A Friend Loves at All Times...*(Proverbs 18:17) Hwajung is my dear & faithful friend. She is Korean and married to a Japanese guy. They were just married in around May 2005. So, when I went to Japan in October 2005, I had a chance to get to know her. I was so blessed to spend time together with them. She is just 2 years older than me and she is very active at church. Almost every Saturday, I came to her Church for Bible study and Korean lesson she taught us, and spent the rest of the night staying at her apartment. They lived in the ground floor of a high-rise apartment near the Charis Chapel Korien, a branch protestant Church. Some friends at church wondered how we could get to know each other, for that was my first time to come to Osaka. Well, in Indonesia I worked for Mission International Yogyakarta whose center is in Daegu, Korea. The Korean leader I worked with contacted a friend in Korea about my one-year stay in Osaka, and that dear friend that I once met when she came to Indonesia contacted Hwajung telling her my coming. From that time being I spent time with her and through her with other church members as well. What a great provision God had for me during my stay in Japan. Without them I would never be able to enjoy so much time about fellowship with Japanese Christians, having Sunday service, lunch together after service, takoyaki party, delivering messages or song leading on youth service that was initiated during those time, getting involved in choir, playing bowling that was my first time ever in my life, playing volleyball and we won the game against the center church, and other activities and occasions. On the way to Korien Church we had to walk passing a shopping street next to the Korien train station where I could enjoy the Japanese typical downtown area and occasionally walked through a big department store called Aru Plaza. There were some bread stands inside the department store I sometimes bought for my breakfast and shared them in church. I found a kind of small-round bread that was the cheapest and delicious to me. Recently I rarely received any news from her since she’d just delivered her baby. His name is Noah, and she sent me some pictures. I miss her so for she is really a dear friend to me. It goes straight from the Bible verse in Proverbs: There is a friend who is closer that a brother. * NIV Bible translation.