399. Japan Trip

I will be attending my cousin’s wedding next week, which is happening in Japan, near Tokyo. He was living in Korea, but he is marrying a Japanese. He is my mother’s younger sister’s son. They were very close, so we became very close as well. We had fond memories as we saw each other often during our childhood. When I first moved to Canada in high school, he stayed at our home for a few months. He also visited me in Toronto during my last year of university as well. Interestingly, Jennifer gave him a ride during his visit, as my praise team leader (we weren’t dating yet) so she met him as well.

But when I first got invited, I was hesitant to go as it was a long flight to Japan, even though I wanted to go and congratulate his wedding. If I ever go, I was planning to go alone and spend at least a week there to utilize the time and cost spent. But that would be too much time away from my family, and Jen would have to cover numerous house chores during my absence, so I was conflicted. So I shared this with my house church as a prayer request. I knew Jennifer wanted to come as well as she never visited Japan, but she decided not to go as it was difficult to find someone to look after our kids for that long.

After a few weeks, I still hadn’t decided. But after the house church sharing, one of my house church members graciously volunteered to take care of our house (and kids & cats) while we were away. Then Jennifer felt free to go, and I decided to make it into a 2-week-long trip so we could have a good extended time together, which is difficult to do with 2 young kids. We were so thankful for the person who offered help and God for his favor.

I wasn’t sure how to plan the trip, but I decided to keep it simple, by moving westward from the city we land. So we are planning to spend time in Tokyo before the wedding and in Kyoto after the wedding. I will be leaving on 12/2 Monday. As it will be 2 weeks, I will be missing the Sunday service on 12/8 but as I come back on 12/14, I will be at church on 12/15 Sunday to preach.