Beautiful day at the Koinonia Cafe

Yesterday it was pouring rain. Today, the sun is out, such a beautiful day. Please keep us in your prayers here at the Koinonia Cafe. Our hearts are to reach out to the Okinawan Japanese people in the area of Ginowan and the surrounding vicinity.

Thursday Morning Devotion

We were blessed this morning with worship from Matt, and a devotion from Vunder. Every morning we gather at the Bible College building and have a time of devotion with the Lord. After the devotion, the time is good that we have in prayer with eachother.

Valentine's Celebration at the Koinonia Cafe

Wednesday night was such a blessing! After the Bible Study we had a Valentines' Celebration. Everyone brought cookies and goodies to share. Japanese chocolate is the best! They use a lot of Coco so you get a deep taste. The fellowship time was the best. Lord continue Your work in our lives.

Japanese Rocks!

Trevor Raichura teaches Japanese I for the Bible College and he has a full house. It is a blessing to see that many people have a vision to learn the Japanese language. We are so blessed to have wonderful Japanese teachers like Trevor, Natsuki and Kayo. They really give of themselves and are such a blessing.

Chaplain Wood from Camp Futenma

The Bible College students were invited to Futenma Chapel to meet Chaplain Wood (top center) and Chaplain Rieves (far right). We were given a tour of the chapel grounds. Both Chaplains are a real blessing. We were invited to start ministering on the base helping with the Christian Service. There is a real need, for their is a lack of Christian workers for their service. Through much prayer, we believe that the Lord wants us to come along side and help in any ways we can. The students will be real busy this semester, we are also in a process of forming Worship teams to minister in churches all over the island. Please keep us in your prayers.

Happy Valentine's Day

Asa cashed in this Valentine's day! His family all bought him something. Valentine's day is fun here in Okinawa. Traditionally in America, it is the guys who buy the girls things. In Japan, it is the gals who buy the guys chocolate, and a month later is "white day" and the guys return the favor back to the gals. Hopefully Asa won't eat all this chocolate in one day, if he does, he is going to have a tummy ache.

Devotion by Gen Fortin

This morning Gen gave a us a great devotion out of Psalms 55:22 "Cast your burden on the Lord, and He shall sustain you. He shall never permit the righteous to be moved". We were blessed this morning in the Word. Each day, a different students shares in the morning devotion.

Hunting on Ikei Island

Some of us hunted, while others slept. Here is Daniel in the center picture. He was in the water and speared this crab, don't worry, it was already dead. Asa in the bottom left is amazed at Daniels catch. But in his adventures he slipped and got this nasty scratch (upper left). He should have been Vunder, Rob was totally comfortable next to this rock. This is the life, studying Japanese and taking a nap.

Ikei Island Trip

Monday morning we took all of the students up to a secluded beach on Ikei Island. In order to get to Ikei you have to travel over three land bridges, but it is worth the travel. Only a few people were on this beautiful beach. We had a fun day just relaxing. We brought our own lunches, you got it, peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, yummy, our favorite. The naps were good too.

He's finally here! Matt Davis

Let me introduce to you Matt Davis. He finally arrived from Elsinore California. It is a blessing to have him with us this semester. Matt arrived late tonight at 10:30pm on JAL. He is a bit tired, he said he has been up for 48 hours. It was difficult for him to sleep on the airplane. Well, get ready Matt, we hit the floor running tomorrow. The whole team will be heading out to Ikei Island.

Koinonia Thrift Store

Well, we are working on the new website for the Thrift Store. It is really coming together. The smaller picture is of the first layout, and the bottom picture is after we worked on it more. When you get a chance, please click into www.koinoniathriftstore.com and check it out for yourself. Please continue to pray for us. We want to open it up to the Okinawan people in a couple of weeks. There are a few things that we still need to do, but in God's timing it will all come together. God bless you all, Pastor Tommy

Foster Chapel Valentine's Dinner

Saturday evening the Bible College students were invited to be a part of the Chapel's Valentines Dinner. It was a real blast. They played a game with the adults as the students did some crafts with the kids. The Chaplains on base have been such a blessing and an encouragement to the students. God keeps on opening more doors to do ministry here on the island of Okinawa.

Nijongo Tim (Japanese speaking Tim)

Pastor Tim will be graduating this year from Ryukyu University's Language School. It is normally a two year program, but because he passed the first year test, he only had to attend year two. It is quite an accomplishment to see this young guy from Norco California so fluent in the Japanese language. The reason for Tim attending this school is so he will be able to better communicate with the Japanese people. This was a speech contest that all of the graduating students had to participate in. In this speech, Tim had to speak for 5 minutes in Nijongo. He did a great job! He did not win the competition, but he gave everyone a run for their money.

Amber on Skype

Technology is blowing me away! It is so incredible to see that you can be on your computer now, and talk to someone around the world for free. Many of the students keep in touch with love ones back in the states by using the computer phone service called Skype. Here is Ms. Perkins talking to Josh in 29 Palms. We miss you bro! For those of you who don't know Josh, he is the cool looking dude on the computer to the right of the picture. Don't worry everyone, notice that they are doing a Bible Study online. Just kidding, I don't know what they are talking about. But she is reading her Bible.

Caught you!

Hard at work! Daniel is taking a little break between class assignments. We are in full swing of the semester now. Next week will begin week three. The students are getting settled into what it means to attend full time Bible College. They are starting to be sent out to do ministry. Please pray for the students. Many of them are gifted musicially and our vision is to send them out to serve in different churches leading in worship.

Baby Shower at CCGinowan

photos by Deb Pallmann

We had our first Baby shower at the church last week. It was a real blessing as the gals got together to show the Love of Christ for Yuki. Baby showers are not a Japanese custom here in Okinawa. So some of the ladies who came did not understand what was going to happen. One of the gals was told to buy towels, soaps etc. She thought that when she got here that everyone was going to wash the baby (baby shower). She was surprised to see that the lady who the baby shower was for, was still pregnant. By the time the shower was over, she understood the idea. It was all about blessing the mom with gifts to help with the new baby. Kind of funny huh? We take for granted all of our customs in America. It was a real blessed night.

Beach in Nago City

From the hills of Sakura, to the beaches of Nago. That is where we headed for some peanut butter sandwiches. We decided to eat a late lunch by the beach. It has been so cold in Okinawa. God blessed us with a wonderful day. It was warm, the sun was out, and if we would have had our swim trunks we would have dipped in for a swim. The water was so beautiful. On the way home, it was getting late, so we were blessed with a beautiful sunset (upper right picture).

Cherry Blossom Festival

After the big game (Superbowl), we headed out to Nago City and checked out the Sakura (cherryblossoms) way up north. We had a fun time climbing all the stairs that led us into the jungle where we hiked around (upper left pict). At the top of the hill, you can over look all of Nago city. It is amazing and humbling to realize that there are literally over two hundred thousand people in this city who have never heard of the Name of Jesus Christ. Lord reach them and use us for your Glory, Amen!

Superbowl Monday!

Here in Okinawa, we do not celebrate Superbowl Sunday, but Superbowl Monday. We are 17 hours ahead of everyone in California, so the big game is held here at 8:30am on Monday morning. So we gathered this year at the home of Joe Tipton. Joe's mom Beth, was such a wonderful hostess to all of the Bible College students. She cooked us homemade egg burritos, fresh hot tater tots, chips galore, and she even made us homemade blueberry muffins, Mmm Mmm Good! Thank you again Joe and Beth for opening your hearts and homes to us, God bless you, Pastor Tommy