Hakone Photo Gallery

I want to start this post off with a shout out to the Australia summer project in Melbourne. They just arrived a day or two ago. Just wanted you all to know that I love you all and am praying God will show himself to you in an awesome way these next few weeks. It is hard work for sure, but God promises that he will be faithful to those who call upon his name. Blessings you guys!

And now, for your viewing pleasure (I'm hoping) here are some photos from our retreat in Hakone!



Here is half the team in the tram/cable car. It was a really gorgeous view, even though we didn't see much more than fog and tree tops. It's a very lush place.



This is the view looking behind us. Hakone is in the foreground and you can even see the ocean way in the background. It was starting to get foggy here as we were ascending.



Some of us in our lovely Yunessun spa tunics ready to soak our stress away.



This is the fishy pool where the little nibblers swim around and eat the dead skin off your feet. Sorry if any of you are squeamish about these things! It was a super ticklish experience.









These are some pictures of Christine and my adventure to the Craft House. There were some beautiful flowers there. Christine took the hydrangea picture- it reminded us of a photo that would be in some Psalms calendar or something.





This is the outside of the Yunessun where all the pools and spas were. It was quite the structure.











These are some pictures from our last adventure in Hakone- the Hakone Open Air Museum. It was beautifully set up with some really cool sculptures and installations. We had fun walking around and climbing on some of the pieces.


So, there is our retreat in picture form! Today was very low-key which I was extremely thankful for. We got to sleep in and then went to church at 3. We actually went to a new place, Grace City Church, which was actually planted by Tim Keller. The people were all very friendly and even though the service was all in Japanese they provided us with headsets with English translation. And after the service one of the members put on a mini violin concert for us. Apparently she lives in Vienna and plays there but is home in Japan for the summer. It was beautiful and very soothing to listen to.

I know this is getting slightly long-winded, so thank you for your perseverance! I just wanted to ask that you be praying for the team as we go into our second to last full week of ministry (so crazy how fast time has gone by). Just pray that we would hold fast to the faith we have and run the race mapped out for us. We were pretty tired going into retreat, but I know we all have a sense of mission in continuing to be bold for the Gospel. But we need the Spirit to be in us to be able to accomplish anything. Pray that we would be bold in making requests to God and that he would show himself to the Japanese students in crazy mighty ways. Thank you!