Norman and Chloe are currently on their 3-week missions trip to Japan. There are two groups they are working with – one from Faith Baptist Bible College (FBBC) and one from CrossRoad Baptist Church in Ames, IA. The groups overlap one week in the middle. Chloe, a student at FBBC, is accompanied by 6 other students. Their goal is to be an encouragement to Japanese churches and Christians, create opportunities for ministry and connections within Japan, provide cross-cultural experience, and encourage these young people to consider missions as their vocation. (Hopefully, in Japan!) The CrossRoad group is Norman & Susan Smith’s sending church. They want to reach some of these same goals, but they also want to see where we’ve been, what we’ve been doing, and what ministry really looks like there.

Chloe and her group left May 11 at 2:30 AM from the FBBC campus. The day before was graduation, so they went from classes and ceremony to missions adventure. Their flight left Des Moines at 5:30 AM, took them to Dallas, Vancouver, and then Tokyo, where they got to spend the night. The next day they took their last flight to Kumamoto. Chloe texted me at 2:45 AM (my time) to say they’d arrived safely. Norman got to fly “solo”, which he wasn’t too sad about! Traveling with loads of people and all their luggage can be taxing. He left May 11 at 1 PM from WI, making it to Chicago to spend the night. (He had lots of long layovers.) He flew to San Diego the next morning and almost missed his flight to Tokyo due to delays in disembarking. He just squeaked into the plane before it left. Whew! Another layover in Tokyo before making it to Kumamoto, Norman made it around 3 AM (my time). He was able to stay awake for their first team meeting, but then he said his brain hurt! Sleep was blissful, I’m sure.

Please pray for the teams as they travel around. The churches in Japan are so tiny and separated from each other, it feels like you’re the only Christians in the world. Christian fellowship is such a blessing to them! The team plans to visit several churches we worked with, as well as the Filipino men Elijah has been ministering to for the past several years. Jonathan, the man who took over the ministry after we left, is helping line up places to go and people to meet. We’d appreciate your prayers for all involved. Maybe God will open someone’s heart during this trip. Or plant some seeds. Or water some seeds. Or give an increase of harvest!