We had a wonderful time with the volunteers from First Baptist Church of Brownsville, Texas. Their church has helped with disaster relief efforts in many countries. Before they came, the only thing we knew was that there would be a team coming from Texas. We were excited to meet them but what amazed us was that a couple that came was the parents of Yu’s friend, Justin Smith, from DBU. They were also the uncle and aunt of Yu’s good friend, Christy Gandy. Yu had such a great time getting to know them! All the volunteers were wonderful and we thank God for sending them to Japan!
Bible Study and prayer time with the team.
Leaving for prayer walking.
Luke loved being held by everyone.
Such a great team!
They stayed at the community center in the tsunami-hit town.
Ready to work!
Working very hard!
Praying with the family that lost almost everything.
Singing “Amazing Grace” in front of the temporary housing in Sendai.
Mr. and Mrs. Smith sang a song in the worship service.
Yuta and Eriya sang as well!
We hosted a farewell dinner for the team.
Michael praying for the seeds they had planted…
It was such a blessing to serve with them! We know they have touched many lives. We are so thankful for all they have done in Japan.
Sorry for not updating for a while. We have been super busy lately. As our sending church told us that we could go back to Japan, we started to visit our Korean friends to say thank you and good bye. It was so hard since they had become like our family. God truly blessed our time in Korea and we can’t thank Him enough… We know that it was Him who led us to Korea and we are so thankful that He provided everything we needed.
Here are some examples of how He blessed us while we were in Korea (they are in chronological order).
1. Eunpyeong Jeil (First) Church in Seoul and Pastor Sim.
We stayed in their guest room for two weeks.
Pastor Sim made sure that we were comfortable and had everything we needed. We were so thankful for his hospitality!
2. DBU friends who welcomed us warmly.
They traveled from other cities to welcome us. They took us to the cell phone store so that we could buy a phone and also taught us some Korean phrases so that we could survive! We were so happy to see them several times during our stay in Korea.
3. Friends from Arlington who came to South Korea to encourage us.
They spoiled us by loving and taking care of Luke ALL the time! Going on a date (just two of us!) is one of our favorite memories! We never had to buy any diapers for Luke thanks to their gifts! Luke misses Aunt Cathie and Aunt Cindy!
4. Far East Broadcasting Company and Dr. Billy Kim.
One of the reasons that our sending church selected South Korea (under God’s guidance) was because our former pastor, Dr. Wade, knew Dr. Billy Kim, who is a founder of Far East Broadcasting Company. Dr. Wade asked Dr. Kim to help us find a place to stay in South Korea, and that’s how we found Eunpyeong Jeil Church. While we were in South Korea, we were able to visit their company three times. We were welcomed by their wonderful staff, and we truly enjoyed getting to know them. We also had a chance to speak about the needs of Japan and they raised funds for the disaster relief efforts in Sendai. Words cannot express how thankful we are to receive such special gifts! We will be able to help so many people thanks to their generosity.
We had an opportunity to meet Dr. Kim and he encouraged us so much. We are looking forward to seeing him and his staff again!
5. Grandma Wen and her family.
She is a member of Eunpyeong Jeil Church. When we attended their worship service for the first time, she came to talk to us in Japanese. She used all the Japanese words that she remembered to help us and to make us feel loved. The reason why she knows Japanese is because Japan made all the Koreans learn Japanese when they occupied Korea. As you can imagine, that is such a painful memory for many people. However, Grandma Wen never said anything negative. She just told us how much she cares and prays for Japanese people. We learned about God’s forgiveness through her. She also invited us to her house to feed us and to her great-grandson’s 1st birthday party. As we said good-bye to her, she said “Remember that I am Luke’s Korean grandmother. I will never forget about you all.” We can’t wait to tell Luke about her and to take him back to see her again.
6. April and her wonderful home!
April is Yu’s friend from DBU. She took good care of many international students at DBU and when she found out about the situation in Japan, she wrote us and invited us to South Korea! Her friendship meant so much to us and we made so many great memories together.
Can’t you tell Luke loves her? She let us stay with her for a month and her apartment became our second home in South Korea! She taught us how to get to places and we enjoyed exploring around her neighborhood. We are waiting for her to come visit us in Japan!
7. Onnuri Church and Young Adult Community Group.
Onnuri Church is one of the biggest churches in South Korea. They have branches all over the world! Since April goes there, we attended the young adult worship service with her. We could see their hearts for God and for the world.
After we shared our stories and prayer requests with the young adult community group, they took time to pray for us and for Japan. We were encouraged by their powerful prayers. Their church sends several groups to Japan to help with disaster relief efforts, and we are looking forward to working with them in the future.
8. Luke’s 100th day!
We are so grateful that Luke was healthy during our time in South Korea. He was such a happy boy and smiled at everyone he met. Whenever we were tired, we just looked at his cute smile and that gave us strength. We thank God for Luke’s life and we pray God will help us to be godly parents.
Even though we missed our family in Japan, our friends from DBU made Luke’s 100th day VERY special! We had a party for him and they came to celebrate with us! They all took turns to hold and entertain him so that his mommy and daddy could relax and enjoy yummy food! We ended our party with a prayer time and God answered all our prayers in amazing ways. We can’t wait to have another reunion!
9. Suwon Disciple Baptist Church, Pastor and Mrs. Lee, and Young Adult Group.
This is a church where our friend’s father serves as a pastor. It was just like our church in Sendai (everyone knows everyone and it’s like a family!) and we just loved being there. They gave us several opportunities to share our hearts for Japan and many people told us they would be praying for Japan.
On our last Sunday in South Korea, Pastor Lee led a special prayer time for us. Mrs. Lee was so sweet to Luke. We knew he was safe in her arms!
We just fell in love with these young people! We became good friends so it was difficult to say good bye. But they promised to take a group to Sendai this year so we know we will get to see them again! What a blessing it is to be able to pray for each other even though we are far away!
10. Choi Family and Easter in Daejeon.
Mr. and Mrs. Choi lived in Sendai and attended Taitomi Church when Yu was in high school. When they found out that we were in South Korea, they invited us to their house to celebrate Easter with them. We had a nice visit and Luke had fun playing with their kids!
Seven people were baptized on Easter Sunday. Needless to say, it was an amazing Easter! Luke even got a Korean traditional egg and he was so happy that he shared it with his parents!
11. Esther and her mom.
Esther was one of Yu’s student assistants at DBU. She invited us to her home to have dinner. Can you see all the delicious food that her mom cooked for us? Everything was SO yummy!
We enjoyed hearing about her memories of DBU and her life in Seoul. She is preparing to go to the Law School and we know she will do great!
12. Time with Yu’s dad.
Yu’s dad visited us for a week. Since he had been super busy with disaster relief efforts in Japan, we had hoped that he would be able to relax, but we had something to do every single day! We were happy that we didn’t have to carry Luke everywhere since her dad volunteered to hold him all the time. We also enjoyed sleeping in while he took care of Luke in the mornings! Thank God for grandparents!
It was nice to spend time with him and to find out what was going on in Japan. We are so thankful for our friends who helped us by buying food and delivering them to people in the temporary shelters on our behalf. We look forward to going there to meet and help them in person!
13. Central Christian Academy in Suwon.
This is where April teaches and the headmaster of this school is Dr. Billy Kim’s son. We had an opportunity to go to a few classes to talk about Japan. They listened so well and told us that they had been praying for Japanese people.
Praise God for children who love and care about those in need. We hope to tell Japanese children that someone they don’t even know is praying for them and we pray that they will feel God’s love.
14. LOTS of family time!
We were supposed to start our new ministries in April, and everything changed after March 11th. At times, we were discouraged since we were looking forward to our new journey. However, God gave us another journey to take. Instead of being busy trying to figure out what to do, God gave us time to reflect on our lives and enjoy our time as a family of three. He also gave us time to reunite with our old friends and to make new ones. We know everything was in God’s plan and we give thanks to Him. Our experiences in South Korea will be something that we will always treasure. We can’t wait to tell Luke Kai where he has been and whom he has met. We want to say a huge “THANK YOU” to everyone who made our time in Korea so wonderful! We pray God will give us a chance to see you again.
We also want to say thank you to those who prayed for us from all over the world! Your prayers meant so much to us. Thanks to your prayers, we were able to come back to Japan safely. We are happy to be back, but there is still so much on our mind. There are so many needs here and it is overwhelming. We are also doing everything we can to keep our son safe. We are trying to process everything and prepare for what God has for us next. We don’t know where this new journey leads us, but we trust that He will guide us wherever we go. Thank you for taking this journey with us! We love you all!
As we wait for God to take us back to Sendai in His timing, we have been blessed with many opportunities to share about the needs of Japan with Korean people and to ask them to pray for Japan. We have been touched by kindness and powerful prayers of Korean people.
The first sharing opportunity was at Eunpyeong First Church where we stayed for two weeks. There were about 300 people in the service and many of them stayed to talk to us after the service.
This is Pastor Sim. Even though he has a busy schedule, he took time to get to know us and to take us to places. We were blessed by his hospitality.
This was at Far East Broadcasting Company. This is a Christian radio station that Dr. Billy Kim. We spoke at their chapel service. After we shared, they took time to pray for Japan. They are already helping those in need with financial and prayer support.
With such wonderful staff. We will always treasure their love and friendships.
We went to church with April (we are staying with her right now and we are SO thankful for her kindness), and it is a huge church called Onnuri Church in Yangjae.
They had a special prayer time for Japan. What a blessing it is to know that so many people are praying for the salvation of Japanese people.
We spoke in the Young Adult Sunday School class. They sang and prayed for us which brought tears to our eyes.
Another opportunity at Max’s church. Max is our friend from DBU and his dad is a pastor of Disciple Baptist Church in Suwon. We were the main speakers of the service and Max translated our message.
After the service, we had dinner with the young adult group. They have been praying for Japan for such a long time. They are planning to take a mission trip to Sendai this year. They asked us to join the upcoming retreat and we are looking forward to building relationships with them.
We continue to receive invitations to share about Japan at schools and churches. We praise God for using us in so many ways here in South Korea. He is good ALL the time! Thank you for your prayers!
On Saturday, our friends from DBU (where Yu graduated from) came to visit us! What a fun time we had with these precious friends! Gracie brought her husband and their sweet daughter and it was Luke’s first play date with his new Korean friend. They also helped us to get a cell phone.
After having delicious Japanese food, they all came to our guest house to have some desserts! They all helped us learn some Korean greetings and how to use the subway system! We are learning SO much. Three of them are teachers and they asked us to come speak at their schools. We were praying that God would give us opportunities to share about the needs of Japan, and He answered our prayers! Praise the Lord.
We are so blessed to have these friends who are so willing to help us. We are grateful for God’s provision.
We are sorry we could not update yesterday. It has been a very difficult few days. As we monitored the threat of radiation, we realized that it was getting worse. After much prayer and counsel with our sending church and organization, we decided to evacuate. As much as we want to help the people of Japan, God has entrusted us to take care of our son. And we have to be healthy and well to be able to continue our ministry in Japan.
At first, we didn’t have enough gas and all the buses were full so we didn’t think we could get out of the city. However, my brother waited in line for 6 hours to get enough gas to get to the west coast of Japan. He also waited in line to buy enough food for us to eat. As much as he needed a car and food, he said our job is to take care of our son.
Another concern we had was my 81 years old grandmother who needed help. She has been so gracious to provide a place to live and everything else we needed. We told her that we would be leaving and asked her if she wanted to come with us, but she said no. She told us that she would be praying for us all the time and waiting for us to come back when everything is safe. We could tell that she had tears in her eyes.
Before we left the city, we stopped at my dad’s office. My dad has been so supportive from the beginning, and he kept reminding us that God would take care of us. We know our son has brought so much joy into his lonely life without my mom. It broke our heart to take away his joy. We had a short farewell in front of his office. He wanted to pray for us, and he cried as he asked our Father to protect us. He reminded us of I Corinthians 10:13, “And God is faithful; he will not let you be temptedbeyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted,he will also provide a way out so that you can endure it.” He held our baby boy one more time and we left with such a heavy heart.
We drove to Sakata city which is on a west coast. We are about 230 miles from the power plant, and since the wind is blowing to the south, we believe we are safe for now. There is a mission church that our church has been supporting for a long time, and my dad asked their pastor if we could stay with them. His family welcomed us warmly and it has been such a blessing to spend time with them. They have treated us like their family and told us that we could stay as long as they need to. Their three children take such good care of our baby. We have been having meaningful conversations about the ministries in Japan, and it has been such an encouragement for all of us. Once again, God is faithful.
So what’s next? We are working on getting Luke’s passport to evacuate to South Korea. Our pastor and his wife have good friends there and they will be taking care of us. We also have Korean friends that we met at DBU and we know we can rely on them as well.
As of now, we are hoping to come back to Japan when it is safe enough. We don’t know when, but we pray that God will bring us back here to make Him known in this darkest place. Even though this situation is devastating and hopeless, we believe he will use this time of challenges to bring a revival to Japan.
We know so many of you are praying for us. We apologize for not being able to write/call you back, but please know we feel your love and prayers all the time. Our church and sending organization have been so supportive and helpful. We know they are not getting enough sleep because they have so much to do to help us evacuate. We are blessed to have such a strong and wise leadership. We know they are praying for God’s wisdom as they help us to make important decisions. THANK YOU!
We are leaving soon to apply for an emergency passport for Luke. Please pray that they will be understanding and helpful. Also, pray for our baby boy as we take a train for 2 hours. He has been such a trooper and we can’t ask for more.
Before I close, I want to ask you to spend the next few minutes to pray for the people of Japan. Many people are still fighting to survive. Many people are still crying because their family members are gone or missing. Many people are still trying to get enough fuel to evacuate. And there are others like my dad and brother who are staying in the dangerous areas to ensure the safety of other Japanese people. Please keep praying.
We are heartbroken to leave the people we love so much. God has called us to love and minister to the Japanese people, and we still believe it is His calling for us. We trust that He will bring us back here so that the people of Japan will know that He is the only God and He loves them so very much.
Many of you have already donated, and we want to thank you. Please be assured that it will be used to rebuild this country. The country that needs Jesus. Please pray that He will bring us back here soon. We love you…
