Look what we discovered!
In the following scene, T is Stephan's friend who is in Japan helping D, the pastor whose work I mentioned in Helping Japan, a Local Option. I have to give some credit to Facebook, as I only knew about this because FB showed me M as one of the (not so random) short list friends on D's Facebook page when I was checking it out. Stephan put the pieces together from there.
Janet, who travelled to Switzerland, and there met and married
Stephan, who had lived in Japan, where he had became friends with
T, who was in Japan for a few years and worked with
D, pastor of a church there, who has a son
J, who met (in Orlando?) and married
M, a good friend of Janet's from childhood!
Actually, it's more like this:
Janet travelled to Switzerland and married
Stephan, who had attended the
O church in Japan, which
D had planted, and who, visiting the same church on business several years later, met
T, who's studying in Orlando with
D (D's son), whose brother
J married
M, Janet's childhood friend.
The connection was there without T, but T is the one with whom I'm still in contact, and who with his Japan relief project triggered the discovery of the connection.
Thanks for the clarification. Was your church in Japan the same one D is pastoring now, or has he moved on?
Well, yes and no. When I attended the O church, I think D was on home assignment for a lot of the time. When I returned on business, the O church had built a chapel in H and was meeting there. Later a bilingual service was started in O. D preaches in H, but has intentionally turned over a lot of the church ownership to the Japanese, including a good bit of the preaching duties. There are two Japanese men working for their ordination, D-san and N-san, who regularly preach there and in other church plants. D's role is coordination for a large part, I believe.
Wow. I think I like x's and y's better. :P
It's the math nerd in you. :)
