A few Sunday's ago, the entire church was blessed by our Youth. They led in worship, ushered, did the parking (they even offered to valet park cars :) ) and did announcements. It was a tremendous blessing to see how God has been working in the lives of His young people.
After Sunday service, the church had a potluck fellowship. The food was great and the fellowship best! It was just wonderful to see what God has been doing there.
On Saturday morning, the men got together for a bible study breakfast. Damian shared from Micah with the guys. We were all encouraged in the Word. There is a solid group of guys there and we were blessed to meet them all.
As the church has grown, seating now extends into the tatami room. Most of the youth hung out in there. 
The biggest blessing came when we were able to pray for and ordain Mike Silva as Pastor. Mike and his family have been in Iwakuni for over a year. The church plant celebrated it's one year anniversary this same day! Great things God has done! Mike was already their pastor, we were just affirming what God has established. God bless you Mike and Silva family.
Here's our group picture.
Here is Damian, Pastor Bill and I. Each morning we would stop at Starbucks Coffee and get our fix. Pastor Bill's such a down to earth guy. We were so blessed not only by his teaching but just hanging out with us.
On Day 2, the gals had a special time and the boys stayed at the meeting room. Joe McIlhenney was able to come out again this year. He is a great brother who is on fire and loves Jesus.
Pictured here is Masaru and Travis. Masaru is such a clown. We miss him here at Calvary Okinawa so much but all were blessed to hear of the great things God is doing in Naha. Please continue to pray for all the Calvary Chapels in Japan.
Pictured here is the International Committee. It was a true honor and blessing to get to work along side so many of the other pastors here on Okinawa. Some have been ministering for over 20 years here. God brought a neat group together and I was humbled to be a part.
The estimated attendance each night of the Festival was about 6000 people. Over the 3 days with the children's events, nearly 2000 people came forward to make a commitment for Christ. Please continue to pray for Okinawa.
Look! Marre and Kumiko Ishii from Committed Fellowship Tokyo came down to perform each night at the festival. They did a great job along with so many other gifted artists... also our very own Tim Newell performed too... check out pix at Tom's blog.
The man. Justin Peterson. Justin had one of those "Back Stage Passes" because he, along with a good handful of guys from church worked the security for Franklin Graham. Here he is coming to get me because I snuck in to take a picture. Where's Franklin?
Okay... trying to update the blogger with all the stuff that's happened lately...
Here's Tim showing us his plane.
As a kid growing up on Kadena, we would dare each other to try to run out on to the flight line and touch one of these planes. Now years later, God opened the door and escorted us right through. 
I thought this was a cool picture of the guys in the hanger bay.
We were blessed by some of the guys from church. Pictured here are F-15 pilots, Matt, Tim, and Kevin. They gave us a tour of the F-15 hanger and flight line.
God totally blessed us through Matt, Kevin and Tim. These are guys are officers in the Air Force and F-15 Fighter Pilots. But what makes these guys even cooler than that is they totally love the Lord and have humble servant hearts. At church, they're our parking ushers!
Here are some more pics from the Skate Outreach "Soul 2 Skate". Hey! Who is that tall guy there? Why it's no other than Voonder! The whole day was great! God blessed the weather and all kinds of kids came out. Special thanks to the Bible College crew, Ginowan crew, Okinawa City and La Habra teams!
Tsunami Jr. High Youth were out to show their support of this outreach!
check out the sweet flyer that was made! Someone's got flyer making skills...
As part of the Okinawa Franklin Graham Festival Committee, we are blessed to be heading up the International Youth for the entire island. The team from La Habra were such a key in this event- they brought TONS of cool give-aways from their skate shop "SHINE". Pictured here is Jon Holmes preaching the Word!
The team blessed us this morning by making breakfast. The guys are staying at the church - God has graciously provided us a kitchen and shower for missionaries to use- so come on down! When we got to church, the day was warm and sunny, they had breakfast all made for us and Jon was just smiling like Jon does best. It was a great day. Thank you guys.
Of course, we wouldn't be faithful to Calvary standards, if we didn't go and chow down at some of our favorite places. The first night the team came, we took them to the Foster food court- it was late, it was right after the Power Rally, so it's what we settled for.... but look at Josh! He ate a whole pizza by himself! Of course for George and Monique it was a blessing since they've been in mainland Japan with no American food for the past year! Our favorite is the All-You-Can-Eat Yakiniku places- up top is one in Nago called Gyan Jyu Tei - Kenny Lopez rocked the chopsticks!
Josh Kreis and Mitch Stewart help buzz Glenn's head for CKC night. Josh and Mitch were part of a short term missions team from CC La Habra! 
Candance, also from CC La Habra, says, "here let me help this art work".
In preparation for the Franklin Graham Festival, the International Committee hosted a "Power Rally" to encourage the churches to pray and finish strong in all our prep for the Festival. It was a great night as so many different churches came together for worship and praise. Way up front is the Calvary La Habra crew, it was their first day here! :) The Tiger is part of the Kids' Festival scheduled for Saturday. We are excited to see what the Lord is going to do! Please join us in prayer for Okinawa and that many will come to a saving knowledge of Christ!
We were blessed by George Austin on Wednesday night. George and Josie are heading up the Calvary Chapel School of Ministry in Tokyo. They are sent out of Calvary Chapel La Habra, CA. George was down for a few days along with a team from CC La Habra. Please pray for George and the Austin family as they serve the Lord and the Japanese in mainland Japan.
After Wednesday night service, we had a chance to fellowship and celebrate some birthdays. Katie Johnson and I share the same birthday! Oct. 25th (missing was Berch Abbot and Zach Mize who also share our b-day!) Kristy's birthday is the 27th, so we got to share the cake too! The Bible college crew are such a blessing- they serve every Sunday and Wednesday with us! Notice Keegan's cool hair-do! And Glenn's too... more to follow.
Please pray for our High School Youth Group- "TC-1"(totally committed one). They are planning a missions trip to Iwakuni in December. They will be doing outreach and ministry alongside Mike Silva and family with their church plant, Calvary Chapel Iwakuni.
Two weeks ago, Kristy's parents came to Okinawa for a visit. It was a very special time for the whole family. Kristy's parents have never been out to visit in the 5 1/2 years we have been here. For us it was great, not only because we missed them so much but for them to see how faithful and gracious and loving God has been to us since we've come. They got to see how very good God has been, with so many wonderful friends He has given us and truly a life abundant because of Christ! We can't wait for the rest of the family to come to see all that God has done.