Taliya Arrived from Ishigaki Island

Taliya will be attending this semester along with all the other Bible College Students. She is from a smaller island off of Okinawa, Ishigaki Island. It is a blessing to have her with us and we look forward to the good work that God will be doing in her life. All the rest of the students are excited that she is here with us.

Jillian has Arrived!

Jillian arrived in Okinawa this morning. It was a long flight but she made it here safe. We are looking forward to what the Lord has in store for her this semester. It is a blessing to have her with us this semester.

One Good Lunch

We took the new guys to one of our favorite places to eat “the Karage Joing”. Well, it is not called that, but that is what we call it, because it has the best Chicken Karage on the Island. Check out that heapin set of boneless white chicken meat. No one has been able to eat it all as of yet. Keli’i came close but did not finish his rice. The plate is bigger than Justin’s head. It was delicious!

New Doors

The new doors are now installed and they look beautiful! The workers did an excellent job, better than what we expected. We knew that they would look good, but not this good. The sanctuary looks so welcoming, no more stooping down to enter the worship area. Rob is happy, he won’t have to worry about banging his head. They need about a week before they can paint the trim. Thank you Jesus!

Cory has Arrived

Cory arrived via Tokyo Airport. His plane was a little delayed but he is here safe. We are looking forward to what the Lord will do in Cory’s life this semester, we are blessed to have him with us.

Friday Night Outreach

We gathered at the Koinonia Cafe Friday night for an outreach to the community. Students from Ryukyu University were present as well as groups from other places. We had a band “Treasure Hunt” come out and minister, as well as Cotton and Amanda did some special music. We had a curry dinner as wells as some great desserts and coffee. Yoshua shared in the message. It was all so blessed.

Prep Time

We had a prep meeting with the teachers/interns for this coming semester. They have been preparing for the past few months but now it is time to start real soon. We are excited with all the classes that we will be offering this semester, it will be blessed of the Lord.

Michigan Girl has Arrived

Amanda came in tonight at around 10pm. Her flight was delayed a little in Tokyo but not too bad. When Amanda came back from Korea she put on a few pounds, but not now. She looks so thin, we were asking her "Didn't they feed you back East?" Well she is back in Okinawa, three square meals a day (healthy and happy). But in all seriousness Amanda, you look wonderful! So good to have you back with us. Praise the Lord!

Justin Diaz

Justin arrived this morning looking good. No jetlag as of yet. Tonight the guys all gathered together and Rob and Trevor's house for some games, surprisingly Justin did not fall asleep. We are scheduled to work out tomorrow morning at 6:45am, I don't know if he will be awake by then, but we will see. Great to have you with us Justin.

Widening the Doors

The door has been widened, the next step is putting in the frame and the new doors. After this picture was taken they put in the new frame and cemented the areas back in. It is looking great. The workers are doing an excellent job. We needed this work done before the new Bible College Semester begins. Praise the Lord it is coming together smoothly.

Eyes Glued

Joel has been anxiously waiting the announcement from Steve Jobs on the new product coming out of Apple Inc. It is in, the ipad. As you can see Joel is glued to the announcement from their creator and benchmark inventor; Focus Joel! Focus! Let’s get back into the Word!

Construction Downstairs Begins

Before, we had a little entrance way leading into the Sanctuary. Today the workers begin installing double doors into the Sanctuary. The building already looks so beautiful, we are looking forward to the new addition this week.

Hey it’s Naoko’s Birthday

Naoko’s Birthday was Monday the 25th, so we made her a cake this Wednesday and celebrated after the midweek service. Naoko is such a blessing and it is wonderful to see the work that God is doing in her life. Please pray for our sister and for all that God has in store for her life. Happy Birthday Girl!

Finished Product

We finished the roof tiles today with the help of the guys with a few ideas. The tiles are so old that they cannot even be dated, before WWII. It was great bringing them back to life. Also the wood beam on the corner is also really old. When you look at it you can see that it actually is a 4x4 but as the top got smaller they did not bother to square it off. A real cool piece of old wood.

Congratulations Joel!

Joel received his Japanese License today, he passed after one try! This is awesome! Usually it takes 3 to 7 times before you pass in Japan. Every time you take the test it cost over $40.00 dollars. For an average Japanese person it cost over $3,000.00 dollars to get your license. If you have an American License, you have to take a written test and then take the driver’s test, and it is hard to pass. Great job Joel, Praise the Lord and all Glory to God!

Scripture Tiles

We started construction on the roof tiles in the Koinonia Cafe. It is looking good. We had everyone write Scriptures on the tiles before we hung them up. Anna wrote in German, Eder wrote in Spanish. Some really cools stuff.

John Michael in Tokyo

Praise the Lord John Michael is back from Korea and now in Mainland Japan. He is staying with the Boek's for a week, and then will return back to Okinawa. He is hanging with Emi today and from the picture it looks warmer in Tokyo than here in Okinawa. God bless you both, we are looking forward to seeing both Emi and John Michael next week.

New Construction

We started construction on the inside of the cafe. We are putting up a little Okinawan style roof as decoration. We will not put the tiles up until after Wednesday night. After midweek study we are going to have everyone write Scriptures on the tiles, it will be really cool, just like we did for the tile roof outside. Go for it guys, it is looking great!

Nago Trip

Thursday we had some good fellowship time visiting the Newell’ in Nago City. We went to the famous “Pizza in the Sky” and then visited this beautiful place with awesome waterfalls. Absolutely Awesome! A good looking crew in a good looking place.

Eder's Story

The video is self explanatory but Eder was excited to actually see the house. A Japanese movie was made here in Nago and this house was a big part of the movie. Let Eder explain the story.

Oh no! Not another tooth!

Asa said that he was playing Ninja with the students in his Japanese school. One of them gave him a kick to the mouth and loosed his other tooth. It was ok, it was getting ready to fall out anyways. Well there you have it, his two top teeth are gone. It is kind of cute the way he talks now, with a lisp.

Tamiko’s Birthday

Wednesday we celebrated Tamiko’s 23rd Birthday. Rob and the gang made her a special cake, chocolate with chocolate shavings, her favorite; anything chocolate. She loves it so much we made two and it was delicious! Happy Birthday Tamiko, and God bless you!

Banana’s for Masaki

We were blessed with the opportunity to hang out with Pastor Tim, Ayu and Masaki overnight Wednesday. We spent the day hanging out and seeing the sights. Tim emailed us and sent us these pictures. His neighbor “Eda”, like Eder has a banana plantation and brought over this big stock! So Tim hung them in his kitchen “Samoa Style”. I think that he remembers this from his past visits to the island of Samoa. Good job Pastor Tim, great idea.

Pray for Haiti

As you read this post please take time to pray for the people of Haiti. Pray for the relief workers. Pray for everyone involved and those who will be involved in the near future. Please pray for the service men and women who will be deployed in the relief efforts. Pray for the Christians who will answer the call to go and help sharing the Love of Jesus Christ through medical aid, giving out food and lovingly sharing the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Don't let your heart get hard or turn away from what is happening over there, thinking that "it is not happening in my neighborhood". Even though it is difficult, take time to read CNN, Fox News or the such and see video and let your heart be filled with compassion and pray for those in greatest need at this time. Love, Pastor Tommy

Cold in Okinawa

The weather has been absolutely cold here in Tropical Okinawa. It has been dipping into the low 50’s and maybe into the high 40’s at night. It might not seem cold to you, but is sure is to us. Joel and Anna dress in parkas. The reason for the cold spell is that China is experiencing freezing temperatures like the rest of the world. So the wind blows down from China to us here in Okinawa bringing the cold front. I don’t remember it being this cold, but some say it was like this last year. Go figure, but we know one thing for sure, it is cold!

Some Good Juice

While in California Joel’s Dad knows how much we like coffee. Mr. Coronado loves coffee too, so much that he actually orders the special blend online. So he gave us some of his special blend from Guatemala (home of Mario Mendoza). It was absolutely delicious! Look at Tom’s face, it says it all. Thank you Gerald, we are all blessed!