Stranded in Japan!

The Myers are enroute from Montana, where they pastor an Alliance church, to Papua New Guinea, where they'll serve as pastoral couple of an international church for six weeks. Elyse will attend school at the Wycliffe compound there.

Somewhere over Alaska, a fellow passenger went berserk and had to be restrained. The plane did an unscheduled stop in Alaska, and by the time they got to Tokyo they'd missed their flight to Papua, but it was rescheduled for three days later. The airline said, "Be warm and be filled" and here they are in Japan for 3 days with no accomodations...

So, they're staying with us, and we've kept their jet lagged bodies moving by walking all over our vicinity, and have fed them some of the local cuisine (but no raw fish). We hope that all of the problems of the trip (which included a car breakdown on the way to the airport in the US) are behind them. Always great to make new friends, and I guess if we're ever stranded in Montana we'll know who to call!

I'm A PC and I'm 4 Years Old!

I needed that cute little girl from the TV ad to help me adjust these pictures to make them better. This is about as good as it gets for the family picture we took on the balcony of the Sky Lounge after our Christmas service. Harumi, our home and adopted land, is in the background. Great to have the girls home for Christmas! They really helped with the hectic time and all the events when the team from Edmonton was here.

Now, I think I did much better with this shot of Harumi. I had to adjust the brightness, and the only reason I did that was because that little 4 year old girl on TV did it. Our apartment is in the middle of the picture, with the Triton Square office and shopping complex just to the left, and the construction site for three new 50 story apartment towers in the foreground. The concrete plant doesn't look like it quite fits in, but it's staying, as far as I know.

Christmas Service

Location, Location, Location!

Well, this was a joint Christmas service for the Harumi and Toyosu Praise Time groups, so we met in the 30th floor Sky Lounge of Urban Dock in Toyosu. Joining us was the short term team from Edmonton. We had Christmas carol singing, a short message, a testimony from a woman who had been baptized that morning, a discussion time, and a play by the Edmonton group.

As you see the picture of the play, you'll understand how they could communicate bilingually. You'll be glad to know the glasses and suspenders Mike is wearing are only props.

English Adventure Camps

We made some new friends just before Christmas, thanks to the English Adventure camps that the short term team helped us with. Here's a shot of elementary students practicing English with Jenn, and then the whole group watches a play presenting the significance of Christmas that the Edmonton team had prepared. Very busy, fun days!

How did you spend Christmas Eve?
We had parties for the elementary, middle and high school students who had attended our English Adventure camps, run by the short term team from Edmonton.

After the parties, we went carolling. At 10:30pm on Christmas eve, people were still filing out of Triton Square, the office complex next to us. "Silent Night" = "Kiyoshi, kono yoru"

Fall in Japan

Along with our colleagues, Don and Carol Love, and courtesy of our good friend and her certificates for a complimentary stay at a local hotel, we headed off to the mountains northwest of Tokyo for an overnight retreat. Here's the view from our window just after sunrise.

Chichibu is a city dominated by the spiral slice carving of mountains (like a honey baked ham) to produce limestone to make cement.

It's also a place of vivid fall colours. Since the frost is not as sudden in Japan, the colours tend to be muted, but the Japanese maples known as "momiji" in a park by the river are fiery red, and a "Light Up" program at that park brought busload after busload of mostly retirees, who whip out their cell phones to take shots of the foliage.

Down by the river, there is a fleet of old style boats where two men dressed in traditional garb will pole and paddle groups of people down the river. The oldest forms of this boat were planks fastened together with strips of brass like fabric sown together. The current boats are planks fastened together and then coated on the outside with a thin layer of fibreglass.

We didn't go down the river on the boats, but did enjoy a lunch on an island in the middle of the river, and climbing one of the mountains.

We also ran into our American colleagues, the Kindervaters, who were up there for a night, so that was a pleasant surprise.

A good time away for us all. Now, we head into the Christmas season and all of its busyness and opportunities.

From Edmonton to Harumi

This Christmas we're having a short term team from Edmonton with us, and they'll be busy with Christmas events and with an English day camp for elementary, middle school and high school students.

3,000 of these flyers will be distributed in the neighbourhood, to get the word out.