On Time @ 8:45am

First off our flight is on time. I'm typing this at the gate as we wait. The teens are pretty exhausted, but in good spirits. Our flight lands @ 8:45am on Monday morning. Flight #DL618. Sorry for any typos going forward. You all know how autocorrect is.

The last two days in Tokyo have been a good time for our team. We have walked more miles and taken more trains than I care to count. We hiked 2 miles in the heat with our packs on, took in fireworks, and got caught in a crowd of 1 million people all trying to push to get home. That was only day one.

Tokyo is one of those cities where it feels like you could spend a month and still not touch all it has to offer. So our two days were only enough to scratch the surface. I think that's a pretty strong metaphor for the trip as well. We attempted to spend two weeks living lives focused on service and God. For all the adventures we experienced and ways we saw God move it still feels like we just barely scratched the surface of the deep waters of faith.

Last night as we had our final meeting it was amazing to look around at the lives represented and see the ways they've grown. Our teens accomplished much, but I would argue that God accomplished much more inside of them. The time of prayer at the end was especially rich as they thanked God for His provision. You can hear their hearts beginning to come to life.

As we bring them back home to you let me offer up two things. First, your teens really have evolved into people who not only love God, but better understand what a life of worship looks like. They have more confidence from their travels and they've seen more tragedy than most will ever experience in a lifetime. Secondly, they're still processing all of these experiences. Your teens might not be fully able to explain everything they've seen and felt yet. It will probably take a while for them to spill out all their stories and the ones you get initially might be the superficial (ie. onsen) ones. Keep digging deeper with them though. They have significant things to say. Ask them for both the fun and the difficult, the superficial and the spiritual.

They will be severely jet lagged. It's going to take a couple days for them to feel "normal" again.

Thank you for trusting me with your teens lives. Hopefully the trust will pay off richly. My prayer for them is that all the successes will be multiplied and the difficulties redeemed in such a way that they follow Jesus with everything inside of them with all of their lives. We'll see you soon!




- Jon (for the rest of the team)

Location:Goryobokujo,Narita,Japan