Taxis for Martians?

These two vehicles are at the end of our island. Most of the time they stay parked in the fenced off area, but every so often they are used. For what? They pull in front of a striking building that rises about 6 stories tall and has an impressive, but usually completely empty, second floor hall.



Well, Harumi is not quite the Caribbean, or Vancouver, but every so often we do get a cruise ship or two, and that's what the vehicles are used for. They rise to the occasion, so to speak, and extend a warm welcome, or at least the platforms on either end, and form a covered walkway joining the cruise ship to the port building. You can see one of the vehicles at work in the picture below.


In the terminal building there is a vast area for customs and immigration offices to inspect people coming and going, as well as the lounge in the picture above, but most of the time the building and the vehicles sit empty.

We're using our apartment for our Sunday Praise Time meetings and some Bible studies, and we have regular access to the meeting room on the third floor for other events. We're thankful that unlike other places where we've worked to see believers and congregations established, we don't have an expensive building we rent that sits empty most of the time. Our goal is to see small groups of believers like our Harumi group and the Toyosu group spring up in the area like dandelions. We want to serve as mentors and coaches, training local leaders.