Sunday Services in November

(Doing the One Way Jesus!)
This has been the busiest month! From conferences to missions trips and classes in between, Sunday services have gone by in a blur. I was at the well anticipated Calvary Chapel Okinawa all month. CC Okinawa is the largest Calvary on the island, so there was no doubt that my team would be doing a lot of ministry work.


The Bible College's involvement with CCO is all with the kids. We served on Sunday mornings and Wednesday nights. Sunday mornings involved either helping out in the classes or teaching a lesson and Wednesday nights was fellowship and playing games. If you have ever done any kind of children's ministry work before, you probably knew way more about it than I did at the beginning of this month. It was my first time ever leading and teaching any kind of Sunday school lesson. And God allowed me to teach every Sunday this month!




There are a lot of youth at CCO, so usually the kids are split up. I was in charge of the first graders. It was such a rewarding time for me with the Lord during the week, in preparing the lessons for the kids. You really learn about teaching and the Word of God when you have to prepare a study for seven year olds! At the same time, it was fun and easy to do because the Scriptures are so clear to understand. The kids picked up the stories and the meaning of it from the text alone. I also enjoyed getting to spend time with them - playing games, coloring, singing, and praying with them.


On Wednesday nights, CCO has a midweek service and the kids all get together for the CKC (Calvary Kids Club). They do crafts, hear Bible stories, and play games. My team was in charge every week of helping out with game time for the kids. Tamiko, our CCBC intern (seen above with the infamous stuffed Porky), usually led the games. This one shown below, for example, involved the kids trying to snatch the pig from its "mother or father". If you were tagged by the person in the chair, you were out!


Serving at Calvary Chapel Okinawa was definitely a learning experience. With more ministry work involved, it was easy to feel overwhelmed and discouraged. But the rewards have been too many to count. My favorite moments were talking with the kids. They really are the next generation of Christians who will have to be strong in these last days. But we also can't forget that they're also just kids who love Jesus. Their hearts were eager to know Him more and my eagerness to know Him increased so much because of that.
November marks the end of traveling around the island on Sundays. The last few Sundays before the end of the semester is serving at Calvary Chapel Ginowan!

Korea Missions Trip

November 17th - 22nd was our missions trip to South Korea. I got to serve with Pastor Tom Ruiz, also the director of the Bible College here in Okinawa, and with four other students (photo above, courtesy of e3missions). One of the purposes of the trip was for the foreign students (like me) to renew our tourist visas. Japan allows you to stay for 90 days, so in order to stay longer and finish off the semester, Bible College students make the Korea trip. I saw it as a great opportunity to serve the Lord in another country and also be able to come back to Okinawa and serve Him still.
During our six day trip, we helped out at Calvary Chapel Daejeon, which is a few hours from Seoul. During the weekend, we also went to a home for the mentally challenged, witnessed to some students at an English school, and led worship and teaching at a Christian school where one of the missionaries serves at. Sightseeing, shopping, and eating filled in our free time.


On Friday, we spent the day at the Independence Hall of Korea. It was a spectacular exhibition park on the history of Korea leading up to the split from Japanese rule during the imperialist expansion of the early 20th century. The entrance is a giant wing-like structure called the monument to the nation, representing the spirit of Korea. A lot of the outer structures were built in hope that South and North Korea will one day unite and become one nation, so there is definitely a feeling of peace as you walk throughout the park.


The exhibit itself was informational and had a lot of graphic photos and replicas of the brutal slaughter that the Japanese inflicted on the Koreans. As with any memorial that deals with war upon man, it was difficult to look at and not become defensive. It makes me pray more that people would know Jesus, our true Prince of peace.


On Saturday, we went to House of Hope, a Christian home for the mentally challenged and handicapped. The home is situated in the beautiful mountains of Daejeon and was a blessed place to spend the afternoon. God gave me the opportunity to lead worship with my classmate Taliya and Daniel Sedota, a missionary living in Daejeon.


Afterwards, we helped out in their garden, gathering vegetables for the coming winter and drying them in their greenhouse. We also stored a massive amount of radishes in a giant pit that they dug in the ground. Daniel told us that House of Hope started when a man was paralyzed after a parachute accident. He was saved soon after and decided to open up a home for those with special needs, to know Jesus. It was a really special time to just love on the people there, even though no one on our team could speak fluent Korean. We pretty much went with the intention to serve in any way possible and the Lord really blessed our time there.


(photo above is the radishes we stored in their garden. They will apparently stay fresh all winter. Photo courtesy of e3missions).


Sunday was helping out at Calvary Chapel Daejeon's morning service. We cleaned up the church and then sat in on their bilingual service. Pastor Mike Loudermilk of CC Daejeon gave a sermon, with his wife translating.


Afterwards, we went shopping in downtown Daejeon and then came back for a early Thanksgiving dinner with the Daejeon family. Thanksgiving is obviously not a holiday in Korea, but the church thought it would be nice to have one for the Americans attending the church and for the Korean body to get to experience a super American meal. I met a lot of Koreans who said they ate turkey for the first time!


After dinner, I got to help lead worship and then we all sat in on Pastor Tom's message.


On our last day, we went to Daniel's school to hang out with his students. The school, called SOT (School of Tomorrow) bases their curriculum around using American Christian educational materials. So the students are all learning English and studying the Bible at the same time. Being a Christian school, many of the students want to become pastors and missionaries, so it was great to hear about their lives and talk to them about Jesus. Our team each gave a short blurb about a bible verse and then we had worship time and a special message from Pastor Tommy.

(photo above: our team eating at People Baking Toast - a cheap, healthy, and yummy place to eat breakfast)
Thank you to everyone who has been praying for us throughout our time there. It was truly a work of the Lord getting us there, allowing us to serve, and getting us back in Okinawa safely. We didn't have any problems with immigration, so all of our visas have been renewed. We made a lot of connections with the Korean body of Christ at CC Daejeon and hopefully can keep in contact with them. The ministry there is praying about opening up a Calvary Chapel Bible College extension campus, so please pray that the Lord will lead them in that. Thanks for checking out this entry and have a wonderful and blessed Thanksgiving!

P.S. For more pictures, check out a short video slideshow of our trip below!

Korea Missions Trip 2011 from deftlefty on Vimeo.

Women's Conference

Saturday (Nov. 12th), was the first Calvary Chapel women's conference in Okinawa. About 40 ladies came from Calvaries all over the island and our church had the privilege to host the event. The theme was "Established Hearts". Using the book of James, we learned about ways to establish our hearts and how we can carry it into our daily walk with the Lord.


All the women at the Bible College got to help out and serve at the conference - it was a real blessing because I got to meet some of the women at Calvary Chapel Naha, which I hadn't met before. I helped lead worship during the sessions and sat in on Anna's devotions workshop in the afternoon.


(Group photo above from e3missions)
Next week, I'll be teaching about the Prodigal Son to the first graders this Sunday at Calvary Chapel Okinawa. We'll also be going on a camping trip this coming Monday and Tuesday. Followed by game time with the awesome Calvary Chapel Okinawa kids on Wednesday night. And then it's our five day missions trip to Korea! We will be staying and serving at Calvary Chapel Daejeon. Please pray that the Lord will be glorified in whatever area we serve in and that our team will get back into Japan without any trouble. More updates next week!

Migiwa

Wednesday nights at Calvary Chapel Ginowan is Acts 2:42, our midweek service. We usually serve dinner and have a Bible study through the Old Testament. But this past Wednesday, Japanese Christian singer/songwriter Migiwa came to give a live performance in our sanctuary. She is currently touring Okinawa at other churches and venues, and our church was the first.


It was wonderful show - her style ranged from upbeat, contemporary Christian worship to more personally written songs, which were poetical and folky. Her newest album is about the Tohoku/Sendai earthquake disaster. We got to meet her and hear her testimony and heart for God and for Japanese people. I'd never heard Christian music in Japanese before (other than worship), so her performance was really special to me.


Read over this short article put out by OMF Japan on Japanese Christian musicians. Migiwa and other artists are listed as ones to check out. Be blessed!

Sunday Services in October

(ぞうさん got put on a time-out! haha)

October's gone by so fast... this past Sunday was my last time serving at CC Ginowan, our home church. The only service I will be at from now on is at W2, our Sunday night community worship time. This past month, I helped lead worship, taught the two to four year olds, helped out with the elementary school kids, and served coffee and snacks during wednesday night service. It was such a blessing getting to know the members of CC Ginowan more, playing with the kids, and ministering to the body. Some of my favorite moments were having wonderful conversations with many of the women at church. It was encouraging to hear stories of how they came to CC Ginowan, their testimonies, and what it's like being a Christian in Okinawa.


It was also great to be able to spend time with the little kids. My classmate Taliya is in charge of children's ministry at CC Ginowan, so she showed us the ropes and guided my team the whole month. With the kids, we got to talk about Moses, sing songs, and make things together. I got to teach five sweet girls. They were so polite and laughing all the time! They always came to class with smiles on their faces, wearing their pink backpacks and matching shoes and speaking in cute Okinawan dialect. I'm going to miss them.

Little Hannah making a paper pizza!

Next month, I'm at Calvary Chapel Okinawa with my team and Tamiko, our CCBC intern. There's three teaching Sundays lined up and apparently they serve tons of free food. Praise the Lord!