On our visit to Japan in 2007 we found out about a Missionary named William Merrell Vories while staying in Omi-Imazu, where there are three buildings that he designed. To see more about those buildings and Vories click here. Ever since then we have been wanting to visit his adopted home town of Omi-Hachiman where many of the organisations he was involved in founding still exist in some form. Well, it's amazing how things worked out because the city of Omi-Hachiman decided to have a special month of opening all his buildings to the public which "just happened" to occur at the same time as my parents visit.
It was a great day walking around Omi-Hachiman looking at all of the buildings he designed and visiting the school and a business that he founded (which still operate to this day). Just like Ritsuko and I, Vories was a self-funded missionary, so it was both an inspiration for us and also my parents, to see the impact one can make if they follow God's leading. We also visited a place were Vories would meet with other Christian men for Bible studies, we discovered there that one of the other members of that group founded CO-OP (a chain of co-operative supermarkets in Japan). Our local supermarket that we go to almost daily is a CO-OP.
Since it was my parents first visit to Shiga Prefecture in the late afternoon we headed to Otsu (the capital of Shiga) for a sunset boat cruise on Lake Biwa, where we saw a beautiful rainbow. All-in-all we felt that God really blessed the day together in Shiga Prefecture.