It has been a pretty long hard slog since we arrived here in November last year. Especially since we started Shining Lights Church. Although I've preached a number of times before coming here. It's the first time in my life when I've had to do it, week in, week out. It's also hard with not many mature Christians nearby to talk to when I have struggles. Here I have to be in a position of always lifting others up, not burdening with them with my issues. So we were absolutely thrilled when the Walkers informed us they were coming to visit us and give us a hand with things for 3 weeks.
Julia Walker is Ritsuko's best friend and has joined us on a trip to Japan in 2007. For the rest of the family, it was their first visit to Japan and it was such a pleasure to show them around and introduce them to new experiences. Bob was able to preach on two Sundays enabling me to have a little rest, and it was great to spend time bouncing ideas with him. It was also good to see the girls grow in faith through this trip. In fact, I think we all grew in the faith in many ways through the three weeks they spent with us (June 21 to July 11). We also got to do quite a bit a sightseeing too, which I plan to post more entries relating to in the days to come.