Today was my second time eating at a kaitenzushi (sushi-go-round) restaurant. There’s a motorcycle/scooter shop near the city office, not too far from the cafe.  Yoshua, Minori and I met up and walked over to it so that Minori could take a look at getting a new bike.  After that we headed over to Union to get some instant ramen for lunch.  While we were considering the best choice to make for a declicious instant ramen meal, Minori said, “hey, let’s get some sushi, my treat.”  The next thing we knew, we were sitting at a table watching sushi go by.  My favorite had to be the steak, or maybe the bacon ones (cooked of course).  I was suprised to see beef and ham looking like sushi.  I think my favorite raw fish is the ‘maguro’ – tuna.  We had a great time.  Thanks Minori!  Minori just recently got a new job with a well known company, but he is going to need to learn more English.  So hopefully we’ll be able to get together more and work on that English as well.

今日は僕の二回目の回転寿司でおすしを食べる経験でした。宜野湾市の市役所の近くにバイクショップがあって、ヨシュアとミノリと僕はそのバイクショップに歩いて、ミノリが新しいバイクを買うことを相談しました。その後、ユニオンに昼ごはんのインスタントラーメンを買いに行きました。でも、一番おいしいラーメンを探していたとき、ミノリは「あっちの回転寿司で食べよう。僕はおごるよ。」と言った。気がつくと、僕たちはテーブルで座っていて、回っていたすしを見つめていました。僕の一番好きのはステーキかベーコンのだったけど、生の魚にとって、マグロが大好きでした。本当に楽しい時間を過ごしました。ありがとうミノリ！ミノリには新しい仕事を来月に入っています。その仕事のために英語の勉強は必要になったそうです。できれば、よく会って、英語の練習するようにします。

Yoshua and Minori

Minori and me.

It’s amazing what you can do with a white board and about an hour.  Izak’s still in high school, but came with his family out here when his dad was transferred to Okinawa through the navy.  He’s been a really fun guy to have around.  Actually, his whole family is amazing.

ホワイトボードと一時間くらいを混ぜたら、どうなるのでしょう？その面白い絵ですね。アイザクはまだ高校生だけど、家族が沖縄に引っ越したときに一緒に来ました。本当に楽しい若者ですよ。実は、彼の家族もすごいです。

For the last few weeks, we have all been watching a DVD series called “Preach the Word”.  It is from a conference done at Greg Laurie’s church last year.  The teachers have been encouraging us to be Bible expositors – that is, simply to preach what the Bible says.  There is a big movement happening in many churches to go away from preaching the Bible to preaching man-made ideas or feel good messages.  But the real power of the sermon is in the Word of God, so that is what the focus needs to be for those who preach and teach the Bible.  It has been a very encouraging series to watch.  Last night as I was catching up on a message by Chuck Swindoll which I had missed because of an English class, I was suprised to see the face of Pastor Cliff from Lake Ozark pop up on the screen.  He was the first Bible teacher that really gave me a desire to get deep into the Bible as I would listen to his messages and so I was personally encouraged seeing him there learning more about the preaching and teaching of God’s Word.

We had a great trip to Tonaki Island this past weekend. It was just Yoshua and myself who went on the trip this time. Our plan was to visit Tonaki and then visit Kume Island the next day. However, the Holy Spirit kept us from going to Kume Island rather unexpectantly.

We got to Tonaki on Friday. The skies were clear, the water smooth, and the surrounding islands very visible on the horizon. We pulled into port, said hi to Izuru-san, jumped in the minshuku (hostel) van and got our bags into our room. After that, we did a little exploring and hiking around the northern point of the island (hoping to see some whales). After eating lunch at the Fukugi Shokudo, we wandered around some more, taking video and pictures and talking to a few locals here and there. The village was rather empty feeling because the school had taken a trip to Naha for the weekend, so there were no kids running around and I assume that some parents went as well as the teachers. That evening we met up with Izuru-san and ate dinner with him at his house. Following dinner we had a time of worship, Bible study and discussion, and prayer.
The next morning, we met at the beach at 6am and hiked up a small ways to a pavillion on the side of one of the mountains. Up there we had a Bible devotion and prayer time together.

The plan for the rest of the day was to jump on the ferry at 11am and head to Kume Island and visit Yoshua’s friends, as well as go to the church service Sunday morning. However, while we were eating breakfast at the minshuku, the owner came in and told us that the ocean waves were 4 meters high and that the ferry would not be coming to the island today. Suddenly, we had a problem. We were stuck. We finished up breakfast and went back to the room to talk about what to do. We’ll, when you’re stuck on an island, you can’t really leave, so that was a short discussion, but we realized that we might not have enough money to stay at the minshuku and still get home. The pastor on Kume Island was going to let us stay at the church, so we didn’t have the full amount of money needed to stay another night at a minshuku. We prayed and then we emptied out our pockets and bags of any money that we had, and then counted it up. We had enough for the minshuku and the boat ride home, and a little to spare that would allow us to buy lunch if we needed.

As the day continued, we ended up helping Izuru-san’s mom in their field for a little while. She was very nice and gave us a lot of fresh veggies to take back home. After eating lunch outside Izuru-sans house, Yoshua and I kicked back for a while and then ate dinner at their house that night. The next morning we were up at 6am and met with Izuru-san again. We were a little concerned that the waves would be too strong for the boat to come again that morning, but we figured that if that’s what God wanted, he would take care of everything. As it turned out, the waves were only 3 meters high and the boat did pull into port and we were able to return to Ginowan.

It was a very eventful trip. We were able to build stronger relationships with Izuru-san, as well as with his mom during this trip. Also, it seems that there may be an open door for us to rent a house out there for missions trips and for ministry. That’s a very exciting thing, as renting a room at the minshuku is 4000yen/person/night, over $40/person/night. We heard that renting a house out there is very inexpensive because there is not a lot of people moving to the island; most are moving away from it. So please pray about this opportunity. It would be great to be able to go out for a week or more a month rather than spuratically like it has been. Also, please pray for Izuru-san, as being the only Christian there can be a lonely thing. Please pray that God would bring a harvest on that island.

Hey all. The Calvary Chapel Ginowan podcast is now up and running. We will be podcasting the Sunday morning messages with Pastor Tim, in Japanese and English.
If you would like to check it out, search for “Calvary Chapel Ginowan” in iTunes podcasts, or if you don’t have iTunes, go to: http://www.reachokinawa.com/CCGPodcast/podcast.xml

Enjoy!