The location of our apartment is about a 70 minute train ride from central Tokyo. As you can see in the pictures, the landscape in our neighborhood is quite different from downtown Tokyo. (that's Martin collecting our mail) Most of our team memebers live in the same apartment compound about an hour away, so we feel fortunate to have the opportunity to actually live in a unique community among the Japanese. Our building has 12 apartments with most of our neighbors speaking some English. They have accepted us into their building and have been very helpful.

I took this picture from the 45th floor of the Tokyo Goverment Building. Far in the distance is the area of the city where we live, Koganei-shi; a community of about 500,000. Our apartment is within walking distance of grocery stores, a shopping mall, restaurants, the train station, bus stops, and "McDonalds".

It's 4:45 AM and we are in Lexington checking our bags. We fly to Chicago and then on to Japan; a 14 hour flight. After we are picked up in Tokyo, we will be taken to our apartment.

Our new address will be: Martin / Julia Pinkston, 1-6-2 Honmachi, Koganaei-shi, Tokyo 184-0004, Japan. If you are in the neighborhood, stop by!!

Today we completed our training here at ILC, and tonight we were commissioned as missionaries to Japan. It was a wonderful service but with mixed emotions knowing that we may never see again our new freinds made here at ILC.

We are excited and know that we are extremely fortunate to have this opportunity. We thank all of you that have supported us with your thoughts and prayers. We especially thank our children for encouraging us not to slow down in retirement, but to step out and experience new things in life. We also thank our church, Georgetown Baptist, for their prayers and encouragement.

Before leaving ILC and going to our different countries, we as a group went to the capital to interact with people of our countries.

Martin and I went to the Japanese Embassy to prayer walk and to engage in conversation with any Japanese we might encounter.

We had not been to D.C. since June, 2001. When we drove past the Pentagon, and saw the corner of the building being repaired from the 9/11 damage; it renewed our appreciation for who we are as a nation. We should never take for granted the freedoms we enjoy. God Bless America!

This is the Ronald McDonald House in Richmond, Virginia. Since we were involved with RMH at home, we wanted to be involved with the house here. We volunteer on the Saturday mornings we are free.

The house is smaller than the one in Lexington, but the ministry is the same; "a home away from home" that is based on love.