August 19, 2007 was our last Sunday at City Bible Church. Kelly and I want to say a BIG THANK YOU to everyone at City Bible Church that prayed and generousity supported us this last weekend. We feel so fortunate to have a sending church that supports and gives like you do! You are literally making it possible for us to fulfill our part in God’s plan for Japan.
We are now in Tokyo! We arrived Thursday night and all four of us have had a smooth transtition with jetlag. However, it is very hot here. Japan is experiencing the hottest summer it has had in a very long time. Today’s high is supposed to be almost 100F, but with with the added humidity it makes it’s a killer. Thank God for air conditioners!!!
Tokyo (Chiba) will be our home where we will be attending Hope Church for the next 2 years as we transtion and prepare for a church plant in Osaka. We are very excited to be a part of a growing, healthy church that has a burden to plant churches in Japan. Everyone here seems to be just as excited to have us as we are in being here! It helps to have a beautiful wife and two cute blue eyed kids:)
We are looking forward to attending Hope Church this Sunday and meeting everyone.
We will continue to keep you posted.
Friday, August 3rd, was my last day at City Christian Publishing where I worked for the last 9 years. I sent the below email to my colleagues at City Christian Publishing. I wanted to post this and introduce you to the people that I had the incredible privilege of working with.
Dear City Christian Publishing Team,
I am having a very difficult time trying to find the combination of words to express by gratitude to each and every one of you. The last 9 years at City Christian Publishing have been absolutely amazing in every way and it is sad and actually weird to think that I am not coming into work on Monday. Although it was a place of employment that helped pay my bills and feed my family, it was MUCH MORE than a pay check. The list of things that I learned and how I have grown is beyond comprehension. God used every job description (and there were a lot of them), every project, every customer and, yes, every one of you to mold and shape me for my future. Regardless of what others say about you guys, City Christian Publishing and each and every one of you will always have a very special place in my heart.
A few months after I started working for City Christian Publishing, my Mom reminded me of a scripture that God gave her about me right after I was born. For what it’s worth, I wasn’t thinking about this scripture when I was applying for the position. The Scripture is:
Psalms 96:3 “Publish His glorious deeds among the nations. Tell everyone about the amazing things he does.” (NLT)
Now that I look back it is no surprise that God put me in a publishing company to gain some publishing and business knowledge for the purpose of the declaring God’s glorious deeds in the many years to come.
God has literally used each and every one of you to help mold and shape me on the molding block. It is an honor to know that I have been influenced by a hard working, fun loving, hard working, food loving, God loving, hard working, task focused, food loving, family orientated, and a hard working TEAM! We can measure our success by the amount of books that have gone around the world, but only Heaven will really tell the true fruit of your hard work!
I am a rich man knowing that you are my friends and family. Thanks for giving me a much better chapter of my life than I deserve.
Blessings,
Joel Kaylor
PS—And yes, what was said in shipping will stay in shipping.
One of our goals during our transition to Japan is to make our move as fun as possible for our kids. Elisa and Joshua are at an age where they will remember this move for the rest of their lives. We want them to know that fulfilling God’s call is a fun adventure! Having said that, one of the things we did a few weeks ago was a Family Sports Weekend.
On Friday we went down to PGE Park and watches the Portland Beavers play. It was their Family Feast Night where hotdogs and ice creams were a $1 each. After our hotdogs I, of course, had to have my bag of salted peanuts. It was Elisa and Joshua’s first time to a professional baseball game. I loved explaining the game to them and most of all our kids LOVED it! Can’t wait to take them to the Japanese ball games.
On Sunday we went miniature golfing. This was also their first time miniature golfing. We didn’t keep score and we had a blast, but for the record I beat everyone! (that is Nana, AKA Kelly’s Mom, with us)