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.