September Ministry Update 2022
Dear friends and ministry partners,
The logo at the top of all my updates is finally true again. I am in Tokyo! The past month since coming back has been packed. There were a few bumps along the way in the weeks leading up to flying out with getting sick and having to reschedule my flight, but thankfully once I was on the plane, it was pretty simple from there. I landed in Tokyo, my teammates picked me up, and my AirBnB was waiting for me.
After being gone for so long, it has been so encouraging to see my teammates, friends, and church again. My team had a dinner and celebrated some birthdays about two weeks after I arrived which I was so happy to be a part of. We have been meeting over Zoom every month, but it's not the same as being face to face. My church also had a picnic in the park a couple Sundays ago which was a lot of fun to get to see everyone and catch up.
Seeing people was definitely my first priority once I arrived, but my next big one was finding an apartment. I had reserved my AirBnB for a month so I was hoping to find a place within that time. The way it typically works in Japan is that you have to go through a realtor to get an apartment. There are many smaller realtor offices scattered throughout the city. I can't exactly remember, but I think I ended up going to close to ten different realtors and spent hours and hours online looking at apartments. Looking back at it, it feels like a blur because it was pretty stressful at times. I was trying to find a place that can be a good home for me, but that I can also host people for ministry purposes. I also really wanted somewhere that got good sunlight and was close to teammates. Those parameters definitely made the search more difficult.
About three weeks into my search, I was starting to get discouraged. I saw many apartments, but there was always something not quite right. It was too small or didn't get any sunlight or too far away from everyone. Even the ones I liked were gone before I could do anything. Ten minutes before I was about to look at an apartment I really liked and found online, we got a call saying it was taken. When I was out another time looking at apartments, we had decided to look at three. I liked the second apartment, but by the time we got to the third, the second one was already applied for and taken.
Many times after a long day of apartment searching I would go back to my AirBnB and crash. I kept praying that God would provide a good place, but I was upset that it was taking so long. Two weeks ago, Shige and I went out again to go to realtors and look at apartments. We went to two offices but they both said they didn't have anything for me. I was ready to call it for the day. At that point I was considering just taking a break for a week and hoping that some new apartments would be posted online that I could find. Before we could head home though, we got a call from the realtor that had helped some of my other teammates find apartments. He said he had a couple apartments that we could look at!
We looked at two apartments and I really liked the second one. It pretty much checked off all the boxes. After we finished looking at it, I decided to spend some time thinking about it and was walking by the apartment again. I was praying that God would give me wisdom to know if I should apply for it. As I was walking, I noticed that the trees you can see from my windows are part of a garden and the entrance is on my street! Immediately I knew that this was the apartment for me. I ran back with Shige to the realtor and applied immediately. While I love the city, I grew up in Vermont surrounded by trees and nature has always been an important place for me where I feel energized and connected to God.
Amazingly, by God's provision, I got the apartment! I fully moved in last week the day I checked out of my AirBnB so the timing was perfect. Since then I have slowly been furnishing it. Below I've included a video and some pictures of the empty apartment. In the video I mentioned I didn't have electricity yet, but thankfully, I have it now and have also gotten some of my appliances. In the next couple weeks I'm hoping to get the rest of my furniture and then move on to language learning! In my next update I'll share more about what I'm going to be doing to learn Japanese and hopefully what my life will be looking like here!
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This is a quick tour of my apartment after I just signed the contract and got the key. I hadn't moved anything in yet. I'm excited to live here and call it home!
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Here are some pictures of my empty apartment. They are wide angle shots so it probably looks more spacious than it actually is. For Tokyo though, it actually is pretty big! I'm praying that my space would be not only a blessing to me but to others too.
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I really want to thank you all again for helping me get to this point. I wouldn't be back in Tokyo with this amazing apartment and the ability to do ministry here again without you.
If you are interested in sending me a letter or a care package, then here's my Tokyo address. Just make sure you check with the post office that you have what you need to send it internationally.
Adam Bailey
169-0051
Tokyo-to, Shinjuku-ku, Nishiwaseda 3-5-10
Hirayama Shoji Biru 301
Japan
I'm still always available over email, adam.bailey@efca.org, and by phone. You can call or text my US phone number at 802-505-7676. If you have any other US numbers saved as my contact please do not use them! It won't be me anymore! My Japanese number should still work though if you have that. Please only iMessage or FaceTime me on that number. I also have Facebook Messenger and WhatsApp as well.
I'd love to stay in touch and hear how you are doing or if you have any prayer requests for things I can be praying about, so don't hesitate to reach out!
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We had a team gathering a couple weeks ago. It was the first time I'd been together with everyone for nearly three years!
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Prayer Requests
- Praise God for getting me to Tokyo! Even a month in, I still have moments where I realize where I am and am just blown away. I'm back in Japan where God has called me. It is such an amazing blessing. Praise God for all the incredible work He did and the many people He placed in my life to get here. I am humbled and so thankful for everything.
- Pray that I can continue to get settled. I am really excited to have my own apartment. It's a huge step towards getting settled. I still have some furniture to find, but now I get to start building up new rhythms and moving on with my life and ministry here. Pray that I could settle in well, find everything I need, and create healthy rhythms that will help me succeed in life and ministry. The next big task will be figuring out my language learning so pray that goes well and I can jump into excited and ready to go!
- Pray for my teammate Kim. My teammate Kim is arriving in a few weeks! I think it's really exciting that she and I are arriving around the same time. Please pray for her as she is preparing to come, for her visa and other paperwork needed to get into Japan, and for her flights. Please pray as well for my other teammates who are currently raising support to come to Japan. Pray that God would provide what they need quickly and that they'd be able to join us here in Tokyo soon!
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Thanks for reading!
If you have any questions, don't hesitate to email me at adam.bailey@efca.org or text or call me at 802-505-7676. You can also go to my website at adamintokyo.com. Thanks! - Adam Bailey
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If you'd like to give a one-time or recurring gift, click on the link below!
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