Yesterday was a pretty emotional day for me and others. Until then, I was unsure whether I was leaving or not. The night before, things were finally figured out and I knew that I would be leaving today. I went to my worksite as normal with the carpenters, had devotions with our homeowner, and got to work. At break time (10am) all the guys 'ushered' me into our drywall room, where we'd been eating lunch for the past few days, and showed me a cake that they had gotten for me at a bakery. They had my name written on it in frosting and they said that they wanted to tell me how much they liked having me on their team and that they're going to miss me a lot when I leave. I was completely speechless when they said all of that. I had had so much fun working with them, and I knew I was going to miss them a lot. They all said they would be praying for me, wherever God places me next.
At the end of the day, I told the homeowner that it was my last day and that I had an amazing experience working in her house for her and her family. At that point we both teared up a bit and then I said that I would be praying for her and her family all the time, and then we were both crying. Then I told her that I have been so blessed by working in her house and being able to see her all the time, and by then most of the team was crying. I'm not sure why it was such an emotional moment for everyone, but I do know that I will never ever forget Abe-san (or Okaasan as I call her, which means Mom in Japanese) or her family, and I will forever cherish the memories I have of working in her house. I hope that God has used me to make a difference in her life, whether through a devotion I did or just by being there... I pray that she will know our God and that she and her family will come into contact with Him in an incredible way.
I've made many good friends during the past three weeks that I've been at SP, and I have met so many incredible, God-fearing people. I'm completely overwhelmed with how many amazing people God decided to put into my life during my time at SP, but I am also so grateful for all of them. I've met people with insane testimonies of how they turned to God, people like me who feel like they belong to two or more cultures, and people who simply want to help. I've met engaged and married carpenters who have been here for months and are praying about going to another country to volunteer after the SP bases in Japan close on April 30th. Everyone there is amazing, and many of them are sacrificing significant time and money to be there and to volunteer.
Wayne is an amazing Christian man who, once I started working with him, looked out for me all the time. He very obviously cares about your faith, and a few days after I started working with him, he told me he considered me his adopted daughter :) It was wonderful to work with his team for my last week and a half at the SP base.
Mike is another great Christian man who was also on Wayne's team. He teased me constantly but was also concerned about me and how I was doing emotionally and physically. I learned a lot from Mike, and hope to keep in contact with him, even as he goes back home to California.
Daniel was a guy who worked on our mud-out team for a while, and then started working with carpenters as a translator. It was really cool to get to know him and to work with him. He is definitely a God-fearing man, and I learned a lot from him even though we didn't work together for very long.
Julian came on the same night Nate and I did. He's staying with a host family instead of at the SP base, so every morning we drove him to our work site and got to know him fairly well during our drives. He's 18 and taking a gap year between high school and college. This past winter, he taught at a school in Chiba (just north of Tokyo), and then decided to come back to do relief work until the middle of April.
Moe is a girl who came about a week and a half, maybe two weeks before I left. She's a missionary kid (kind of) who grew up in a bunch of different places, including England, Ethiopia, and the US. We clicked right away when she arrived, and even though we never worked together, we spent a lot of time together before and after work. She lives in Japan, so I hope to be able to spend more time with her before I leave Japan. She is an amazing woman of God, and I've already learned a lot from her.
Ron is a super fun guy. He teased me constantly, just like Mike, and he definitely cared a lot about me. he was always looking out for me and making sure I was okay after every day of work. It was apparent to me that he had a real heart for helping people in need. He was always around to brighten up my day if I was having a rough morning or had had a bad day working.
Marshall was another amazing man who was at the SP base. He's from Georgia, and he was at the base for two and a half weeks. Marshall was kind enough to let me hang out with him after we all came back from work. We had lots of fun talking about various things, including the houses we were working on.
Carrie is also from Georgia. She and Marshall are from the same church and have known each other for several years, but she came about three weeks before Marshall did. Carrie was one of the only women volunteers there when I arrived, so she became a friend very quickly. She was such a comfort to me - I could talk to her about things I was thinking about, especially connected to the work we were doing. She kind of took me under her wing, since I didn't know anyone and am younger than a lot of the people there.
Marshall and Carrie left on the same day about two weeks ago, and the night they arrived in Tokyo (they had ridden the bullet train from Tome to Tokyo), Marshall proposed! Carrie accepted, and they went back home to Georgia. I am so excited for them both!!
There are so many other people I could talk about, but it's late, so I'm going to finish fairly quickly. Overall, I met a ton of amazing people up there, even if they were only there for a few days. I will never forget everyone I met - the Americans, Japanese, Koreans, Australians, and MKs from all over the world.
So on thursday we drove back to Tokyo from Tome, and I stayed with a fellow missionary who lives in Tokyo. Then yesterday night (Monday), my Uncle came to pick me up from her house, and I'm staying at his house until Wednesday afternoon/night, when I will take a train to Chiba to stay with Mary Lou and Tom. I will be staying with them until our missions Field Council (meeting of all Converge missionaries in Japan), which will be taking place at the foot of Mt. Fuji (called Fujisan here in Japan) from March 28-30. After that, I will be heading back up north, although I'm not sure how long I will be staying this time.
I realize this is a long post, so thank you for reading through all of it. I am so incredibly thankful for all of your prayers for me. This resting time in Tokyo has been emotionally challenging as I process my experiences in Tohoku, but it has also been an amazing time of God's reassurance that everything will be okay. He knows exactly what we need when we need it - that includes Skype dates with friends and family, an email, or even just a post on my Facebook wall! He knows what scripture we need for every day, as I've been seeing over and over again.
I need to go, as it is getting late and I'm tired, but I hope to be in touch again soon, with probably a much shorter post.
後でお会いしましょう！
See
you later!
~Chloe
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