Friday, September 28, 2007

Prayer for Places to Park & Praise & Percolate

So God's cloud is moving for not just us here at Calvary Okinawa but a few others as well...
Please pray for the Silva's and CC Iwakuni as they are looking for a new place to worship since God is packing the house at their current location.
Above is a photo of the place Mike looked at last week. It's a packing house since God is packing the house... get it? ha ha ha...
Please pray for the Pallman's and CC Ginowan. They are looking for a place to open another coffee shop for outreach and bible study. They are praying for this place in Ishikawa.
And lastly, continue to pray for us here at CC Oki. This is a picture of our new sanctuary. Just kidding. This is CC Fort Lauderdale. I thought since they are building a new place, they could send us theirs. We appreciate your prayers as we continue to seek the Lord and for Him to "show us the place where the Lord our God chooses to make His name abide".

Wednesday, September 26, 2007

Cultural Food Exchange- Tortillas

Out of one ministry birthed another. During the Japanese VBS Outreach, Noemi made the volunteers a mexican style breakfast with home-made tortillas. They were out of this world.
So, we asked her if she wouldn't mind taking an afternoon and showing a few gals how this is done... well, word got around and well, a whole bunch of us came out for a great time of fellowship and literally, the breaking of bread! Next month we're learning how to make Indian Curry- come join us the 2nd Sunday of each month.
Noemi is schooling Ashley and Megumi on the proper rolling technique.
Everyone got a chance to make their own tortilla and finish the process of cooking them up.
The students were attentive as instruction went forth.
Going over the top, the Longoria's also made beans, rice, shredded beef and some fire salsa. It was awesome just hanging out, sharing our lives and meals together.
Pay attention ladies, this is how it's done by the Tortilla master.

The Velarde's become 6

Welcome to the world, Charis Priscilla Velarde! Congratulations to Damian and Sandra for God's blessing of their newest addition.
Here's the familia! What a blessing. Please continue to pray for the Velarde's. We are still praying that God will return them back to Italy as soon as He sets the visa's in order. We love you Velarde's!! For more pics, please check out their blog @ http://supernaturalwarriors.blogspot.com/


Big Ben turns Big One

I just had to throw these in... Ben turned 1 on Sept. 6th. It is amazing how fast time flies.
He is just as big as ever and adorable as ever (well in my opinion).
He's so excited for the cake. Just like his dad.
Now he's focused. Double fisted for more efficiency.
Oh yeah! That was good cake. Happy Birthday Ben Ben.

Mark Oshman shares with the men

For our monthly men's breakfast, we stayed the church this time and invited Mark Oshman to come and share with the guys. We were blessed as he challenged us from Hebrews to live a life that makes a difference. Mark runs a ministry to the military called "the Harbor". We are blessed to join with them in various outreach and ministry events.
Yup, Glenn's guitar playing continues to improve and God has given him a heart to minister to the men of Calvary. It is always so uplifting and encouraging to get with these guys who love the Lord and come to hear the teaching of His Word.
We will be joining the Harbor again this year in their Men's Retreat. Please pray for the 60 men that will be going and for Mark and all the arrangements. We're expecting God to do great things.

Kids Summer Series

During the summer, we take a break from our mid-week kids' ministry CKC and in its place we do a summer long VBS. This year we did the "Incredible Race" where kids learned to run the race for Jesus.
On this special night closing night, the kids were able to celebrate by trying to break a huge pinata full of candy. We were so blessed as one of the families in the church took all day and made this at home! That's incredible in itself!
The Jr. High students got involved to help the kids build their own race cars. The kids built, decorated, named and got to race their cars.
Here's the pit crews waiting for their cars to pull into position.
The older kids are confident that their buggy is ready to race.
We just had a blast this summer and thank all those who gave of their time and efforts to make this year's Summer Series a huge success. The kids were blessed beyond belief! Thanks!

Steve G. "the Preacher Man"

Our good brother, Steve is deployed right now and we miss him dearly but God is using him in tremendous ways out in the desert. Steve was asked by the Chaplain to teach the Sunday services.
They built a brand new sanctuary and God has opened the door for Steve to share the scriptures to a special group of folks.
Steve is all "Bob Coy-style". He walks around and doesn't stay at the pulpit. :)
Please pray for Steve and the many others that God has out there. God has a bigger plan than we can imagine! We miss you bro!