Oh, do we thank God for you! For your encouragements, your interest, your friendships, your notes and cards, your support, your generosity, and the most important your faithful prayers for us, our ministry, and the Japanese. As we leave 2020 and enter 2021, we are so thankful for you and what God is doing for all of us. We continue to be well and safe and enjoying the roles God has for us to play in this season. We anticipate much as the God of Hope will continue to bless in this coming year. We hope that is true for you this year as well.
A Different Christmas – In many ways this was a very relaxed Christmas. Normally at first our two kids and later the two of us would be challenging jetlag and busy airports to be able to gather as a family at Christmas. In 35 years, we had only missed one Christmas together as a family! This Christmas kind of quietly sneaked up on all of us and blessed us, just like the first Christmas. But it was also different for our Japanese friends as one Japanese said she really missed Elaine’s Christmas Tea.
A Different New Year’s – New Year’s is the bigger holiday in Japan, and we missed it. Normally we would be invited by one of our Japanese friends to enjoy eating the Japanese New Year’s feast. New Year’s in the US was comparatively so quiet and made us miss all our friends.