Every two years our family embarks on an exciting, unique adventure. This adventure takes us across the world to visit people and places near and dear to our hearts. These places — especially these people — mean so much to us — they’re the very reason we can live in Japan and share God’s love here. This adventure is called furlough, and it’s a chance for our family of 6 to check in and catch up with our loved ones.
While furlough may seem long to some, and to others it seems like a vacation, it is much more than all of that. For in the short amount of six weeks, the kids catch up with 2 years of Grandpa/Grandma time, we speak at a different church each weekend, we travel all over the country to make important visits, we update our legal and banking matters, we raise more support and all while dealing with jet lag. Yes, furlough is far from normal — and the change of pace that is very refreshing at first becomes an impulse propelling us back towards Japan for the next phase of life. In our newest video, you get a sense of the beauty, excitement, business and adventure that is furlough in our next video. Enjoy!
We now come back to a very exciting time here in Japan for us as our church is opening a new coffee shop — a place for the community to come, enjoy the BEST coffee around and connect with people full of God’s love. In fact, upon arriving here in Japan, I (Nate) went off to serve in a weekend retreat our church hosts called “Encounter with God.” It was such a powerful time and so many of the people who participated felt God’s presence and love like never before. We are more excited than ever to be a part of God’s move here in Japan!
Now we are looking forward to this next week and weekend when we will have the grand opening of our brand new coffee shop. This coffee shop will be open during the week and serve the best speciality coffees as well as have an all-you-can-drink special blend coffee — a first (as far as we know) for Japan! Then on Sundays we will hold our church services in the coffee shop itself. It certainly serves two amazing purposes! If you live anywhere nearby or here visiting, please stop by!