Hospital visit to see Calvin!

Calvin was born ~4am on Wednesday, and that afternoon I left the hospital to drive to the airport to pick up my Mom. We then went to pick up the girls from our friends who were watching them and spent the night at home in Chiba. Thursday mid-morning we all drove out together to see baby Calvin for the first time at the hospital in Tokyo. Olivia and Annabella were so excited to see their little brother. After Olivia held him, Annabella said, "I hold it! I hold it!"
Grandma was blessed to hold her 6th grandson, though she had a hard time keeping the girls away! They are very proud big sisters. :)
Even loving sisters, though, tire of holding their brother, and moved on to exploring the other exciting features of the room - like the cool bed!

Here is our first ever Pfeil Pfamily of Pfive Pfoto.

Baby Calvin is here ... a week early!

Calvin surprised us on Tuesday night (a week before his due date) and we found ourselves running around packing the suitcase, getting the map to the hospital, setting up childcare, etc. Jon's Mom was scheduled to arrive Wednesday night, early enough to get settled before helping with the baby - but it turned out that Calvin was born while she was over the Pacific Ocean!
The whole delivery experience wasn't quite what we expected, but are pleased with the end result! What a beautiful gift from God. Calvin weighed in at 51 cm (20 in) and 3992 g (8lb 13oz) and is very healthy. Everyone kept "Oohing, and Aahing" at our 4 kilo baby - since most Japanese babies are around 3 kg.

Soon after birth, they dressed Calvin in this cool yukata bath robe with a tie around his waist. He looked like a young Jedi Knight, ready for nursing!

His ID bracelet shows he was born at 3:57 the morning of the 19th day, 3rd month, 20th year of the current Emperor Akihito (i.e. March 19, 2008).

We were also given this little wooden box soon after birth. Upon further examination we discovered that it contained part of Calvin's umbilical cord. Hmmm... I wonder where one keeps something like this? :)

We are so blessed to have Calvin with us and finally see his little face. Thank you all for praying for us during the pregnancy. Many more photos to follow! :)

Looooong Subway Station Name

I have a new addition to my Coolest Japanese Name List: Itabashikuyakushomae. It is a subway stop on the Toei Mita line. It literally means "In front of the Itabashi Ward office." I haven't added to my list of very long city names in a while, and was exited to take this photo when Sarah and I went to see her doctor in Tokyo.
Previously, I had blogged about Kawanakajimakosenjou, a town near Nagano city. Both these names top my list with 20 characters each (when written in romanized form).

Homestay trip to Cincinnati!

For about 2 weeks in February, 3 students from our college ministry, along with a pastoral staff member and his family, went to America on a "Homestay". The first week was spent in Cincinnati, Ohio with North Cincinnati Community Church and the second down in Tunica, Mississippi.
From the student's perspective, the Homestay trip was a fun chance to see America, experience American home life, and practice their English. From our ministry perspective, though, it is a great "pre-evangelistic" opportunity where many students over the years open up to spiritual conversations because of staying in Christian homes and experiencing the gospel through these families. Scheduled Bible Times in Japanese during the trip also allow for processing and understanding what they are experiencing.

Please pray for these 3 students, Rena, Saori, and Satomi - that their hearts would continue to be open to spiritual things once they've returned to the busyness of daily life in Japan.

Young Adult Group from Church

We had the young adult group from our Oyumino churches over to our house. (By removing 2 sets of sliding doors we can get a pretty big open space for a lot of people to sit on the floor.) We look forward to hosting many more fellowship and outreach events in the future.
This group is called SUMODON (short for SUMOoru DONkii = small donkey, the humble animal that brought Jesus into Jerusalem). Catchy name, don't you think? :)
Pray for me and our College Ministry team now, as we are gearing up for the new school year (starts in April). We're working through our vision and strategy and want to have better synergy with Sumodon and other Church activities.

Playing in youth worship

Jon had fun playing together with the young adult worship team for the monthly "Youth Worship". Though there are challenges for us in reaching College Campuses directly, we are excited that we have the wonderful asset of a number of young Christians in our Oyumino Church network.

Fun with Little Friends in Chiba

We watched the 3 youngest Dedachi family children the other day, and all together had kids ages 5,4,3,2,1,0. It was a little crazy, but a lot of fun! Good practice for our growing family. :)We had dinner and spent the evening with our friends the Hoshino family, and had fun playing with their two kids (their 3rd was just recently born). Daddy became the favored mode of transportation for the group.Here are the girls on another night with 3 other missionary kid friends - William, Isabel, and Noa.
It is such a blessing for our girls to be building so many new friendships here in Chiba.

A Baby Shower for Calvin & Martha

Our sweet friends, the Stewarts, hosted a baby shower for our baby Calvin, and my good friend Sara-Beth's baby Martha. All of the MTW team ladies came to celebrate the new babies. This picture shows off the two babies that are about ready to come. Martha is due tomorrow and Calvin is due in four weeks. I'll let you know when they arrive.

We had delicious appetizers and a yummy strawberry cake for dessert!

After the ladies gave us cute little things for our new babies, they showered us with prayers for the upcoming deliveries and first few months of our growing families lives. What a blessing to have such good friends in our lives!

College Ministry "Home Party"

We had a total of 25 people over to our home on Friday night. The school year is ending, and we wanted to "break in" our new house with a party for the students, staff familes, and friends of our College Ministry.

Sarah made a bunch of sugar cookies, and everyone had a chance to frost, decorate, and eat "Valentines Day Cookies". It was a lot of fun, and helped us all get to know each other better.
Our "genkan" (entryway) is much bigger than in our previous house in Karuizawa. May God continue to keep filling it with the shoes of those who need to hear the gospel!!!

Our New Church Home

We are excited to be finally supporting our MTW Church-Planting Team directly, now that we've finished language school. For the next 2 years, we will be serving with "Oyumino Alive!" a new bilingual church plant of Oyumino Presbyterian Church that is only a 12 minute walk from our home.

Oyumino Alive! is using the original multi-purpose building built by our team ~15 years ago to reach young Japanese, as well as internationals in our community. This will be a great opportunity for us to get immediately involved in serving and learning in the context of a growing church plant. This will also be great experience for us since our work in college ministry will always be done to support the greater vision of church planting and church multiplication in Japan.

Here you see Olivia joining in the 9am neighborhood kids oriented Sunday school class.
Being bilingual provides constant reinforcement of our language learning, and I look forward to helping lead worship and singing in both languages (and eventually to help translate from Japanese to English during the services.)