13 Years!

Well, today is our 13th wedding anniversary -- praise God!


I can honestly say that I am more in love today than when we first married.


You know, when you are newlyweds you have all these feelings and you love this person because of who you think they are or they will be.

10 or 15 years down the road, and there isn't any more guessing: you know this person inside and out.

And so having gotten to know each other very well, I would say our love today is much stronger. It is based on a more solid foundation than when we were first married.

It is all due to God though: when you both keep your eyes fixed on Him, you can overcome anything. I love you baby!

Special Lunch

So Monday is our 13th wedding anniversary. Funny, we don't feel that old!



Our gift to each other was our recent trip to the states.

To celebrate, we had lunch at this interesting Chinese restaurant called "Uruma", which means Paradise. It had a really nice view.

The food wasn't bad either! But it seemed more Japanese than Chinese...




We topped it off with some pie from another famous restaurant called Charley's.

Whew! I'm stuffed! It's a good thing these anniversaries are only once a year.

Japanese Military to leave Iraq

You don't hear a lot about the Japanese Military these days. That's because they officially do not have one.

After WW2, the new Japanese Constitution contained a provision that "forever renounces war" and banned having a military.
However, they do have a Self Defense Force (SDF).



In fact, Japan spends over 40 billion dollars a year on its military, er, Self Defense Forces. Only the US, China, Russia and the UK spend more.

The operation in Iraq will now be coming to an end, but was quite significant: it was the first time that the SDF was involved in operations in a combat area.



It will be interesting to see further developments.

Happy Father's Day!

Happy Father's Day!

We had an interesting/busy one. Dan had to work, well go to school anyway. His school had it's annual Sports Day.



This was an unusual time (June) -- sports days are usually held in the fall (October). Dan's school will be having some renovations in the fall, so they held sports day in June instead.


Bad idea. Not only is it unbearably humid and hot, it is also rainy season. So we have had about 3 weeks of rain everyday.

Anyway, it ended up not raining today until the evening.

Meanwhile, Debe and Mom were running around getting Emi her Polio immunization. Fortunately, almost all the immunizations are free, but you have to go on a certain day.

In the evening, we got to go to "W2", where Dan taught on Revelation 10. It was good to get back into teaching after about a 3 week break.

All in all, a very full and exciting father's day!

Trip to America

Wow, it is good to be back!

We went to the states to visit family.

It had been 4 years since our last visit, so I guess you could say we were overdue.



In California, we got to see Dan's dad and brother (and family). These are all the kids.

Dan stayed in California to attend a conference (see next post).




Debe however, took Emi to visit her father and grandparents in Pennsylvania. Here they all are at a picnic in the park.





Emi really enjoyed the outdoors.








The greatest blessing was how well Emi was on the many flights. Of the almost 40 hours of air travel, she slept for about 34 of them, played for 3, walked for 2, and cried for only 1.


God truly guided all of our steps!

more pictures here

Pastor's Conference

One reason we went to California was to visit family. The other was for the food -- just kidding! The other reason was to attend a Pastor's conference.

Since I am not a Senior Pastor (at least not yet...), normally I would not be able to attend this type of conference.












They are very gracious to helpers, however, and as I was there to assist and represent the Bible College in Okinawa, I was allowed to hear the many speakers.

They were all really excellent messages that ignited a fire in your heart, made you appreciate even more how good and great God is. There were about 1000 pastors there from all over the world.











There were plenty of tables there as well: this was our table.

Prayer Requests

We have some prayer requests.
We would appreciate it greatly if you would join us in prayer for:

1) Our upcoming trip to the U.S. It has been 4 years since we have been able to visit. Dan will attend a Pastor's conference in California, while Debe will bring our daughter Emi to meet her grandparents and great grandparents in Pennsylvania and New York. Please pray for safe travel and that God will be seen clearly in our words and actions.

2) Our health - Naturally, the enemy would love to prevent us from going or at least discourage us. Currently, Debe has an ear infection and Emi has had a pretty bad cold for the past week. Please pray that we will be well in time to travel on June 3.

3) Okinawa. We truly believe that while there are many awesome things happening now on Okinawa, God has many even more awesome things in store . Specifically, you could pray for a) the Churches here, b) the Coffee house and it's ministries, c) the Bible College

Thank you so much for your support!