uh oh!

Well I forgot to put up this little nugget of awesomeness....this is the night where about 6 people got ear piercings. This is a little video of Zachy gettin pinched with the earring gun! He was so funny....the first one was better....but if you can catch it at the end.....he probably really wants to yell! hahaha

Here is a picture of after I got mine done too.....sorry to disappoint all you guys...but i like em'!

Cape Hedo!

Well we went all the way up to the top of the Okinawan Island....and the highest point is called Hedo Point or Cape Hedo...here we got some sweet pics of the great waters and huge cliffs....





Watch out sos....dont fall off....nice picture......the hills in the background are practically untouched by even the locals....God's creation is so pure and beautiful! Here at Hedo there are two major bodies of water connecting.....there is the Pacific Ocean....and then there is the South China Sea...so here on the 300ft cliffs there are like 10-15 foot waves that crash against each other creating a great sight for us spectators....again....awesome!



Yeh we got a little group picture with the gang.....Jayme "cool shades" Neumann on the far left....then Andrew "Hickory" Neely.....Jesse "Magic" Spencer hiding in the back....then Kayla "Green raindrop" Hennessey...and finally Tamiko "onaka sweeta" Murikami.


Wow....i think this is one of my favorite pictures of this place....the colors in the water are so clear and you can see all the coral and everything....As we were standing up on top we could see huge, bright teal blue "parrot fish"....sweet, i wanted to go down and spear them...even in the midst of crazy death sized waves...if you have a good eye....you might be able to see my little friend Aaron!
whoooo!

Banana Boat!

Zach, Sosi, and I paid like 7 dollars to go on a 25 minute banana boat ride, whooo was it fun! We had to get all dressed up in vests and helmets and stuff.....but little did we know we would actually really need them! I even thought...."Maybe I'll bring my camera!" But it was too crazy out there to do that....


Here is us gettin up on the raft......and we probably did this about ten times.....because the guy said......"Oh they think their tough huh?" and he worked us! He would go really fast and then break to give us huge waves, and it would be like riding a horse....I was riding on the front one time....and we literally caught like a 10ft. drop, and we lost it.....Then the guy would veer left and right sharply and the banana would just flip and roll.....and when you are in the front....people fall off and lunge forward, hitting you in the head...Zach hurt his knee a little hitting me in the head, and Sosi head butted and kicked me in the head with his foot.....yep im glad we had helmets....


We were so happy to get back.....our hands were so hard from getting up and down and holding on for our lives! Man we were like "isnt our time up yet...." But it was all well worth it.....good times! Thanks Lord for keeping us somewhat safe! No real injuries....whoooooo!

Up in Okuma!

Well this was one of the mornings that we were in Okuma.....it was a blessing going out and running around this beautiful little peninsula of Okuma, which a resort with an American side (needing military access) and a Japanese side (more expensive)...but we had a great time, oh man it was so beautiful. I thought the view was breathtaking, but then I forgot I was running....help pray for my heart, it hurts sometimes when I run, dont know what it is....Here is cool pic of Sosi tearin up the run!

Woooooohhhh.....sweet pic! This was on top of the hill called "lookout point". No car access though....shame....nah just kidding! Flesh!


Here are the two buddy boys running close to each otha.....Pastor Tommy and David Barrios (who sponsored us to get on Okuma....thanks Barrios!)....man they were like speed lightning...I had to catch up just to get it....





Here is right on top of the hill opposite "lookout point", and if you can look really closely you can see robbie Voonderlichy on top of the hill.....man these guys were beasts....tearing up the run....I havent run in about 2 months now, and then they have me go on this.....quite literally forced....nah but it was awesome, it was probably about 2, 3, 4 miles maybe....dont really know. Here is a little clip though of us back at the shores running .......

Day at Mihama

Now when I say day in Mihama.......I really mean a day in Mihama.....
This was one of those days where the ministry was great.....but the ministry jacked you up physically! whoooooweeeeee! I really did have a great day....because we had a Scavenger Hunt. Now, Mihama, if you have never been there, is a great area of shopping and fun, where lots of American name clothing and places like Starbucks, Movie theaters, and more Starbucks are rampant! We ran around this place for about an hour and a half in I think 4 different teams. We were blessed to get kids from New Life Academy, Foster Youth Group (who hosted the Event), and CC Ginowan youth. Check it out....

These are some of the New Life Academy kids that came out for our scavenger hunt......some of the guys got freaked out when there was this half solar eclipse......nooo i just messed around a little on the picture editor......hmmmmm......





yep.....we had to go take pictures "behind bars".....we found this one quick.....kind of reminds me of a bad Halloween "Haunted" set up with the witch next to us.....funny how the Japanese people will get into Halloween, cant wait to see what they will do for Christmas!








Now here is a closer look at my team of little guys..... I was set up with Ashley and Jordan Yates from Foster Youth Group and Kelly from New Life Academy.....we recruited Yoshi here from the A&W to help us out on a few items on our hit list....




Well we had a great time, and yes that lovely green shirt I was wearing was completely soaked after I had run with little Jordan on my back (when his ankles hurt of course!) for an hour or so.....whoooo!

After that we had some sweet lunch on base and a time of testimonies from Aaron and myself....sorry no pictures....and then we headed back to Mihama for a time of outreach with HakuGaijin and passing out books explaining the Gospel in Japanese....sorry no pictures of that though either....check up on www.e3missions.com for Pastor Tom's pictures of the night!
Great day Lord! Thanks!

TO-I-RE ---->

I just wanted to have a little fun with this picture....these little pieces of coral spell out TO-I-RE which is what it sounds like.....toilet. The big arrow showing the biggest TOIRE in the world.....the OCEAN!!! whooowhooo! I think Mrs. Ruth was a little embarrassed and had to swim away!

Bonfire Teaching

I like this picture alot....it reminds me of the ten virgins that had there oil lamps ready in the book of Matthew.....its awesome because Pastor Tom is ready, is lamp already lit too! And then he pointing out thinking...."Is that the Lord coming??? No wait is that the Lord?" haha well we had some fun just posing in front of the bonfire at night!

I was blessed this night to teach my message on "A committed life to Christ", focusing on the life of Timothy in Acts 16:1-5. It was pretty awesome....but i was soooo nervous, probably the most nervous I have been in a long time, but as soon as I started to teach, I felt calmed by the Spirit of God, and just shared what was on my heart for the kids. It was cool to teach with that torch going right next to me....and at the end, I had an illustration where the light that was there was our salvation, and that it is still bright and awesome, that is all we really and truly need. But then i whipped out the lighter fluid and dowsed the torch from the bottom up, and the whole stick caught on fire, showing that how much more we can be a light for Jesus to the world if our life is completely and utterly committed to Jesus Christ. You guys out there reading this....Jesus desires you to commit your life to Him, and He will make it better than you ever could. Jesus loves you and desires to use YOU!

This is a picture of the kids while they were worshiping. This is right in the middle of the song "Waves of Mercy" and you can see a couple of them doing the moves to the part in the song where it goes "How can it be!!!" and then move there hands and do a little jig...it was fun having the kids do this song most of the week, they really came to like the song and get into it!
Blessings!

Camp With New Life

Last week we able to go to a 3 Day camp with a Christian school called New Life Academy, where we loved on the kids with worship, games, lots of food, more games, and then great times of spending time with the Lord in teachings and devotions!



This picture Tamiko took for me down while we were at the beach. She has a great eye for good pictures....oh and these are Hannah's sandals with a Hana (Flower in Japanese) on the left sandal and with the Kanji for Hana on the right sandal. Sweeto picture Murikami! Thanks



Wow.....Okinawa is really beautiful! That day was so clear, visibility almost endless! God creation is awesome, and this beach was about a 2 minute walk from our camp site! Awesome! There was some great relaxation in these waters here, good times! We walked into these caves and got some pictures in there also.



Here is one of the awesome pictures inside of the last picture's cave. The water was so clear, and you could find great coral souvenirs and crabs. Very awesome. I think that if you look at the picture upside down, it looks like a guy with a long neck with his mouth open....what do you think?


I climbed up on some coral and Zach took this for me....I was feeling very meditative and thoughtful at this point....thinking of how God created something so beautiful, and how men and women still believe that all this beauty was created by just sheer evolution and maybe a big explosion. No, God made His Earth with beauty so that His people might enjoy it, and it is truly "living the life" out here with it!

Here the leaders and the kids getting ready to play some ultimate frisbee, where you run up and down the field like soccer but with a frisbee. Great game, and I have to boast in my team that took the Gold metal on this one.....woooowhooo Orange team! Good times. There was so much more to this day....just not enough free time to take the pictures, we leaders were involved in completely every aspect of the games and days. It was a blessing, and I know for a fact the kids were blessed. But to top it off, I know with-out a shadow of a doubt that the Lord was pleased with the time spent with these kids! Praise the Lord for His faithfulness in each of the leaders lives, as the dedicate their lives to serving Jesus!