Circle Up!

I have been thinking a lot about circles lately...
Not the kind of watching your dog chase his tail kind of circles even though that is amusing.
Not the kind of being so busy that you feel like you are going in circles.
Not the twirl in circles till you think you are going to puke kind of cirlces--thats fun until you feel sick.
Not the kind of watching my daughters and remembering being their age and my mother at their age--that is a good thought though.

No, the kind of circles I have been thinking about lately are the kind that God himself orchestrates.
Here is where the thought started...
While living in Edinburgh we met some amazing friends from Japan. Our neighbors Nobu and Rika Kameai. Over the course of the two years we got to spend a lot of time with them. They came to us for help to set up their phone, to go to prenatal appointments in the later part of Rika's pregnancy, hours with them in the Prenatal ICU once Ena Grace was born, praying for Rika and comforting her when her father passed away, having them join us going to worship at Community Church Edinburgh a few times and giving them a Bible in Japanese.

Our relationship with Rika and Nobu was a wonderful and beautiful thing. They had us over and taught us about their culture, making yummy food for us. Rika would have Lily and Zoe over to her flat and teach them origami. They would come to our flat and eat American food. Rika and I would do baking together--her favorite was Blueberry Cobbler. We spent Thanksgiving and Christmas with Rika and Nobu. On Easter they came to church with us and listened to Dustin preach.

So you can imagine when the day came to say goodbye to them how much our hearts hurt. Not only because we had really grown to love them and cherish their friendship but because we had planted a seed and began watering their faith and now we had to say goodbye. It's so hard to trust sometimes if God will bring anyone else along in their lives to carry out what we had begun. This was one of the hardest parts of leaving Scotland, we wanted to bring things full-circle and couldn't.

We have kept in touch with Rika and Nobu and baby Ena. We have been able to share the joy of their new pregnancy over the phone and laughed about how much harder it is to communicate over the phone without our hands and facial expressions. We pray for them every day. For someone to come into their lives and tend their faith a little more.

This summer one of our summer staff Lindsey Gibbon shared that she was going to Japan to do missionary work teaching english. Just like you guessed it, a light bulb went off in my head, I was so excited I could barely get my thoughts formulated and out of my mouth to Lindsey. I shared with her my prayers for Rika and Nobu and little Ena and how my heart had ached for them. We also have a college friend who is teaching English in Japan--Des.

I quickly was on email to Des and Rika and Nobu trying to get everyone connected. They all agreed that they would love to meet up, help Lindsey and spend time together.

Lindsey left a couple of weeks ago for Japan. They have all been in contact through email and telephone. Rika is arranging with Lindsey for her and her mother to come to the Lutheran Language institute to take English from Lindsey. Rika wants to take Lindsey to see some sites, Lindsey is asking Des for cooking advice and somehow, they will all meet up.

Circles....it is so amazing to me to think how God has brought us back in to camping ministry to then meet Lindsey who has traveled all the way to Japan to meet friends from two different chapters in our lives to continue what God started through us.

Go ahead, twirl in circles until you feel sick and be thankful for the circles God moves in!

Janette and the gang