Hatachi-sai

Today I am 20 years old...It seems there are so many different thoughts that persistently race through my mind when I think about how young I am and yet how much has commenced in these last few years. Yesterday before class, somehow my age was brought up. It was interesting because in talking about some of the things my life has consisted of in the past couple of years, I addressed an interesting point that I was almost consciously unaware of. I realized that the majority of my Christian walk now I've been in, or, as I am now, in relation with the Bible College. Nearly all of my Christian walk has been very sudden, very rapid exposure to things of ministry and Bible study. I think not to boast in this as though I have had so much to do with these perculiar facts, but reflecting back it's a blessing to see what God has done and is doing in my life. Right now I am reading a biography of George Muller, the missionary/orphan house director in 19th century England. Keeping a long story short, the detailing of this man's life and walk with God has been extremely encouraging to me in this past week or so. One way in which I have been most encouraged and on which I desire to speak, is in the aspect of God's calling and special equipping of his vessels. Muller is probably most known for his admirable reliance upon God for his every provision and refusal of popular tradition to receive income from mandatory tithes in the churches, but what stands out the most to me is the way that Muller so often had no idea what God was going to do next and yet maintained such a passionate faith in God's greater plan and provision. Seeing this and catching on to the trend of faith-building that God saw as such a priority in his life, Muller would often go into a place and, before making any commitments to the church or group, declare that if at any moment he felt called of God to leave and move on, that he would do so. Prearrangements would be set in place that he was an itinerent preacher unless otherwise called of God. Step by step the Lord would lead Muller to different paths and places, Muller often asking and seeking the Lord about what His will would be for staying or going to all kinds of different places and works. But the whole time, behind the scene, God had been preparing Muller for a life-work in ministering to Orphans and running an enormous orphanage. At times Muller would be without any kind of resources, down to the very last penny, but yet He would seek the Lord daily and be led in how to continue on without having to ask any support of man. His every need was cast upon the Lord and his every need was met. But not only his own needs, but the needs of hundreds of children at a time who he took care of. It truly is an amazing biography and has been quite timely in my own life as a reminder to trust God no matter what the situation. One thing though that stands out with all of this, are Muller's own words in letters, essentially saying: "don't attempt to immitate the work that God is doing here unless the Lord should specifically reveal His will to be so". Muller believed and understood that God gives special grace and faith to those vessels through which He wants to do things like He did with Muller. Muller knew it wasn't a matter of God always wanting to work in those ways, but saw God doing something unique and trusted that the Lord would see Him through to the end. Today is my 20th birthday. I have been tremendously blessed by the Lord in a great work He has done over the past 31/2 years since coming to know Him. I have seen the Lord do so much and am even now a Bible College teacher here in Okinawa. I am tremendously blessed, but what I want most to be known by others who should look into my life is this testimony; "it is not of him who wills, nor of him who runs, but of God who shows mercy." (Romans 9:16) This verse in it's context is speaking of an entirely different matter, but the principle it presents to me and which I desire to share is this: the things that God does in and through a life are NOT because of the great faith or faithfulness of that person. It is NOT because I am some righteous man that I am here teaching and encouraging brothers and sisters in Japan. As with Muller, the faith and grace that God has given me are a blessing, according to grace and not according to my works or my faithfulness. God has desired to make me unique and to lead me in a very different path than most. It has not been because I am a great man, but because God has simply desired to use me in such a way as He sees fit. He likewise blesses times of teaching and encouragement, the work that is being done here, simply because He has desired to pour out His grace. The only command that is to me a requirement coupled with His promises of abundant fruitfulness, is this, "Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me." (John 15:4) I have only this one admonition which is to me such a great promise. As long as I am abiding in Christ (standing in, making my home in, living in obedience to Christ) I know that God will do the work. He will be faithful to perform the awesome and the miraculous as well as provide the grace and faith and means to accomplish any and all things. As I have simply sought to abide in Christ; to be obedient to Him and live each day for and unto Him, He has done all the rest. And that's it. I pray that the rest of my life would maintain the same testimony and that a life lived simply for Christ each day would be the summation of any goals or plans I should set before myself. God has been so faithful, and I pray this next year, and even these next 20 years, would only be a testimony to the greatness of who God is.
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"So then it is not of him who wills, nor of him who runs, but of God who shows mercy."

Korea Trip

Korea..
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This was one of the best vacations I've ever been on. It was a huge blessing being able to travel with so many friends and experience Korea together. I think it was probably most blessed because we tried to stay focused on ministry and meeting whatever needs arose, and as a result we were blessed with the opportunity to travel to all kinds of different areas and fellowship with brothers and sisters we could have never met any other way.


Our trip began at Naha Airport...
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The first night that we arrived, we drove from Incheon Intl. to Cheonan, where the Calvary Chapel School of Ministry(CCSOM) is located. That first night after we arrived, we went and walked around the town a little bit. To the right is Sosimo celebrating the Korean Fall. : )

Having arrived on Thursday, we went to CCSOM Friday morning. In the afternoon, we drove to Daijon where Mike Laudermilk, one of the heads of CCSOM, works at Jinsoo Language Institute. The picture above is from the Language school where we were able to participate in teaching the class by sharing on some of our favorite Bible verses. It was neat meeting such a variety of students, from believers to non-believers, some fluent in English, others struggling to get by. : )

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The food in Korea was definitely something. It was generally always hot and, usually, pretty spicy. At first, all the blend of different flavors is kind of startling, but towards the end of the trip I was craving Kimchi and red pepper sauce. The other picture above is of Tom, Sosi, and Daniel running in the morning. That morning I didn't go with because I didn't have anything to run in, but the next morning I went with Tom and Sosi because Daniel let me borrow his running shorts. It was pretty interesting running in such cold temperatures. At first you feel like there's no possible way to keep going with such a burning in your nasal cavity and lungs, but you start getting used to it and your body starts to warm up. That morning that I went running, we ran up some dirt trails and it felt like we were hunting something in the forest. Good times. : )

On Saturday, most of the students stayed at Jinsoo the majority of the day, helping with some English Game things. Me and Daniel, however, were blessed to be able to take some trains back to Cheonan to minister at a friend's church. Sam (pictured to the right) is a former CCSOM graduate and now has started his own church. Half of the church area is seating and a stage, but the back area of the building is a Dojo. Sam teaches Japanese sword fighting as a ministry and supplemental income. Sam's an awesome brother in the Lord and it was really neat getting to visit with him and his family.

On the way back to Daijon to meet up with everyone, me and Daniel stopped at some food stands in a makeshift market there next to one of the trainstations. We wanted to try some of the food and stuff they had there. It was fun getting to talk to some of the Korean's there. Many people enjoyed talking to us and asking us questions and so forth. We definitely stood out in many places we went, but especially in this little outdoor market.

Saturday night we hung out with the group and had dinner at McDonald's. Afterward some of us over to some batting cages near by and had some fun acting like we were bigshots. Well, technically, Sosi and Daniel were pretty good. I, on the other hand, had trouble hitting some of the slower pitches.

Sunday after church at the CCSOM church, we went to a local trainstation where we handed out trac's/church info card things and played some worship. It was pretty hectic knowing nearly nothing of the language, but most of the people spoke at least some English. I kept wanting to ask people if they at least spoke Japanese, but I guess it's far more likely that people would speak English fluently than know at least some conversational Japanese...

On Monday we drove up to Seoul where we spent the day walking around, exploring, and shopping...

..oh, and the picture of me and Daniel in front of the Coldstone is because we both worked at a Coldstone in the past. Some of the students treated themselves to some ice-cream from there and said it was delicious...

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Korea was overall a really cold place, and so, as shown in the picture below, most of us tried to stay pretty bundled up.

The last night we were there we stayed near the airport in Incheon. To the right is Josh holding a Bouken (unsure of spelling), a wooden practice sword. It was pretty crazy that night as Ron and Josh (both students of Karate, Josh being a black-belt) decided to test out there new "toys" on eachother.




We left Korea Teusday morning. It was a great 6 days of travel and fun, as well as a neat bonding time for all of us. I think it's easier to get close to people when you all ride together in a 15-passenger van and it's freezing outside.... : )

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Thank you everyone who prayed for us on our trip, it really was a great time of both ministry and fun. The church there was really blessed to have us and we were excited to meet and serve so many different brothers and sisters.

More Korea pics

Here are some pics of the cities and landscape of Korea. Korea is an amazing country that has given much consideration to environmental problems that would develop as a result of such a large population (approx. 49 mil.) living in such a small area (about the size of Indiana). The cities are all packed together and stacked upward, giving a lot of room for hills, forests, rivers etc. As a result, mass-transit is far more effective in Korea and more people are able to live and work in such small areas, while still having land given for the maintaining of forests and wildlife. Hope you all enjoy these pics.

Korea!

Update on our adventure coming soon...until then...

Dance..

So, some might think that Christians shouldn't dance, but I say, if you got the moves, why not? haha.
As we were leaving "Bonkano Hi" Shuri Matsuri, there was random music playing across the street. Hearing the music, the guys began to dance in the middle of the street. Still more entertaining, upon seeing them dance a little bit to the music, some young japanese girls walking by began to coax them on , saying "one more time! one more time!". By the time I finally got my camera out, the random comedy of the occasion had passed, but we could still shoot a video in front of the music source. : )

Here's some pictures and info from the past week or so. The semester has been moving right along, but in the midst of all the rush, we've been able to enjoy some pretty fun times. Instead of celebrating Halloween, the Foster Chapel put on a Harvest Carnival where we were able to put up booths and games for kids to come and enjoy an alternative to Halloween. The theme for the workers was something like "Cowboys, Cowgirls, etc...?" Anyway, a couple of us didn't have anything that would really make a good costume, so we decided we would dress up as Chinese railroad workers. As you can see in the picture, the costume idea turned out pretty good. All we did was wear our Jimbe's with some Chinese straw hats. On my cheeks I had the girls doing the face painting write, 中国(chuugoku), meaning "China".

Also, here we have the well-dressed Ron and Jayme. Ron's "Neard" (neck-beard) actually looked pretty fitting.

Last Saturday night we were able to go out to Kokusai Dori with the intention of just playing worship, talking to Japanese people, and sharing the Gospel with people. We mostly past out tracts and things of that sort, but we do pray that the Lord would use even that little pamphlet to accomplish His purposes. We were able to get into some good conversations with different people, and toward the end a couple of us spent a lot of times just talking to some Marines who were strolling through. The Lord reminded us of the importance of just being faithful to that call to share His Word with those around us, even taking it to the streets as the Lord leads. I was personally reminded of the nature of the gospel and the intention of God to use the foolishness of preaching to save sinners. Please pray for us with future events like these, that we would be led by the Holy Spirit in how to do them and just be led by Him in all our doings.

Last saturday afternoon we went to a big matsuri near Shuri castle. It was a lot of fun being able to celebrate "Bonkano Hi" (Culture Day) in and among the Japanese people. They were doing this really cool pole holding thing and I was entirely convinced they stole it from the Scottish. At one point I thought I even heard a bagpipe playing. The guys in the picture would take big heavy pole, which was blowing around a little bit in the wind, and hold it out while kind of moving it up and down. It was probably supposed to symbolize something, but none of the Japanese people we asked seemed to know. It was still fun to watch though.

During the matsuri we made our way over to Shuri castle. In the one picture you can see some of the gates and walls you have to go through to get to the castle itself. It was an amazing place. In the picture with all of us in it, you can see the final gate that opens up into the main courtyard. From that point on you need to have a ticket, so our adventure pretty much ended there.
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Walking around the castle grounds, we came to one opening area where we found it irresistable to play around and take some pics. The one to the right came out pretty good. : )

Sunday, November 4th, was Kayo-chan's birthday. They took her on to base to a pretty neat club/restaurant place. I was so suprised to catch Kayo smiling for a picture! Happy Birthday Kayo! Kayo's been a great sister and friend to me since I've been in Oki. She's been tutoring me in Japanese and if it weren't for her patient instruction, I wouldn't have had any real Japanese instruction this semester. しあわせな。いつもありがとうかよちゃん!

Andrew saw an artistic moment in our back walkway and seized upon the opportunity to take a picture of the unique lighting...It is pretty cool looking I guess. : ) Finally, please keep our group in prayer as we will be heading to Korea next Thursday. Judging by the looks of this picture, we're going to need a LOT of prayer. : )

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That's it for now. I was really blessed today just being reminded of the importance of ministering like Christ. When Christ said "take my yoke upon you...for my yoke is easy and my burden is light", I think He really meant what He said. So many times, in the midst of doing this and doing that and taking care of this and keeping up on that, I can easily lose focus on the author of our salvation and just who Jesus is! It's amazing when I just sit down and read the Gospels, just looking at the man that Jesus was. So I was encouraged today, just to remember the simplicity of obeying Christ's two commandments, "Love the Lord your God with all your heart...and love your neighbor as yourself" Matthew 22 something. : ) God Bless you everyone.

So, I decided to post up the video of Tom "gardening" in the mini-van. I hope you all enjoy. I think this is quite telling of both the way ministry and fun work here on Okinawa. : )

Some pics from 2 weeks ago...

Ministry and school have been rolling right along here in Okinawa, but in the midst of all the hustle and bustle, it's nice to take time out for weddings... On Friday the 26th of October, Daniel Sedota and Jayme Neumann were happily married by Pastor Tom. One of the best weddings I've ever been to. Laid back, casual, not too long. : )

Basically, for the Pastoral Ministry class, Tom did a class on how to do a marriage ceremony. Pastor Tim, who sat in on the class, will be the pastor marrying his sister and her fiance. The class was a lot of fun to sit in on, plus! I got to be the best man. : D

Happy best man. Really, I was more excited than anyone up there.

To the right, we have Pastor Tim and Ayu speaking to a Japanese man at an outreach we did at Mihama.

Although I advised against it, Jesse tried to evangelize a giant dragon...It seemed like it was going well, but I guess he just wasn't having it...

Here's another pic of Aaron on duty at Futenma........yup, it's hard work helping out in the nursery....

Here's Jayme and Jesse preparing to enter the doorway to the spirit world...Fortunately, and to my own relief, the door was locked. Jayme: "Aww, why is it locked" Aaron: "Why is it locked! Are you kidding! Do you really want things from the Spirit world coming through that door!"...I certainly didn't.

2 Sundays ago. (i think) I got to head down to Naha with Josh and Natsuki to check out an "Industrial Matsuri". The Matsuri, or festival, is held to show off products manufactured here on Okinawa. It was nice getting to sample all kinds of different foods and snacks, as well as getting to see some neat things made here on Okinawa.

The dark area at the upper right of the picture with Josh, Natsuki, and I is from my camera lens cover that has chosen to go retarded. It doesn't open on its own anymore and doesn't always want to stay open when you take pictures...But the picture still came out good I think.

The next day, we did some yard work over at the Girl's D-House. Sosi and Daniel decided that this sign needed to be moved, so they pretty much ripped it out of the ground...Good times. I took a really funny video of Tom cutting back the grass with Party Van, but unfortunately it's pretty long and I don't know if I could upload it.

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Well, that's it for pictures from 2 weeks ago. When I get the pictures off my camera, I'll be sure to post up some more recent pics. If you would like to hear more details about what's going on here and things like that, shoot me an e-mail some time or leave me a comment with your email. Also, I really have no idea who actually looks at or utilizes this blog, so if you do, an occasional comment would be nice. Maybe you can leave a suggestion for things you would like to hear more about, or even put in a request for a picture of something or just let me know that there really are people out there who look at this thing.. : ) Well, take care everyone.