has started on his crutches and getting the hang of them. Please continue to pray for his full recovery and patience for him as he waits to be discharged from the hospital and then gets used to normal life with a cast and crutches.
We had a great time in Malaysia for the MTW Asia Pacific Area Retreat. This is a retreat that takes place only every 4 years so we were thankful to get to go. We hadn’t realized how much we were in need of some rest and refreshment. The Lord provided some wonderful speakers and seminars that were truly what we needed for Spiritual refreshment. It was also a wonderful time of being with some of our teammates as well as missionaries from all over Asia and the South Pacific. It was so encouraging to hear everything that the Lord is doing in His World. We returned last night ready to be back and continue making this “home” as well as excited about what we learned and the things that the Lord has in store for us here.
Today we had a crazy day of errands and English class and lesson-planning. Amidst it all, it took both Eric and I all day to realize that Noa was not just hot because its blazing here, but that she has a fever. Please pray for her. We don’t think it is anything too severe but we are a little concerned as its at 102 degrees. We’ll keep a close watch on her tonight and see how she is in the morning. Maybe we’ll have our first Japanese doctors visit tomorrow, who knows!
We are so thankful for you checking in with us. I hope to post some photos soon. We really appreciate your prayers and love for our family.
Thanks to all of you who are praying for Seth. He had to have surgery this afternoon and the Lord was very good to protect him and bring him out safely. Here is a letter my dad wrote today explaining what the doctors did:
“Seth’s surgery this afternoon was successful. Praise the Lord with us.
Under general anesthesia the surgeon broke the 2 lower right leg bones fully, then aligned them back properly. He put in wires to hold both bones appropriately in place. The wires will be able to be pulled out (like pierced ears… well, kind of like pierced ears… well, the more I think about it, a very little bit like pierced ears ) in 6-8 weeks. His longgggg cast is from his thigh to his foot, included most of his foot… only his toes show. He will probably be able to come home this weekend.
Thanks for your prayers. God answered.”
Eric and I got to spend a good hour with him before surgery this morning and then a little while this evening after he woke up. He seemed to be doing really well, although its evident that he is disappointed to be missing the MTW area retreat in Malaysia (we leave in the morning with my dad and 3 other younger siblings and the rest of our team). Please pray for his heart as he heals, that he would find fun and joy in the rest he is having and his special time with mom.
We appreciate your prayers over the last few days. It has been a very hard few days, but we have felt the graciousness and love of God, as well as the love of his people. Thank you!
Today my littlest brother, Seth, was hit by a motor-bike and broke his leg. My family was coming to our house for lunch and had to park down the street from my house. Seth was trying to be the first one over to our house to hold Noa so he darted out from behind my mom’s van and was hit by the oncoming bike. His leg is broken pretty bad; they haven’t been able to set it yet because its because its a “compound green stick fracture.” They expect him to be in the hospital for at least 7 days, maybe 10.
Please pray for Seth, he is only 11 and has had to be really brave all day. He really did great, being very strong and courageous as he dealt with a lot of pain. While he was on the ground waiting for the ambulance he kept apologizing for running out in the road. Tomorrow two doctors may try to manually set his leg with the help of the x-ray which will be very painful. Please pray that he will continue to be so brave. Also, pray that he sleeps well tonight (its 8:30 pm here) and won’t be afraid if he wakes up.
Praise the Lord with us that Seth is alive and that his injury is relatively small compared to what could have happened in a case like this. We are so glad that it was only a motor-bike and not a car, and that he wasn’t going any faster. I am just continually amazed at God’s graciousness in sparing Seth’s life. I am also so thankful that in God’s providence, our friend Nobu was here for lunch. I called EMS right away (119 here) and was able to give them our address, but other than that, I couldn’t figure out what they were saying. Nobu was able to talk to them, give them directions, and explain what had happened. That was just a little thing in a crazy time that made a lot of difference in all of our stress levels. God is good.
These are pictures of Noa with her Uncle Seth two days ago. She has loved being here, so close to 3 uncles and an aunt who absolutely dote on her. On Friday night Seth had built a special fort just for Noa to play in over at my parents’ house. It’s always fun going over there because Uncle Seth and Uncle Micah don’t let her out of their sight and provide endless hours of entertainment, through their songs and dances and whatever else they can do to make her smile. Please pray that Seth will be back to playing with Noa very soon… I don’t know what she’ll do while he’s out of commission.
I (Sara-Beth) joined a Gospel group that meets at our church. This group practices and performs gospel-style music, a very poplar genre here in Japan. A lot of the people who come are church-goers or Christians, while the other people just come because they love to sing and practice English, and they love the fellowship. I am really excited because a lot of the people who come are from this community, and we live right down the street!
Here is a picture of Eric and Nagata-san. Nagata and Eric will be doing college ministry together, both at Chiba University but also the college ministry for our local church here. Today they played soccer with some of the youth for a while before my practice started.
At the beginning of practice, the director asked me to read the words of the song to everyone and let them repeat after me, in order to work on pronunciation. Since the song itself is pretty repetitive, we said a lot of the same things over and over again It was such a fun practice and I’m really looking forward to more.
After practice, the group had a barbecue. What FUN! This was Eric’s first Japanese barbecue and it was a good one. So much yummy food and a great opportunity to meet people and make new friends! Hope you enjoy the pictures and they don’t make you too hungry
So sorry it has been so long since we posted pictures. Honestly, we haven’t been taking very many. Its just been so busy settling into life here. But here are some pictures from before we left, our trip, and here in our new home.
We got to spend a lovely afternoon with our cousins: Matt, Carly, and Liam. We had a great time just enjoying one another’s company, as we have been blessed to do for the last several years in Harrisonburg. Noa and Liam love being together. Noa is always good for a big, wet kiss on her cousin’s face. We are praying, and please pray with us, that the Chases can come to Japan very soon. They are raising support now and trusting that the Lord will bring them here in His time.
We also had a good but sad farewell with our other dear friends, the Lookabills and the Coles. Phoebe Cole, the little bean of a baby to the right, is one of Noa’s best friends and she can’t wait til next time they see each other, when they can play together. Josh and Tabitha and their son, due to arrive any day now, are also preparing to come to Japan and we ask that you pray with us for these team-mates to join us very soon!
We had another sweet but sad goodbye with Grandma and Grandpa Chase at the airport. Noa loves these “GREATS” like crazy and it was such a sweet time with them. We all miss them terribly.
Noa loved the airport, a perfect place to practice crawling and to make lots of friends.
Our home group put together the coolest little goody bag for her on the plane, full of treats to entertain and excite her. She has some new snacks, some new books, and even some wrapped gifts. You who have babies know HOW FUN wrapped gifts are. The wrapping is half the fun and half the entertainment! What a great idea. A BIG THANK YOU to the best home group EVER!!
Here in Japan, Noa has quickly given up baby food because its expensive and hard to come by. She is loving eating table food and all the joys that come with that, especially the mess. We spend most of our time in our kitchen so its great for Noa to have a play room right off of it. Being mobile now, she really enjoys going to her shelf to get her toys and books and just make a mess of it all on the floor.
There’s a little snapshot. We hope to post more about life here in Japan soon, and also show you lots of pictures of the people and places here. Thanks for reading!
