During our stay in Japan, we were hosted by the Bengtson family in their home located on the seminary campus. They were very gracious hosts, and it was enjoyable to get reacquainted after all these years away.
While I was delivering a series of lectures to pastors, Joy was able to cross the island to visit with Kazuko Sasaki, who worked with us in our years of church-planting in Sendai. Kazuko planned for them to spend a couple of days near a mountain that Joy remembers from her childhood.
When Joy returned, and my first series of lectures ended, we drove to the north side of Sendai to visit our former neighbors. They seemed not to have aged at all. We stopped at our next door neighbor's home and visited with Mrs. Okada, her son Yuya, and her son Katsuhiro's two children.
Here are Mr. & Mrs. Kaneyama from across the street, along with the two Okada tykes.
Mr. and Mrs. Ohnuma treated us to a home-cooked meal of tempura, and while there we were able to see their son Seiki, who was a close friend of Tim's back in the day.
We were beginning to feel like we'd never left Japan.
On another afternoon we visited Miki Hayashi and her two children. Her mother, Hideko Satoh also dropped in to see us. Hideko was our neighborhood Japanese "mom" in many ways.
It was a real treat to worship on a Sunday morning at New Life, the church we planted on the north side of Sendai. A number of people stayed to have lunch with us and visit, and to pose for a group photo.
Though now living hours away from Sendai, Mie Satoh came with her two children to be at New Life that morning and visit with us.
Hisashi and Junko Sasaki work with the seminary in Sendai where Gaylan delivered his second set of lectures. They took us out to the mountains to see some beautiful sights. We stopped in for a snack at this tofu restaurant, where the tofu is prepared fresh in small bamboo cups. Refreshing on a hot day! 
1 comment:
Great photos guys! Looks like you had an absolutely wonderful trip!
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