Former Student

We were at a going away party for some friends, when someone called out "Mr. Daniel?" I turned to look at a young man.


As my mind raced to figure out where I knew him from or what his name might be, he answered my question: "You were my English teacher 4 years ago!" And that is how I got reacquainted with Akira.


4 years ago I was teaching in Elementary schools in Naha and Akira was in my 6th grade class. Now he is a high school student at Okisho. He had come with his current English teacher (some guy from Canada)


Anyway, I am sure that God brought me and Trevor into Akira's life for a reason. I was happy to meet him again and now can pray that he can meet my other friend: Jesus Christ!

Trash Beach?

Well we set out today to find "Trash Beach."

We tried to imagine what it must look like to be named "Trash", although we had heard it was a nice beach.




Well, it turned out to be a really nice beach!











Emi playing in the Soccer nets.






It happened that this was the first day of Beach Season, so we were in time to see a Ribbon Cutting Ceremony.


No, it is not a brand new beach; this ceremony is to offer a prayer to the Sea-god in the hopes of having a safe swimming season.




Buddhist Priest praying and giving an offering of Sake to the Sea-god.




The US Military also made an appearance with the "III MEF Band."

By the way, the real name is "Uken Beach", not Trash.

And the next time, we want to check out the caves!

New Beginnings

April is the time for new beginnings.
A new school year, fiscal year, a good time to start a new hobby, whatever.







This is Princess Aiko on her first day of Kindergarten.









At my Junior High School, the students have moved to a the next grade and the 1st year students (7th graders) have arrived. They seem to look smaller and younger each year... or maybe it's me that is getting older!

Of course, the most important new start for us is new life in Jesus.

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!

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!

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!

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.