March/April, 2018

Many students graduate in February and March, and start their new jobs in April.  For those of you reading our newsletters you might remember that in 2017, Manae left us to start work as a preschool teacher in her hometown on Shikoku, a different island of Japan.  Tomoka left to go to work for a hotel.  It's not that far away, but she lives in a dormitory and works a lot of split shifts, especially on Sundays.  So she isn't able to visit here very often.

This year was the year that Akihiro graduated from university.  Akihiro was baptized last year after being a part of Agape for around two years.  Akihiro is fluent in English and his dream was to spend one year living abroad in Australia after graduation.  During his last months of one-on-one Bible study with Murray, Murray was able to have him assist in some historical research for the Sunday messages.  Akihiro prepared a handout in Japanese to accompany the messages that Murray was preaching from the book of Genesis.  Akihiro also gave an oral presentation to accompany the message.

It was hard to say good-bye to him when he left.  He is living in Sydney.  Life hasn't been easy, and we recently learned that his Grandma back here in Japan passed away shortly after he went to Australia and he wasn't able to return.  He was very close to her so this has been a difficult time for him.

In Tokyo, our sweet granddaughter, Emma (pictured below with little sister, Mia) started first grade in elementary school.  While Japanese schools still require a certain style of backpack, the colors are no longer restricted to red for girls and black for boys.  Emma was thrilled to be able to choose a sky blue backpack to carry her books and things to school.  Mia just turned 3 and loves meeting new people.  Pray for their language study and the relationships they are developing in Tokyo.