Salvational skateboarding

From the age of thirteen to eighteen, I loved skateboarding. I remember getting really into it after purchasing an issue of Thrasher Magazine. I was good (for a girl!) - I could ride around pretty fast, jump off curbs and such, and do a few tricks. In the magazines I read, I followed a lot of the skaters - their lives, their riding style, who they were sponsored by. Looking back now, it was a pretty intense obsession. These skaters I idolized were always running into trouble with the law, getting seriously hurt, and skating for money and fame. Later on, I realized that a lot of them were probably into drugs, sex, and doing jail time. I almost laugh at myself for being so into it.
The interesting thing is that God has a hand in everything. I went to school for Graphic Design for two reasons. The first was because of my older brother. He left for college when I was fourteen to study product design. Today, design is prevalent all over the world with the birth of Apple, the internet, and everything in between. At the time, the good design being used today hadn't kicked off yet. My brother came home during school breaks and told me all about how amazing it was. My second reason was pouring over these skate magazines and wanting to work for them or at least create the boards they made. Thus, the beginning of Graphic Design in my life.
If the Lord didn't put a passion on my heart for wanting to study design, I wouldn't have gone to the Academy of Art. I wouldn't have met my Christian friend who told me about Jesus. I wouldn't have found Jesus.
A few years after I was saved, a significant change started happening in the skateboarding industry. A lot of skaters were becoming Christians. The same skaters that were once breaking the law, doing drugs, partying, and going to prison, were repenting of their past lives and coming into a relationship with Jesus. The first time I found out about this was from a skate movie put out by evangelist Luis Palau. It was called"Livin' It". The movie was directed by Stephen Baldwin. Baldwin came to Christ, left his life as an actor, and started a skate ministry for the youth. After he joined the Kingdom, I saw that many pro skateboarders also got saved. Big name guys such as Jamie Thomas, Christian Hosoi, and Brian Sumner.

Just recently, I came across an organization called"I Am Second". It has videos on testimonies of many famous people, including Stephen Baldwin and Christian Hosoi (see Hosoi's video above). Check them out and be encouraged!

"But God has chosen the foolish things of the world to put to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to put to shame the things which are mighty; and the base things of the world and the things which are despised God has chosen, and the things which are not, to bring to nothing the things that are, that no flesh should glory in His presence. " - 1 Corinthians 1:27-29

Piper and The Robbs

A big change going on at CCBC Okinawa is the departure of Chuck and Yumi Robb, a couple from CC Ginowan. Chuck has been teaching the ESL class for the Japanese speakers and Yumi has been translating into Japanese for CC Ginowan Sunday services, as well as with some of our bilingual CCBC classes (see photo above). The Robbs have moved to start their own ministry in Tohoku, the area where the earthquake/tsunami disaster occurred.

We also said goodbye to our brother John Piper, one of the interns here (see photo above). He has gone to serve the youth at a Calvary Chapel in mainland Japan. Even though I've only known them a short time, it feels like a part of the family has gone. At the same time, it's encouraging to see others taking a step of faith in Japan and going out and serving the Japanese people for Christ.

We've had midterms this past week as well, so it's given me a lot of time to reflect on the semester so far as I study for them. I've been learning a lot about ministry life here in Okinawa. Everyday, I feel like I experience something new. In the last few weeks, I taught on three separate occasions to two year olds, elementary school kids, and junior high kids. I've also had the opportunity to lead worship, serve the Okinawan community as well as the body, help the church in graphic design work, teach English, and use my Japanese to evangelize and minister on witnessing nights. Plus, I can wash dishes for 20+ people in under 30 minutes (with help, of course!).
Looking back, I can see that God has put me in these positions to show me how much I need to trust in Him and keep living out my faith in Christ, to stay humble at His feet and focused on what His plans are. Okinawa’s allowing me the opportunity to serve others and to serve God where needed and that is something to take great care in. That the Lord is allowing needs to come and allowing me to be a part of those needs being met. At times, I forget the attitude I need to have when serving, that we’re to serve Him in all we do and with the right heart. Remembering who we serve is important to keeping the ministry of God active and not the ministry of men. We don’t serve others for our own benefit but we serve God, who guides us to knowing who we are to serve. I love seeing the fruit that comes from serving this semester. Even something as normal as hearing about someone’s life and why they were brought to Okinawa has had encouraging and fruitful moments here on the island.


For me, three difficult things to ministry life this semester have been:

1. Coping with lack of sleep


2. Spiritual warfare


3. Inexperience

However, three blessings this semester have been:

1. Stronger devotional life


2. God's continual providence


3. Partaking in fruitful ministry

I weigh the blessings out to be so much better. With the semester being only half over, I hope to live out 2 Tim. 2:15 and see what God has in store!

Camp time at OCSI!

October 17-19th was the OCSI Middle School Camp. Myself and five other CCBC Okinawa students went to help out for three days as camp counselors. This was, by far, the highlight of my time in Okinawa and the most rewarding. (photo credit above: Tamiko's blog)
OCSI(Okinawa Christian School International) is a non-denominational American Christian K-12 school in beautiful Yomitan, just north of the Bible College. Those who attend the school are either asian kids (mostly Japanese) whose parents want their kids can learn English, or they are American military kids. About 91 students went on this camp and trust me, it felt like a lot more kids than that! We arrived at lunchtime, got settled in, and played sports games to get the kids in different grades to spend time with each other. Okinawa's October rain kicked in, so we went indoors and did crafts until dinner time.
For dinner, all the kids got together by cabin and made their own Japanese curry outdoors, over an open fire. It was a pretty collaborative effort; each student chopped vegetables and meat, made their own rice, cooked, ate, and cleaned it all up. That night, we headed to Chapel and guest speaker Pastor Brian gave an amazing series during the next few days on great leaders of the Bible. Afterwards, we headed to the cabins. I was solely in charge of eight girls and had to get them settled in and lead evening devotions. They were all well behaved and had no major problems to deal with the first night.

The next day, we had Chapel and then helped out with other camp activities until lunchtime. In the afternoon, we helped organize and lead some water games and races (photo credit above: Logan's Blog) Later that night, the students and staff all pitched in to cook an awesome BBQ dinner and lead their cabins in some skits and a S'more bonfire. The next morning we had Chapel and headed back.
I went to serve at this camp to lend a helping hand, praying it would glorify God. In the end, I felt like I made a million mistakes and failures. But through each of them, I learned more than I thought I would; about leadership and being a good witness to these kids. I felt like I was blessed so much more than the kids were, at times.
My favorite moments were talking with the students one-on-one. Many of them have not made a true commitment to Christ yet and my heart became burdened for them. If anything, I wanted them to know with all my heart that they were so blessed to be able to go to OCSI and hear about Jesus everyday. My prayer is that these kids will know Jesus personally and know Him soon.

Costa Rica Campus

I saw these the other day and thought they were done really well. The Calvary Chapel Bible College in Costa Rica started a few semesters back and the campus made a few videos on what their vision is and what they want to accomplish for God. Four former students left to help with a church plant and start teaching classes.

Operation Costa Rica Episode 1 from CCBC Videos on Vimeo.

Operation Costa Rica Episode 2 from CCBC Videos on Vimeo.

Takoyaki Party for the Youth

Sunday after church, CC Ginowan wanted to do a fellowship time for the elementary and junior high kids. So we hosted a Takoyaki party for them. If you don't know what Takoyaki is, it's basically a ball of batter and inside is a piece of Tako, which translates to (eek!)"octopus". Since Yoshua and Tom were heading it up, they got creative and had other things to put in the dough balls. In addition to Tako, we made ones filled with hamburger, cheese, and even popcorn! The staff and kids all made them and it turned out amazing. Afterwards, we played a few games and sent everyone home stuffed.

Takoyaki! MMM.... the way you make them is you fill the hole with batter, drop your Tako in, and then as it cooks you turn it with skewers and it becomes a circular ball!

Brother Tatsuhiko and little Noah. Brothers that cook together, stay together :)

Saturday Morning English Classes

This semester, CC Ginowan started hosting English lessons for preschool and elementary school kids on Saturdays. So far, it's been going pretty well. We've had a few kids in each age group attend the classes, which usually last about an hour. This Saturday, I helped out my classmate Alex, who's been leading the lessons for the elementary kids group. We had our Pastor's son Asa and a super sweet girl named Jaan learn about greetings, the weather, opposite things, and body parts. Since Asa speaks English, we made him recite the words they learned in Japanese as well. It was a blessing being able to help out and make stuff with them.

Please keep the classes in prayer, as we're hoping for more kids to come. Teaching English is a great outlet for witnessing, too, so please also pray that the gospel or a friendly invitation to our church will be expressed to the parents as well.
FYI: We are a third of the way into the semester!