Yes, we're moving!

.....moving to Japan!

We've been busy little bees lately, packing up everything to ship to Japan that will not fit into our suitcases because of the Asian weight restrictions. Those of you in America likely don't realize how fortunate you are to be able to pack up 2 big suitcases, 50lbs each! Here in Asia, and also within Europe and Euro-Asia travel, the limit is 20 kilo (44lbs) total. I learned this the hard way during my trip to France. (They also charge mega-bucks per kilo, rather than a flat fee, for overweight bags.)

So, anyway, today, here we are loading out all the little boxes to be shipped over to Japan. It seems that the 20-kilo limit is famous here, for it is also the limit for postal packages, along with quite a few other measurement restrictions. We had to get that all figured out so we could get everything packed up properly. Then, John somehow got the post office to send a truck out to pick up everything and then we spent the next 2 hours at the post office filling out 40 of those very detailed international forms. For those of you who know what I'm talking about, then you know how tedious that is! We finally got a good system going...including James and Joy also copying down addresses, and Jesse acting as quality controller--double checking everyone's forms for any mistakes or missed checkmarks. It was worth it, for when we finally were ready to "check out," it went very smoothly until the last box -- it was .4 kilograms overweight. Uh-oh!!! In our pre-runs, they never let anything pass one "ounce" past 20 kilo and always made us remove something and repack it. John and I held our breaths and waited nervously.........and it passed! Possibly because it happened to be our last box and they wanted to be done with it, or because of the big bill we'd be paying already and felt sorry for us? We had no clue, but for whatever reason it was, we were very thankful for it! Whew!

Bringing everything down on the elevators...

...and more....!

...and here it is! Our life as represented in boxes...what a thought!!!

Just before we left, I had to run back up to the apartment to grab something and I did something I've been wanting to do for quite awhile, but each time I either forgot or didn't have the camera with me.......to take a video while going up to our 13th floor. So here it is finally! Any sympathizers for John???

Now, you're probably curious to know a few details about how the decision for Japan came about, aren't you?!? First I want to thank each one of you who has been praying on our behalf--we have appreciated and felt those prayers. What I can tell you now for sure is this.......we just mailed most of our belongings over there, and we have tickets to leave on July 1st. That's about all for absolutes right now. We had been praying for God's direction to show us clearly through an open door, and to close all others. God answered our prayer and effectively closed all the doors to options we knew about and had/have checked into, and then on the same day that the last door closed, he opened the option and door to Japan. (More on that later.) At this time, we do not have everything set in stone yet.

But what we do know is this: We will be moving to the town Shioda where many of you know our small "Shioda church" is located. (For those of you who didn't know, this church is of the same denomination as our church in America - the Apostolic Christian Church.) This is located a few hours inland from Tokyo and is in a valley which is surrounded by mountains. As some or many of you also may know, Bro. Willis and Sis. Lois Ehnle(Americans who had lived many years in Japan) recently retired and moved back to the States. We will be moving into their house right next to the church and will be attending and supporting the church there. There are some teaching opportunities that we are looking into and will likely find out more about once we arrive, or soon after.

From my understanding, we will be about an hour away from Andrew & Jana Klaus and Akihiro and Carrie Ito, and a bit further than that from Akito and Marie Inoue. Carrie and I have spent a lot of time on the phone lately figuring out a lot of little moving details! I had known of all these couples, but had not really gotten to know them until recently when we started the Crown Financial Bible Study with them over Skype. We look forward to meeting them all in person now! And though an hour away may seem a bit far to any of you, to us it now seems quite close! The kids are looking forward to it ~ especially to the "mansion" that Carrie showed us via a virtual-tour over Skype. They said they would have dreams of it plus "all that yard and garden" in their sleep that night. :-) We have been very busy now trying to finish up our school year now before we move. We'd gotten behind with the move in March and then with the packing up again recently. The kids have been troupers and good sports about it, though, so I think we'll make it--especially since they're getting into a lot of "year reviews" now, so it's fun and easy.

After the post office trip today, we went out and took a nice long relaxing walk. I'll blog that later since this one got a bit long already.