OCSI

Well we have been settling in our new place in Yomitan (pics coming soon!) and have been quite busy getting ready for the new school year.  Much has happened, but without internet it has been difficult to post.

To sum up though, God has been so, so good to us.  We arrived with a few suitcases, but had no transportation, no furniture and no place to live.  We knew that we were where God led us, so we knew that He would meet our needs...eventually -- in His timing, of course.  Each day it seemed, God would bless us with one more thing.

Just one month later, we had an almost fully furnished apartment and vehicle provided.  God has been so good to us and we want to do our part to work with Him.

We are now serving with Okinawa Christian School International (OCSI) and it has been an incredible 2 weeks of orientation.  Again, to sum it up briefly, we were encouraged many times to remember our purpose as disciple-makers.

OCSI is a K3 - 12 Grade school with about 380 students.  Pray for us as we daily share God's love with them.

The Blessing by John Trent and Gary Smalley (Book Review)

We do not usually think of “blessing” someone as anything more than an impulsive gesture of goodwill or perhaps when they sneeze.  However, John Trent and Gary Smalley lay out in this book many reasons—both practical and spiritual, why we ought to intentionally bless our children.  

Drawing heavily from biblical passages where Patriarchs blessed their children, the authors lay out the reasons and the way that we should bless our own kids or even others that are in our life.  The “Blessing” does not just happen but it needs to be thought out and administered in a certain way to be effective.  This is not some mystical voodoo, but is simply a way of making sure your kids know for sure of your love and acceptance of who they are.  The five suggested steps are simple to accomplish, but again the authors stress being intentional about it.  It is too easy to “assume” that our offspring “know I love them.”

I found this book to be both interesting and helpful. I appreciated the many real life examples of people that received a blessing and empathized with those that did not.  One important point made is that it is never too late to receive a blessing, even later in life. 

This book was received from Thomas Nelson Press in exchange for an honest review.

The views expressed are my own and have not been influenced in any way.