Last week Hannah and I made the decision to start a more serious relationship. As of May 1st, we are officially “dating” or whatever you want to call it. Please be praying for us now and as we figure out what our relationship will look like and how it can be Glorifying to the Lord. Below are some photos from the first time we met and the last few days, I hope you like them. This has all happened fast but I want to give you all an abbreviated version of how we met and how this all came to be.
Nearly 2 years ago I took a trip to Okinawa because I felt the Lord was leading me in a new direction. While I was there staying at YIC [ Yomitan International Church ] I helped out with a youth event called NIKO with my Friend Lindsay who was working there for the summer. Anyway, I went on this crazy camping trip with about 20 kids to Miyagi island [ off the coast of Okinawa ] where we did what some would call “adventure camping”. There were challenges to win food and water for the day and we had to work as a team or we would not be able to eat [ survivor style ]. I was totally thrown into this at the last min I think Hannah was also. Turns out we both ended up being team leaders of the same team. And so one of my first memories of Hannah is her cleaning the duck that our team killed for dinner. Take a look at the photos. While I was there I really felt the Lord lay a burden on my heart for the Japanese people and I knew then I would be back, I just didn’t know when. The camp lasted 3 days and at the end of camp I got Hannah’s email address thinking it would be cool to keep in touch, she seemed really down to earth and fun to hang out with, and cute. End of story…
+ Poor little duck +
+ Camp +
+ Erica & Hannah +
+ Cleaning the duck +
+ NIKO Group +
Now, let’s skip ahead about 6 months. After my trip to Okinawa, I came home and felt exactly how I thought I would feel. Like I was away from home. You see when I was in Japan I had the most peace I had ever had and I knew I would never feel at home again in the states. I can totally confirm that now that I live in Japan. Let’s keep going though. Sometime around Jan, I got an email from Hannah, she said she had met a Scottish missionary who works with a snowboard ministry and who was working NORTHSTAR. In short, Hannah is how i got hooked up with NORTHSTAR. I then started a lengthy process of applications with both NORTHSTAR and TEAM. TEAM is the mission which I am sent with now. There were about 6 months of paperwork, interviews, ministry evaluations, and all sorts of fun stuff. That brings me to June of 2004 when I went to China for an English teaching trip. While I was in China I received a postcard from Hannah with some encouraging words, a piece of origami, gum, and her prayers. She was the last person I was expecting to get mail from in China and I was even more excited about going to Japan. My plan was to spend a month in China, come home for a week, then head to Okinawa to help out at YIC. God had other plans. I found out when I got home from China that I had TB and couldn’t leave the states for 6 months. And 6 months later I finally made it to Japan where I am today. I arrived on Feb 8th, 2005, and have been working at NORTHSTAR since then apart from a visit to Okinawa on my holiday when I saw Hannah again.
This year when I was making plans to go to Okinawa I had no idea how things would go but I knew God had something special for me there, turns out it was Hannah. Actually, I have known for a long time that there was something special in Okinawa and I am so glad I went. We were both thinking the same thing, we both knew that things would be talked through. Anyway, we talked about how we met and how we both have really never stopped thinking about each-other. And how funny God is with things like this, how there is no way either of us could have planed any of the things it took for us to meet and how awesome it is to think we met on a beautiful beach in Okinawa. How many people can say that? When I think about all this all I can do is laugh and smile because it’s all God. Even at this point, we have still only seen each other for a total of 14 days but that has no matter. We have a much deeper friendship than is even possible and that can only be of the Lord.
Okay, now I have gotten up to the present time and where we are now. Hannah is in Tokyo for another ministry conference today and then will hang out with some friends for a few days before heading back to Okinawa. We really don’t know when we will meet again but we are confident that it will be when God wants us to meet again. I have probably left a bunch of things out but this will do for now. Hannah is so special to me and I can hardly believe someone so amazing would be interested in me.
God tells me to go overseas to see what He has for me, I feel a call to Japan, meet a beautiful girl on a beach, work a boring job for a year, find out there is much more to life, get hooked up with an amazing ministry that utilizes everything I love and enjoy, go to China, get TB, answer a billion interview questions to become a missionary, move to Japan, finally realize how good it is to be in Gods will and doing His work, meet the beautiful girl again, tell the beautiful girl that I think we would be good together, [ and to my total shocking surprise she agrees ] start dating…. The rest is yet to come.
Sorry, that wasn’t very abbreviated.
+ Hannah & Seth +
+ Seth & Hannah +
+ Nexus group +
Leave a Reply