Urgent Prayer Request

Hey Everyone,

I have a prayer request to ask of anyone who might read this. My Mom was hospitalized on Sunday after suffering a very serious seizure, where she will remain for now until the doctor's have figured out what all happened. My mom has suffered from seizures in the past, but they have been relatively controlled or at least limited due to medication she has been on. The one that happened on sunday was triggered by some unknown cause, on which the doctor's are currently investigating. Please pray that the Lord would continue to make known His greatness through this trial and that my mother, as well as my whole family, might place their confidence in the sovereign control and goodness of our heavenly Father. Please pray also, that if it be the Lord's will, He would magnify His name through the miraculous healing of my mother that she might be free from these pains. We know that in every trial God is abundantly faithful to pull His saints through, let us all trust in God to show Himself faithful in yet another way.

"Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us, to Him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever. Amen."

So many things transpiring!

Yet another update from Okinawa! Here's some pics and info about things that have been going on lately. Hope you all enjoy. : )

Every Sunday the Bible College students go to different churches to minister in various ways. This semester, Tom has me stationed at Futenma Chapel where I take a few students each Sunday. We pretty much get the amazing blessing of hanging out with babies for 2-3 hours every sunday, as well as getting to fellowship with some great brothers and sisters in the Lord. We're especially blessed by the Chaplain (pictured playing bass with a baby in his arms), who has such a kind and hospitable heart. He's been a great example for ministry, seeing as he not only helps out their worship band, but is also like a grandpa to the little kids (especially Rayna who's in his arm in the pic!) It's good to be apart of God's family. : )

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Last week, we were able to go on a little vacation to the Okuma military resort. We stayed from Sunday afternoon until Wednesday afternoon. It was a great refreshment, as well as a good time of fellowship as we all were able to grow a little closer I think. I was especially able to grow closer with two of the guys, Ron and Josh, with whom I got to explore the campgrounds and surrounding islands. : ) In the picture below, you can see the island that we swam out to and spent many hours playing and relaxing on. In the middle of the island there's a tunnel that water rushes through and which we found to be quite a fun place to go swimming. It was a little crazy and minor injuries were had, but nevertheless, the good definitely outweighed the bad. There was also a small cliff on the far east of the Island where we had fun plunging into the waters below.

One of the nights we had a little campfire where we just kind of hung out and ate smores. I think I ate like 8 smores that night. After watching Jesse play with fire and taking some cool long exposure pictures, Ayu thought of using a flashlight to write messages over the course of the long exposure. Needless to say, the results were amazing. I have waaayy too many pictures of all the things those guys did with the flashlights, but here's a little sample...

While we were up north, we drove to the northernmost tip of the island, Hedo Point, where we were able to see some beautiful scenery.

After we got back on Wednesday, it was time to get back into the swing of school and all the other happenings of life in ministry, and so Tom had us watch the fight scene with Apollo in Rocky 2 for a devotion. Good times. "Be encouraged guys. Get back in the fight and stick it out till' the end!" (loose paraphrase of Tom's devo)

This last Saturday we went to a bullfight in Ishikawa, where we witnessed some pretty interesting stuff. It was nice on one hand because the bulls aren't really getting hurt, but at the same time it was kind of awkward watching as people pitted these animals against eachother to fight. The way the bullfights work is that they take the two bulls into the ring together, circle them around against eachother and face them off. Most of the fights had the bull caretaker guys holding a rope connected to the bulls nose, and so the fight could be broken up fairly easily once a dominant bull came out on top, but there were some without the restraints that ended in one bull knocking the other one up against the side gates and nearly impaling losing foe...crazy crazy.

Saturday night we celebrated Asa's 5th birthday, where all the kids and Bible College students got to participate in some games at the house. Below is the amazing Jesse, my bunk mate and fellow AP kid, with whom I enjoy being able to speculate about things like time machines and "Musical matrices" and so forth. I love Jesse, and it really has been a blessing watching the Lord work in his life. I have the priveledge of having him in my class for 1 and 2 Samuel, and so it's been neat to see the Lord speaking to his heart in the Psalms and in through our studies together.

Asa's down there somewhere...blowing out his "incredibles cake"

....mmmm.......so, Saturday night, we, uh, pretty much experienced one of the finer pleasures of Okinawa life. Five of us, setting out upon a journey that would, though unbeknownst to us, soon unite us in a way that all brother should be united, we made our way down to the Ginowan city Onsen. What is an Onsen, you might ask? An Onsen is a place where tranquility, relaxation, and naked people all come together to concoct a wonderful brew of hot and steamy goodness. Filled with pools of different kinds of salt waters, "showers" and sauna rooms, the Onsen is quite the enjoyable experience. If we could have spent 4-5 hours there, I would have gladly done it.

To the right is Ron after the Onsen; you have to love the look on his face here. To the left is Josh, Ron, and Jayme playing with some signs at the 100yen.

Here's a picture of Tamiko carrying my wonderfully efficient little red bag. I use it for just about everything.

Here's a pic of Yashua on his sweet blue bike, with Yoshi riding on the back. They're great Christian brothers.

On Monday a group of us drove down to Kokusai Dori in Naha. We stole away in the Party Van and had quite a little adventure walking through endless alleyway's of all kinds of shops.The guys specifically to buy some Jimbei's, and here they are below in their winter Kimono's.

So that's all for now. We're back in the swing of classes and all that good stuff. Yesterday my students took their 1 and 2 Samuel mid-term, on which they all did great. They're all pretty good students and it's been a blessing seeing all that the Lord is doing in their lives.

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In recent news, please keep me and Pastor Tom in prayer. We're praying about taking a missions trip to China in January. It's exciting on the one hand and yet still so in the elementary stages of preparation. We will see what the Lord does...

..Until next time, God bless you everyone. : )

the last week or so..

Here's a little update with some pictures from the last week since my most recent post...
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Last Friday I was able to go with Joe to hang out with Tim and Simon from Teen Challenge. After a devotional time and sharing some testimonies, we went to a war memorial site. The cave that we went into was part of a crucial Japanese network of caves that allowed them to hold their ground, for at least a short amount of time, against the American attack on Okinawa in 1945. It was a sobering experience seeing and reading about the atrocities that would take place in caves like this one.






Below is a picture I took outside our school building, on the roof of the apartment building next to us.

On Monday we went to Katsuren castle. Okinawa, formerly known as the Ryukyu Kingdom, was ruled be various kings for most of her history. In the picture below you can see Aaron risking much injury for the sake of 1 odd picture. : ) It did come out pretty good though.

After we had visited the castle, we drove to Hamahiga Island where we spent the rest of the afternoon. We pretty much did what we normally do when we come to a beautiful Island beach graced with a cool ocean breeze and clear blue waters; we climbed stuff. There was a real big rock, rising a good 90 feet out of the water, that we just couldn't resist. Ron and Josh led the expedition up, but once it came to the real climbing part, we ended up taking three seperate paths. Jayme and myself took the smartest and safest path, and Ron and Josh almost died trying other ways up. : ) Tom's words from the beach, "Hey! Aaron! Watch your sisters!" (At first Kayla was with us as well). Good old Tommy.

Good times...

Picture of our beach from the half-way point on the big rock...







And finally, Mr. Photogenic Ron, with his little chicken friend. I think that the face paint is what helped him catch it. I mean, I'm just saying, from a chicken's perspective, he's definitely an eye-catcher. : )

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So we just found out that we'll be going to Korea on or around the 15th of November. Fun stuff. We'll be there for 5 days most likely but I'm not sure yet what all we might be doing. Sunday we'll be leaving for a 4 day, 3 night stay at the Okuma campgrounds up north. : D We're just too blessed. We seriously live on a little piece of paradise. We'll be camping right next to the beach and just spending time relaxing and being refreshed. Good stuff. Things have been going well and I'm learning more and more each day in regards to different aspects of ministry as well as in Bible study. My class has been going well and we'll be finishing up 1 Samuel next Thursday. It's been a blessing being able to learn both devotional aspects and theological aspects of 1 Samuel and David's life in general. Truly, the Lord is so faithful to speak through the vessels He's chosen for teaching His Word...So much with that....

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Until next time, may He "grant you to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that christ may dwell in your hearts through faith--that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God." (Eph. 3:16-19)

: )

More updates

So after we departed from New Life Academy, we had lunch at McDonald's where all the kids (and many of the college students) decided to do a little wrestling. It was amazing because these kids were throwing eachother around and yet there were no injuries and only one pair of glasses broken.

At camp, our schedule was kept busy with all kinds of activities to use up the kid's energy. To the left, Sosimo concocted a lovely McDonald's "smoothie" for the kids, consisting of a happy meal all blended together. It was definitely lacking any kind of appetizing appeal, as can be seen to the left...

In the picture above, I was able to catch a glimpse of our camp cooks while on their break away from the kitchen. They did an awesome job of cooking, providing for all of us a feast for every meal. They were both Argentinian, and so it was a lot of fun just listening to them talk because of their accents. I'm really not trying to be sarcastic in any way, I really did enjoy listening to them. Also, their kids were at the camp with us and one of them sounded exactly like a Columbian Cartel boss. No joke! His mannerisms and voice and everything was like he learned english out of a movie about the Cartel.

The camp was set in the middle of a beautiful jungle, within only 100 meters of the beach...

The compound back gate which led to the beach reminded me of something out of Jurassic Park. : )

That concludes the pictures from the camp. Once again, it was a great blessing being involved with everything the Lord was doing in these kids lives and to have a nice relaxing time up north. We'll actually be starting a youth group at the school with the students, so that's definitely something to keep in prayer. Tom would like to work on getting those kids at New Life involved with other youth groups on Island (like that at Foster and the one here at Ginowan) so that we can do big events together with the different youth groups. So it's neat to see what the Lord might be doing in the coming weeks and months.

This monday we were able to head up to Maeda Point, a famous snorkling/scuba-diving spot on island. There's an awesome reef there as well as a really neat cave you're able to swim into. I only wish we had an under-water camera. Me and some of the guys would go and swim with the scuba-divers and other tourists who had bought a lot of fish food. There were hundreds of fish that would just flock around you and eat right out of your hand if you let them. So many fish even became a problem because they decided they wanted to see if they could try you out for food. haha. Good times. Truly, by the good grace of God, I am a blessed man...

That night, 6 people decided they were going to pierce their ears...It started with Zach Ruiz wanting to pierce his, then spread to a few more of the guys, then ended up with more guys and even Kayla getting their ears pierced. In this picture to the right, Josh is trying to maneuver an earing into Ron's freshly pierced ear. It took a good 5 minutes before they finally got the earing through! It was pretty sad to watch.

...and I thought my semester got carried away with all the different haircutting parties! This party involved needles, blood, alcohol (for cleaning ofcourse) and a whole lot of people crammed into the bathroom. Sounds like ingredients for a great time! : D

So anywho, that's a short little recap of some of the stuff that's been going on. As for me, I guess I'm just learning each day what it means to follow the Lord. There is so much more involved in obedience than some simplified code of conduct, and yet there is such a simple message of obedience that is echoed throughout the Bible; "Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, and mind."

Always so many things, so many thoughts. : ) In the mean time, I'm just praying for wisdom...

"If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given him. But let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea that is driven and tossed by the wind. For that person must not suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord; he is a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways."

James 1:5-8