A few of the boys went out bowling after study on Saturday. Our good brother, Kevin will be leaving us for a short season. He is being deployed overseas with his unit. Like a dozen others in our church that are currently deployed in Iraq, Afghanistan, Africa, PI and Korea, we will miss him much and be praying for his safe, and timely return.
Here's Kevin staring in amazement at my bowling score. Amazed that it was so low.
Glenn is one of those guys that does well in everything he does. Makes you sick doesn't it? Even in bowling, he posted the highest score for that day- but Matt & Helmut & Derek gave him some good competition.
Jeremy was the guy who tried all kinds of techniques. He couldn't settle on just one, so he kept it entertaining for the rest of us.
Every Saturday morning, the church has a men's bible study and fellowship time. God has blessed our time together and we're all growing in the grace and knowledge of the Lord.
Here's Joe leading us in worship. If you meet Joe, one thing you will know right away is that he is in love with Jesus.
Glenn's been doing a fantastic job of teaching through 1 Samuel. Each week, we are so blessed by the Word and the insight God gives to Glenn to share with us.
Derek and I fly up to Tokyo earlier this week for a short trip. Pastor Chizuo hosted us in Kokubunji- we were so blessed. Derek was able to put together his radio transmitter for the church and the upcoming conference in May.
One really good thing (of many things) about Derek- he isn't picky about food at all! He's so easy to travel with! We stopped at Ramen shop in the train station for dinner.
Here at the Ramen shop, it is typical for Tokyo area. The people are on the go so much, some don't even sit down- they order, eat and jam- back to the grind.
Here's Chizuo with Derek at Calvary Chapel Kokubunji's skate shop. It's called the "Shine Shop". It was neat to hang out with our good brother.
God blessed us with an incredibly bright and clear day while in mainland Japan. From Kokubunji, you could see Mt. Fuji clearly. Look at all the snow! Makes me miss the good ol' snowboarding days.
There are some parts of Okinawa like this, but here, as far as the eye could see... houses, apartments and business buildings. Recently, Roy Toma shared with us that Campus Crusade statistics have the Christian population of Japan at 0.2%. That means 998 people out of 1000 have not received the saving grace of Jesus. I am sure there is a great number who have yet to even hear of God's good news.
Would you pray with us for the nation of Japan? We know that God loves Japan and Okinawa and desires to do a great work in the hearts and lives of the people. We are blessed to be a small part of His great plan. Please pray that God would use us and many others to share the love of His saving grace to Japan.
A few of the Calvary pastors met in Kokubunji for a neat time of prayer, fellowship, food and conference planning.
Pastor Chizuo (CC Kokubunji) led the meeting. To his right is Pastor Tak Anma (CC Hamamatsu). These guys are so humble and great men of God. Derek and I were blessed to be there.
Pictured above: Travis Takamiya (CC Tokorozawa), Katsumi Santo (CC West Tokyo), and Jack Bell (CC Kamakura). Including above there are 6 other pastors with Calvary: Mike Silva (CC Iwakuni), George Austin (CC School of Ministry Tokyo), Marre Ishii (Committed Fellowship Tokyo), Tommy Ruiz (CC Ginowan), Jeremiah Boek (Horizon Tokyo) and Masaru Oshiro (CC Naha).
This is our wonderful brother Regan Blair. He has been here on Okinawa for a short term assignment visiting from Hawaii. Regan attends Calvary Chapel West Oahu. Regan leaves Tuesday back for home. Please pray for Regan and for CC West Oahu. Thanks for your service Regan and the Korean Ribs!!!
We wanted to keep the great momentum God gave us with the Japanese New Believers' classes. They had such a great time of study and fellowship. So God gave us the idea to extend that to our unsaved Okinawan friends and family members. Every first Sunday of the month, we will be gathering for a special time of fellowship, prayer and devotion in the Fellowship Trailer @ 12:30pm. 
Yumi brought her sisters with her. Kasumi was particularly shy. Yuka and Yumi have enough outgoing personality for all three! :) Even Katsue-san gave us smile. I think she just took a bite.
The fellowship time was open to all. Our heart was to minister to the Japanese speakers. Heidi and Sunita joined us as well. Murakami-san wanted to make sure she took of her glasses before I took the picture. Sunita's pretty fluent in Japanese so I think she helped Heidi with some words.
This was the trouble maker table. Just kidding. Pictured is Megumi, who serves as one of our translators, then Rika, who helps with a ministry called Ai No Kesshin (a pregnancy crisis intervention ministry aimed at Japanese gals who prevent abortions and assist in adoptions), and Shinobu, who teaches our Japanese Sunday school classes.
Here's Naka-san and Furugen-san. They were about to do "jankan po" . Okay, not really. They are discussing why Japanese coke is so much better than US coca-cola. Okay, just joking. But really... Please pray for the Naka Family - we trusting God to do great things with this man and his family.
This is Mrs. Nishihara and her daughter, Lisa. Many of you might know Keisuke (San-shin guy) who is currently in China studying. Mrs. Nishihara came forward at the Franklin Graham Festival and has been growing leaps and bounds since! Please pray for the Nishihara family.
Ethan had a few Oreo's and decided, "why bother with any silly thing like a napkin?" Chip off the old block... He was too cute not to take a picture of. Afterwards, I joined him for a few Oreo's myself. You know... sometimes an American product in Japan changes formula or taste... like Japanese Coca-Cola is so much better than American Coke. But Oreo's... they are exactly the same! Both are great. Just ask Ethan.
One of the hardest things ministering overseas with many military families, is that they are not with you very long. Over the years, we have fallen in love with so many great folks, shared wonderful memories- and then they move on to a new season. The blessing is that it only means our church family extends out beyond our 4 walls. This week, we said "Jaa Mata" ("see you later") to...
The Mize Family. Brent, Cathy and Aaron are moving to Nevada. Please pray for them as they return to the states after 4 years with us. It seems like only yesterday that Cathy was with us as a missionary from Livingwater, running up our cell phone bill to call some guy named "Brent".
Every year, the City of Okinawa sponsors a huge marathon. Thousands of people participate in this island wide event. The race starts and finishes at Comprehensive Park which is right down the street from us. Because of the race and traffic, many of the roads are closed which makes it very difficult to get home after church.... so while others run.... we eat!
Okay... I have to be honest... we have the absolute best cooks on island here at this church. All of the dishes were so yummy. I don't know why we don't do this more often. We need more marathons.
Here's the "grill masters" hard at work. They cooked up the burgers and hotdogs... even some Korean short-ribs that Regan made! They rocked. Our good brother Jesus was thoughtful enough to save me some.
Even standing in line can make for some great fellowship. Once again... you guessed it... God blessed us with a great day, held back the rain so that we could celebrate His goodness. I get the sense that this is what the early church was like. God's word, prayer, fellowship and the breaking of bread... maybe minus the hotdogs... but other than that... yeah, Acts 2:42.
Here's Kevin staring in amazement at my bowling score. Amazed that it was so low.
Glenn is one of those guys that does well in everything he does. Makes you sick doesn't it? Even in bowling, he posted the highest score for that day- but Matt & Helmut & Derek gave him some good competition.
Jeremy was the guy who tried all kinds of techniques. He couldn't settle on just one, so he kept it entertaining for the rest of us. 
Here's Joe leading us in worship. If you meet Joe, one thing you will know right away is that he is in love with Jesus.
Glenn's been doing a fantastic job of teaching through 1 Samuel. Each week, we are so blessed by the Word and the insight God gives to Glenn to share with us.
One really good thing (of many things) about Derek- he isn't picky about food at all! He's so easy to travel with! We stopped at Ramen shop in the train station for dinner.
Here at the Ramen shop, it is typical for Tokyo area. The people are on the go so much, some don't even sit down- they order, eat and jam- back to the grind.
Here's Chizuo with Derek at Calvary Chapel Kokubunji's skate shop. It's called the "Shine Shop". It was neat to hang out with our good brother.
God blessed us with an incredibly bright and clear day while in mainland Japan. From Kokubunji, you could see Mt. Fuji clearly. Look at all the snow! Makes me miss the good ol' snowboarding days.
There are some parts of Okinawa like this, but here, as far as the eye could see... houses, apartments and business buildings. Recently, Roy Toma shared with us that Campus Crusade statistics have the Christian population of Japan at 0.2%. That means 998 people out of 1000 have not received the saving grace of Jesus. I am sure there is a great number who have yet to even hear of God's good news.
Would you pray with us for the nation of Japan? We know that God loves Japan and Okinawa and desires to do a great work in the hearts and lives of the people. We are blessed to be a small part of His great plan. Please pray that God would use us and many others to share the love of His saving grace to Japan.
A few of the Calvary pastors met in Kokubunji for a neat time of prayer, fellowship, food and conference planning.
Pastor Chizuo (CC Kokubunji) led the meeting. To his right is Pastor Tak Anma (CC Hamamatsu). These guys are so humble and great men of God. Derek and I were blessed to be there.
Pictured above: Travis Takamiya (CC Tokorozawa), Katsumi Santo (CC West Tokyo), and Jack Bell (CC Kamakura). Including above there are 6 other pastors with Calvary: Mike Silva (CC Iwakuni), George Austin (CC School of Ministry Tokyo), Marre Ishii (Committed Fellowship Tokyo), Tommy Ruiz (CC Ginowan), Jeremiah Boek (Horizon Tokyo) and Masaru Oshiro (CC Naha).
Some of the students in Ezekiel's Tunnel.
The students get to go out for various classes. Lucky ducky's... they get to learn the Word there in Israel.
Ashley takes some of the coolest pictures. This is part of the pool of Siloam that John, chapter 9 records for us when Jesus healed the blind man. Scripture, chapter and verse and literal location! Cool.
The City of David. 1Ch 11:7 "And David dwelt in the castle; therefore they called it the city of David."
We went to
This man we prayed
This is our wonderful brother Regan Blair. He has been here on Okinawa for a short term assignment visiting from Hawaii. Regan attends Calvary Chapel West Oahu. Regan leaves Tuesday back for home. Please pray for Regan and for CC West Oahu. Thanks for your service Regan and the Korean Ribs!!!
Yumi brought her sisters with her. Kasumi was particularly shy. Yuka and Yumi have enough outgoing personality for all three! :) Even Katsue-san gave us smile. I think she just took a bite.
The fellowship time was open to all. Our heart was to minister to the Japanese speakers. Heidi and Sunita joined us as well. Murakami-san wanted to make sure she took of her glasses before I took the picture. Sunita's pretty fluent in Japanese so I think she helped Heidi with some words.
This was the trouble maker table. Just kidding. Pictured is Megumi, who serves as one of our translators, then Rika, who helps with a ministry called Ai No Kesshin (a pregnancy crisis intervention ministry aimed at Japanese gals who prevent abortions and assist in adoptions), and Shinobu, who teaches our Japanese Sunday school classes.
Here's Naka-san and Furugen-san. They were about to do "jankan po" . Okay, not really. They are discussing why Japanese coke is so much better than US coca-cola. Okay, just joking. But really... Please pray for the Naka Family - we trusting God to do great things with this man and his family.
This is Mrs. Nishihara and her daughter, Lisa. Many of you might know Keisuke (San-shin guy) who is currently in China studying. Mrs. Nishihara came forward at the Franklin Graham Festival and has been growing leaps and bounds since! Please pray for the Nishihara family.
Ethan had a few Oreo's and decided, "why bother with any silly thing like a napkin?" Chip off the old block... He was too cute not to take a picture of. Afterwards, I joined him for a few Oreo's myself. You know... sometimes an American product in Japan changes formula or taste... like Japanese Coca-Cola is so much better than American Coke. But Oreo's... they are exactly the same! Both are great. Just ask Ethan.
The Mize Family. Brent, Cathy and Aaron are moving to Nevada. Please pray for them as they return to the states after 4 years with us. It seems like only yesterday that Cathy was with us as a missionary from Livingwater, running up our cell phone bill to call some guy named "Brent".
The always smiling and encouraging Andre' Jones. Andre retired from the Navy last week, and will be heading to North Carolina. Please pray for him as he'll be working as a NROTC teacher.
The Hollister Family. Perhaps one of the craziest families we know next to the Runzels. They were a blast to have around - we love you much and are excited to come visit you in Virginia!
This is Danny Chung. Danny's family left earlier to get things ready in the states while Danny stayed behind to get things finished here. The Chungs were a huge blessing to us, especially in our Sunday Night home fellowship sharing their parenting experiences with all of us to glean the wisdom God gave them. Please pray for them with us.
Okay... I have to be honest... we have the absolute best cooks on island here at this church. All of the dishes were so yummy. I don't know why we don't do this more often. We need more marathons.
Here's the "grill masters" hard at work. They cooked up the burgers and hotdogs... even some Korean short-ribs that Regan made! They rocked. Our good brother Jesus was thoughtful enough to save me some. 
Even standing in line can make for some great fellowship. Once again... you guessed it... God blessed us with a great day, held back the rain so that we could celebrate His goodness. I get the sense that this is what the early church was like. God's word, prayer, fellowship and the breaking of bread... maybe minus the hotdogs... but other than that... yeah, Acts 2:42.