Welcome to “Love, From Japan, the blog that will document the Summer 2018 trip to Japan through International Ministries! You will get to read regular posts from the perspectives of each of the team members, Cole Linder, Ben and Sarah McCloy, Nathan Welch, and Abigail Harman as we serve in Japan from June 9-28.  

For the first week of our trip, we will be in the Soshin Academy working with senior high students and being conversation partners with students learning English. We will spend our second week at Taira Baptist Church in Iwaki playing games and spending time with the children in the kindergarten program. Finally, our third week will be spent being conversation partners for students at Kanto Gakuin University! We are all immensely excited as we get to spend three weeks of our summer exploring the ways God is working in our lives, from individual callings to ministry, whether pastoral or missional, to embarking on a first mission trip!

The overall purpose for our trip is found in the name for our blog. “Love, From Japan” will serve as a pile of letters from each us to you, telling the stories of love from our time in Japan as we encounter God’s love and the love of the Japanese people as we strive to love in return.