first day in tokorozawa

had my first Sunday with the church family here in Saitama area.
Megan and I stay with Rich and Candice in Fuchu (Tokyo prefecture) which is about 10 miles south of Tokorozawa, though it takes about an hour's drive to get there. so we spent our entire day in Saitama from the morning Sunday service till the end of the Sunday night service. Travis, Mike Snyder, and Shyou(sp?) led us in worship that morning and Travis taught from Exodus 14 while Shyou translated. It was a good message.

gundam

on Saturday we went to Odaiba and did a little bit of touristy things where they had the huge slightly animatronic Gundam statue that moved the head, which Ally (a student from UFlorida who has been living with a family and teaching English in Tokorozawa for the past five weeks) really wanted to see. There was a good size crowd out there. Travis and Rich were making fun and were asking when the horn was going to be blown for the people to congregate and bow down and bring their offerrings. Twas a fun day

field trip to the aquarium: mini version

these kids go to the daycare at the school where Rich and Candice Rose teach English in Fuchu at the"We Go Eigo" Christian preschool and elementary conversational English school where Megan and i have been helping at.

They are so adorable. Continued prayer for them and their parent's salvation is a blessing, please pray.

meet up with megan

Rich picked me up from the airport after i said bye to the fam then we headed straight to Fuchu where i was warmly greeted by some of the awesome students.

disneySea: the only one that exists

well there were better pics that we took, i just dont have 'em so here's a short clip of proof.

fujisan

this is proof of our ascent to the mouth of the Mount Fuji. their were many twists and turns along the whole way, metaphorically and literally, but you would have to ask one of us in person the great adventure that we had on that memorable mountain. stay tuned to hear more aboｕｔ　ｔｈｅ　amargo's amazing adventure: mainland/Tokyo version...

beginning of the mailand adventure

we asa fam came to tokyo last friday. the events that took place the following five days will stick in out memory banks for the rest of our lives. this is a shot taken from the bus that we took fresh of the plane towards central Tokyo.

seventeen going on eighteen: Okinawa version

this past Tuesday my parents threw me a birthday bash deal (though my actual birthday is at the end of the month) and everyone from church was invited to go bowling on base at Futenma and dealio. i was so blessed by everything, because it was last minute there were so many Okinawans to sign in but by God's grace everything worked out even down to the unplanned sunflower theme that was going on. also thanks to my parents who did an amzingly awesome job planning it all and to the futenma dudes who were are flexible and helpful. Everyone, at least i hope everyone :p, had an awesome time. i know i did even though throughout the whole night i probably bowled a grand total score of 40 :p. Jesus still loves me despite my failures. anyways, Praise the Lord for allowing me to live this long and ^_^

hula on the island

Theresa from Ishigaki island came and taught some Hula dancing this Monday she taught us about 10 different steps. She comes once in awhile to teach and share the gospel as here ministry is gospel hula. It is interesting to note that Jesus Christ is very much incorporated in hula. Through Hawaiian culture, they believed in the first place that there is one God until neighboring islanders taught them that they were to worship many gods, then missionaries came and taught the gospel of Jesus Christ. So though many Hawaiians nowadays do not know that when they do the many moves that they are so accostumed to doing, that they were used with the intent of worship to God. This is Theresa's hope to point people to Christ in hula.

Kiki was sooo funny...

day 5: night celebration of the day of independence

We went on Kadena where they had the America Fest and where they allowed Okinawans on base to watch the fireworks. As usual this is a long vid but you get a glimpse of the fire works and the crazy peoplethat i'm surrounded by. ^_^

friday fellowship

One of our friends from the church, Laika (on the left hand side), has a prayer meeting at her house every Friday with her mom, aunt(Harue:, and uncle who are a few of the only believers in their family. Laika invited Iza and I to come and play some worship songs a join in prayer with them. It was a blessing for us to be there and be used by God. Laika's uncle had many questions about the Bible and ee were obliged to point to the answers with Scripture. Laika's mom later explained how in many churches that they's been to the people would tell them to "Just believe and don't ask questions" which instilled within their subconcious some sort of "guilt," as Laika's mom put it, in asking questions about their faith. But just as Paul commended the Bereans, Iza and I encouraged them to search the Scriptures and the answers. We were blessed to say the least and hope to continue to search the Scriptures more fully to answer brother Hiroaki's questions concerning life in Christ.

day 3: under the sea

We went to the aquarium here in Okinawa. "twas the biggest aquarium until Australia made theirs." The fishes were subarashii.