Theophilus11

New blog!?

2008-01-15T21:17:00.000-08:00

Aharon will be using a new blog while he is in China. the blog shall be named....ahem*
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Aaron's lucid dream
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http://aaronsluciddream.blogspot.com
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hope you all enjoy the new blog.. : D

: (

2008-01-13T22:19:00.000-08:00

I haven't posted in a long time. I need to put up some pictures...hmm...soon.

Verse today

2007-12-29T18:36:00.000-08:00

"You keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on you, because he trusts in you."
Isaiah 26:3

New Thoughts

2007-12-27T23:51:00.000-08:00

Of which, I have none. : )

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Trevor, here are the pics that you wanted. I forgot how we said I would get them to you, and up until now as I was thinking about something totally different, I forgot that I needed to get them to you. Nevertheless, here they are...

I don't know what exactly you wanted, but I figured you would at least like the last one. : )

Currently reading Dostoevsky's The Brothers Karamazov, Andrew Murray's Full Life in Christ, might continue to get into Lee Strobel's Case for a Creator. I am amazed each day as I have very little planned, and yet my days never cease to be filled with something. Funny how all that works.

It has been a blessing watching the Lord work. It appears that the Lord has decided to put all this China stuff into the realm of reality within this last week. I have this interesting thought..about God.

I feel as though at one moment I know Him. As I walk with my creator, I will sometimes sneak a curious glance at Him. Not the kind birthed from suspicion or uneasiness, but more out of intrigue, I think. I am intrigued with Him, the Sovereign King!...I must smile to myself in those times, as I quickly revert my eyes to what is before me. I think to myself, "Could all this be real?" But the thought is only present for a moment before I correct it with a better question. Ah yes, I've got it, a better question. "Why not?". hmm. Yes, I do think this one to be more fitting. "Why not?" Smiling to myself, out of the corner of my eye I can see my creator is smiling as well. His smiles are always better than mine. I'm not sure why; it's not so simple I think. There's a certain confidence in it. The whole thing, not just His smile, but the way He looks at things, the way He looks at me; yes, there is a certain confidence in it. He is sure in each step. I can't recall a time there was some kind of worry in his face. And here, now with some of the path ahead appearing obstructed and detoured, a whole new route perhaps in store, I see it again. I cannot help but want to be like Him. With such a quiet confidence. But that can't be all it is. No, I suppose there must be more. Yes, certainly so; for He is the creator, and if there's one thing I have learned from walking with Him, it is that He is unlike any other. Yes, there will always be more, hidden behind those eyes. hmm. I feel like now I know Him, but I am almost apprehensive as I begin to think at how much there is that I must not know. What is it? Where does it come from, this confidence? This love that is sure...hmm. Yes, so much more, for there is so much that I do not understand. But. But, I suppose I will just have to keep walking. Continue along this path with my Maker...his walks are always the best. I get to see Him smile...and, yes, there it is...that look, again there I see it. He is sure. Each step is sure. Not hurried. Not paced or anxious; of course not. But certainly not aimless. Never have I seen Him wander. Just that quiet, confident and sure expression alighting upon His face as He walks along. hmm. Yes, I think I have resolved it. With a quiet look again, I can't help but now be resolved. Yes, it will be His side that I will not depart from; His path that I will walk. There are so many things I do not understand about my Maker. So many questions about this path that He is walking, this path that I have now determined to actually be the path that He is "taking me" on...to who else should I go? For He alone has the words of eternal life...

It's funny how all this works. To Him I secretly smile again; though it is no secret, I see now He has known each smile that has come across this face. I do not know if that is why He smiles, but I am sure He has seen each one, and am warmed at the thought of it...hmm, yes.. Just me, walking with such a sovereign/redeemer/savior/friend...and why not?

Why not? : )

A lot of pics. : )

2007-12-18T20:45:00.000-08:00

Here's a random bunch of my favorite pictures from the last couple of weeks. There not really in any chronological order, I kind of just picked out a bunch. Some of them kind of go with each other, but they're all important in some way... : D
Fun stuff....Hope you enjoy

Flying away..

2007-12-16T16:26:00.001-08:00

I'm leaving Okinawa...
Once more, time has got the best of me and the semester has flown by.
Crazy crazy...
It's been good. : )

Final's Week

2007-12-10T00:13:00.000-08:00

This is the last week of the semester! Please keep the students in prayer as they cram everything into this last week of school and do their best to finish well. It's been such a blessing seeing everyone growing over the course of the semester; it's hard to believe that it's already over. Tonight we're having our banquet, so that's going to be nice. Thank you all for your prayers. : D Be sure to check Pastor Tom's blog for pictures of the banquet. I should be making a grand picture post soon enough, but until then, you have to get your picture fix from Tom's blog.

2007-12-04T16:46:00.000-08:00

I have yet so much to learn...This life seems only to get stranger and more complicated and more confusing with the coming of each new day. And yet, I am beginning to learn, I couldn't have it any other way.... I really couldn't.
Hugging tightly to the face of this small cliff, feeling my hands begin to lose their grip on the small rocks they're tightly squeezing, a funny thought runs through my head; "Why am I doing this?" Not exactly having time to sit and meditate for a while on the matter, I reach back up with my one hand and regain my grip, able now to reposition myself against the rock face and try again at pulling myself up onto the next ledge. In position now for the "hop" up, I take a quick gasp of air. "Hop". With hand clenching tightly as my forearms show the strain they're enduring, I pull myself to safety. Getting back up to my feet now, I look down at what I just chanced falling to. Rocks. Hard, sharp, rocks looming below. Exhaling with a great sense of satisfaction, a grin sneaks across my face. Looking at what I just climbed, I have found my answer. As I look around at the sprawling Ocean that has just run away with my eyes, I smile now and say under my heavy breath, "Freedom". "hmm", I think to myself, "Yea, that's the answer..." I look to my right and see how much more I need to climb around and over to get to my destination. With almost a sense of giddiness I begin to move quickly over and around rocks and boulders. My hands now are almost unable to make a solid fist because my forearms are beginning to feel the burn of lactic acid creaping into them, and yet they prove once again to be faithful comrades in yet another adventure, pushing and pulling and gripping with all their strength. Having now only to jump around and over certain boulders, I find myself moving quicker. I waste no time! With each step I find myself moving as if my body should weigh nothing more than the air that I'm moving through. With deep breaths I am inhaling life. Now in my mind this is no longer about getting to my beach destination. I find myself compelled; pushed on by an appetite for adrenaline. As I reach the end of this climbing adventure, I let out a small laugh thinking about my why...And how couldn't I laugh? I could have fallen, and died, and nobody would have been there to see. Well, God, angels, me; ofcourse... Freedom....Freedom, yes, I think that's it..
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And now, I move on. The cliffs were not easy. They never are. I don't know that they ever will be. Injury is always a risk. Ofcourse, sometimes more serious of a risk...Sometimes much is put on the line. Sometimes my hands plot mutany against their captain. Sometimes my mind checks my adrenaline filled heart. Not a bad thing! But, I have learned this; I cannot live, and really live, without these cliffs. Should the architect and author and affection of my life have seen it fit to make me so, how can I help but not do that which I have been created and molded and called to do? Shall I refuse that which gives me greatest joy to pursue? I cannot. I pray I shall not. For in this life there is not any obstacle to which Him who calls me shall not prepare me for and sustain me through. Though I should dangle half-helplessly in the last bit of my strength, yet I shall be made to know of the strength and enabling of Him who calls me. Thus there shall be left to me no other life than this...Than that I should come to abide in such a place of "half-helplessness", only to know and to learn of Him who is called Faithful. As He becomes my enabling I find a life that is, with each breath, that worth living. I find the greatest freedom in binding myself to the will of this God I love, for it He who has made me so; I cannot love another...
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Life continues to be difficult at times. It continues to be tiring. I cannot help but ask at times, "why am I doing this?". But yet, in it all, I cannot help but smile. I will yet smile because there is within me such a joy in this pursual. There is yet more joy to be had. More challenges and adventures await him who has been designed for them. And, likewise, the grace and empowering of the sovereign one has already been supplied for each step of the way. I do not know where I will go. I do not know what I will do. As I am coming over the top of this challenge, I see now the next step that awaits me. It will not be easy. Much of the way I will doubt and complain and bicker. But yet, I know, that just as He who has called me has been faithful, so now I trust He shall continue to be. China is a big place. Who should know what my God cannot do?

Hatachi-sai

2007-11-27T17:33:00.000-08:00

Today I am 20 years old...It seems there are so many different thoughts that persistently race through my mind when I think about how young I am and yet how much has commenced in these last few years. Yesterday before class, somehow my age was brought up. It was interesting because in talking about some of the things my life has consisted of in the past couple of years, I addressed an interesting point that I was almost consciously unaware of. I realized that the majority of my Christian walk now I've been in, or, as I am now, in relation with the Bible College. Nearly all of my Christian walk has been very sudden, very rapid exposure to things of ministry and Bible study. I think not to boast in this as though I have had so much to do with these perculiar facts, but reflecting back it's a blessing to see what God has done and is doing in my life. Right now I am reading a biography of George Muller, the missionary/orphan house director in 19th century England. Keeping a long story short, the detailing of this man's life and walk with God has been extremely encouraging to me in this past week or so. One way in which I have been most encouraged and on which I desire to speak, is in the aspect of God's calling and special equipping of his vessels. Muller is probably most known for his admirable reliance upon God for his every provision and refusal of popular tradition to receive income from mandatory tithes in the churches, but what stands out the most to me is the way that Muller so often had no idea what God was going to do next and yet maintained such a passionate faith in God's greater plan and provision. Seeing this and catching on to the trend of faith-building that God saw as such a priority in his life, Muller would often go into a place and, before making any commitments to the church or group, declare that if at any moment he felt called of God to leave and move on, that he would do so. Prearrangements would be set in place that he was an itinerent preacher unless otherwise called of God. Step by step the Lord would lead Muller to different paths and places, Muller often asking and seeking the Lord about what His will would be for staying or going to all kinds of different places and works. But the whole time, behind the scene, God had been preparing Muller for a life-work in ministering to Orphans and running an enormous orphanage. At times Muller would be without any kind of resources, down to the very last penny, but yet He would seek the Lord daily and be led in how to continue on without having to ask any support of man. His every need was cast upon the Lord and his every need was met. But not only his own needs, but the needs of hundreds of children at a time who he took care of. It truly is an amazing biography and has been quite timely in my own life as a reminder to trust God no matter what the situation. One thing though that stands out with all of this, are Muller's own words in letters, essentially saying: "don't attempt to immitate the work that God is doing here unless the Lord should specifically reveal His will to be so". Muller believed and understood that God gives special grace and faith to those vessels through which He wants to do things like He did with Muller. Muller knew it wasn't a matter of God always wanting to work in those ways, but saw God doing something unique and trusted that the Lord would see Him through to the end. Today is my 20th birthday. I have been tremendously blessed by the Lord in a great work He has done over the past 31/2 years since coming to know Him. I have seen the Lord do so much and am even now a Bible College teacher here in Okinawa. I am tremendously blessed, but what I want most to be known by others who should look into my life is this testimony; "it is not of him who wills, nor of him who runs, but of God who shows mercy." (Romans 9:16) This verse in it's context is speaking of an entirely different matter, but the principle it presents to me and which I desire to share is this: the things that God does in and through a life are NOT because of the great faith or faithfulness of that person. It is NOT because I am some righteous man that I am here teaching and encouraging brothers and sisters in Japan. As with Muller, the faith and grace that God has given me are a blessing, according to grace and not according to my works or my faithfulness. God has desired to make me unique and to lead me in a very different path than most. It has not been because I am a great man, but because God has simply desired to use me in such a way as He sees fit. He likewise blesses times of teaching and encouragement, the work that is being done here, simply because He has desired to pour out His grace. The only command that is to me a requirement coupled with His promises of abundant fruitfulness, is this, "Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me." (John 15:4) I have only this one admonition which is to me such a great promise. As long as I am abiding in Christ (standing in, making my home in, living in obedience to Christ) I know that God will do the work. He will be faithful to perform the awesome and the miraculous as well as provide the grace and faith and means to accomplish any and all things. As I have simply sought to abide in Christ; to be obedient to Him and live each day for and unto Him, He has done all the rest. And that's it. I pray that the rest of my life would maintain the same testimony and that a life lived simply for Christ each day would be the summation of any goals or plans I should set before myself. God has been so faithful, and I pray this next year, and even these next 20 years, would only be a testimony to the greatness of who God is.
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"So then it is not of him who wills, nor of him who runs, but of God who shows mercy."

Korea Trip

2007-11-25T21:06:00.000-08:00

Korea..
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This was one of the best vacations I've ever been on. It was a huge blessing being able to travel with so many friends and experience Korea together. I think it was probably most blessed because we tried to stay focused on ministry and meeting whatever needs arose, and as a result we were blessed with the opportunity to travel to all kinds of different areas and fellowship with brothers and sisters we could have never met any other way.

Our trip began at Naha Airport...
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The first night that we arrived, we drove from Incheon Intl. to Cheonan, where the Calvary Chapel School of Ministry(CCSOM) is located. That first night after we arrived, we went and walked around the town a little bit. To the right is Sosimo celebrating the Korean Fall. : )

Having arrived on Thursday, we went to CCSOM Friday morning. In the afternoon, we drove to Daijon where Mike Laudermilk, one of the heads of CCSOM, works at Jinsoo Language Institute. The picture above is from the Language school where we were able to participate in teaching the class by sharing on some of our favorite Bible verses. It was neat meeting such a variety of students, from believers to non-believers, some fluent in English, others struggling to get by. : )

The food in Korea was definitely something. It was generally always hot and, usually, pretty spicy. At first, all the blend of different flavors is kind of startling, but towards the end of the trip I was craving Kimchi and red pepper sauce. The other picture above is of Tom, Sosi, and Daniel running in the morning. That morning I didn't go with because I didn't have anything to run in, but the next morning I went with Tom and Sosi because Daniel let me borrow his running shorts. It was pretty interesting running in such cold temperatures. At first you feel like there's no possible way to keep going with such a burning in your nasal cavity and lungs, but you start getting used to it and your body starts to warm up. That morning that I went running, we ran up some dirt trails and it felt like we were hunting something in the forest. Good times. : )

On Saturday, most of the students stayed at Jinsoo the majority of the day, helping with some English Game things. Me and Daniel, however, were blessed to be able to take some trains back to Cheonan to minister at a friend's church. Sam (pictured to the right) is a former CCSOM graduate and now has started his own church. Half of the church area is seating and a stage, but the back area of the building is a Dojo. Sam teaches Japanese sword fighting as a ministry and supplemental income. Sam's an awesome brother in the Lord and it was really neat getting to visit with him and his family.

On the way back to Daijon to meet up with everyone, me and Daniel stopped at some food stands in a makeshift market there next to one of the trainstations. We wanted to try some of the food and stuff they had there. It was fun getting to talk to some of the Korean's there. Many people enjoyed talking to us and asking us questions and so forth. We definitely stood out in many places we went, but especially in this little outdoor market.

Saturday night we hung out with the group and had dinner at McDonald's. Afterward some of us over to some batting cages near by and had some fun acting like we were bigshots. Well, technically, Sosi and Daniel were pretty good. I, on the other hand, had trouble hitting some of the slower pitches.

Sunday after church at the CCSOM church, we went to a local trainstation where we handed out trac's/church info card things and played some worship. It was pretty hectic knowing nearly nothing of the language, but most of the people spoke at least some English. I kept wanting to ask people if they at least spoke Japanese, but I guess it's far more likely that people would speak English fluently than know at least some conversational Japanese...

On Monday we drove up to Seoul where we spent the day walking around, exploring, and shopping...

..oh, and the picture of me and Daniel in front of the Coldstone is because we both worked at a Coldstone in the past. Some of the students treated themselves to some ice-cream from there and said it was delicious...

Korea was overall a really cold place, and so, as shown in the picture below, most of us tried to stay pretty bundled up.

The last night we were there we stayed near the airport in Incheon. To the right is Josh holding a Bouken (unsure of spelling), a wooden practice sword. It was pretty crazy that night as Ron and Josh (both students of Karate, Josh being a black-belt) decided to test out there new "toys" on eachother.

We left Korea Teusday morning. It was a great 6 days of travel and fun, as well as a neat bonding time for all of us. I think it's easier to get close to people when you all ride together in a 15-passenger van and it's freezing outside.... : )

Thank you everyone who prayed for us on our trip, it really was a great time of both ministry and fun. The church there was really blessed to have us and we were excited to meet and serve so many different brothers and sisters.

More Korea pics

2007-11-25T19:49:00.000-08:00

Here are some pics of the cities and landscape of Korea. Korea is an amazing country that has given much consideration to environmental problems that would develop as a result of such a large population (approx. 49 mil.) living in such a small area (about the size of Indiana). The cities are all packed together and stacked upward, giving a lot of room for hills, forests, rivers etc. As a result, mass-transit is far more effective in Korea and more people are able to live and work in such small areas, while still having land given for the maintaining of forests and wildlife. Hope you all enjoy these pics.

Korea!

2007-11-20T05:35:00.000-08:00

Update on our adventure coming soon...until then...

Dance..

2007-11-11T22:43:00.001-08:00

So, some might think that Christians shouldn't dance, but I say, if you got the moves, why not? haha.
As we were leaving "Bonkano Hi" Shuri Matsuri, there was random music playing across the street. Hearing the music, the guys began to dance in the middle of the street. Still more entertaining, upon seeing them dance a little bit to the music, some young japanese girls walking by began to coax them on , saying "one more time! one more time!". By the time I finally got my camera out, the random comedy of the occasion had passed, but we could still shoot a video in front of the music source. : )

2007-11-09T05:23:00.000-08:00

Here's some pictures and info from the past week or so. The semester has been moving right along, but in the midst of all the rush, we've been able to enjoy some pretty fun times. Instead of celebrating Halloween, the Foster Chapel put on a Harvest Carnival where we were able to put up booths and games for kids to come and enjoy an alternative to Halloween. The theme for the workers was something like "Cowboys, Cowgirls, etc...?" Anyway, a couple of us didn't have anything that would really make a good costume, so we decided we would dress up as Chinese railroad workers. As you can see in the picture, the costume idea turned out pretty good. All we did was wear our Jimbe's with some Chinese straw hats. On my cheeks I had the girls doing the face painting write, 中国(chuugoku), meaning "China".

Also, here we have the well-dressed Ron and Jayme. Ron's "Neard" (neck-beard) actually looked pretty fitting.

Last Saturday night we were able to go out to Kokusai Dori with the intention of just playing worship, talking to Japanese people, and sharing the Gospel with people. We mostly past out tracts and things of that sort, but we do pray that the Lord would use even that little pamphlet to accomplish His purposes. We were able to get into some good conversations with different people, and toward the end a couple of us spent a lot of times just talking to some Marines who were strolling through. The Lord reminded us of the importance of just being faithful to that call to share His Word with those around us, even taking it to the streets as the Lord leads. I was personally reminded of the nature of the gospel and the intention of God to use the foolishness of preaching to save sinners. Please pray for us with future events like these, that we would be led by the Holy Spirit in how to do them and just be led by Him in all our doings.

Last saturday afternoon we went to a big matsuri near Shuri castle. It was a lot of fun being able to celebrate "Bonkano Hi" (Culture Day) in and among the Japanese people. They were doing this really cool pole holding thing and I was entirely convinced they stole it from the Scottish. At one point I thought I even heard a bagpipe playing. The guys in the picture would take big heavy pole, which was blowing around a little bit in the wind, and hold it out while kind of moving it up and down. It was probably supposed to symbolize something, but none of the Japanese people we asked seemed to know. It was still fun to watch though.

During the matsuri we made our way over to Shuri castle. In the one picture you can see some of the gates and walls you have to go through to get to the castle itself. It was an amazing place. In the picture with all of us in it, you can see the final gate that opens up into the main courtyard. From that point on you need to have a ticket, so our adventure pretty much ended there.
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Walking around the castle grounds, we came to one opening area where we found it irresistable to play around and take some pics. The one to the right came out pretty good. : )

Sunday, November 4th, was Kayo-chan's birthday. They took her on to base to a pretty neat club/restaurant place. I was so suprised to catch Kayo smiling for a picture! Happy Birthday Kayo! Kayo's been a great sister and friend to me since I've been in Oki. She's been tutoring me in Japanese and if it weren't for her patient instruction, I wouldn't have had any real Japanese instruction this semester. しあわせな。いつもありがとうかよちゃん!

Andrew saw an artistic moment in our back walkway and seized upon the opportunity to take a picture of the unique lighting...It is pretty cool looking I guess. : ) Finally, please keep our group in prayer as we will be heading to Korea next Thursday. Judging by the looks of this picture, we're going to need a LOT of prayer. : )

That's it for now. I was really blessed today just being reminded of the importance of ministering like Christ. When Christ said "take my yoke upon you...for my yoke is easy and my burden is light", I think He really meant what He said. So many times, in the midst of doing this and doing that and taking care of this and keeping up on that, I can easily lose focus on the author of our salvation and just who Jesus is! It's amazing when I just sit down and read the Gospels, just looking at the man that Jesus was. So I was encouraged today, just to remember the simplicity of obeying Christ's two commandments, "Love the Lord your God with all your heart...and love your neighbor as yourself" Matthew 22 something. : ) God Bless you everyone.

2007-11-06T21:35:00.000-08:00

So, I decided to post up the video of Tom "gardening" in the mini-van. I hope you all enjoy. I think this is quite telling of both the way ministry and fun work here on Okinawa. : )

Some pics from 2 weeks ago...

2007-11-06T21:25:00.000-08:00

Ministry and school have been rolling right along here in Okinawa, but in the midst of all the hustle and bustle, it's nice to take time out for weddings... On Friday the 26th of October, Daniel Sedota and Jayme Neumann were happily married by Pastor Tom. One of the best weddings I've ever been to. Laid back, casual, not too long. : )

Basically, for the Pastoral Ministry class, Tom did a class on how to do a marriage ceremony. Pastor Tim, who sat in on the class, will be the pastor marrying his sister and her fiance. The class was a lot of fun to sit in on, plus! I got to be the best man. : D

Happy best man. Really, I was more excited than anyone up there.

To the right, we have Pastor Tim and Ayu speaking to a Japanese man at an outreach we did at Mihama.

Although I advised against it, Jesse tried to evangelize a giant dragon...It seemed like it was going well, but I guess he just wasn't having it...

Here's another pic of Aaron on duty at Futenma........yup, it's hard work helping out in the nursery....

Here's Jayme and Jesse preparing to enter the doorway to the spirit world...Fortunately, and to my own relief, the door was locked. Jayme: "Aww, why is it locked" Aaron: "Why is it locked! Are you kidding! Do you really want things from the Spirit world coming through that door!"...I certainly didn't.

2 Sundays ago. (i think) I got to head down to Naha with Josh and Natsuki to check out an "Industrial Matsuri". The Matsuri, or festival, is held to show off products manufactured here on Okinawa. It was nice getting to sample all kinds of different foods and snacks, as well as getting to see some neat things made here on Okinawa.

The dark area at the upper right of the picture with Josh, Natsuki, and I is from my camera lens cover that has chosen to go retarded. It doesn't open on its own anymore and doesn't always want to stay open when you take pictures...But the picture still came out good I think.

The next day, we did some yard work over at the Girl's D-House. Sosi and Daniel decided that this sign needed to be moved, so they pretty much ripped it out of the ground...Good times. I took a really funny video of Tom cutting back the grass with Party Van, but unfortunately it's pretty long and I don't know if I could upload it.

Well, that's it for pictures from 2 weeks ago. When I get the pictures off my camera, I'll be sure to post up some more recent pics. If you would like to hear more details about what's going on here and things like that, shoot me an e-mail some time or leave me a comment with your email. Also, I really have no idea who actually looks at or utilizes this blog, so if you do, an occasional comment would be nice. Maybe you can leave a suggestion for things you would like to hear more about, or even put in a request for a picture of something or just let me know that there really are people out there who look at this thing.. : ) Well, take care everyone.

Answered prayer requests

2007-11-04T22:36:00.000-08:00

This morning I was blessed to be able to talk to a mom who is now in good health and good spirits after such a scary event last week. My mom was hospitalized last Sunday night (California time) and was in the hospital until Wednesday night. She suffered a Grandmal Seizure and could have died from it, but they were able to get her to the hospital and into treatment within enough time. It was a blessing hearing today about all the people that had been praying for my mom and who had visited her while she was in the hospital. My Mom was told that at one point the lobby was nearly transformed into one big intercessory prayer meeting. It's a blessing to be able to look back and see the body of Christ working in such a unified way to meet the needs of one of it's hurting members. I was so relieving to be able to talk to my Mom this morning and hear all these stories. Throughout the week I had called home at different times, but it wasn't until now that I got to hear many more of the details about what exactly went on and so forth. Once more, I am blessed that my Mom is well on her way to recovery and that so many people have been such a blessing to our family. Thank you all so much, and may God bless each one of you.

Urgent Prayer Request

2007-10-30T20:32:00.000-07:00

Hey Everyone,

I have a prayer request to ask of anyone who might read this. My Mom was hospitalized on Sunday after suffering a very serious seizure, where she will remain for now until the doctor's have figured out what all happened. My mom has suffered from seizures in the past, but they have been relatively controlled or at least limited due to medication she has been on. The one that happened on sunday was triggered by some unknown cause, on which the doctor's are currently investigating. Please pray that the Lord would continue to make known His greatness through this trial and that my mother, as well as my whole family, might place their confidence in the sovereign control and goodness of our heavenly Father. Please pray also, that if it be the Lord's will, He would magnify His name through the miraculous healing of my mother that she might be free from these pains. We know that in every trial God is abundantly faithful to pull His saints through, let us all trust in God to show Himself faithful in yet another way.

"Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us, to Him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever. Amen."

So many things transpiring!

2007-10-22T23:44:00.000-07:00

Yet another update from Okinawa! Here's some pics and info about things that have been going on lately. Hope you all enjoy. : )

Every Sunday the Bible College students go to different churches to minister in various ways. This semester, Tom has me stationed at Futenma Chapel where I take a few students each Sunday. We pretty much get the amazing blessing of hanging out with babies for 2-3 hours every sunday, as well as getting to fellowship with some great brothers and sisters in the Lord. We're especially blessed by the Chaplain (pictured playing bass with a baby in his arms), who has such a kind and hospitable heart. He's been a great example for ministry, seeing as he not only helps out their worship band, but is also like a grandpa to the little kids (especially Rayna who's in his arm in the pic!) It's good to be apart of God's family. : )

Last week, we were able to go on a little vacation to the Okuma military resort. We stayed from Sunday afternoon until Wednesday afternoon. It was a great refreshment, as well as a good time of fellowship as we all were able to grow a little closer I think. I was especially able to grow closer with two of the guys, Ron and Josh, with whom I got to explore the campgrounds and surrounding islands. : ) In the picture below, you can see the island that we swam out to and spent many hours playing and relaxing on. In the middle of the island there's a tunnel that water rushes through and which we found to be quite a fun place to go swimming. It was a little crazy and minor injuries were had, but nevertheless, the good definitely outweighed the bad. There was also a small cliff on the far east of the Island where we had fun plunging into the waters below.

One of the nights we had a little campfire where we just kind of hung out and ate smores. I think I ate like 8 smores that night. After watching Jesse play with fire and taking some cool long exposure pictures, Ayu thought of using a flashlight to write messages over the course of the long exposure. Needless to say, the results were amazing. I have waaayy too many pictures of all the things those guys did with the flashlights, but here's a little sample...

While we were up north, we drove to the northernmost tip of the island, Hedo Point, where we were able to see some beautiful scenery.

After we got back on Wednesday, it was time to get back into the swing of school and all the other happenings of life in ministry, and so Tom had us watch the fight scene with Apollo in Rocky 2 for a devotion. Good times. "Be encouraged guys. Get back in the fight and stick it out till' the end!" (loose paraphrase of Tom's devo)

This last Saturday we went to a bullfight in Ishikawa, where we witnessed some pretty interesting stuff. It was nice on one hand because the bulls aren't really getting hurt, but at the same time it was kind of awkward watching as people pitted these animals against eachother to fight. The way the bullfights work is that they take the two bulls into the ring together, circle them around against eachother and face them off. Most of the fights had the bull caretaker guys holding a rope connected to the bulls nose, and so the fight could be broken up fairly easily once a dominant bull came out on top, but there were some without the restraints that ended in one bull knocking the other one up against the side gates and nearly impaling losing foe...crazy crazy.

Saturday night we celebrated Asa's 5th birthday, where all the kids and Bible College students got to participate in some games at the house. Below is the amazing Jesse, my bunk mate and fellow AP kid, with whom I enjoy being able to speculate about things like time machines and "Musical matrices" and so forth. I love Jesse, and it really has been a blessing watching the Lord work in his life. I have the priveledge of having him in my class for 1 and 2 Samuel, and so it's been neat to see the Lord speaking to his heart in the Psalms and in through our studies together.

Asa's down there somewhere...blowing out his "incredibles cake"

....mmmm.......so, Saturday night, we, uh, pretty much experienced one of the finer pleasures of Okinawa life. Five of us, setting out upon a journey that would, though unbeknownst to us, soon unite us in a way that all brother should be united, we made our way down to the Ginowan city Onsen. What is an Onsen, you might ask? An Onsen is a place where tranquility, relaxation, and naked people all come together to concoct a wonderful brew of hot and steamy goodness. Filled with pools of different kinds of salt waters, "showers" and sauna rooms, the Onsen is quite the enjoyable experience. If we could have spent 4-5 hours there, I would have gladly done it.

To the right is Ron after the Onsen; you have to love the look on his face here. To the left is Josh, Ron, and Jayme playing with some signs at the 100yen.

Here's a picture of Tamiko carrying my wonderfully efficient little red bag. I use it for just about everything.

Here's a pic of Yashua on his sweet blue bike, with Yoshi riding on the back. They're great Christian brothers.

On Monday a group of us drove down to Kokusai Dori in Naha. We stole away in the Party Van and had quite a little adventure walking through endless alleyway's of all kinds of shops.The guys specifically to buy some Jimbei's, and here they are below in their winter Kimono's.

So that's all for now. We're back in the swing of classes and all that good stuff. Yesterday my students took their 1 and 2 Samuel mid-term, on which they all did great. They're all pretty good students and it's been a blessing seeing all that the Lord is doing in their lives.

In recent news, please keep me and Pastor Tom in prayer. We're praying about taking a missions trip to China in January. It's exciting on the one hand and yet still so in the elementary stages of preparation. We will see what the Lord does...

..Until next time, God bless you everyone. : )

the last week or so..

2007-10-11T06:06:00.000-07:00

Here's a little update with some pictures from the last week since my most recent post...
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Last Friday I was able to go with Joe to hang out with Tim and Simon from Teen Challenge. After a devotional time and sharing some testimonies, we went to a war memorial site. The cave that we went into was part of a crucial Japanese network of caves that allowed them to hold their ground, for at least a short amount of time, against the American attack on Okinawa in 1945. It was a sobering experience seeing and reading about the atrocities that would take place in caves like this one.

Below is a picture I took outside our school building, on the roof of the apartment building next to us.

On Monday we went to Katsuren castle. Okinawa, formerly known as the Ryukyu Kingdom, was ruled be various kings for most of her history. In the picture below you can see Aaron risking much injury for the sake of 1 odd picture. : ) It did come out pretty good though.

After we had visited the castle, we drove to Hamahiga Island where we spent the rest of the afternoon. We pretty much did what we normally do when we come to a beautiful Island beach graced with a cool ocean breeze and clear blue waters; we climbed stuff. There was a real big rock, rising a good 90 feet out of the water, that we just couldn't resist. Ron and Josh led the expedition up, but once it came to the real climbing part, we ended up taking three seperate paths. Jayme and myself took the smartest and safest path, and Ron and Josh almost died trying other ways up. : ) Tom's words from the beach, "Hey! Aaron! Watch your sisters!" (At first Kayla was with us as well). Good old Tommy.

Good times...

Picture of our beach from the half-way point on the big rock...

And finally, Mr. Photogenic Ron, with his little chicken friend. I think that the face paint is what helped him catch it. I mean, I'm just saying, from a chicken's perspective, he's definitely an eye-catcher. : )

So we just found out that we'll be going to Korea on or around the 15th of November. Fun stuff. We'll be there for 5 days most likely but I'm not sure yet what all we might be doing. Sunday we'll be leaving for a 4 day, 3 night stay at the Okuma campgrounds up north. : D We're just too blessed. We seriously live on a little piece of paradise. We'll be camping right next to the beach and just spending time relaxing and being refreshed. Good stuff. Things have been going well and I'm learning more and more each day in regards to different aspects of ministry as well as in Bible study. My class has been going well and we'll be finishing up 1 Samuel next Thursday. It's been a blessing being able to learn both devotional aspects and theological aspects of 1 Samuel and David's life in general. Truly, the Lord is so faithful to speak through the vessels He's chosen for teaching His Word...So much with that....

Until next time, may He "grant you to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that christ may dwell in your hearts through faith--that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God." (Eph. 3:16-19)

: )

More updates

2007-10-02T00:54:00.000-07:00

So after we departed from New Life Academy, we had lunch at McDonald's where all the kids (and many of the college students) decided to do a little wrestling. It was amazing because these kids were throwing eachother around and yet there were no injuries and only one pair of glasses broken.

At camp, our schedule was kept busy with all kinds of activities to use up the kid's energy. To the left, Sosimo concocted a lovely McDonald's "smoothie" for the kids, consisting of a happy meal all blended together. It was definitely lacking any kind of appetizing appeal, as can be seen to the left...

In the picture above, I was able to catch a glimpse of our camp cooks while on their break away from the kitchen. They did an awesome job of cooking, providing for all of us a feast for every meal. They were both Argentinian, and so it was a lot of fun just listening to them talk because of their accents. I'm really not trying to be sarcastic in any way, I really did enjoy listening to them. Also, their kids were at the camp with us and one of them sounded exactly like a Columbian Cartel boss. No joke! His mannerisms and voice and everything was like he learned english out of a movie about the Cartel.

The camp was set in the middle of a beautiful jungle, within only 100 meters of the beach...

The compound back gate which led to the beach reminded me of something out of Jurassic Park. : )

That concludes the pictures from the camp. Once again, it was a great blessing being involved with everything the Lord was doing in these kids lives and to have a nice relaxing time up north. We'll actually be starting a youth group at the school with the students, so that's definitely something to keep in prayer. Tom would like to work on getting those kids at New Life involved with other youth groups on Island (like that at Foster and the one here at Ginowan) so that we can do big events together with the different youth groups. So it's neat to see what the Lord might be doing in the coming weeks and months.

This monday we were able to head up to Maeda Point, a famous snorkling/scuba-diving spot on island. There's an awesome reef there as well as a really neat cave you're able to swim into. I only wish we had an under-water camera. Me and some of the guys would go and swim with the scuba-divers and other tourists who had bought a lot of fish food. There were hundreds of fish that would just flock around you and eat right out of your hand if you let them. So many fish even became a problem because they decided they wanted to see if they could try you out for food. haha. Good times. Truly, by the good grace of God, I am a blessed man...

That night, 6 people decided they were going to pierce their ears...It started with Zach Ruiz wanting to pierce his, then spread to a few more of the guys, then ended up with more guys and even Kayla getting their ears pierced. In this picture to the right, Josh is trying to maneuver an earing into Ron's freshly pierced ear. It took a good 5 minutes before they finally got the earing through! It was pretty sad to watch.

...and I thought my semester got carried away with all the different haircutting parties! This party involved needles, blood, alcohol (for cleaning ofcourse) and a whole lot of people crammed into the bathroom. Sounds like ingredients for a great time! : D

So anywho, that's a short little recap of some of the stuff that's been going on. As for me, I guess I'm just learning each day what it means to follow the Lord. There is so much more involved in obedience than some simplified code of conduct, and yet there is such a simple message of obedience that is echoed throughout the Bible; "Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, and mind."

Always so many things, so many thoughts. : ) In the mean time, I'm just praying for wisdom...

"If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given him. But let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea that is driven and tossed by the wind. For that person must not suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord; he is a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways."

James 1:5-8

New Life Academy Camp

2007-09-24T22:23:00.001-07:00

We'll be running a youth retreat for New Life Academy Christian School. It's an international school on Island that has been here for quite a while and was originally started out of Neighborhood Church, about 20 minutes drive from our house in Ginowan. They've asked us to do a youth retreat for their Jr. Highers as well as a few High School students. The school is very small and mostly younger kids, so there will only be about 15-18 kids going, but it should be a huge blessing hanging out with them and sharing God's word with them. Some of them come from Christian families, but some of them are just Japanese kids whose parents wanted them to be fluent in English and get a good private school education, and so they're not at all Christians. We're planning on doing a lot of Bible study/chapel sessions to encourage these kids and also to present the gospel to these kids in a hopefully clear and powerful way. If you could, please pray for us and for these kids over the next couple days. I'll post up some pictures when we get back. Thank you!

Kakazu ridge and pictures from the weekend.

2007-09-24T22:04:00.001-07:00

Here's a couple pictures from Memorial Peace Park down at the southern tip of the island, which is where we went last monday. It always a powerful learning experience to think back on the travesty of war and to see the evils man is capable of. Thank the Lord we can visit the peace park reflecting on such a war and not have to experience the real thing in order to know the atrocities man is capable of. While I was there, I was actually able to talk with an Okinawan lady who worked in the caves during the battle of Okinawa. She said that both of her parents died in the battle and that she was a young girl aiding the Japanese soldiers in the caves. In the course of our conversation, she told me she was a Christian. I'm far from fluent in Japanese, so the conversation was difficult and limited, but it was so exciting to hear that she was a Christian. haha, she even added in that she was protestant. Even better news, eh? : )

Being that this last friday marked the end of 4 whole weeks

of school, we celebrated with donuts and a trip to Kakazu Ridge.

Spencer here pulling a classic anime pose...and Aaron actually did go through with taking the picture...and posting it...

...And finally, yes, they did just jump off a shinto altar to do some Karate kicks...

Good times.

Fun pictures

2007-09-24T21:28:00.000-07:00

So here at the Bible College, we occupy much of our time (perhaps too much) with making each other laugh and doing odd things. So Friday night after the prayer meeting at Dan's house, some of us decided we wanted to play with Dan's model Samurai swords...

Daniel is here usurping the church from Pastor Tom...

However, soon realizing all the debt and responsibility he has now taken upon himself, Daniel performs Hara-kiri, with Jesse to "assist" him. ...And now Jesse proudly poses over the body of his former sensei. Now as a Ronin (or wondering warrior), he is prepared to strike any who might stand in his way.

... So maybe we got a little carried away...

Here's Daniel destroying the front of some unfortunate vehicle...It's there fault for not stopping!

And now we have two thoroughly unique individuals, Ron and Josh. Although they may be joined at the hip, the two sport some clashingly juxtaposed styles in this picture.

...I'm pretty much convinced that Ron is strangely photogenic... (by the way, unbeknownst to Ron, the military uniform he picked up from the Koinonia thrift store was actually donated by someone we know. So it was pretty funny to see him walking around in it) And below we have Ron with a baby Gecko(?) he caught in the Futenma nursery. So just some fun pictures for the sake of fun pictures. : )

Pictures!

2007-09-16T19:54:00.001-07:00

These are events which have transpired over the past weekend. : D From Typhoon Samurai to Futenma Baby Watch.. Good times

Thoughts

2007-09-13T20:00:00.000-07:00

"Then the word of the Lord came to me, saying: 'Before I formed you in the womb I knew you; before you were born I sanctified you; I ordained you a prophet to the nations.' Then I said: 'Ah, Lord God! Behold, I cannot speak, for I am a youth.' But the Lord said to me: 'Do not say, 'I am a youth' For you shall go to all to whom I send you, and whatever I command you, you shall speak. Do not be afraid of their faces, for I am with you to deliver you', says the Lord. Then the Lord put forth His hand and touched my mouth, and the Lord said to me: 'Behold, I have put My words in your mouth. See, I have this day set you over the nations and over the kingdoms, to root out and to pull down, to destory and to throw down, to build and to plant.'"

Jeremiah's life speaks volumes of the faithfulness of God. He was a man who experienced some of the greatest sorrows and yet through it all was able to see far more than most, the very heart of our Sovereign God. Jeremiah is filled with powerful verses, but it is in this first chapter of Jeremiah that I have found words which speak most concisely to my present experiences.

I feel each day the confusion and doubt birthed from a sense of much inadequacy. I have often found myself nervously smirking (for I know not what else to do) about the overwhelming reality of my helplessness and inability to do those things the Lord has set before me. Awkward smiles mingled with a bowed head as I confess to my God His greatness and strive to believe in His faithfulness. It is a hard thing in this life to surrender one's whole self to God: our minds, our emotions; our will. With all this, I am realizing more and more the hidden spring of joy that resides within such submission, such trust. There is to be no doubt of my inadequacy before God. I can say and mean with Jeremiah, "I cannot speak". Oh Lord, God of all power, who am I to stand before you or to call upon your name? Who am I to speak your holy words, and how can it be that such a Holy God should pour that which is most holy into such a rebellious and sinful vessel!? There can be, as must once more be stated, no doubt of my inadequacy. But does the story end there? Does the Lord leave us to ourselves to wallow in our sin and ever fall before Him in complete failure? Glory be to God and all the saints can give a resounding "Hallelujah!", for that blessed answer of sovereign grace, "No". No, He has not left us to our pigsty of depravity but has given us such a living and dynamic hope. We who are totally unworthy to bless His name, for us He has laid upon His Son the Holy wrath we deserved that He might redeem us to Himself to the glory of His grace. With this, there is such a open sea of blessings, not withstanding that blessing that God should choose to speak through men and women to feed those which are His sheep. Not that our sufficiency is of ourselves, but it is of God, who has called and equipped and commissioned. All glory be to my God, who straightens the paths of His weary sojourners and mends the wounds of His broken hearted. He is abundantly able to save, and abundantly pours out His grace to the humble. And so I am able, by His Holy Spirit which has been so poured out, to do that which He has called me to do. All glory be to God, the lifter of my soul; my ready strength in time of need.

Some pics from summer vacation

2007-09-09T19:15:00.000-07:00

My parents sent me these pics and suggested that I should post them up. It really was a really nice vacation. : )

Sufficiency

2007-09-06T05:48:00.000-07:00

The all-sufficiency of Christ... ideal concept only?

Oh God, help my unbelief.

Things are moving along...Plenty going on each day. I'm not so stretched on time, which has freed me up to study more Nihongo. : ) It's fun, but wow, I have a long long way to go.

The challenge has been to step out in faith in the midst of comfort...

hmm...

Thank you everyone for your prayers to God for all that is going on over here. I'm afraid of what I would be without the Spirit of God, yet at the same time I suppose I should be terrified at how superficial and insincere that fear can be...Do I really grasp the reality of such statements as "You are my Lord; I have no good apart from you" (Psalms 16:2)??

We shall see...

Keep checking out Tom's blog. He has pictures. : )

no love, no glory

2007-09-01T00:11:00.000-07:00

The semester's in full swing...

Learning all sorts of different things.

Teaching is...dynamic?

Lesson for Aaron Meigide this week; no love, no glory.

I can't think of what else to write for the moment, so this will have to suffice.

Keepin' the thumbs up. : )

Yay for visual communication!

2007-08-25T15:38:00.000-07:00

Finally I have some pictures from Oki to post up. I got to head out to Ie Jima on Thursday and Hazel took about 100 pictures...kudos to the photographer/artist; Hazel-san.

New Students

2007-08-23T18:19:00.000-07:00

Some of the new students arrived last night and have been busy getting "acclimated" to Okinawa since. They got up early this morning and walked up and down the 330 and all through Ginowan. This semester looks like it's going to be a blast and I'm glad we have students who are adventurous and eager to try new things.

I wish my camera was working so I could post pictures of the new students, but if anyone wants to see them, you can always check out the e3missions blog as I'm sure Tom will be putting their pictures up soon enough.

Yesterday I was able to travel to Ie Jima (not Iwo Jima), a small island near Okinawa. We traveled there on a fairy and then rode around the island on rented bikes. Awesome stuff. The Island is maybe on 5 km in diameter so we were able to see just about all of the town in a short ride.

I'm doing good and the Lord continues to bless and challenge us in many different ways. Well, take care everyone.

"When he was reviled, he did not revile in return; when he suffered, he did not threaten, but continued entrusting himself to him who judges justly." 1 Peter 2:23

Prayer

2007-08-20T18:55:00.000-07:00

These last couple of days, but especially yesterday and this morning, I've been realizing how decieved I am about life. I won't be able to go too in depth, but after an eye opening dream last night, I realized a small bit of all the spiritual warfare that is constantly going on around us.

Part of my dream...
As if all the muscles in my body were suddenly seized with terror, I found myself laying face down on the ground unable to release myself from this sudden grasp of fear. Mouth open with no words taking form, I heard again the commanding words of the idol before me; "Worship Me!". Two words. Two words that lunged forward with a tenacity unable to be stopped by mere skin and bone. The words cut to my very soul. The words resounded through me; echoing inside the very framework of my consciousness. Fear. Fear was the only thing I was breathing now. As I began to cry out to God, I found myself able to stand up; but this still did little to the fear that had been thrusted into me. As if a seraded blade had burrowed itself into my chest, I stumbled about like some pathetic wounded prey. This fear raped my every thought. Crying to God, the tears from my eyes became to me some small comfort as this blade of fear began to withdraw. I saw a friend. I was nearly consoled by his presence until I heard the words once more. "Worship Me!" A quake of instability struck me and I found myself falling on to this young friend. Once more mind and body are pounded by this supernatural terror... eyes open. back in my room with heart pounding. It was only a dream....

Only a dream. Lying in bed looking into the dimly lit room, I stopped. Bewildered by one thing, I stopped. If dreams are only thoughts, why?... why then is adrenaline coursing so rapidly through my veins? Why then is my heart pounding as my lips are muttering incoherent prayers to God? These questions were only shortly endured as racing thoughts cascaded through my mind. In the midst of all this, the Holy Spirit began to speak to my heart. In clear and unmistakable words, I heard, "Aaron, you need to pray!" The reality of the statement was brought to light by the Spirit as I began to understand exactly what the Lord was saying. The Lord allowed me to experience just a glimpse of the spiritual realm and of the war that is going on all the time. I had only been asleep for 30 minutes during all this dreaming, but the reality of the thing was brought to life by the lucidity of the dream. I need to be praying. "Put on the whole armor of God...praying at all times in the Spirit, with all prayer and supplication. To that end keep alert with all perseverance, making supplication for all the saints..." (Ephesians 6) Let's hear that again. "Put on the whole armor of God...praying at all times in the Spirit, with all prayer and supplication. To that end keep alert with all perseverance, making supplication for all the saints..."....This is a war! This isn't some game I can expect to prance about in! We are saints, called unto God to be holy as He is holy; ambassador's of Christ and joint-heirs with Him; we're a royal priesthood, a holy nation, soldiers in a war for light in darkness... Can I dare think that this branch can even survive apart from the vine?
I am astonished by these verses in Revelation 12, "And the great dragon was thrown down, that ancient serpent, who is called the devil and Satan, the deciever of the whole world...then the dragon became furious with the woman and went off to make war on the rest of her offspring, on those who keep the commandments of God and hold to the testimony of Jesus..." (v.9, 17) We're told two major things in these verses; Satan is the deceiver of the whole world (that includes you too Christian), and that he is set on making war against those who hold to the testimony of Jesus (surprise surprise, that's you again Christian). Now, pure common sense would tell us that if Satan, the deciever of the whole world, "a roaring lion" (1 Peter 5:8), is furious and has vowed war against Christians, we should probably prepare to be attacked. Right? Right!? Sure, this sounds good, but you see, this roaring lion is a lot smarter than most give him credit for. As the Word of God has declared, he is a deciever. When was the last time a demon ran up to somebody and beat them up on the side of the street? hmmmm...and the idea of it even sounds funny. And yet we're told that we're entrenched in a war? I have to cut this short because I'm running out of time to write, but know this, Satan's work is in deception: if a person is decieved, guess what, they won't know they're deceived because, and here's that catchy part, they're decieved! The only way we'll ever be able to realize the reality of this war is through spiritual awakening; the gracious act of God alone to open our eyes. God opens our eyes to this war as we are walking in the Spirit, as the verse in Ephesians 6 tells us, through praying always in the Spirit. We can't fight with our eyes closed and we won't even know there's a dang battle going on until our eyes are opened by the Spirit through prayer! Prayer... We must pray! "Aaron, you need to pray!" "(your name), you need to pray!" We're involved in a spiritual war and we're dancing to the soothing symphony of illusion. Satan's painting all sorts of pretty pictures and the heart of God is grieved as Christians, those called by His Holy name, run off to affair after affair with damn illusions! We're getting torn to pieces in this war because we haven't seen it convenient enough to open our eyes and see the war that is ravaging our churches, our homes; our lives! ...Christian. Brother; sister. Pray!

Adjusting

2007-08-18T23:49:00.001-07:00

Kayo: "How is it being back in Okinawa?"

Aaron: "It feels like nothing has changed; but everything has changed!!"

Explanation = ...

It's been a blessing being back on Island. I can remember when I was a student here last year and how it seemed like in everyway the Lord was confirming in my heart that I would be coming back. It seemed like every time a "missions" oriented verse would come up, it would be like once again I'd hear the call that I'd be coming back for a season; that I'd be coming back after Bible College. But what is amazing is that it was only a few weeks after I left that I began to seriously doubt that I would ever be back here. I was so certain of my need to go to school and this and that and whatever; Japan seemed like only a fading dream or some nice thing once upon a time, only to exist in memories. It's amazing how faithful the Lord is despite my doubts; despite all my shameful reservations and stubborn hesitations, He is yet faithful to confirm even that which I may cease to believe!

I would like to continue on this thought before I get back to talking about what it's like being back....

Only days after I left Oki last December, I had reconstructive knee surgery which kept me in bed (kind of) for two weeks. After that it was still another 3 or 4 weeks before I could walk again due to meniscus damage and repair. Over those days I had far too much time alone with my racing thoughts and it wasn't long before I came to this great realization that I really needed to "get realistic" with my life. I began doing all kinds of college searches and contacting places etc., because I was certain that, although I would finish up Bible College, I needed to get serious about going to college and preparing for a career path of some kind. I began to completely dismiss even the idea of going back to Oki, thinking that my motivations and plans and ideas were all childish and selfish. It wasn't until I was back at school in Murrieta before I realized that I had been floundering about spiritually and needed to repent of some things in my life. With school back on track in Murrieta, although it wasn't always in bold print, I began to see once again that the Lord was leading me back to Oki. I was greatly encouraged by Pastor Miles, who I was a T.A. for, when he began to share with me about the way the Lord had worked in his life in past years since Bible College. He told me, "The Lord kind of brought me to a place where He said, 'Alright Miles, what do you want to do?' And so after praying about it, I just went about serving the Lord in ways that were on my heart to serve Him." The simplicity of Pastor Miles' encouragement was confounding, and yet it was exactly the thing I needed to hear. The Lord was desiring me to step out in faith, trusting in His promises and leaving it at that. Simple.
So, now, after many months and consistence in putting the patience of the Lord to the test, here I am, back in Oki, no idea what things are going to be like or how classes are going to go, but just waiting, trusting; seeing what the Lord wants to do. I'm tired of my doubts and have become increasingly irritated with my racing mind, all I want is to trust my Lord as a child trusts his loving father. And so I will. I'm going to wait. I'm going to stop with all this nonsense of questioning deterring obedience. Our God is worthy of so much more. If I should wish to have at all a measure of a sound conscience, I must venture all for Christ: He alone is worthy of all my life...

"So how is it being back in Okinawa?"

ii desu. Totemo ii desu. This is still the same Okinawa. Still the Lord is working each day. Still His servants are here laboring. Still the soil of hearts needs is to be tilled. But, as in the words of some man enlightened to a good degree of understanding by the grace of God, "You can never step in to the same river twice. Either the river has changed or it is you who have changed. You can never step in to the same river twice..." Life is in a flux. : )

It's good to be back. Anyone who reads this, please pray that the Lord would, above all other things, glorify His name through my life. That suffering as well as blessing, would be to the end of bringing honor to the name of Christ; that the Lord might redeem His name on the earth and, in the well prayed words of a good friend, "get salvation for Himself"... God Bless you guys.

-Aaron

Arrival in Okinawa

2007-08-16T23:58:00.000-07:00

Although all my senses cooperating together agree that I'm now sitting back in Okinawa, it is still far to surreal to completely accept. Perhaps this is why I make a good traveler; it takes me a couple of days to realize that I'm actually gone. : )

The trip went quite smoothly and I was able to get plenty of sleep on the flight to Taiwan. I met some neat people along the way and I thank you all for your prayers. It feels like so much has changed and happened since my departure in December, but yet Okinawa has been faithful to her identity and is still very much the same home it once was. My battery will be running out shortly, so look forward to more updates coming soon. Once again, thank you all for your prayers.

Pics from this summer.

2007-08-10T20:08:00.000-07:00

So this summer was generally a more relaxed, more work oriented summer... The pics I'm putting up in this first blog are only through June I believe.

First, Dougie-fresh and myself. This was taken at Calvary Chapel Living Water by Tommy while he was in town. Doug and I have both been praying about going back to Okinawa ever since we left. It looks like I'll be going out this semester, but the Lord has other plans for Doug and he might be heading out to Oki for the spring semester.

Here's a pic (below) of the family (except Adam) dressed up for a 50's themed Birthday party for a family friend who was, coincidentally, turning 50. Fun stuff. Even though everyone was told to come dressed up, we were just about the only one's dressed up... : ) This summer I spent much more time with my family than I have in previous summers.

Here's our first litter of puppies all grown up. They're 1/2 poodle, 1/2 maltise (maltipoo's). The one on the left is Ciesel, the one on the right is Sandy. They were our first puppies and definetely a load of fun to be around. I think the puppies made me appreciate much more the innocent things in life.

To the right is my Dad driving our boat on lake San Antonio near San Luis Obispo. We spent a week in central California just boating and relaxing with a close group of family friends.

While we were on vacation, we had the opportunity of learning about our white-man heritage. : D Here are the guys all lined up shooting clay pigeons off the back deck with 12-gauge shotguns. This was the first time Adam and I ever fired a shotgun, so it was both exciting as well as a learning experience in the power of guns.

A friend fixed up our jet-ski's and for the first time in 7 years we were able to take them out on the water. These things were a blast! At first it was really hard to balance it in the midst of all the boat wake, but soon we learned about standing on the sides of the jet-ski, (as Adam is doing in the picture) which gave us far more stability. With the jet-ski stable, the fun really began. After the week, there weren't any serious injuries and only a few bumps and bruises.

While we were heading back home on Sunday, there was a fire just off Interstate 5, so we tried to find an alternative route through the hills coming in to L.A. When we had been driving on the freeway, Aariel saw signs about a Lake Pyramid approaching, and although she kept asking and persisting that we stop off and take our boat out one more time, my Dad just wanted to get home. Well, it turned out that the side road we tried to shortcut the freeway with led right to Lake Pyramid, so we ended up cruising around for a couple hours. It was a really nice vacation and I especially enjoyed the fellowship with brothers and sisters I don't get to see very much. It was a little crazy at times with all those people staying in that one house, but the Lord gave us patience. : )

*That's the limit on pictures for now, so look forward to the next post recapping my work life and other times of summer.. : )

2007-08-09T20:08:00.000-07:00

"We have our beliefs, but we don't want our beliefs... God of peace, we want you."

-"Four Word Letter: pt. 2", mewithoutYou

I have often wondered and reflected upon why I can never keep a consistent journal. There have been many attempts at such a task, but it seems that ultimately, as I have have discovered, the task is doomed before it's inception. It is upon this matter of why no journal of mine has succeeded that I wish to address my thoughts, and in such examination, hopefully realize and rightly respond to the greater undertone of decay which has eaten away the foundation of many of the tasks to which I have set myself to.

There is much pride in the hearts of men... Sadly, even this statement is a cleverly devised understatement of the reality it's author refuses to fully accept. Consciousness, as in this case meaning the awareness possessed by the author of his own pitfalls and depravity, is alone no evil thing, nor can it be considered good of itself, but is a mere tool given by the hand of God that revelation of one's true condition might be received, and, prayerfully, rightfully responded to. Not far unlike consciousness is the general spectrum of knowledge itself. Knowledge, of any certain thing, seems to remain stubbornly neutral on all occasions, never to act out of it's own volition, but is, as consciousness, a mere tool, a loaded gun if you will, with which the possesser may effectively use to his own ends. This matter of consciousness has cleverly worked it's way in to my thoughts because in the process of introspection and examination of motives, it is impossible to avoid the night and day distinction between the consciousness or knowledge of something, and the action or response or use of that knowledge...

Too much on my mind...

As a child, I can recall the familiar mantra that was persistently plugged into my mind: "Knowledge is Power". Although it has taken some time to really come to agreeance with this statement, I believe that it is, despite my limited understanding, very much true. The footnote my childhood educators neglected to include with this mantra, (probably due to nievete and not so much negligence) however, is the age old motif cited so well in Orwell's Animal Farm, "Absolute power corrupts absolutely". I do believe that our good friend Hitler himself realized the truth in those three words of our childhood education. Knowledge of something is only the fuel; only God knows what a man might do with enough fuel. And so it is not knowledge itself that will help any man, though it is, no doubt, a necessity (the fuel), but it is the right application of that knowledge. And since "the heart of man is deceitfully wicked above all things", I suggest that we are absolutely hopeless in our total and complete depravity as blind and dead sinners, left only to destroy ourselves and those around us if given the opportunity. But; and here is the best part to which all God's redeemed can proclaim a most assured amen; But God has so desired the salvation of men that He should open the eyes of the blind and raise to life the dead in His work of regeneration that His redeemed might realize their depravity and fall upon Christ alone to save them. There is no hope aside from God's grace....

: )

Now, from a third lens, let's look at what just happened here.

- Aaron sat down to write a blog entry

- Aaron forgot what he wanted to write about (apparently this came after he gave the mewithoutYou quote)

- Aaron began to write about why he can't keep a journal

- Aaron's writing was off in la-la land about consciousness or something

- Aaron ended up getting on to the matter of total depravity

- Aaron wants to write about "reforming" his theology

- Aaron doesn't want to write about "reforming" his theology

- Aaron begins to examine Aaron examining Aaron, and write's a recap of the blog entry...

Conclusion:

I have discovered why Aaron can't keep a journal. His thoughts are inconsistent and scattered, lacking any sort of focus and, more unfortunately, the ambition or motivation to focus those thoughts. The result of this; no consistent journal. Why does he lack the ambition or motivation? Or why does he feel that a journal must be anything special? Pride. Purely so. It would appear that he cares too much about the perception others have of him to actually sit down and let out information which may conflict, and thus possibly contradict, with the opinions they've gathered upon outward observation. He lacks motivation because in fact the writing of the blog is for his own selfish ends of entertaining ideas and feeling a sense of pride in the entertainment of ideas. He lacks the eloquence and precision and mind that he selfishly wishes he had. He is, above most all other things, a proud man...

(there was a train of thought running somewhere in this blog)

But now on to important things.

I would like to start keeping this blog up almost daily...

And so with that, I will soon begin my next blog detailing some things that have transpired over the course of this summer.

I needed a new profile pic

2007-07-08T22:03:00.000-07:00

so i was scanning through different pictures to get a new profile pic, and I choose this one. : ) Thanks Tom for the shot.

2007-05-19T18:27:00.000-07:00

Well, it's been a good time.

Bible College will shortly be coming to a close; my paradigm shifts yet again.

Too many thoughts.

Two years later, what all has changed?

haha. What a question.

Well, summer break is only days away now. What's this summer going to be like?

So much uncertainty. It's nice to know that I have a Father who knows how to take care of things. Oh how lost I would be without His life flowing to me.

So what's going on in my life at the moment?
-I'm confused about ministry
-God is teaching me how self centered my life is
-Studying is destructive if it's not out of obedience; not done as a means to the end of glorifying God
-Friends are a precious thing that I never cease to take for granted
-in the words of Warren Wiersbe, "never take down a fence until you know why it was put up"
-hmm
-Don't get ahead of myself with plans for the future

I'm sure there's more, but tonight we're going to a bon-fire down in Oceanside, so I gotta go.

I'm glad I actually wrote something down.

Leviticus 10:3 ...."This is what the Lord has said, 'Among those who draw near to me I will be sanctified, and before all the people I will be glorified.' And Aaron held his peace."

Huh?

2006-12-17T21:47:00.000-08:00

Once again, another semester of school has come and gone. Another Season of life has passed. What's next?

There's so much that has happened. So many things to reflect upon. Our God is greater depths I'll forever be exploring...matchless; limitless is His grace.

The prospect of turning my back upon such revelation as has been bestowed this past semester terrifies my heart. After all Christ has done for me, how can I help but lay all at His feet? How can I help but trust Him entirely with my every breath? While the thought of such infedelity tears into my conscience, it seems yet another inescapable foe encroaches upon me. That is, the sobering realization that not only will I fail, and soon enough at that, but that the blood of Christ should cover me yet! "An outrage!" "What madness is this!" ...

The exponential grace of God is, without a doubt, an absolute affront to human logic. Exponential. The glorious grace of our God is just this, for "where sin abounded (increased), grace did much more abound (superabound; exponentiate)."

So what then? So many things my friends!

I'm out of battery in Taipei international Airport. I will soon arrive in Los Angeles, California.

My life spins on. Is not the Lord the one who holds every breath?

About to get checked by suspicious security. no joke. haha. Fun life.

-Aaron

The beginning of the end...

2006-12-12T19:16:00.000-08:00

Haha. the title's a bit melodramatic, but eh, daijoo bu. : D

I don't really have much to write at the moment, but I would like to give a lengthy blog to finish off the semester soon enough. Perhaps I'll try and write it Saturday or Sunday.

Good stuff finishing up here. All we have left are a couple finals. Church History and possibly Revelation today, Acts tomorrow, and "Life of David" on Friday. We just got through with our Japanese test and our final missions class, now it's time to study for the others.

Man, God is good.

I don't really know what to write, but I suppose this will do for now.

song for the moment....
" 'But they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength, they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run and not grow weary, they shall walk and not faint.' Teach me Lord, teach me Lord to wait." (From Isaiah 40:31)

きを　つけて！
神の　しゅくふくが　あります　よう　に。

November 28...

2006-11-28T04:09:00.000-08:00

Well I was choo blessed today when I finally opened all my wonderful birthday cards!! Thank you so much everyone for your love and your prayers! After reading the cards this morning, I was quite giddy on one hand and maybe even oddly emotional on the other. Above all, I was so refreshed by the Lord in marveling at all the blessings He's given me! For reals, I'll just never understand why God loves us so...Once more, thank you all so much for your prayers!

I'm excited to see the Lord changing all of our hearts in ways we could have never foresaw, and yet how much more our Lord desires for us! Oh that I might walk in humility, grasping the reality of the holiness of our Savior in spite of my own inadequacy and unfaithfulness...All the great things He gives to those who will only humble themselves and believe His promises...Thank you all for your encouragements!

So now I'm 19 years old...haha...crazy...so young, I know, and yet look at how time has flown by!

***"But as it is written, 'Eye has not seen, nor ear heard,' nor has it entered into the heart of man, 'the things which God has prepared for those who love Him.' " 1 Corinthians 2:9***

Father, what in the world do you have in store for those who love you? Amazing stuff!

Take care everyone, and thank you once again for all the Jesus stuff... : D

Happy Thanksgiving

2006-11-22T21:27:00.000-08:00

Well Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

I was choo ureshii on Teusday after getting a nice little present from home! Thanks so much everyone for the cards. I'm waiting until my birthday to open the cards. I knew it would be pretty hard to wait that long so I had Keegan hide them from me until my birthday...

Well I love you guys and hope everyone has a great Thanksgiving! : D

It looks like we're in for a tremendous blessing today as there will probably be like 60 people at the church!! Crazy! Check out the pics Tom will put up on E3missions!

Good times with the savior! Thanks for all the prayer whoever's out there that reads this stuff!

Aha, but Jesus is faithful!

2006-11-15T21:35:00.000-08:00

I haven't posted anything for almost three weeks now! So seeing that, along with so many other things going on lately, I decided that the title for this blog is quite fitting...
I recently just finished reading through "Hudson Taylor's Spiritual Secret". Hands down, one of the greatest and most powerful books I've ever read. If anyone out there wants a book that will challenge them immensely in their faith and walk with God, this is the book for you! I wasn't even reading it to be challenged! I was reading it because I have to read it for Missions class! But, as soon as I was just a few pages in, I was sucked into an inspiring tale of the awesome steadfast faithfulness of God! No doubt...
My prayer life has been immensely challenged as of late. Partially because of the Spirit speaking through this book on Taylor and partly because the Lord speaks in so many varying ways to get His Word across. : ). Everything, I suppose, is being challenged as of late! lol. I thank you all for your prayers and I assure you that no matter my incompetence and inadequacies, God is being glorified!
Oh, the Grace of God! Jesus has become a "bright reality" in my life as never before. It is our wretchedness and desperation for Christ that we must pray for. It is a place of humility where, in revelation of the glory and greatness of Christ, we stand undone, naked and impoverished before God! We must pray that God would reveal to us His absolute and complete holiness! In the consciousness of His presence we will fall flat on our faces in utter despondency and recognition of just how far short we stand, just how unfaithful we are in sight of His loving perfection…But! Ah! This is the place we need to pray to be! for it is at this place that the light of the gospel floods brightest! O how radiant and how glorious is our God and the light of the Gospel message when we realize the darkness of our souls! Do we fully understand that God expects us to fall though He has paid the price of the blood of His Son to stand us aright!? Oh the immeasurable depths of the love of our Savior! Trust this day in the sovereignty of our King and the finished work of Christ on the cross. In all of our striving to be pleasing to the Lord we must understand that the only way God is pleased is through faith. The only way we can carry on about this Christian life is through continual faith in the finished work of Christ for our sins. The source of all joy, the source of all love must come from the foot of the cross where we trust Christ completely for our right standing before God. Condemnation is unbelief, may we stop dead in our tracks every day and put our faith back in the finished work of Christ. Can we expect to love if we deceive ourselves into believing God to be upset with us? Can the love of Christ flow from a life that accepts not the grace of God upon Calvary’s Cross, but instead seeks to “do good things” to please a perfectly Holy God!?
I realize now that I have become no better man over the time of my life as a believer, simply that I have begun to trust God at His word. The only thing I’ve done is the one thing that isn’t an action! Haha. And that is the God that we need to learn to know. The one who requires nothing of us but our trust in Him. He asks nothing of us but that we would believe Him and allow Him to be the Lord of our lives.

Ah! God is good, neh? : D

And yet, with all of this I need so much more! Oh that the reality of His presence might be emboldened in our lives each and every day!

Pray for me brothers and sisters...

To God be all the glory no doubt!

-Aaron

So much

2006-10-25T23:04:00.000-07:00

Well there's a lot going on over here...

Keep checking out e3missions for all the updates on everything...

Life is running full speed and every day slips away so quickly...

Truly, we are but vapor in this life...

So much on my heart..."My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever." Psalm 73:26

In everything, I can do nothing but run to the arms of my Father. You are the comfort of my soul, O God, in you and you alone I find peace.

True peace...

I was blessed today by a chapter on "The first word of the Gospel" in Beautiful Feet by Danny Lehmann. Check it out.

"While God's love for us is unconditional (see John 3:16), His salvation is certainly conditional. His two conditions are repentance and faith."

"True repentance is the outworking of true faith...The call to faith and the call to repentance are one and the same."

"Can you imagine Jesus going up to His disciples and asking them to accept Him as their personal Savior and not require them to follow Him as Lord? No way! The Gospel is God-centered, not man-centered. It revolves around the glory of God, not the happiness of man. I get deeply concerned when Jesus is presented simply as a personal Savior who will meet people's needs. He is not some sugar daddy in the sky, a washing powder that washes whiter, or a trip to end all trips. He is the Lord of the universe, and He demands our total surrender."

Repentance and Faith. Repentance and Faith.

Lord teach me Godly repentance and true faith!

かみさま　は　すがえ　です！！

2006-10-19T22:08:00.000-07:00

Kamisama wa sugae desu!! (title of blog)　God is awesome! I don't know what I really want to write about, I think I just wanted to write something in Hiragana...

Well here's some pics from the last week. Not extraordinarily eventful, but a blessing none the less and one that I have at least a couple pictures for...
Here's Keegan's beautiful face.
And Joel getting his hair cut!!! Whoa!! He's really is a new man... He was hiding under some thick hair so far this semester, but now the true Joel Coronado will finally be coming out!
And finally, we have Aaron waring Joel's hair around...I don't think there's anyway I could have passed up such a great opportunity...it would be pretty awesome though to be able to have a giant handle bar mustache thing, or whatever that bushy thing is on my face.

Other than just good times and random nonsense, this week has been a great time of both stretching and blessed vision! The Lord is truly desiring to purify us for His work, and while the results are precious and the dross being burned away such a liberating experience, I so often lose sight of the beautiful hands of my maker when surrounded by this refining furnace...Oh that I might not be an unbelieving, untrusting servant!

Please keep myself as well as everyone else over here in prayer as the Lord is desiring so greatly to conform us to the 美しい　image of His Son!

イエス　は　主！Jesus is Lord!

神様は　私たち　を　愛しています！ or in all hiragana (the only thing I can read)
かみさま　は　わたしたち　を　あいしています! -God loves us!

(so much studying to do!)

This past week

2006-10-15T20:08:00.000-07:00

私は　日本語が　好き　です！　Or、　わたしは　にほんごが　すき　です。　I found out that I have a foreign language program thing on my computer that allows me to type in other languages. With Japanese, I type out the word in what is known as "Romanji", which is just the english equivalents to the sounds of the Japanese words. Fun stuff. I can only read hiragana and katakana, Kanji is way to much for somebody who can't even have a conversation in Japanese. Hiragana is like writing Kanji characters out phonetically, and katakana is an alphabet used to sound out any foreign words. So if you were walking down the street and saw "コーヒー" you would know コ＝ko and　ヒ＝hi(sounds like he), and the ー marks mean to stretch out the vowel sound. So, koohee, meaning "coffee". It's a fun language. Oh, and what I wrote at the beginning is just me saying "I like Japanese!". In Romanji, "watashi wa nihongo ga suki desu". watshi wa, me being the subject, "nihongo", the Japanese language being the object, "suki desu" being the verb to say that the object is liked by me, the subject.
Anywho, this past week....

This is a picture of an area of a Buddhist temple place, where they have restored different buildings that have existed on these sites for hundreds of years. Nearby to this site is the Naha port where the first official missionary to the Ryuku islands, landed. His name was Dr. Bettleheim (I forgot his first name), and they've actually built a kind of monument to him as the picture below shows. It's interesting that they would do such a thing because most people hated him tremendously and he was forced some 7 or 8 years after beginning ministry here on Okinawa, to leave because of successive maulings by Okinawan people. I would encourage everyone to do some kind of reading on this guy, it's fascinating to say the least. Check out the E3missions video that Tom put up about Bettleheim.

As for the pictures below, I just thought they were amazing so I had to put 'em up. Last Teusday Kayo performed a traditional Japanese tea-ceremony for us and used Jeremy, Djurdji, and Keegan as her volunteers. Jeremy loved it and did his best to be some Samurai-san. Fun stuff.

There's been a lot going on spiritually over here, so continued prayer is always much needed. There's so much I could say, I suppose, about all the things God has faithfully been doing; but to do much more than simply say, "all glory to our God and King for His faithfulness" may be too much.

So then, all glory to our God and King! He has redeemed us by His blood and made us a kingdom of priests unto Him. May my heart only grasp the overwhelming grace of our King...

"As the deer panteth after the water brooks, so panteth my soul after thee, O God." Psalm 42:1

Last Saturday

2006-10-11T22:22:00.000-07:00

This last saturday was quite an adventure. Rob came and picked up Jeremy, Doug and I to go look for this "trench" cave thing located somewhere near Nishihara, not to far from our house. We didn't know where we were looking, or really if we were even looking on the right hill, but we set out to find this place in search for war artifacts. Rob and Jeremy had received some extremely vague directions as to where "Conical hill" was, and so we were pretty much wandering around in the brush of a big hill for a couple of hours, wondering if we would find anything. We found some old pieces of something and lots of bombed out little spots, but nothing special. We ended up climbing to the top of the hill, only to find a trail that led from the top of the hill to about exactly where our car was parked...needless to say, the discovery was a bit shaming and we felt pretty lame after climbing uphill through jungle for a good hour. It was fun though, and we might go back again to look for the cave.

Saturday night we headed to a festival kind of thing in Naha where some of us got to dress up. I forgot what the festival was for, but by the time we got there it was pretty much closing down and we only stayed there for an hour-and-a-half. It was a beautiful night though, and the whole thing was held in a park area up against an inlet of ocean water. : D. The Jimbay's, what Doug is sporting, were really comfortable and fit you like a bath robe. The girl's beautiful dresses, I think they're called Kimono's, were donated by Kayo. If you couldn't already tell, everyone in Japan is obsessed with throwing up a peace sign in pictures...maybe one day I'll find out why that is. Hope everyone enjoys the pics. I enjoy this last picture because it illustrates how much we've all become like a big family over here. We're pretty much always together, something that has taught us and forced us to get along and put subtle differences aside. It's a growing process for sure, but the Lord has a way of meshing us together with people we'll grow with as well as from.

Jr. High Camp recap

2006-10-10T08:01:00.000-07:00

So from Wednesday morning until Friday afternoon we were off with the OCSI Jr. High kids to there annual school camp! It's such a blessing seeing how much of an outreach ministry this school is. There are many Japanese who send their kids to "Christian School" for the purpose of having their kids receive a private, english education. The kid's aren't allowed to speak Japanese on campus and so they are forced to learn and practice their english extensively each day. This means though that there are many kids who don't know Jesus going to these schools; which is where evangelism and sharing the love of Christ comes in so crucially.
All the CCBC students went to either the Elementary camp or the Jr. High Camp. I was blessed with the opportunity to help out with the Jr. High. We did everything with these kids and got to share our hearts with the groups they put us over. My devotional group consisted of church going kids for the most part, so I was excited to have at least a foot already in the door in sharing the Word with them.
We did all sorts of activities, unfortunately many of which had nothing to do with the Lord and everything to do with keeping the kids busy, but on Thursday night we got to watch the Lord do great things. We had a camp-fire worship time, followed by a message from the Word. The whole purpose was to get everyone really reflecting upon where they were at personally with the Lord and where they needed to be, perhaps. We led the kids in a corporate prayer time where we prayed a salvation prayer for any who wanted to receive Jesus as their Lord and Savior. There was no asking for a show of hands of who prayed or not, we simply told the kids after the prayer that if they wanted prayer for anything that they could come to the counselors standing around, outside the circle. That night will definetely stick in my mind as a huge blessing of God as His Spirit truly moved in the hearts of so many. As I looked into the sky thanking God for His awesome love, I could hear kids quietly sobbing as they reflected upon God's awesome love for them; I couldn't help but sing so loudly within my heart as all the world around me just seemed like one big flowing love song to the King of Kings.
In short, I was so blessed and will be keeping these kids and the school in prayer; praying that what God did that night won't be forgotten by either the kids or us as counselors. The Lord is faithful and will continue to work out glorious things by His Spirit. I pray I might only yield to Him in all things that He might be glorified in everyway.

Thank you Jesus!

Monday, October 2nd

2006-10-10T07:26:00.000-07:00

So a week from this last monday we went out to the Yomitan Wharf where we jumped off a huge break-water wall that protects the port there from tsunami's. the section of the wall seen in the top right image was a good 25 feet, but there was another section 10 feet higher that we started jumping off. Next time we'll have to bring our cameras out to the wall for some sweet shots jumping off. To the top right is a picture of one of the beautiful caves we got to walk back to, kind of near OCSI in the Yomitan area. The Island is filled with thousands of caves all over the place, this one actually held some 1000 civilians when the Americans attacked the island in WWII. Miraculously none of them died because of the efforts of one brave Hawaiian soldier who was Japanese in heritage who managed to get the people to come out of the cave without any harm. Thank God, because the Americans were ready to hit the place hard for fear of a Japanese regiment possibly hiding inside.

As for this bottom picture, when we went out to the sea wall there were sharp barnacles all along the concrete jacks we had to climb up, so many of us got small cuts all over our feet. Djurdji (Jew-G) shows us all, however, that even nasty barnacle cuts can be taken with a smile.

All in all, a great day for sure. : D

Saturday September 30

2006-10-10T07:04:00.000-07:00

A week from this last saturday we went to a fellowship luau on Foster Marine Base. The Lord opened up doors for us to do ministry at the Protestant Chapel there on Sunday mornings, so they've started to try and get us plugged in with their fellowship a little more. We were blessed with great food and a fun time. Oh, and about the pig picture...yeah...definetely a one time thing.. (I accidently got too close and really kissed the thing)

Jr. High Camp!!

2006-10-03T14:55:00.000-07:00

Today we're going to head up to Nago to be counselor's at the Okinawa Christian School International Jr. High Camp. I'm so blessed and excited about what the Lord's going to be doing in the next couple of days, so please keep this in your prayers!! The school is a "Christian school" but really a good number of the kids there either don't know the Lord or aren't walking with him. At the same time though, all the students seem to be really open to talking about God and the Bible, so I'm excited.

Yay! Aaron gets to be a camp counselor in Okinawa!

Lots of Pictures

2006-09-27T00:14:00.000-07:00

Well, I decided I'd throw a bunch of fun pictures on here for anyone to look at. So to begin with, we have above a picture of an American Fireworks Terrorist who goes by the alias "Doug", along with his accomplices Nikki and Zach. Here in Japan fireworks are legal... :D Yay for fireworks and strange statue creature things! This was all Sunday night 9/17. We got to play with fireworks and an amazing playground with a super long rolly slide!

The next day we went out on our "Monday Adventure" to the ruins of an old castle on the island and then to one of the connected islands to hang out at the beach there. The beaches here are pretty much all coral reef so there's no real water activities other than playing in tide pools and perhaps swimming to small islands. Awesome times hanging out and enjoying the beautiful beach.

Jumping to this week, monday we went to Ryuku Mura (I think that's how it's spelt) and had a good time with the little town there. It's an imitation old Okinawan village supposed to portray what villages would have looked like before WWII. There were some crazy statues people had made; you never know about those island people man.
On a lot of the beaches here there's small caves carved into the coral rock by the water. The picture above is one of the larger caves that we were able to climb into.

As for this picture...umm...I guess Doug decided he was tired of being both a man and a human...so he decided to be a viking mermaid (note the enormously wide shoulders)...
After all our adventures at the old Okinawan community and then at the beach, we were invited to a Japanese/Okinawan dinner at Sachiko-san's house. Sachiko-san is an awesome believer and missionary to Nepal. She blessed us with some amazing food (check out the pics on Tom's blog) and fellowship. The girls above decided that nori (sea-weed) is pretty useful for Unibrows and mustaches. Haha, good times with good food.

Well that's all for now. I was planning on posting all of this and these pictures a couple of days ago but I'm pretty isogashii over here, so getting the time for things like this is a priveledge.

The Lord's been blessing classes so that's always awesome. Hope you all enjoyed the pics.

What an amazing day

2006-09-23T07:50:00.000-07:00

First off, the Lord is so good. I must share a verse with you all that immensely blessed me today and was exactly what I needed. It's Psalm 73:26; "My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever." After a week of struggling over this and that and really being in a place of just blahness, my King comforted me with this awesome reminder, that He is to be my strength, to be the one I rest in. Man, there is so much to say of how this verse is the exact puzzle piece slid right in to complete the picture and put everything in harmony. God is so good.

So today we went to the Franklin Graham training class where me and a few other students finished up the course to be a ministry worker for the upcoming crusade here in Okinawa. Franklin will be coming out November 3-5 (I think) and be sharing the gospel message with thousands who have almost surely never heard it before. Small churches spread out throughout the island are all participating and excited about what the Lord is going to do. We're all praying for the Lord to work mightily, so I would ask any believers out there who might be reading this to just say a prayer for the upcoming crusade; that many might coming into a saving faith in Jesus, as well as that there would be thousands of seeds planted that the churches can follow up on. There's a heavy emphasis upon follow up at this crusade because chances are that most of the people there, though they may be very interested in the Gospel message, will not make commitments to Christ simply because it sounds so foreign and they've never heard anything like it. So what is going to take place is that people at the crusade, hopefully everyone attending, will be encouraged to fill out information about who they are and where they live and many "home churches" in a sense, will be following up with these people, as well as any who recieved the Lord. I don't know all the details but it's really exciting and something we're definetely keeping in prayer.

After the class a few of us went to go visit a former marine who is in the hospital for heart failure problems or something like that. It was totally the Lord because randomly my mom sent me a prayer request she had received back in the states through "Armor of Light ministries" based out of Calvary Chapel Costa Mesa. The prayer request was for a man in the hospital here in Okinawa, so my mom sent it to me to see if there was anything we could do. I told Tommy about it and he was excited to help out, so I e-mailed the Pastor in charge of the ministry and he let me in on a bit more information, enough information to get us to the Japanese hospital to the Gyjin staying there. When we got there we had no idea who this guy was or anything, but the Lord totally just hooked it up. We got in there, met the guy and the family that had come over to visit him, prayed for him and encouraged him. It was an immense blessing for me getting to go in there with Tommy and just walk by faith man. The Lord blessed it. Also, funny the way God works, he lives down the street from the school/Church and the Cafe. Haha, the Lord wants to get ahold of this guy who is kinda backslidden. : D

And finally, tonight. We went out to play music and share with the Japanese down in Mihama at "American Village". It's a place that is modeled after something you would see in Orange County with stores and a promenade kind of look to it. Anyways, theres a lot of people there so we got to hand out a whole lot of tracts and share Jesus with quite a few people. It's really strange sharing the gospel and talking to someone through a translator, at first, but soon you learn to just flow and it can be a blessing getting to stop and collect your thoughts and pray. God is so good guys, haha, awesome stuff.

So I think I'm turning a little Japanese. As you begin to spend more time with the peopel here and actually try and conversate a little in Japanese but mostly in English, you begin to speak quieter, be more polite and articulate much more clearly. Praise the Lord for that, maybe I'll learn some manners over here. : D

So God just blessed the week. All praise honor and glory to our King; who chooses the foolish of the world to confound the wise and the washed up in this world's eyes to bring glory to His name. I pray that He might put each one of us in a place of sole dependence upon Him and that we might begin to live the life of faith He is desperately longing for us to live. "For without faith it is impossible to please Him." Hebrews 11:6 Step out in faith and love your brothers and sisters, forgive the unforgivable. Surrender your life, your mind, your soul to the will of the Father that He might be so exalted in your life. It is a life of faith and reliance upon the King of the Universe and one that bears no regrets or second guessing. Let us surrender our lives in to the hands of our God and allow Him to use us so mightily in this world. Jesus, take our lives. Our hands are open unto you...

So much...

2006-09-19T20:58:00.000-07:00

This last week of classes, and then today's missions class, have really put me in a place of realizing how much my Lord still needs to do in my heart; how much he wants to do!

I've never really known what I want to do with my life, per-say, but I've known since I started really walking with Jesus that I wanted Him to be first in my life, wherever I might end up.

Lately I've really been struggling over "where to?" and "what to do!" Missions class is like torture because it's such a stinking amazing class about the mission field etc., but at the same time I don't know where I'm going!

Tommy pointed out something that was a blessing to me in "The Life of David" class as we were studying through 1 Samuel 13. He pointed out the way that Saul's impatience and inability to wait on the Lord resulted in him breaking the law and making and preparing a sacrifice to God by himself. It was a lack of faith. He saw the enemy troops coming and knew that there needed to be a sacrifice before the battle, but did not trust Samuel's promise that he would be there when he said he would be there. He took things into his own hands and performed the sacrifice himself, instead of waiting for Samuel to arrive. Tommy pointed this out, "Second only to suffering, waiting is one of the hardest things that a Christian will do. Also, only second to suffering, through waiting our Christian character is most established and built up."

So here I am then, trying to wait on the Lord. : ) It's stinking hard....but God is so good. He will always provide. He always has the best plans. He never lets us down. He always picks us up. He never forsakes us; never leaves us hanging. He's got the whole world in His hands... Right?

"Why are you cast down, O my soul, and why are you in turmoil within me? Hope in God; for I shall again praise Him, my salvation and my God." Psalm 42:11

please keep me in prayer everyone; anyone. : D

Pictures : D

2006-09-15T21:30:00.000-07:00

So, I had one of the girls cut my hair on sunday and we decided to leave it a little crazy for a day. Yeah, that was definetely a one time thing. The crazy thing was that just about every Japanese person that saw it thought it was the most amazing thing ever... Everyone else, however, thought it pretty nasty. haha, good times.
Here's the hair now. I guess a haircut needed three pictures on the blog, but cutting my hair was a pretty big thing for me... It's nice though to not have all that extra baggage anymore, especially in all this heat and humidity.

To the right are memorial flowers placed at a site commemorated to a group of Junior High girls that were forced into military service during World War II by the Japanese. Something like 80 to 90% of them died from different causes by the end of the battle for Okinawa. The girls were drafted as nurses, first to help out in the main hospital in Naha, but then as the fighting got heavier, in caves thorughout the southern and central area of the island. The story of these girls and what they went through during the Battle of Okinawa was pretty touching; yet another testament to the grim realities of the results of man's sinful nature. "What causes quarrels and what causes fights among you? Is it not this, that your passions are at war within you? You desire and do not have, so you murder. You covet and cannot obtain, so you fight and quarrel." James 4:1-2

This was probably the highlight for me this week. Above is a picture of the sunrise over the island teusday morning. The bikeride down to the beach from our house is about 20 minutes with no traffic. When I left, it was still dark out and the stars were still out to greet me : D. The sunrise was uts'kushi! It was a great time to just worship our mighty and awesome king! The flawless designer concerned with every intricate detail.

"When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place, what is man that you are mindful of him, and the son of man that you care for him?" Psalm 8:3-4

I'm not very good at taking the time to keep this thing updated regularly, so for more stuff be sure to be checking Tommy's E3Missions blog.

Prayer is much needed! So whoever my brother's and sister's in Christ are that might be checking out this site, please pray for the ministry over here in Okinawa. : D and leave comments too...

A Friend's heart

2006-09-08T22:17:00.000-07:00

This is a post a good friend of mine posted on Xanga. I hope all who read it are convicted and encouraged by God the way I was.

Monday, August 28, 2006

Okay, it's time for some more of my heart's ramblings...I've been doing a lot of thinking about so many different things, but mainly friends and how they affect you good or bad. And the question that keeps coming back to my mind is this: could I tell you *anything* at all, and you still look at me the same? Absolutely no changes in how you view me? And the conclusion I have come to is that if the answer isn't a confident "yes", we are merely acquaintances no matter how much time we spend together. This isn't a plea for pity or a cry of "I have no friends" because pity from man is completely bunk. I find this attitude in the church that if you change any sort of doctrine that doesn't line up with what we "grew up in", you are automatically labeled a rebel and put into a group that has no hope for redemption. Shame on us for causing so much of the division in the church we complain about. To take it a step further, there is a sick misconception of salvation and sanctification that I find distressing. We are taught that being a good Christian leads you to live a good, healthy, wealthy, long life with your dream girl and a good family. Yes, you will have problems but there is no anguish, no true pain that is acceptable. Instead we want God to take everything away that makes us uncomfortable. Have we not learned nor accepted that it is by fire we are sanctified? It is by the fear of God we repent and grow closer to Him because He is the only salvation from a life of futility and death when we die. Back to my original point, we need to befriend each other as Christians. We need to truly be brothers and sisters....NOTHING can separate us. No matter what my brothers or sister have done in the past it does not negate our sibling status. In an even more intense way Christians should be inseparable because we are the family of Christ. What is stronger? Our blood or His? Then why must we insist on creating conflicts and contentions because we don't like how someone worships or someone's past? Or what someone struggles with?! We are doing more for Satan in the body of Christ than we are for God. And the sad thing is we don't even realize it. Why are people afraid to open up to other Christians? I'll tell you why...a lack of compassion and understanding. A combination of apathy and self obsession is what discourages so many people who may want to be Christians from repenting and fully embracing the God that everyone talks about but nobody knows. Christ is so much more radical than we "Christians" think. Why are we not reaching out to the lepers? Why is no one ministering to the homosexuals who have been raped and abused as children and are so marred as adults?! We have become comfortable with being normal. Rather, we have become comfortable trying to pretend we are normal. If we are not real with people they will not be real with us. Please, let us drop our pride. Stop acting as if their sin is more disgusting and despicable than yours. Guess what? It's not. Our pride is far more despicable than the sin of who we gossip about. We are shutting the doors to our own houses because we don't want to let anyone in and then find we are lonely in our selfishness. Our houses are empty of real fellowship and we have no one to blame. Oh God, make us people that will tremble at Your feet and move at the whisper of Your voice. Please Jesus, will You take away everything within us so that we have no pride? So that we can glorify you as true empty vessels for Your honor? We are sick as a body, we have turned against ourselves. We are the virus. Have grace and cure us Jesus. You said that the world will know we are Your disciples because we love one another...why has it been so hard for the world to discern real Christians from those who claim Your name in vain? Separate us Lord for Your glory! Draw the line and let us unify as Your body and in one accord declare Your glory to all the earth rather than have hundreds of different voices shouting different things simultaneously so that nothing is heard by the world. This is my cry Jesus...let it start here.

Last weekend photos

2006-09-07T22:17:00.000-07:00

Here's all the gang at the beach we visited on Saturday. This is all the students as well as other people who are just part of our family over here. We have 13 full-time students in total, one of them is actually living seperately on the island and originally here to study Karate. Praise the Lord, good times at the beach. : )

The jungle oasis to the right is a little waterfall swimming area toward the northern part of the Island. This serene little getaway was quite the experience. The water was a perfect blend of rain water and fresh spring water, maintaining a crisp cool to it. The rain decided to join our little party and only added to the beauty of the whole scene. God is so good you guys! Being a relentless explorer at heart, I decided on climbing about half way up the waterfall and jumping off into the pool below. I think it freaked Tommy out a little bit, but it was a blast.

As for the picture below, this is the beach we went to on Saturday. The water was beautiful! There's no real waves anywhere on the island, so the ocean is pretty much one big salty swimming pool. This picture was taken from a metal pole shooting out of the ground that I decided I had to climb up.

Well that's all for now, I'll probably posting some more pictures and writing and all that good stuff soon enough.

Verse for Today-
"The LORD your God is in your midst, a mighty one who will save; he will rejoice over you with gladness; he will quiet you by his love; he will exult over you with loud singing." Zepheniah 3:17

There's actually a catchy little song for it that was in my head. But isn't that awesome, he quiets us with his love. This is part of a prophecy in Zepheniah talking about the Messiah's Kingdom that will be set up in the future, but for now, we can find this awesome truth to be true in the ministry of the Holy Spirit; the ministry of God in our hearts. A beautiful reminder throughout our days, the love that God has for us.

What's been going on lately

2006-09-06T21:08:00.000-07:00

Well I finally have a little bit of time to get on here and write a little bit about what's been going on here in Okinawa. Hopefully this will be the start of continued posts on this blog about all that's going on in my life.

Since the moment I got off the plane and out of the airport, my experience here in Okinawa has seemed like one non-stop stream of activities. I can't really complain about all of it, but it's just kept me from sitting down a whole lot and really reflecting on everything.

So I'm here in Okinawa. It's part of Japan but really has it's own unique "Island personality". The Okinawan people are pretty distinguishable from the lighter skinned mainlanders and their children, and the Okinawan people are a bit more laid back than what I hear about mainlander Japanese; no big surprise since they do live on a beautiful island.

Ministry over here has been a huge blessing and it's been really great having Tommy sort of send us all over the place to serve; keeping us from a lot of complacency or other wasteful activities. We go to school four days a week, serve and do all sorts of things on Saturday and Sunday, and try and reserve Monday as a relaxing Sabbath day. So far we've seen some amazing sights, from the doorway to the Spirit world (lol it's literally a wooden door against a hillside in a park...) to some breath taking tropical reef's. The beauty of God's creation, from the smallest sea creatures to some picturesque sunsets over the clear tropical waters just off shore, cry out in every way "glory to the King on high".

Amidst all of this, however, is a people who have been relatively untouched by the good news of Jesus Christ. There are towns and islands (as Okinawa is a chain of hundreds of islands) who have never even heard the name of Jesus, much less His desire for the salvation of their souls! That there is an all powerful God who loves human beings is almost a ridiculous thought in the minds of so many! Steeped in the worship of their ancestors and prayer to spirits, the people have lost hope for anything more than trying to live a comfortable life. Sadly enough, this is really the only hope any person who has not put their faith in Jesus for the forgiveness of their sins has; that of temporary, finite satisfaction...

Follow this train of thought with me, for in this we find the real reason for us being here on this island. "Now faith is the conviction of things hoped for; the evidence of things unseen." Hebrews 11:1. Our faith in God is what creates our hope; for this life and the next. But our faith is not just something spawning from nothing. Love. Love is the key here and really the key to understanding all of the Bible. God's love for us is what produces our faith in Him. It is by God's awesome love for us that we not only exist, but have been given salvation at all! "By this we know love, that He laid down His life for us" (1 John 3:16a) and "God shows his own love toward us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us" (Romans 5:8). Mankind stands condemned before God; having sinned against a holy, eternal God, we are deserving of an eternal punishment. But in His love and grace, He has provided Christ for the forgiveness of our sins; that if we should turn from our sin and put our trust in Him for our salvation, we can be saved! "Repent therefore, and turn again, that your sins may be blotted out, that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord, and that he may send the Christ appointed for you, Jesus." (Acts 3:17-18) **We are here in Okinawa to share the glorious good news of God! As believers in general, really, we are all here in this world to share the glorious good news of God! To bring glory to God in all that we do and in who we are! "Only let your manner of life be worthy of the gospel" (Philippians 1:27a) Everything a believer does should be weighed on it's significance concerning the gospel; concerning the glory that it brings to God. These two, God's glorification and the gospel message go truly hand in hand, as God is most glorified in the message of His amazing grace; both shared and lived out by believers! I'm over here as a student in Bible College, and that probably takes up the majority of my time and thought, but in the grander scheme of things I'm here to bring glory to God. So going to school over here we have the opportunity to be involved in a lot of different ministries, as well as to reach out to the Japanese and Okinawan people with the love of God in many different ways. In future posts these different ways and things will probably come out more and so I hope that it is a blessing to everyone to see all that God is doing (key point to understand), and be able to rejoice in His faithfulness. This could all be expounded upon so many times over, but I'm really just trying to express to everyone all that's going on over here and really, why it's going on.

So we've been up to a lot, and God is good, and the latter is really all that matters. I'll try and keep this thing up as often as time allows, so hope everyone enjoys the rest of the blogs. : )

Verses that have really blessed me today.
"So the people of Israel put away the Baals and the Ashtaroth, and they served the Lord only...The cities that the Philistines had taken from Israel were restored to Israel, from Ekron to Gath, and Israel delivered their territory from the hand of the Philistines. There was peace also between Israel and the Amorites." 1 Samuel 7:4, 14 **When the people turned to the Lord, he restored all those things that had been taken away from them as a result of their sin. Much in the same way, in God's awesome love He restores so many things in our lives that were stripped from us because of sin. The life of the believer is that of trust in a God of healing; his healing hand reaching far deeper than physical ailments and into the hearts of those yielded to Him to gently mend even the most gruesome of scars. Our God is a God of restoration!**

Picture for profile

2006-09-01T16:41:00.000-07:00

This picture was taken on a big metal post that I climbed up at a beach here in Okinawa. It was really hot that day so sweaty hands on a pole 40 feet in the air is kinda sketchy. But it was sweet just being up there. : )

Hello Blog World

2006-08-31T03:25:00.000-07:00

Well it looks like I'm going to start keeping this blog as a sort of online journal. I don't have time right now to write very much, but you can look forward to posts with pictures and all sorts of goodies soon enough.

The verse for today

"When Joseph woke from sleep, he did as the angel of the Lord commanded him: he took his wife" Matthew 1:24 -Joseph believed God for the impossible. : )