Dear Friends,

Thanks for all your kind notes and e-mails lately. We are right in the middle of preparations to return to the States at the end of March, and things we least like to do are keeping us pretty busy--filing taxes (for two countries!), renewing driver's licenses, selling a car, turning off utilities, trying to find a car and insurance in the US, negotiating our return to Kanto Gakuin in 2006, packing things, sending things, sorting things, storing things.... "Zatsugyo bakari" in Japanese--odd jobs all day, every day!

Well, that's not quite true. There are bright spots in the busy-ness, too. Valentine's Day was a recent example. In Japan, people celebrate this a little differently than they do in the US--in Japan, only the girls give chocolates to the guys. The guys' turn comes a month later--on White Day, when the boys (hopefully!) reciprocate. This year, quite a few of students brought chocolate by my desk (which was great for my morale, but bad for my waistline). I had given the morning message in chapel that day, and one high school junior quipped, "We'll sure miss your interesting Japanese next year." Yeah--I know what she meant. We use that word at the Davidson house all the time, too--we've trained our kids to say, "Oh, that's really INTERESTING!" whenever they encounter a food they can't quite swallow... But anyway, it's good that she, among so many other folks, have been expressing that we'll be missed...

We would like to encourage all of you to contact your region's minister of mission support if you'd like us to speak at your church sometime between late April, 2005 and February, 2006. It looks as if Sundays are "booking up" quickly, and we want to be able to see as many of you as we can.

Also, we'd like to ask you to be in prayer about a few things.

• First, pray that all of us, but especially our kids, who will be entering straightaway into the tail end of the 2004-2005 US school year, will readjust well to life in the USA. Sarah (6), in particular, has spent most of her life in Japan...
• Also, be in prayer that we'd be able to find a car to use while we are in the USA. We were planning to lease a vehicle from a company that specializes in working with missionaries. We found out just last week, though that they've stopped their leasing program, so we're going to have to come up with some other auto solution. If you have any thoughts for us, please feel free to send us your thoughts or suggestions about this.
• Third, pray for our colleagues, the DeRolfs. They are finishing out their missionary service in Japan this month and both Chuck & Judy will surely be missed here in the Yokohama area. As many of you know, I have been working at Kanto Gakuin with high school and junior high kids; the DeRolfs have been serving on the same Kanto Gakuin campus as chaplains at the college level for many, many years. When we come back, the mission house will seem quite a bit emptier without them!

Well, we're anxious to see you all. Be assured that you are in our prayers, and keep the faith.

Grace & Peace,

Dwight