Last night we had an overnight retreat for the staff working with our church here in Japan. It was fun to be with the staff from our mother church in Nishinomiya as well as our Sanda pastor and family, the Fujiis.

We found out the day before that it was our pastor and wife, Keishi and Kazumi’s 15th wedding anniversary over the weekend. I hadn’t made a cake in a few months- it was time! Anniversary theme cakes are tough. You can go with the ring idea, but rings, especially diamonds, aren’t as big a deal here as in the U.S. So, I found an idea on the internet. Eric helped me with the cutting, and Bobby helped design the label. I had to do it in a few hours before we had to leave.

Then, when we arrived at the hotel, we found out it was also Makio Sensei and Megumi Sensei’s anniversary last weekend (21 years). So, we added a banner to try and match the label. It was really fun to honor two of the Japanese couples we respect the most:

Even though we’d had this amazing crab buffet, everyone managed to eat some champagne bottle and bucket cake… and then we asked these two wonderful couples to share about how they met and decided to get married. As they shared, we got to ask them lots of questions.

What I loved hearing the most was both men sharing about how they changed through the process of marriage. I remember our pre-marital counselor telling us not to get married to change each other, but that for sure, when we got married, we would change each other. As I think about the last almost-ten years of our marriage, I can see many ways that I have changed. Thank God! I hope I keep changing. That’s worth celebrating!