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…
Tags: Adventures, MTW, Noa
Very cool. I was so excited to know you guys were going to get to go to the area retreat. What a special way to get to know those serving around you.
We are praying for you guys and love to read about where God has you. Welcome home.
Welcome home you guys! Great to know that things went so well, and little Noa had a blast! Good fun, good experience, and good time to be rejuvinated! Erin
So fun!
So fun to see your pics and read about what it was like. Wish we could have been there too. Miss you guys like crazy!