This has been an amazing several months as we have been gearing up for our move to Japan. As a quick review we will be moving to Nishifunabashi,
Here is a recap of some of the main events that has opened the door for our move in the last month. Each one of these is a miracle:
· June 17, Father’s Day—Sold our House! The agreement was that the buyer wanted to take possession in 2 weeks. We instantly went from a “waiting for the house to sell” to “high gear” mode preparing everything for the move. We needed to move out, find a place to live and ship our stuff to Japan all in less than 2 weeks. Our realtor said it was the fastest close she has ever seen for an occupied house!
· July 3rd—Japanese moving company picked up our stuff for Japan. Actually this was the ONLY day they had an opening for June and July. July 3rd was literally perfect for us.
· July 4th—Moved out of our house and into the “10-Plex”—An apartment complex, owned by the founding pastor of City Bible Church, known as the “10-Plex” just happened to have an opening from July 4th to August 15th. Of course, we don’t believe it “just happened” to be open. We are currently staying in a 2 bedroom apartment, which we are very grateful for!
· July 4th—Our Visas were approved by the Japanese Government—Steven, my brother who pastors Hope Church, is our “sponsor” in obtaining our Visas. He called me on July 7th from Japan telling me that he just received our Certificates of Eligibility approving our Visas. It was officially stamped on July 4th, the same day we moved out of our house. Last year God specifically spoke to me saying, “Move and I will Prove!”. God literally kept His promise. We moved out of our house and He proved by providing our Visa on the same day. It would have been impossible to even try to work this out!
· July 7, 2007—Steven receives our Certificates of Eligibility (COE). COE is what we take to the Japanese Consulate to receive our Visas. For what it’s worth Steven received it on 07/07/2007. Everything is “PERFECT”!
· July 17, 2007—Reserved plane tickets for August 22. Despite the busy travel season I got an amazing deal on a direct Portland-Tokyo flight with Northwest Airlines. This is the first time the kids will remember flying on an airplane. They are very excited, mostly because they will each have their own private TV screen for the entire flight.
· July 23, 2007—I picked up our Visas from the Japanese Consulate. There is one page on all of our passports designated for our Visas for entering into Japan. As of today, July 23, all four of us are legal residents of Japan.
