Wasn't it just a few days ago that I so cheerfully reported that I was back in Korea? That, it seems, was just less than a month ago and now I'm back in Japan. Visas are funny creatures. They have the power to totally control your life, to govern where you go, when you go or how long you stay. They force you to depart with heaps of money in order to accomplish their hidden agenda. They control; they take away choice and preference.

I find myself resigned to being tossed around by my visa problems. It does no good being angry about it since will happen no matter what my attitude. I could have stayed in Japan for a day or two and returned but I decided to make use of the money I spent to get here. I have arranged to speak in two churches, Jr. High youth group and a high school Sunday school class. The youth group and Sunday school were Ryan's ideas since having a "guest speaker," namely his sister, would cut back on his workload for the week. Lucky guy.

Speaking of Ryan, he's off assisting a school sponsored four day backpacking trip for 11th graders which is designed to teach endurance and long suffering. Yeah, it'll teach them alright. It'll teach them they never want to go backpacking again. They are in their second day and it's been raining hard the whole time. What misery. If you've never experienced backpacking in the rain, you should- at least once. It shows you for who you really are; a pathetic, groveling, miserable whiner or a hold-your-head-high, encourage-the-whiners and take-the-suffering-in-stride hero. I was most definitely the former on my rainy backpacking trip.