Fast forwarding more...

Still trying to catch up to the present... here we go again....
Here's our Jr. High ministry... Tsunami... Mike & Cindy Langley, who currently lead.. and do an awesome job by the way... are leaving soon. Mike is in the Navy and they have orders to Virginia. To say that we will miss them would be the understatement of the year...
There's this field in Okinawa City. One of the possibilities God has brought us... someone has offered to build the church for us and we can rent the whole thing- land and building for one set price. Please pray for us... for wisdom and discernment!
Every Wednesday, we have a dinner fellowship before and after service. Here Megumi is showing us the jar of pickles.
Look at that Orpilla boy. Who's his parents? The horsemen of the apocalypse... the boys give a "shout out" to Micah Velarde!

Puttering around with Jim & Crew

At CC Naha... Pastor Jim taught on the Holy Spirit. The Lord really blessed it and many folks came forward for prayer and to be filled fresh and anew. It was awesome. Yoko did a smash-up job interpreting into Japanese!
Of course, we went to the Pineapple Park... Okinawa standard...
Then on to the Aquarium. It was a beautiful day.
Then of course, we had to have our Yakiniku fellowship time. Jim and Lo gave it a new name. Yokinoki. It has a ring to it.

Pastor Jim shared with us Sunday morning and then for Sunday night, we went over to CC Naha.
Pictured below is the worship team. It was just simply angelic. God has really blessed them with some wonderfully talented young people.
Afterwards, we had the world famous Oshiro Curry!
The girls...
The boys...
The man himself.... Masaru Oshiro... please continue to pray for CC Naha and Pastor Masaru. They are growing leaps and bounds! It was awesome to see what God has done in 2 years now!

Fast Forwarding...

Okay.... this thing (blog) can be hard to keep up. Yikes... where do people find the time? This my attempt to fast forward through the past weeks to catch up to NOW... hang on...
We were blessed to be a part of the Freeman baby shower. Rodney and Lisa (at that time were having a girl and now had their little angel!) God bless you Freeman family!
Our building search continues. This is an old pachinko that is available. Please continue to pray that God will lead us to the exact pasture (building) He wants us to be!
A group of us got to head up to Tokyo for the Annual Calvary Chapel Japan Conference. It was a blast.
This the conference in full swing. That is Travis and Glenn's bald head.
This year, we were especially blessed. Pastor Jim Stewart (CC Kansas City), his wife, Lo and the assistant pastor, Randy and his wife, Joan came down to Okinawa after the conference in Tokyo. They hung out with us for a few days.

Philippines Trip: Day 4 : Dinner & A Show!

We were blessed to stay there at the CC Bacolod facilities. We joined them for dinner and it was quite amazing to see how they feed everyone.
The kids help to cook, set up, clean and do all the necessary work to run the home, just like a regular family but amplified! :)
The meals were super yummy. Not once did I hear any of the kids complain! I'm going to bring my own kids there and leave them for a while. :)
After dinner, the kids did a wonderful song and dance for us. It was so humbling and touching to have these kids minister to us. I so wished that all of the church could have been there with us to experience the love they poured out to us.
Boy they could sing! It was just plain awesome. I don't have the right words to describe how blessed we were.

Philippines Trip: Day 4: Bacolod

On Day 4, we took a 5 hour bus ride up north from Dumaguete to Bacolod. At the bus stop, Pastor Joe Rosmarino picked us up and brought us to CC Bacolod's Childrens Home.
It was very touching when we pulled up. All the kids were waiting for us outside and welcomed us to their home.
This portion of the trip was special for us, because for the past two years, CC Okinawa has been sending Christmas shoe box gifts to the kids. It was our chance to meet them in person!
This was only one half of the kids that came out! The Rosmarino's have over 150 children they call their own and have taken in to love and minister to them.
This is the whole clan. One of the simple blessings we were able to do that day was to take a family picture for them that way everyone would be included. It was quite the sight to see - I have trouble getting my four kids to smile and stand still for a picture... imagine 150 kids doing this! It was the beginning of an incredible time in Bacolod.

Philippines Trip: Out in Town

Here are some other sights from our time in Dumaguete. We were told that each area has their own version of a "Jeepnee". Here in Dumaguete, you can ride what is called a "Tricycle". It is a converted motorcycle with a side car. They serve as a taxi. We even saw some that had like 10 people on them- no kidding!
Many of the taxi's had "God Bless Us or Bless our Way". It is the prayer you want to pray when you drive there.

We got to go out in town to the market area. It was very lively, with many sights, sounds and smells!
Here Becky is preparing us as we walk through the butcher area. Imagine raw meat with no refrigeration on a hot day! Quite the experience.
Across the street was the world famous Filipino chain, "Jollibee's". Unfortunately, we didn't get to go inside and try any. We'll have to do that next time! :)

Philippines Trip: Day 3 : Calvary Chapel Dumageute

The last night we were in town, we attended the Thursday night bible study at CC Dumageute. The Senior Pastor there is Pastor Joe Joseph, who I had met several years ago at a Pastor's Conference. Actually Pastor Mike Ramsey introduced us.
The fellowship was sweet and the message was solid! Pastor Joe taught from Proverbs 12 - it was a great word!
As you sit in your seat and look up, there in the ceiling they have the familiar Calvary dove embedded in the ceiling tiles. It was cool.
The place was packed! God is doing a great work there. Pastor Joe shared that they are already outgrowing their facilities, which are in the process of being remodeled to accommodate all the people God is bringing.

Philippines Trip: Day 2 CCTC

Another ministry that we were able to visit and hang out with was the Calvary Chapel Training Center. It was quite an amazing place. The campus area reminded me of CC Murrietta Bible College main campus. The Training Center has a 3-fold ministry. 1- They serve as a CC Bible College. 2 - They have a missions sending agency called "2x2" and 3- They organize and teach Inductive Bible Study Workshops all over Asia. We were blessed to be able to stay on the campus with the students.
One of the evenings, the students blessed the team by putting on a Cultural Show. Pictured above are the bible college students preparing to sing the Philippine National Anthem.
Of course, there was the FOOD! It was so delicious. Filipino food is right up there with Japanese food! Boy was it good!
Here's Ken and Henry enjoying fresh coconut juice. We were treated like kings! It was so great to be there with the students and the staff.
At night, we'd gather under their multi-purpose area and just worship the Lord. The students were so gifted in playing and singing. It is their summer break so the students here are mostly ESL students from all over the Philippines. The director told us this campus is much different than some of the other extension campuses in that 90% of their students are local nationals that they raise up and send out back to their homes to do ministry. Many Korean students are also coming to learn ministry. Since English is a predominate language in the Philippines, the students must learn English.
Each morning we would join the students and staff for morning devotions. By 7am, the sun was out and bright and HOT! It was great to be there with them. God is doing a neat work there at CCTC. Please pray for the students and the faculty- they are expecting up to 70 students this coming semester!

Philippines Trip: Rainbow Village

We spent three days in the south part of the island of Negros in an area called Dumaguete. One of the ministries we visited and were blessed by is called "Rainbow Village". You can see more and learn more at www.calvarychapel.com/rainbow

During the day, we would spend our time here helping where we could and learning about all that God has done and continues to do. The ministry was founded by Trip and Susan Kimball many years ago. Their daughters are still in ministry there as well as a group of other dedicated servants. The new directors are friends of Henry. They are the Yost Family sent out from Calvary Chapel Joshua Springs.
Here is a picture of some of their homes and the field they share in the common area.
One of the ways we were able to minister was by simply playing with the kids. Here we are playing a fun card "who done it?" type of game called "Mafia". What is Henry looking at?
The kids were too cute. Here are the toddlers playing outside.
This Becky Kimball pictured with Grace. Becky was the lead director while we were there and she was a great Christian host. Becky practically grew up there and spoke the language fluently. It was so neat to see how much the kids there love her so much. We were blessed.

The Philippines Trip- Day 1: The Journey

Our small team left on Tuesday, April 17th. We flew from Okinawa to Manila. We then needed to catch a plane to Dumaguete.
Here's Derek and Ken as we wait in line to check in. It was hot!
There were soooo many people in the airport. Our flight was delayed several hours- our adventure begins.

We arrived in Dumageute. God blessed us- we were able to stay with the Calvary Chapel Training Center there. It is a part of the CC Bible College extension campuses. Pictured with us, Pastor Jing, he is the Senior Pastor for the Center, and Pastor Todd, who oversees the College specifically. These were neat brothers.
This is where we got to stay. The rooms were nice and we got the whole building to ourselves.

The Onaga's and Butler O' Club lunch

After services, we were treated to the Butler O' Club for buffet lunch. Gil isn't the biggest Japanese food fan, so this was the perfect spot for him.
Pictured across from Doogie, is Ken Onaga. Ken brought his wife and 90 year old Okinawa mother from Hawaii to visit. They stayed with Doogie for about a week and we got to help play host to them. It was so neat to meet them. The Onaga's fellowship at Calvary Chapel Pearl Harbor in Hawaii.

This was the clan that went to lunch. Kristy is pictured with the Onaga's.

Baby Dedication: Eva Chura Albrecht

Its always a blessing to dedicate children unto the Lord and ask for God's blessings upon the family. Today we were blessed to dedicate little Eva Chura Albrecht to Jesus.

Pastor Gil Garcia shares

It was such a blessing to have Pastor Gil come and share with the church. Gil was one of two wonderful men that God used in my life to bring me to Christ. Perhaps one day, Jim Tebeau will also come and visit too.
As always, Gil did a great job teaching the Word. We were all encouraged and blessed.

God has continued to use Gil in my life. He is one of the pastors that I respect highly and keeps me accountable in my own walk with Christ. He doesn't pull any punches and helps to keep me in line. It was a delight to have him. Thanks Gil.