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. : )