Somehow, I managed to get the packing done, though Tommy and his wife Melissa (make that Dr. Melissa — she just finished her Ph.D. in Nursing) had to wait a few minutes.  Poor Donna is stuck with dishes and some prayer letters that still have to be sent out, along with some other random stuff I didn’t get done.  I got most of the laundry taken care of, hopefully that will allow me to be welcomed back (or at least allowed into) the house upon my return.

Because of all of the business travel Tommy does for Epic Movement (he’s their National Director of Campus Crusade’s Asian American ministries), we were able to stop into the “Red Carpet Club,” the lounge over at LAX.  Tommy said he can only get to use this facility for international travel.  It didn’t matter to me.  I got to see how the other side lives.  Of course I hoarded…er, I mean had my share of cookies and fruit.

The trip to Japan was uneventful, though there were a lot of young children that were adjacent.  Part of me remembers what it was like to have young children, so I felt a bit sorry for the parents, having to care for their kids and their stuffed-up ears and just not feeling good while Mommy and Daddy are crowded out of their seats.   On the other hand, as cute as Peter and Drew were at that age, I don’t miss the hassles of that age, particularly on an airplane.  Two words: diaper changing.  My headphones drowned out most of the screaming.  Most.

I’m still not exactly sure what lies ahead.  We’ll be here in the Mitaka area of Tokyo tomorrow, visiting the CRASH Japan headquarters before heading up north to Sendai on Thursday.  I don’t know what I expect to see, who’ll I’ll meet.  Right now, the word gaijin (foreigner) sums up my current status.  I still feel a bit lost here, it’ll take time to get used to serving in a foreign neighborhood in a different culture.

When I was last here in 2007, we were in Kobe where we helped run a Vacation Bible School.  We shared such joy on our trip — I had the best team of people to work with (Mifumi & Nozomu Nakajima, Shelley Tong [now Kwan], Donna and Peter) and we had such a great time with the children and their families.  I do remember thinking about wanting to come back to Japan much sooner than later.  Still, I didn’t think I’d be returning to Japan under these circumstances.  Given what we need to do, I don’t really have a feeling of joy on this visit, yet we’re responsible for sharing the Good News.  One lesson that I may be learning from the Almighty — learning to redefine “joy,” particularly when things are less than ideal.

Drew’s photo reminds me of my family back in L.A.  Please pray for them too — Daddy’s not going to be around for a couple of weeks.  Pray especially for Donna, who’s making sacrifices so I can be here.

Dinner time now, Tommy’s hungry.  One thing I should note — the best airline food I’ve ever dined on was on Korean Air Lines.  We didn’t fly Korean Air Lines.