Day 3 & 4 recap

Sunday April 23, 657am

1 word can describe what I am feeling this morning as we are in Aomori. GRATEFULLNESS!

On Friday AM, we met our Ekklesia ohana at Hitachinaka Seaside park. Hitomi and I trained it from Mito train station to Katsuta train station and then bussed it to the park. It was the first night on the ship for our ohana and they had a blast and it was so good to hang with them for our first full port day excursion.

Hitachinaka Seaside park is set near the port and when we climbed to the top of Miharashi hill we had views of the port on one side and the beautfiul blooming Nemophilia "baby blue eye flowers" on the other side over looking the Hitachinaka port. It was a great time of worshiping the Lord with our friends and it was a beautiful hot day (we all got sunburned..lol).

HItachniaka blooms (1 of many)

Nemophilia (blue eyes)

Da kanaka in red with all blue around

Hitachinaka port in view with ship to right and nuclear power plant to left

After leaving the team, we began our trek further north to Morioka. It was about a 4 hour train ride - we had to go back south to Tokyo station then catch a shinkansen to Morioka...had to go back to go forward..there is a lesson to be learned in that in our lives and in the way we live. To recognize the past (but not live in it) in order to move and see forward..looking towards the life God has called us into, appointed us for and given us an anointing of His gifts. A great lesson for our lives.

It was a bit cold when we got into Morioka around 7pm (like 40 degrees). Our hotel was in walking distance (but unlike the major Tokyo cities where there are above ground walking bridges) we did not know that there was an underground walking bridge to access to walk to our hotel. After some assistance by the locals, we were able to get there. Got a good nights worth of sleep and had to prepare for a long train ride on Saturday.

Saturday 4/22 morning wake up call @ 430am. Left our hotel at 530am and caught our 2.5 hour train ride East toward seaside town Miyako port. It was a local express train that went thru mountains and towns with streams and beautiful scenery. It was a relaxing beautiful ride. Miyako was hit by the 2011 Tsunami but we were unable to get a sense of how bad the damage was. We met up with our ohana @ the bus station and then headed out to Jodogahama Ocean via a 15 minute bus ride. This beach is a highly visited tourist attraction. The rocks that we saw were created by underwater magma and it was low tide. I put my feet in the water (the other side of the Pacific Ocean) and it was cold-cryotherarpy for my canoes. Had a great lunch with our ohana (poke bottles-watch going be in Hawaii soon and kids meal rame-a whole nother story). The best part for me of this trip, other than being on this adventure with Hitomi, is being able to get to know these friends of ours better. To see their hearts for Jesus and to be in unity with the things that God has placed in our heart.

So day 4 came to an end with us telling our friends good bye at the Miyako station as we make our way back to Morioka then Shinkansen to Aomori (the most northernest part of Honshu island).

So much have been expereinced and so much laughter, joy and fellowship...Japan is a beautiful countryu with a servant heart spirit, yet there is much sadness and depression and opression in this land...this land needs healing and so do the people...we are in a process of getting healed and made whole by the love of God...Aloha God Aloha people. Gambate!!

Love you all

Sean