​Forgetting your passport on a bus classifies as a major problem. Forgetting a backpack with your entire family’s passports along with other important government paperwork on a bus may not have a classification. Since we were returning to America for our home assignment, we needed to move from Japan to America, which meant many trips to government offices. Due to caring for a motion sick child, the backpack remained on the seat when we rushed off the bus.
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This catastrophe was during the time we were sorting through our possessions and deciding what we should store, gift, or toss. Flight troubles, including the original airline changing our itinerary to include an extra overnight layover in Chicago, added to the mess as we talked with multiple customer service agents and airlines. To top it all off apartments do not clean themselves once all the things are moved out, and young children do not suddenly become perfect adult helpers. “Overwhelmed” fails to describe the situation.

But God was not surprised, in fact this was yet another one of those trials he likes to use to grow and stretch us. He worked out the flight troubles, including giving us one of the best routes we ever had (Haneda -> Seattle -> Minneapolis). Then, through a Christian friend, God encouraged us to look again at storage, and we found a deal that made it clearly advantageous to store more possessions and office things. He also provided help through friends, both from church and from school, to move out and clean the apartment.

As for the passports, God prepared an honest passenger to discover the bag and an honest bus driver to transporter it safely to the bus terminal that night. A visit to the bus company the next day allowed us to recover everything. We praise God that he protected us and provided for our return for home assignment.
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Now as we travel and share with churches here in America, and then return to Japan early next year, we look forward to seeing how God will work.

One politician famously explained that it takes a village to raise children. The implications and influences of that idea are best left for people with more experience in politics than I have. However, the quote still came to mind as we visited the town and church where we had our one-year internship.
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Eight years ago, we worked at a Japanese church started by Baptist Mid-Missions missionaries. One of our primary responsibilities was English ministries, where we taught English conversation classes and helped start a children’s Bible and English club.

One of the students from conversation classes found our lifestyle to be counter to the typical American culture of materialism and wanted to know why. The sowing of gospel seeds in his life began a three-year journey of many other Christians pouring time and energy into both sharing about the Bible and showing him God’s work in their daily lives. He is now a growing Christian, faithfully serving at that church.

​The children’s class was successful in bringing in students, but again, only provided planting of seeds. Though averaging over six neighborhood children coming each week, it ended a few months after we left due to a lack of helpers. Over time, some church families said they missed the club and stepped up to run it.  The children’s Sunday School class now uses the auditorium because it is the best room for the number of children and helpers. The club also continues though Covid has recently made meeting in-person difficult.
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Whether or not a village can or should raise a child, I appreciate God’s gift to us, the church. A loving, God-following local church can and should raise Christians to maturity, both through ministries and through daily life with others. To God be the glory, because it is His work, not ours.