Lots of Pictures

Well, I decided I'd throw a bunch of fun pictures on here for anyone to look at. So to begin with, we have above a picture of an American Fireworks Terrorist who goes by the alias "Doug", along with his accomplices Nikki and Zach. Here in Japan fireworks are legal... :D Yay for fireworks and strange statue creature things! This was all Sunday night 9/17. We got to play with fireworks and an amazing playground with a super long rolly slide!


The next day we went out on our "Monday Adventure" to the ruins of an old castle on the island and then to one of the connected islands to hang out at the beach there. The beaches here are pretty much all coral reef so there's no real water activities other than playing in tide pools and perhaps swimming to small islands. Awesome times hanging out and enjoying the beautiful beach.

Jumping to this week, monday we went to Ryuku Mura (I think that's how it's spelt) and had a good time with the little town there. It's an imitation old Okinawan village supposed to portray what villages would have looked like before WWII. There were some crazy statues people had made; you never know about those island people man.
On a lot of the beaches here there's small caves carved into the coral rock by the water. The picture above is one of the larger caves that we were able to climb into.

As for this picture...umm...I guess Doug decided he was tired of being both a man and a human...so he decided to be a viking mermaid (note the enormously wide shoulders)...
After all our adventures at the old Okinawan community and then at the beach, we were invited to a Japanese/Okinawan dinner at Sachiko-san's house. Sachiko-san is an awesome believer and missionary to Nepal. She blessed us with some amazing food (check out the pics on Tom's blog) and fellowship. The girls above decided that nori (sea-weed) is pretty useful for Unibrows and mustaches. Haha, good times with good food.

Well that's all for now. I was planning on posting all of this and these pictures a couple of days ago but I'm pretty isogashii over here, so getting the time for things like this is a priveledge.

The Lord's been blessing classes so that's always awesome. Hope you all enjoyed the pics.

What an amazing day

First off, the Lord is so good. I must share a verse with you all that immensely blessed me today and was exactly what I needed. It's Psalm 73:26; "My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever." After a week of struggling over this and that and really being in a place of just blahness, my King comforted me with this awesome reminder, that He is to be my strength, to be the one I rest in. Man, there is so much to say of how this verse is the exact puzzle piece slid right in to complete the picture and put everything in harmony. God is so good.

So today we went to the Franklin Graham training class where me and a few other students finished up the course to be a ministry worker for the upcoming crusade here in Okinawa. Franklin will be coming out November 3-5 (I think) and be sharing the gospel message with thousands who have almost surely never heard it before. Small churches spread out throughout the island are all participating and excited about what the Lord is going to do. We're all praying for the Lord to work mightily, so I would ask any believers out there who might be reading this to just say a prayer for the upcoming crusade; that many might coming into a saving faith in Jesus, as well as that there would be thousands of seeds planted that the churches can follow up on. There's a heavy emphasis upon follow up at this crusade because chances are that most of the people there, though they may be very interested in the Gospel message, will not make commitments to Christ simply because it sounds so foreign and they've never heard anything like it. So what is going to take place is that people at the crusade, hopefully everyone attending, will be encouraged to fill out information about who they are and where they live and many "home churches" in a sense, will be following up with these people, as well as any who recieved the Lord. I don't know all the details but it's really exciting and something we're definetely keeping in prayer.

After the class a few of us went to go visit a former marine who is in the hospital for heart failure problems or something like that. It was totally the Lord because randomly my mom sent me a prayer request she had received back in the states through "Armor of Light ministries" based out of Calvary Chapel Costa Mesa. The prayer request was for a man in the hospital here in Okinawa, so my mom sent it to me to see if there was anything we could do. I told Tommy about it and he was excited to help out, so I e-mailed the Pastor in charge of the ministry and he let me in on a bit more information, enough information to get us to the Japanese hospital to the Gyjin staying there. When we got there we had no idea who this guy was or anything, but the Lord totally just hooked it up. We got in there, met the guy and the family that had come over to visit him, prayed for him and encouraged him. It was an immense blessing for me getting to go in there with Tommy and just walk by faith man. The Lord blessed it. Also, funny the way God works, he lives down the street from the school/Church and the Cafe. Haha, the Lord wants to get ahold of this guy who is kinda backslidden. : D

And finally, tonight. We went out to play music and share with the Japanese down in Mihama at "American Village". It's a place that is modeled after something you would see in Orange County with stores and a promenade kind of look to it. Anyways, theres a lot of people there so we got to hand out a whole lot of tracts and share Jesus with quite a few people. It's really strange sharing the gospel and talking to someone through a translator, at first, but soon you learn to just flow and it can be a blessing getting to stop and collect your thoughts and pray. God is so good guys, haha, awesome stuff.

So I think I'm turning a little Japanese. As you begin to spend more time with the peopel here and actually try and conversate a little in Japanese but mostly in English, you begin to speak quieter, be more polite and articulate much more clearly. Praise the Lord for that, maybe I'll learn some manners over here. : D

So God just blessed the week. All praise honor and glory to our King; who chooses the foolish of the world to confound the wise and the washed up in this world's eyes to bring glory to His name. I pray that He might put each one of us in a place of sole dependence upon Him and that we might begin to live the life of faith He is desperately longing for us to live. "For without faith it is impossible to please Him." Hebrews 11:6 Step out in faith and love your brothers and sisters, forgive the unforgivable. Surrender your life, your mind, your soul to the will of the Father that He might be so exalted in your life. It is a life of faith and reliance upon the King of the Universe and one that bears no regrets or second guessing. Let us surrender our lives in to the hands of our God and allow Him to use us so mightily in this world. Jesus, take our lives. Our hands are open unto you...

So much...

This last week of classes, and then today's missions class, have really put me in a place of realizing how much my Lord still needs to do in my heart; how much he wants to do!

I've never really known what I want to do with my life, per-say, but I've known since I started really walking with Jesus that I wanted Him to be first in my life, wherever I might end up.

Lately I've really been struggling over "where to?" and "what to do!" Missions class is like torture because it's such a stinking amazing class about the mission field etc., but at the same time I don't know where I'm going!

Tommy pointed out something that was a blessing to me in "The Life of David" class as we were studying through 1 Samuel 13. He pointed out the way that Saul's impatience and inability to wait on the Lord resulted in him breaking the law and making and preparing a sacrifice to God by himself. It was a lack of faith. He saw the enemy troops coming and knew that there needed to be a sacrifice before the battle, but did not trust Samuel's promise that he would be there when he said he would be there. He took things into his own hands and performed the sacrifice himself, instead of waiting for Samuel to arrive. Tommy pointed this out, "Second only to suffering, waiting is one of the hardest things that a Christian will do. Also, only second to suffering, through waiting our Christian character is most established and built up."

So here I am then, trying to wait on the Lord. : ) It's stinking hard....but God is so good. He will always provide. He always has the best plans. He never lets us down. He always picks us up. He never forsakes us; never leaves us hanging. He's got the whole world in His hands... Right?

"Why are you cast down, O my soul, and why are you in turmoil within me? Hope in God; for I shall again praise Him, my salvation and my God." Psalm 42:11

please keep me in prayer everyone; anyone. : D

Pictures : D

So, I had one of the girls cut my hair on sunday and we decided to leave it a little crazy for a day. Yeah, that was definetely a one time thing. The crazy thing was that just about every Japanese person that saw it thought it was the most amazing thing ever... Everyone else, however, thought it pretty nasty. haha, good times.
Here's the hair now. I guess a haircut needed three pictures on the blog, but cutting my hair was a pretty big thing for me... It's nice though to not have all that extra baggage anymore, especially in all this heat and humidity.

To the right are memorial flowers placed at a site commemorated to a group of Junior High girls that were forced into military service during World War II by the Japanese. Something like 80 to 90% of them died from different causes by the end of the battle for Okinawa. The girls were drafted as nurses, first to help out in the main hospital in Naha, but then as the fighting got heavier, in caves thorughout the southern and central area of the island. The story of these girls and what they went through during the Battle of Okinawa was pretty touching; yet another testament to the grim realities of the results of man's sinful nature. "What causes quarrels and what causes fights among you? Is it not this, that your passions are at war within you? You desire and do not have, so you murder. You covet and cannot obtain, so you fight and quarrel." James 4:1-2

This was probably the highlight for me this week. Above is a picture of the sunrise over the island teusday morning. The bikeride down to the beach from our house is about 20 minutes with no traffic. When I left, it was still dark out and the stars were still out to greet me : D. The sunrise was uts'kushi! It was a great time to just worship our mighty and awesome king! The flawless designer concerned with every intricate detail.

"When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place, what is man that you are mindful of him, and the son of man that you care for him?" Psalm 8:3-4

I'm not very good at taking the time to keep this thing updated regularly, so for more stuff be sure to be checking Tommy's E3Missions blog.

Prayer is much needed! So whoever my brother's and sister's in Christ are that might be checking out this site, please pray for the ministry over here in Okinawa. : D and leave comments too...

A Friend's heart

This is a post a good friend of mine posted on Xanga. I hope all who read it are convicted and encouraged by God the way I was.

Monday, August 28, 2006

Okay, it's time for some more of my heart's ramblings...I've been doing a lot of thinking about so many different things, but mainly friends and how they affect you good or bad. And the question that keeps coming back to my mind is this: could I tell you *anything* at all, and you still look at me the same? Absolutely no changes in how you view me? And the conclusion I have come to is that if the answer isn't a confident "yes", we are merely acquaintances no matter how much time we spend together. This isn't a plea for pity or a cry of "I have no friends" because pity from man is completely bunk. I find this attitude in the church that if you change any sort of doctrine that doesn't line up with what we "grew up in", you are automatically labeled a rebel and put into a group that has no hope for redemption. Shame on us for causing so much of the division in the church we complain about. To take it a step further, there is a sick misconception of salvation and sanctification that I find distressing. We are taught that being a good Christian leads you to live a good, healthy, wealthy, long life with your dream girl and a good family. Yes, you will have problems but there is no anguish, no true pain that is acceptable. Instead we want God to take everything away that makes us uncomfortable. Have we not learned nor accepted that it is by fire we are sanctified? It is by the fear of God we repent and grow closer to Him because He is the only salvation from a life of futility and death when we die. Back to my original point, we need to befriend each other as Christians. We need to truly be brothers and sisters....NOTHING can separate us. No matter what my brothers or sister have done in the past it does not negate our sibling status. In an even more intense way Christians should be inseparable because we are the family of Christ. What is stronger? Our blood or His? Then why must we insist on creating conflicts and contentions because we don't like how someone worships or someone's past? Or what someone struggles with?! We are doing more for Satan in the body of Christ than we are for God. And the sad thing is we don't even realize it. Why are people afraid to open up to other Christians? I'll tell you why...a lack of compassion and understanding. A combination of apathy and self obsession is what discourages so many people who may want to be Christians from repenting and fully embracing the God that everyone talks about but nobody knows. Christ is so much more radical than we "Christians" think. Why are we not reaching out to the lepers? Why is no one ministering to the homosexuals who have been raped and abused as children and are so marred as adults?! We have become comfortable with being normal. Rather, we have become comfortable trying to pretend we are normal. If we are not real with people they will not be real with us. Please, let us drop our pride. Stop acting as if their sin is more disgusting and despicable than yours. Guess what? It's not. Our pride is far more despicable than the sin of who we gossip about. We are shutting the doors to our own houses because we don't want to let anyone in and then find we are lonely in our selfishness. Our houses are empty of real fellowship and we have no one to blame. Oh God, make us people that will tremble at Your feet and move at the whisper of Your voice. Please Jesus, will You take away everything within us so that we have no pride? So that we can glorify you as true empty vessels for Your honor? We are sick as a body, we have turned against ourselves. We are the virus. Have grace and cure us Jesus. You said that the world will know we are Your disciples because we love one another...why has it been so hard for the world to discern real Christians from those who claim Your name in vain? Separate us Lord for Your glory! Draw the line and let us unify as Your body and in one accord declare Your glory to all the earth rather than have hundreds of different voices shouting different things simultaneously so that nothing is heard by the world. This is my cry Jesus...let it start here.

Last weekend photos

Here's all the gang at the beach we visited on Saturday. This is all the students as well as other people who are just part of our family over here. We have 13 full-time students in total, one of them is actually living seperately on the island and originally here to study Karate. Praise the Lord, good times at the beach. : )

The jungle oasis to the right is a little waterfall swimming area toward the northern part of the Island. This serene little getaway was quite the experience. The water was a perfect blend of rain water and fresh spring water, maintaining a crisp cool to it. The rain decided to join our little party and only added to the beauty of the whole scene. God is so good you guys! Being a relentless explorer at heart, I decided on climbing about half way up the waterfall and jumping off into the pool below. I think it freaked Tommy out a little bit, but it was a blast.


As for the picture below, this is the beach we went to on Saturday. The water was beautiful! There's no real waves anywhere on the island, so the ocean is pretty much one big salty swimming pool. This picture was taken from a metal pole shooting out of the ground that I decided I had to climb up.

Well that's all for now, I'll probably posting some more pictures and writing and all that good stuff soon enough.

Verse for Today-
"The LORD your God is in your midst, a mighty one who will save; he will rejoice over you with gladness; he will quiet you by his love; he will exult over you with loud singing." Zepheniah 3:17

There's actually a catchy little song for it that was in my head. But isn't that awesome, he quiets us with his love. This is part of a prophecy in Zepheniah talking about the Messiah's Kingdom that will be set up in the future, but for now, we can find this awesome truth to be true in the ministry of the Holy Spirit; the ministry of God in our hearts. A beautiful reminder throughout our days, the love that God has for us.

What's been going on lately

Well I finally have a little bit of time to get on here and write a little bit about what's been going on here in Okinawa. Hopefully this will be the start of continued posts on this blog about all that's going on in my life.

Since the moment I got off the plane and out of the airport, my experience here in Okinawa has seemed like one non-stop stream of activities. I can't really complain about all of it, but it's just kept me from sitting down a whole lot and really reflecting on everything.

So I'm here in Okinawa. It's part of Japan but really has it's own unique "Island personality". The Okinawan people are pretty distinguishable from the lighter skinned mainlanders and their children, and the Okinawan people are a bit more laid back than what I hear about mainlander Japanese; no big surprise since they do live on a beautiful island.

Ministry over here has been a huge blessing and it's been really great having Tommy sort of send us all over the place to serve; keeping us from a lot of complacency or other wasteful activities. We go to school four days a week, serve and do all sorts of things on Saturday and Sunday, and try and reserve Monday as a relaxing Sabbath day. So far we've seen some amazing sights, from the doorway to the Spirit world (lol it's literally a wooden door against a hillside in a park...) to some breath taking tropical reef's. The beauty of God's creation, from the smallest sea creatures to some picturesque sunsets over the clear tropical waters just off shore, cry out in every way "glory to the King on high".

Amidst all of this, however, is a people who have been relatively untouched by the good news of Jesus Christ. There are towns and islands (as Okinawa is a chain of hundreds of islands) who have never even heard the name of Jesus, much less His desire for the salvation of their souls! That there is an all powerful God who loves human beings is almost a ridiculous thought in the minds of so many! Steeped in the worship of their ancestors and prayer to spirits, the people have lost hope for anything more than trying to live a comfortable life. Sadly enough, this is really the only hope any person who has not put their faith in Jesus for the forgiveness of their sins has; that of temporary, finite satisfaction...

Follow this train of thought with me, for in this we find the real reason for us being here on this island. "Now faith is the conviction of things hoped for; the evidence of things unseen." Hebrews 11:1. Our faith in God is what creates our hope; for this life and the next. But our faith is not just something spawning from nothing. Love. Love is the key here and really the key to understanding all of the Bible. God's love for us is what produces our faith in Him. It is by God's awesome love for us that we not only exist, but have been given salvation at all! "By this we know love, that He laid down His life for us" (1 John 3:16a) and "God shows his own love toward us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us" (Romans 5:8). Mankind stands condemned before God; having sinned against a holy, eternal God, we are deserving of an eternal punishment. But in His love and grace, He has provided Christ for the forgiveness of our sins; that if we should turn from our sin and put our trust in Him for our salvation, we can be saved! "Repent therefore, and turn again, that your sins may be blotted out, that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord, and that he may send the Christ appointed for you, Jesus." (Acts 3:17-18) **We are here in Okinawa to share the glorious good news of God! As believers in general, really, we are all here in this world to share the glorious good news of God! To bring glory to God in all that we do and in who we are! "Only let your manner of life be worthy of the gospel" (Philippians 1:27a) Everything a believer does should be weighed on it's significance concerning the gospel; concerning the glory that it brings to God. These two, God's glorification and the gospel message go truly hand in hand, as God is most glorified in the message of His amazing grace; both shared and lived out by believers! I'm over here as a student in Bible College, and that probably takes up the majority of my time and thought, but in the grander scheme of things I'm here to bring glory to God. So going to school over here we have the opportunity to be involved in a lot of different ministries, as well as to reach out to the Japanese and Okinawan people with the love of God in many different ways. In future posts these different ways and things will probably come out more and so I hope that it is a blessing to everyone to see all that God is doing (key point to understand), and be able to rejoice in His faithfulness. This could all be expounded upon so many times over, but I'm really just trying to express to everyone all that's going on over here and really, why it's going on.

So we've been up to a lot, and God is good, and the latter is really all that matters. I'll try and keep this thing up as often as time allows, so hope everyone enjoys the rest of the blogs. : )

Verses that have really blessed me today.
"So the people of Israel put away the Baals and the Ashtaroth, and they served the Lord only...The cities that the Philistines had taken from Israel were restored to Israel, from Ekron to Gath, and Israel delivered their territory from the hand of the Philistines. There was peace also between Israel and the Amorites." 1 Samuel 7:4, 14 **When the people turned to the Lord, he restored all those things that had been taken away from them as a result of their sin. Much in the same way, in God's awesome love He restores so many things in our lives that were stripped from us because of sin. The life of the believer is that of trust in a God of healing; his healing hand reaching far deeper than physical ailments and into the hearts of those yielded to Him to gently mend even the most gruesome of scars. Our God is a God of restoration!**

Picture for profile

This picture was taken on a big metal post that I climbed up at a beach here in Okinawa. It was really hot that day so sweaty hands on a pole 40 feet in the air is kinda sketchy. But it was sweet just being up there. : )