Monday, March 31, 2008

Hula

Teresa is from Ishigaki Island, but originally she is from Hawai'i.

She has been coming to our island recently to teach folks from our church to hula.




We had workshops on Thursday and Friday.










On Saturday, we headed over to "American Village" (Mihama) for a hula outreach event.

People are naturally drawn to the music and hula and it is an opportunity to witness or make contact with people in some way.

We hope to start up a local ministry group that can meet while Teresa is not here.


Well, thank you so much Teresa for your ministry here -- it's a blessing!

Thursday, March 20, 2008

Prayer Request!

Well, as we head into Easter weekend, there are several events scheduled.

Please lift them up in prayer, won't you?

Friday Night: Showing of The Passion movie. This will be neat, as we will show it on the beach.

Saturday Night: Sambi Fest ("Sambi" is "Praise" in Japanese) This will be a night of playing worship, meeting new folks and sharing the Word.

Sunday:
In addition to the regular a.m. service, we will have a special W2: it will be at the beach, so we can have some baptisms.

One other request: is for our family's health.
The past 5 weeks has seen 1) Emi's chickenpox, followed by 2) Mika's chickenpox, and now by 3) Emi's stomach virus (which she is still recovering from).

Please pray that no one else would catch this virus, as we need to wait 2 weeks to have our health insurance again (when the new school year begins).

We would appreciate your prayers!

Saturday, March 08, 2008

Mika's First Birthday

Well, Mika is 1 year old today!


We just had a small family gathering, as Emi just had the chicken-pox
and we're waiting for Mika to break out next. (we didn't want to spread the pox to anyone else!)




She got some new clothes...










Emi saved up enough coins to buy Mika some rubber boots. ("Now we can walk in the rain together!")




Mika had fun tasting cake for the first time.

We did the traditional game of "What will she be in the future?" This is where you lay out several items (a pen, some money, a book, some food and an abacus). Supposedly, whatever they pick will determine their future (choosing money = you'll be rich; choose the book = a good education). If memory serves, Emi chose a pen, so maybe she'll be a writer some day. Not even close, right now.



Anyways, Mika (in true Pallmann form) chose the food. If nothing else, she'll be well fed!

Monday, March 03, 2008

Girl's Day

Today was Hina Matsuri, or Girl's Day.
It is easy to remember: 3/3 is Girl's Day, while 5/5 is Boy's Day (it is actually called "Children's Day).

Well having two girls we had to get a little cake.