Our First Home!!!

Hello!

Seibu-railway-Higashi-kurume-station-platform (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

I hope this finds you all well. I am sorry it’s been a bit of time between updates. I wanted to let you know what has been happening the last couple of weeks and an update about our family.
I am happy to say I am writing from our new apartment. I am so thankful to be in a place where we can settle down for a while. After 4 years of marriage God has given us our first home together. It’s such a joy to me to be able to get up in the morning and make coffee in my own kitchen. I have been thoroughly enjoying it. Arianna has been doing great in the adjustment as well. She calls this place home now, which I am so thankful for and she is enjoying the area. We live in a place called Higashi Kurume which is actually on the outskirts of Tokyo. It’s an area where there is actually quite a bit of agriculture and has more of a country feel to it. I love that about this area, I enjoy walking by the fields in the morning with vegetables and produce growing in them.
I will be doing a video update of our new home pretty soon. Things are still rather unsettled, but we will be working on that in the next couple weeks and then I will be able to do a tour through the house so everyone can see what it is like.
This season has been one of growth in many ways. It has definitely been a new journey of faith trusting the Lord for an apartment and all of the things that need to go in it. One way that He has provided though is that I saw a listing on craigslist recently for a free refrigerator. I followed it up as this was something we needed for our home, and when Greg went and picked it up, the lady giving it away also gave us some shelves, a table and chairs, pots and pans and dishes to get by for a bit and drawers for storage. It was amazing to see how God provided the things that we were going to need and didn’t even realize it. I am so thankful for His faithfulness!
We are headed into our third week of DTS as well. I am so grateful for the students that have come and are headed into this adventure with the Lord. We have 15 students, primarily from North America. They are all hungry after the Lord and God has been moving in their hearts already. I long to see the Lord impact each and every one of them. I know that He has good plans for them. Greg and I will be teaching in 2 weeks. We will be sharing on intimacy with the Lord. I am excited and also a bit nervous as this is my first time teaching but I will be doing alongside my husband and I am very happy about that.

On the family front, things are going really well. Arianna has been making friends with a couple of other families that are on staff and also have young ones around her age. She is also very excited about having a baby sister. She will put her hand on my stomach and say “baby sister soon” and she thanks Jesus for her. I have been challenged by watching her, she has such simple trust and there is no doubt in her mind that she will have what she needs. It has been teaching me a lot about childlike faith in the Father. She has been learning to pray, and last night on her own, she thanked Jesus for mommy, daddy, noodles and ice cream. I thought it was pretty amazing for a 2 year old. We have also found a doctor for our next little one. The hospital where I will be delivering is only about 15-20 minutes drive from our apartment, and I am thankful to have it so close. One big praise to God is that 2 appointments ago, we found out that the baby was breach and not turned the right way. We spend the next week praying over her and asking God that she would turn. This last appointment, as they did the ultrasound they found that she had turned over. I am SO thankful that God answered this prayer. Thank you to all of you who prayed with us as well.
We do still have a couple areas of financial need. The first is that we found out how much it will be to have a baby here. The Japanese government gives a gift to families as they have children, which I am so thankful for, this gift covers about 80% of the birth. The amount we are looking at right now is about $1200-$1500.00. The other is that we are still working on furnishing our new home and getting settled in. I estimate that we still need about $1000.00 to get all the way settled in. If you would like to partner with us in either of these areas, please email me at rachel.e.lilley@gmail.com or you can visit our website at www.lilleys.org and there is a page for support there as well.
We truly thank you from the bottom of our hearts for your support and prayers. We believe that now is the time for revival in Japan. We know that God has brought us here, and we want to continue to press into His heart for this nation. We pray that Jesus would receive the reward of His suffering here in this nation!

Blessings,
Greg, Rachel and Arianna Lilley