And we're home...

I just love these two cuties

We had to say our final farewells at 8.30am Tokyo time to Heidi and the children which was a bit hard as always.  Thankfully Dave took us to get our train, we normally do the bus to and from the airport but the timings didn't work for that this time.  Imagine a busy London underground tube train in rush hour and you might just begin to get an idea of how busy it was on a Saturday morning - we wouldn't have even risked it on a weekday with all our luggage!!
 


The train from Ikebukero to the airport was nice and fast and we got checked in fine.  We decided to have a meal at the airport as soon as we got there since we knew it would be several hours before getting food on the flight.  I bet you didn't think I could get a cherry blossom report into this but there was a cherry blossom decoration in my beef noodles!

The flight was good.  We went over the north of Russia and the Barents sea then down over Norway and Sweden to Amsterdam.  I had a window seat this time and it was amazing looking out over all the snow.

After a bit of a wait to get back to our car due to very heavy traffic in Heathrow we headed home and got back at 11.45pm having been up over 25 hours - bed was a very welcome sight.

Prayer requests

For us that we get over the jetlag quickly.  I have a big project at work that has to be finished by Friday and although everyone else is on holiday so I should get lots done, I need to be awake enough to do it!  Robby should have a fairly normal week, but wont know properly until he get's back tomorrow.

Skippers key dates over the next few weeks til the next MADO.
10th April - Kira start Youchien which is her new preschool, she is looking forward to it but has also been asking when she will go back to Hoikkien
14th April - Dave is playing at a gig at SOUP
16th April - Heidi has the next Harmony group at Takasaki   which is a long journey away.
17th April - the new Harmony plus group will start - this is likely to be a large group
20-23rd April - JBF annual conference.  Dave and Heidi's team are organising it this year so they have responsibility for a couple of sessions.
24th April - Harmony starts back after the Easter holidays  - this will be a much smaller group now


Dave has a lot of work on at the moment organising some gigs in June which have become larger than he had originally thought - he is enjoying the challenge though.  He will also be editing the next edition of the JCL magazine over the next few weeks.

Our final day

Our last day mainly centred around a visit to the Studio Ghibli museum, which was lots of fun. It included the giant robot from 'Castle in the Sky'.

We weren't supposed to take photos (so not many to show from today) but I couldn't resist taking this one of Kira just finishing playing on a giant cat bus from Totoro.

Our Cherry blossom update for today is... cherry blossom ice cream!















It is sad to know we will be heading home tomorrow but it's been great to be here, to pray for and with them and to support them and others here in all that they do.

Prayer request

Please pray for the Skippers and they continue their life in Japan, and for us as we have to come back to the UK.  Also we prayed for Heidi's knee which had been hurting whenever she bent it a lot; she was mostly fine for walking but just had to be careful.  No change when we prayed in the morning but at the end of the day we prayed again and she felt it was a lot better.  Please pray it stays fully well.

It was a gloriously sunny day today so it was good to get out and go to the park.  












 
 As you can see the Cherry blossom is still in bloom, though we did see it 'snowing' blossom a few times when the wind blew.

Dave and Heidi had promised to treat us to a belated birthday meal out when we came to see them and this was it, a Korean barbecue.  Delicious!

Kanako and Ricki, friends of the Skippers, came around to celebrate with us in another slightly belated birthday event - a party for Ezra.  

Much fun was had, with balloons, bubbles and a game of musical chairs which Kira won and Dave came a gallant second.  Ezra's still not quite walking yet but moving around stood up next to furniture or walking while holding hands.  Not long before he will be though!

Prayer Update

We've no photos from today as it has been another very rainy day, so we decided to stay in and have a quiet day instead of battling the elements.

So a couple of prayer updates for you.  We were praying for Kotomi who needed some surgery for possible cancer so had to have her baby a month early.  We knew before we came that it wasn't cancer which is amazing.  As we were packing to come I felt I needed to put a little something in for the baby so I gave a little jumper I had made to Toshiko-san to give to the mother last week and when we saw her yesterday she gave me an update.

The baby was able to go home on Monday - praise the Lord.  They had thought she might have to be in for a few more weeks, but has done really well.  Her name is Leona and I saw a photo - very beautiful.   The mum is still struggling to move around much, but was really encouraged by receiving the present for Leona.  She struggles sometimes and feels down, but her husband reminds her of all the people who have been praying for them and she feels better.  Neither of them are Christians, but she says she can feel people's prayers and that there are angels behind her holding her up and Jesus is behind them.  Wow!  Please continue to pray for them and that they will come to know Jesus fully through this experience.

I am feeling much better, the snuffles have completely gone, although I have a very annoying cough still, which comes on when I laugh and as Ezra makes me laugh all the time I am coughing a lot :)

Tomorrow we are seeing Kanako and Ricky who are coming over for some cake to celebrate Ezra's birthday.  I'm looking forward to seeing her again.

Continued prayers for sleep for the children so Heidi and Dave can get more sleep would be good.  Now the mornings are lighter they are waking up at 5.30 no matter what time they go to bed which isn't helping.

Singing in the rain

Today it rained.  And rained.  And rained.  And rained.

But that didn't stop us from having fun.













 
We met up with Toshiko-san from Tokorozawa Vineyard and went out to an architecture museum.  It was too wet to keep getting the camera out, so no photos of any of the buildings we saw  :(



. 






In the evening  we met up with John, Mark, Ken and Mary Esther who are involved in various creative ministries in Japan.  Every month or so they and Dave and Heidi get together to talk about how things are going and pray for each other.  So it was great for Caroline and I to be able to join with them and we all prayed for each other.









The Cherry blossom is still there (but very wet!) but more is coming off the trees now.  Here's a photo I took yesterday with two very different coloured blossoms from the one tree.  We've only seen a few trees like that.

Ezra's first birthday and Easter day part 2

We have had a very quiet day today, so nothing much to report today - so we will post some pictures from yesterday.  

Heidi was leading worship at church for Easter Day and also a voice training session after a pot luck lunch, which meant we had to fit Ezra's presents etc in around her commitments - he didn't seem to mind though!

T-shirt from the UK

Here are some of his presents...

Book made by Heidi's parents

Towel from Kira

Ball from Mama and Daddy

Hat from Canada

 We arrived at church as the worship band were praying.










 
Ezra enjoyed worshipping with Pastor Araki

And then Araki preached from Luke 24
Robby and I stayed at the back during this sermon so we could help with Ezra leaving Dave and Heidi to have some space to listen (although he's found his way back into daddy's arms at this point!)








 








Sometimes after a service they have a pot luck lunch and as it was Easter Day we did that yesterday.  

There was a wide variety of Japanese foods to try, including this amazing Sushi cake.



We finished then by singing Happy Birthday to Ezra and having cake.  The church has been so supportive of Dave and Heidi, throughout the pregnancy and now he is growing to be a little boy it felt right to celebrate his birthday with them.









In the evening we had an amazing Beef Roast that Dave cooked as an Easter/birthday meal.

Prayer Requests

I still have a bit of a cold, although having a quieter day today has helped a little.  Please pray it gets completely better really soon so I can enjoy the rest of our time here to the full.  Also we are going out for the morning tomorrow, and the day on Wednesday, both of which are outdoor activities and at the moment it looks like it will rain for both of those - good weather would be great, especially since we have to go by public transport as well.

The Mission Team are coming round tomorrow evening and we want to bless them and pray for them.  Please pray God can use us to bless them in their ministry here.

Cherry Blossom Update Report

The Cherry blossom is still there, but has definitely started falling.  It looks like pink snow on the ground. 

 

Ezra's birthday and Easter day

It's been a great day celebrating a first birthday with Ezra and Easter day with Tokorozawa Vineyard but it's late and we're going to bed.  Proper posts on this tomorrow :)

Prayer request

Please pray that we're not coming down with colds, a few of us have been sneezing and sniffling and we want this coming week to go well for all of us.

Noise

Astro

Last night Dave and I went out to 'International Noise Conference'.  This was a noise gig with a bunch of artists some of whom Dave knew and some who he had played with previously.  A few were ones we had prayed for a few days back.  

Jar Excretion

 If you've not been to a noise gig before then... it's hard to describe.  It is actually music, improvised performances, but there's no tune or words, just lots of sounds, mostly electronically generated.  It's also mostly very loud, like being a very loud club, except at this gig we were in a small room with about 20 people.

Each artist played for about 20 mins then there was a 20 mins break for set down and set up for the next artist, drinks and chat (no scope for that while the music is playing!)   

Blackphone666

It's an acquired taste, but each of them has their own distinct sound.  









My favourite of the evening was Jar Excretion who used a sample of a wave crashing against the shore throughout, and his style of performance was minimal, he hardly moved at all throughout except his fingers to adjust the dials on his boxes, which, in a strange sort of way, brought a stillness to it (though it was only a bit less loud than some of the others).

Blackphone666 was the wildest of the sets.  Yes he does actually use an old-school telephone as part of his sound input.  His piece was fairly quiet for the first half then went full on volume for the concluding half - pretty extreme!

Dave and I were able to spend some time talking to some of these guys and it was good to share thoughts on life with some of them.

A day at home with the Skippers...

We were planning to have a quiet day today, and when we saw it was raining again this morning we were happy to be able to spend the day at home.

It has been a busy day of colouring

Reading













Building

Dave did some work in his office

But was distracted by Ezra needing to tidy under his desk

Heidi did some practice as she is leading worship at church tomorrow












And baked a cake for Ezra's birthday












 

Ezra tried to escape through the door

 









And we did some more colouring












Maybe not such a quiet day after all!!!

Robby and Dave have gone to a Noise gig this evening, so more on that later.

Proposed itinerary for this next week

Sunday 31st  church followed by pot luck lunch, Heidi will do a voice training session 3-4 for some of the worship leaders and somewhere between getting up and going to bed for Kira and Ezra there will be easter eggs and birthday presents.

Monday 1st  fairly quiet day again, then Dave and Heidi have the chance to go out in the evening.

Tuesday 2nd  visit to the Tokyo-Edo architectural museum with a friend from church.  In the evening Dave and Heidi's mission team are coming round in the evening for a meal, to pray and to prepare for the whole mission's retreat which is coming up in a few weeks.

Wednesday 3rd  day trip out to Kamakura, south of Tokyo near the coast - both cultural and beautiful

Thursday 4th visit from Kanako and Ricky in the afternoon (they have just moved back to Tokyo after a secondment in a different city) and then Heidi and Caroline will go out in the evening, possibly with Rachel - Heidi's friend from YWAM

Friday 5th visit to the Ghibli museum, and packing

Saturday 6th saying goodbyes :(  flight home at 1335 Tokyo time, arriving 1930 London time


As you can see this is more of a holiday week, but we will continue to pray for various things going on here in Tokyo and will pass on prayer requests as we come across them.

Cherry Blossom update report.

This is the cherry blossom tree we can see from our bedroom, the blossom is beginning to fall now though, so we don't know how much longer we will see it.  It has been great to see it for so long though.

Local prayer walk

Today we went walking around a couple of the other important places for the Skipper family and praying there for them and the things that go on there.

First we went to Kurume Christ Church, which is where Heidi runs her children's choir from.  It has a number of missionary families who attend and a fairly packed programme of events.  It's making inroads into the local community; the church has been there for 50 years.  Tomorrow it's running an Easter egg hunt!

We went on to the CAJ building where Heidi runs her Harmony group but which also is the base for CRASH (the emergency relief group which we linked with last time we were here after the tsunami) and others who head up the adult Gospel choirs of which Heidi runs one.

Next was Kira's new youchien (your-chee-en): the new pre-school she starts on the 10th.  She finished at her nursery a few days ago and is looking forward to making new friends in a new place. 



Lunch was fun: sushi from a conveyor belt.

Prayer points

Please pray:
- For Heidi's children's choir.  The children who come really enjoy it but the numbers are small at the moment and it would be better if a few more were able to join.
- For a venue for the December Gospel choir concert.  The joint choirs are now so big they're struggling to find a reasonably priced venue with all the facilities required.
- For our itinerary over the next few days as there are still a few things to sort.

Harmony Party

Hi,
It's Heidi writing. We had a great time on Wednesday at the Harmony Easter Party! Usually we have about 6-10 families join Harmony each week, but it was lovely that many more joined us for the party. We had 26 children and their mums! As well as celebrating (a slightly early) Easter, this was also a kind of end-of-school-year party. In April many of the kids will start going to pre-school, so their Harmony era is over but they will be able to join the new Harmony+ group. 

The morning went really smoothly, the atmosphere was great and everyone seemed to enjoy themselves!

We started the morning with our usual singing session. 

This is us as snapping crocodiles!

It was great to have pastor Araki from our local Vineyard church share the Easter message with the families. For many this would have been the first time they heard it.

Next up was crafts: decorating eggs!

We shared lunch together and for dessert everyone enjoyed the goodies brought over from the UK!

Here is a picture of the whole group (minus Ezra)

At the end we were able to hand out a book to all the kids that are moving on from Harmony, and all the kids were given a chocolate egg and an origami Easter bunny.










Some concluding words: 
To quote my husband, "It was surprisingly calm!" Robby and Caroline, when asked about the party, described it as: a lovely atmosphere, just a lot of fun, everyone was happy, joining in and enjoying it.