We arrived at LAX on 7/19 around 8:15 AM to notifications that our flight was cancelled. Initially, the earliest flight with United wouldn’t leave until Monday. The Lord provided a way and equipped our team well! Duane’s experience working in the airplane industry was a huge help.
We rushed to hop on a longer flight to Hong Kong, which was many of our first times in Hong Kong. From Hong Kong, we flew to Narita and caught the Shinkansen to end in Nagoya, Japan. In total, we were traveling for almost 36 hours, but we arrived! Finally, united with Cindy who arrived in Nagoya a week earlier! (P.C. Cindy!)
When we arrived in Nagoya, we got to join the Logos family for Sunday worship and fellowship with the brothers and sisters there! Their hospitality was a huge encouragement to us, who were quite tired from all the travel. Pastor Hide gave a strong message on the command to love and be unified within the local church from 1 Corinthians. Afterwards, we toured the facility to get an idea of the space we’ll be using throughout the week. There’s a large grassy area outside where the team got to play with the children doing cartwheels and whatnot.
For dinner, we headed to a local mall with a large food court. We enjoyed karaage and tempura, from the same restaurant Carlos Junior chef started out at! Over dinner, we got to talk to many of the families and share about our lives and hopes for the trip.
While the extended travel and rebooking might have been frustrating and tiring at times, the Lord provided many blessings throughout our trek. All the additional waiting provided the team with casual time to bond and get to know each other better. Zoe and I raced to complete solitary quicker, Duane taught us simple magic tricks, we tried McDonalds boba (would not reccomend), and got to enjoy dim sum at the Hong Kong airport.
It was a strong reminder of Romans 8:28: And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.
The team was encouraged to dwell on the truth that all things work together for His glory and our good. It gave us the encouragement that we can prepare as much as want, but in the end everything is done by God. Even in what could be viewed as the most straightforward part of the trip we were reminded that the flight too was in God’s hands.
The unexpected start to the mission trip has been good preparation for my heart for this week: to continue to trust God, that ultimately God is sovereign and reigning over it all.
Praise the Lord that we got to Nagoya and for the additional time to bond and grow in relationship with one another!
Prayer to get physical rest after a lengthy trip
Prayer that the hearts of the children and parents that will be part of the VBS will be receptive to the gospel
Prayer for the leadership and volunteers at Logos Church
Duane driving on the left side of the road!
