gracious send-off

::: we're gonna miss her smile!...

...tonight we hosted a goodbye celebration for megumi ("grace" in japanese)...a faithful member of the church planting team for the past three years, next month she's heading to the southern city of fukuoka (map below) to begin a new chapter in her life...to join the staff of Navigators Japan...

...as with all our church gatherings, the food was totemo oishii (very delicious)...main menu: do-it-yourself sushi and various japanese side dishes...

...no role reversal here: claire welcomes makiko's advice about making a quality roll...

...our fellowship consisted of worship and words of encouragement and grace to megumi (we just love the practice of going around the "encouragement circle")...

...when it was our turn to encourage megumi, we shared about a dinner we had with megumi in a local chinese restaurant...at the time, we had been in japan about a month...as you might guess, we had a hard time with the menu...we must've asked megumi questions about everything on the menu, e.g., how do you say this? what's that? etc...while our server was growing more impatient by the minute, megumi was gracious to us, explaining everything, never once showing frustration with our questions...in retrospect, that experience was good for us...in the same way she helped us with our menus, we trust that God will use her to help others with their questions about God and the christian life...

...we were also encouraged that two people from the neighborhood (a mother and her college-aged daughter) came to our gathering...they've been attending our church for a couple months, but they've kept their distance...tonight was a breakthrough because the daughter suffers from severe anxiety and panic attacks and thus avoids places and people that are unfamiliar or uncomfortable for her...but her mother said she felt safe and secure with us...join us in praising God for this breakthrough...