Preparing to head into the Tsunami area

It is Tuesday almost noon here in Japan. In just a short time I'll be heading up into Northern Japan via car to visit churches in the Tsunami effected areas. We will be visiting pastors to hear their vision for reaching their communities with the love of Christ. Please pray for our time, and safe travels. If I have any chances to get internet access while I'm in the area, I'll post more information as we travel along. Otherwise, I'll update you after I get back.

Back Home

We are back home in Los Angeles. Thank you for your prayers for our trip. The trip was quite different from what was expected when the earthquake and resulting tsunami hit Japan while I was there. And of course we needed to focus our attention on ramping up a response. But our time with our national leaders in Vietnam was still very positive and productive. In particular we made great strides toward opening a new country this year.

Pictured: checking out the Mekong River delta (L-R: Dorrie Takazawa, Lori, Elliott, Takeshi Takazawa)

Also, Vietnam is the land of the motor scooter! The streets are packed with them!

Meetings wrap up well

It is late Saturday night here in Vietnam. We had a great several days of meetings with our national leaders. Today most of them returned home, though the leadership core stayed for a debrief and discussion how to move forward on several initiatives.

It is always a bit sad saying goodbye. We've enjoyed the fellowship of these men and women of God who are giving their all for the cause of Christ in their own countries. Tomorrow morning we are going to visit a church not far from where we are staying. Then tomorrow night we begin the long journey home. First a short hop to Bangkok where we have a few hours layover (overnight). Then we go to Tokyo. It will be interesting to see the status of the airport compared to one week ago when we were there. Finally, on to LAX arriving on Monday morning.

Please pray for safe journeys, and that we make all our connections and all flights are one time.

Update from Vietnam

Thank you for your prayers. Our meetings continue to go well here. Today we had a time of interaction on what it means to be a Christ-like leader led by our Indian national director. Then, this afternoon we had a chance to get out of the hotel for a few hours and see some of the countryside. We had a great time of community building as we rode a bus and took a boat ride on the Mekong river.

Tomorrow is our last day of meetings and I'd appreciate your prayers that we are able to accomplish all we have hoped. In particular I'll be leading a segment on how to measure how we are doing. I'd appreciate your prayers for insight on how to best approach this topic cross culturally.

Also, in the midst of all of this, I'm working in full crisis mode with our people in Japan. We have a great team of missionaries there who are doing a tremendous job working with a church based relief effort. In fact, tomorrow some of our people will be heading into the hard hit areas to deliver aid. This in the midst of the nuclear disaster. Please pray that our missionaries are not impacted by any release of radiation. At this point, they all feel quite safe and are planning to stay put. But we do have evacuation plans in place should that be necessary.

Pray for Lori and I as we hope our flights back are not impacted by the craziness right now. We don't head back until Monday. So until then are just monitoring the situation.

Meeting continue well

Thank you for your prayers. All of our leaders from across Asia arrived safely and had no problems with visas. Our first full day of meetings has just ended and we had a wonderful time of devotions, worship, working on key issues and prayer. The wives had a great time together sharing (and shopping!). Pray for my computer to keep working. It has been acting up and I need it. We prayed over it tonight and it started working again!

Thank you.

Getting Settled in Vietnam

Thank you for your prayers. Lori and I are getting settled in Vietnam and looking forward to our week with our leaders from around Asia. It is Monday afternoon here and the first group arrives tonight, with the rest coming in on Tuesday. Coming in at the same time as us were our leaders from Mongolia. Pictured, we had lunch together (Pho of course) at a nearby place to our hotel (Clockwise: Chinzo & Ariuna (Mongolia), Lori, Elliott, Kiet (travel agent in Vietnam).

So, now just need to adjust to the time zone and get everything prepared. Pray that everyone gets in safely and no problems with visa approval at the airport.

At the Airport--Waiting for Lori to arrive

It has already been a long day, but God's grace has been absolutely evident thanks to your prayers. First, the flight from LAX to Narita left on time with Lori on it, so praise God it was not canceled. Second, I'm at Narita airport! Yeah. Here is what CNN wrote:

The quake disrupted rail service and affected air travel. Flight cancellations left at least 23,000 people stranded in two Tokyo airports, Kyodo said. Departing and arriving flights resumed Saturday. Limited rail service also was back in operation Saturday.

Despite all of this I made it through by God's grace. I got up before the crack of dawn and left the retreat in the mountains north of Tokyo early to navigate the possible obstacles. I knew things were out of the ordinary when the train conductor announced in Japanese that we would arrive at our destinations "about" half an hour late. Trains in Japan don't typically do anything "about"! They are very precise. But we did make it into Tokyo just about half an hour late. Then I was able to find out the express train out to the airport was running again, just opening that morning. So I hopped on that and made it to the airport. With 23,000 people stranded for days, you can imagine what the airport looked like! Sleeping bags and blankets laid out in every nook and cranny.

Meanwhile, when Lori had checked in at LAX, they told here that the flight from Japan to Bangkok (our stopover before arriving in Vietnam) was canceled. Fortunately, since she checked in hours ahead of any of us in Japan, the agent was able to get us re-booked on another flight that goes direct to Vietnam. But the prayer request is that we will arrive 12 hours earlier than expected, and it is Sunday, so I'm not sure if our contacts in Vietnam will get my messages to change our airport pick-up. Please pray they do get the message. The interesting thing is that as best I can tell, our flight is not actually canceled. But we are on the re-booked flight anyway (I could have changed back to the original, but only me, not Lori, since she is on a different itinerary and is in flight). After 23 years of marriage, I wisely decided to stick with my wife ;-)

So now I'm at the airport waiting for Lori to arrive. Can't wait to see her. God has opened the way for us to make it to Vietnam. So I believe he has significant reasons in store. Please pray everyone else is able to make it as well. We all need grace going through the visa process in Vietnam so we are approved for entry.

Thank you for your prayers!

Travel to Airport

Please pray I can get to the airport in the next 24 hours. It looks like the Shinkansen (train) will start running in about 3 hours from now. That will be my best choice. Or, if it does not, then I will take a bus. Pray that God opens all the travel ways for me to make it to the airport, and that Lori's flight makes it to Japan and then both of our flight makes it out to Bangkok!

Thanks.

Japan update

As most of you will be following the news in the United States, no reason for me to repeat it all here. But the prayer request right now is for transportation to be restored. It is Saturday in Japan. Sunday I'm supposed to travel to Narita airport to meet Lori coming from Los Angeles. Right now I can't get to the airport and it may be closed anyway. So we are up in the air. Appreciate your prayers!

Tsunami causing major damage

Most of you will be able to follow the news reports in the U.S. I'm sure. As I type this I'm watching incredible tv footage of the tsunami hitting the coast north of Tokyo. In less than an hour it will hit Okinawa. We need to pray it dissipates and does not cause the damage it could. We have missionaries who live there, but they are currently with me at a retreat center in the mountains outside Tokyo, so they are safe. But there property could be in danger.

What is the Opposite of Shake and Bake?

In California we have the phrase "skake and bake" when a strong earthquake hits during the hot days of summer. But here it is cold, in fact the snow had started falling heavy when the most major earthquake I've ever felt hit. Turns out it was an 8.8 just off the coast of Japan, maybe a couple hundred miles from us in Karuizawa. It is causing major damage especially from the tsunami which I'm watching live on Japanese tv as I type.

I'm safe. We are far inland. No problems. But what this may do to travel and other matters over the next couple of days is to be seen. I'd appreciate your prayers that everything stabilizes quickly. I'll continue to post updates on this blog.

VISAS APPROVED!

For those of you who have been praying, thank you. We have just received word, a day early, that the visas have been approved for our leaders from Sri Lanka and Bangladesh. Thank you for your prayers. They made the difference.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch...

I've arrived at the Japan annual gathering of our missionaries in the mountains. Snow on the ground and cold, but warm fellowship and a great kick off meeting just a bit earlier tonight. Pray for Scott and Beth Shaum from Barnabas Int'l as they deliver the keynote messages. Pray for me as I adjust to the time zone and try and get over a cough in a cold dry climate.

Safely in Japan

Thank you for your prayers for a safe flight. I've landed at Tokyo's Narita Airport and am now ready to get a good night's sleep. Tomorrow morning I head up the mountains North of Tokyo for our Spring Retreat with all of our missionaries. Looking forward to seeing everyone.

Many of you are praying for some of our leaders in Asia who are having trouble getting visas to join us at our summit in Vietnam. We won't know until Friday if they get them or not. Pray for favor.

Prayer Request for Vietnam Gathering

For those of you following the blog, a key prayer request is for visas into Vietnam. Some of our leaders from less developed countries are having a hard time obtaining visas. Would you pray they come through so they can attend our gathering? Thank you so much!

Back home

I"m back in Los Angeles after a rewarding trip to Sri Lanka. The entire trip went well, and I know that is because of your prayers. Now, just have to recover from jet lag! Pictured is the graduating class in Sri Lanka. We were blessed to be there for their graduation, to meet these pastors who have met together for the last two years growing in their leadership capacity.

Graduation and Sunday Worship in Colombo

Saturday night and Sunday were a great end to my week here in Colombo. Saturday night we had the graduation of the Sri Lankan pastors who have completed our two year leadership development program. It was a fun celebration, complete with traditional Sri Lankan drums and dances. I'll get you pictures later after I get copies from the official photographer. I enjoyed getting to meet each of the graduates and hand them their certificates.

Sunday morning we went to worship at Kithu Sevana Church, where Adrian is the pastor. I love to worship in another country and culture. It is always a rich experience. Kithu Sevana was no exception! After church, Manori, who was on my team at Lausanne, showed a few of us around town. We had a great time.

From the Farm to Colombo

It has been a very insightful week. For the last several days we have been on the church campground of our leader here in Sri Lanka, Adrian De Visser. The call it "the Farm" but it's real name is Ape Kadela (which means "the nest"). It is an incredible place. First, it houses their orphanage. They have 45 wonderful children--about half boys and half girls. They range from newborn to early teenager. They love Adrian and his wife Ophelia. Whenever they are staying out at the farm, each school day morning they come to the guest house around 6 AM and line up at Adrian's door to be "blessed" before they go to school (pictured is the guest house one afternoon. Adrian is on the right with some of the kids). They love him to bless them. He does, putting his hand on each child's head and giving a short blessing to them. It is a very touching site (my room was right next to Adrian's which is why I was 'blessed' to watch the ritual).

They want the orphanage to become sustainable within the next 2 - 5 years. So they are doing lots of things toward that end. First, they have cows, pigs, and chickens that they raise and sell their products. Second, they have a flower garden where they grow plants to export. Currently they are building out the church camp capacity to be able to host groups of 200 people. The profit from hosting the camps will go back into the orphanage. They have lots of other creative income sources including making and selling their own jam and yogurt.

Of course, we were there just to have our leadership meetings. It was the perfect retreat setting to do that. Seven of us spent our time planning our upcoming March Summit (will be in Vietnam) and working on opening a new country. Now we have just arrived back in Colombo, the capital, for the graduation ceremony of our leadership class that has just finished their two year program in Sri Lanka.

Please pray for safe travels as I start back home tomorrow.

Layover in Bangkok

Just a quick update to let you know that I'm in Bangkok on my layover en-route to Sri Lanka. The good news is that Thailand is just an hour and a half off of Sri Lanka time. So my 24 hours here hopefully gives my body a chance to adjust to the right time zone. I'm at the airport hotel and spending as much time outside as I can to get the sunlight. It is amazing how helpful the sun is to adjusting your body to the right time zone. I find if I can get lots of sunshine, I do better with jet lag.

The weather here is amazingly pleasant. I'm used to Bangkok being pretty hot and humid. Today it feels like the low 70's with a nice breeze blowing.

Specific prayer requests:

• I'm taking an anti-malarial drug for Sri Lanka. Pray my body does well with it. It is the same one Lori and I used in South Africa with no problems.
• Health as I travel. It is very apparent it is the cold/flu season on the airplanes!
• Rest as I travel all night tonight to get to my final destination in Sri Lanka. My plane leave Bangkod around 10:45 PM local time and gets into Sri Lanka just after midnight local time. Then I have a long drive out to the church camp where we will be meeting.

Off to Sri Lanka

Hi Everyone,

I'm off to Sri Lanka in just a few hours. Thanks for your prayers. This is my first trip to Sri Lanka, so I'm looking forward to seeing the ministry context there. It is one of those unusual countries that is has a time zone off by half an hour. So it is 13.5 hours ahead of Los Angeles. That can be confusing!