Final week before departure

We are now in our final week before departure. Just 5 days to go! We are frantically working to finish clearing/preparing the house for rental and trying to get through the myriad things that need to be done before leaving the country for an extended time - it is amazing how complicated it is! We have had stupendous help from a number of folk, a few spending a substantial part of their day at our house - we would be lost without this level of support. We may (most likely) won't have the house clearing/preparation completely done before departure but have some willing volunteers to complete the job after we depart. Some things we will do via Skype to phone from Japan (e.g. cancel electricity, water etc). We are putting in very long hours to try and get things ready but in the end we can only do what we can and leave the rest in the hands of God and willing helpers. He alone is our strength. We are also saying many goodbyes and also receiving unexpected visitors and phone calls.