Thanksgiving Tea

Debe has a monthly tea for some of her English students. This gives her the opportunity to visit with the ladies outside of a "classroom" situation.


It is a good chance to share the Gospel, as well. Being November, this month's theme was about Thanksgiving.

Debe shared about the origins of Thanksgiving and how people were thankful to God. Japan also has a "Thanksgiving Day", but it is to thank people for their hard work.


She also shared Psalm 95:2
Let us come before His presence with Thanksgiving;
Let us shout joyfully to Him with Psalms.

Ishimine Church

This is Ishimine Baptist Church. Please pray for them as they are currently without a Pastor. This hasn't kept them from doing outreaches, however.

Dan is priviliged to teach a class there every Saturday for the youth.





Currently only 2 or 3 come, but as Jesus said, "Where 2 or 3 are gathered, I am there also." Plus, there is plenty of room for growth!


It is mostly an English class, but our goal is that it will become more of a youth group. Our hope is that many others would join. It would be cool if we could do some outreaches.

Debe also has an monthly Ladies Outreach here. Please pray that God would speak through us.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Well another Thanksgiving has come.

We are very thankful for the many blessings we have, especially in Okinawa. We are able to get some things that were hard to come by in mainland Japan: Turkey, cranberry sauce and gravy, for starters.

The past couple years we celebrated at the Ruiz's home. This year, however, things were a little different. It was last January that Pastor Tom started the church here in Ginowan City. In the 11 months, the church has grown to where it would be much too crowded in their home. So this year we had Thanksgiving at the church.

It was a blast! With three turkeys and more pies than Sara Lee, we were prepared to feed the masses. And many folks came: 60 or 70 people at least. The cool thing was that many of them were first time visitors! Hopefully they will come back for church service.

While it was a day filled with food and fun, Pastor Tom gave a Gospel presentation as well.





We were so busy stuffing ourselves that we didn't take too many pictures. But here is one of an icebreaker game.










Photo courtesy e3missions

Nabe

I should have been suspicious when I heard we were having a nabe party the other day. Not that there is anything wrong with nabe -- nabe means "a pot for cooking" in Japanese -- there are several excellent meals you can make in your nabe (Shabu Shabu, Sukiyaki, to name a few)

When I heard that Lisa and Ping were coming too, it was nothing unusual -- they come occasionally for a meal.

But when I heard that Debe's homeschool student, Kento, was also coming, well that was unusual. Not that I minded, but I should have expected that there was more than just "nabe" planned for the evening.

Well, it turned out to be an early birthday party for Dan. Dan tries each year to sneak by without a celebration, but never seems to succeed. Hey, when you are 20 or 25 it is something you want to celebrate. When you start hitting the 30's or more, you don't necessarily want the reminder!

I'm just kidding really! I do appreciate the well wishes I received.

Kids Choir

Some more pictures from the Franklin Graham Festival.














They had many choirs: this was the Kids Choir. On the right is Lisa, Debe's sister. Many of her students were in the choir.

It was a great time of many churches working together with the common purpose of building God's Kingdom. God's Holy Spirit moved that weekend and is still moving today!

Please continue to pray for the churches here in Japan.

Franklin Graham

photo courtesy e3missions

The Franklin Graham Festival was really, really cool.

If you have been to a Billy Graham Crusade it was quite similar in style, although it seemed to have a wider variety of music.

Many 100's went forward to receive Jesus -- Praise God!

I was feeling kind of bad: since we live about an hour away we were not able to be as involved as we would have liked. With my work schedule I was not able to assist with counseling or the choirs even. All I could do was invite a few English students.

But God does not ask us to do more than we are able to do. I was excited to find out that one of my students did go and became a Christian. And there were some others that we have been praying for, for a long time, they also made a decision to follow Jesus Christ.

So, it was a reminder to me that we just need to be faithful with what God gives us and to leave the miracles to Him.

New Church

These are some photos from are good friends Larry and Mona Torrez. Larry is in the Marines and was previously stationed in Okinawa. They have 4 boys: Brandon, Anthony, Rafael & Noah



Well, they are in Havelock, NC now and Larry has started a new church! It is exciting for us, because if you know Larry, you know that he is called to be a pastor. We'll be praying for you guys!

http://all4good.blogspot.com/

Bibles Needed

For the word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. -- Hebrews 4:12

On Sunday evenings we have been going through the Old Testament. Currently, we are in Leviticus. It has been quite interesting seeing how the Old Testament ties into the New Testament. It really is true that when you teach something, you end up learning a lot more than you teach!

There is however a need for more Japanese bibles. We have been blessed by Campus Crusade with several Japanese New Testaments, but there are only a few Old Testaments. They are not cheap -- about $30 each.

Would you lift this need up in prayer when you get a chance?
I believe that God wants His Word read and will therefore provide us with a supply of Japanese Bibles.

Harvest Time

Japan loves to celebrate the seasons and Autumn is no exception. There are certain foods to be eaten now and certain events that take place only in Autumn.

So it is no surprise that many Japanese people are very interested in the seasons in other countries. Debe decided to have an Autumn lunch with her Tuesday morning English class.












These ladies are a lot of fun and they love to eat and talk. They had a great time and also learned about harvest time in the U.S.

Debe shared how the Bible teaches that a man will reap what he sows (Galatians 6:7). She wanted to have these lunches once a month to give her the opportunity to share more about the Bible. One of her students is already a Christian and is quite helpful at steering the conversations.

They are looking forward to November's lunch; naturally Debe will be talking about Thankfulness.