Busy and Blessed!
To say that August was busy would be an understatement; English kid’s summer camps, moving into our new building, building and preparing, our first services and an open house event, among other things.
English Kid’s Summer Camps
I was the head teacher for two back-to-back kid’s summer camps; each with about 40 children ages 5-12. While it was absolutely exhausting, it was an excellent opportunity to not only serve the community but also to make contact with parents and have a positive effect on the lives of children. The camp is run by a Japanese-owned English school. A little more than half of the kids were Japanese, with the rest being mostly American.
For the second camp, I was able to bring along my daughter, Kiana. Before and during that camp, the weather forecast strongly called for rain, high winds, and even TWO typhoons (hurricanes). I told Kiana to keep praying for the weather as I have yet to see my children fail to pray away bad weather! Sure Enough, in daily defiance of the forecast, there was a small circle on the radar that managed to avoid two typhoons, the high winds, and the rain in the small city of Onna where we were staying. It was a very localized blessing as even Stacie, 40 minutes away in Nago reported heavy winds and rains. It truly was incredible.
The owner of the school running the camp, a Japanese man and longtime friend, was heavily invested in the program. I told him about my daughter praying, and how her prayers have always been answered. He told me he had also stopped at a shrine to pray. I doubt he could fail to recognize the difference in results! Not one event had to be cancelled including ocean kayaking, a boat trip to a private tour island and coral reef snorkelling!
No one answers prayer like our God (and no one prays quite like a child)!
Launching a Church
Moving Day
Many people pitched in to help us move into our build location. The whole music team from Sound of praise and others were there working hard. A special thanks should go to those who helped carry a very heavy (donated) American fridge up and through the Japanese-sized stairs and doorway.
Me being overly dramatic as I carry the (quite light) cross up the stairs. Kind people asked if I needed help, but I said “No, this is my cross to bear…”
Work Projects
So many projects to keep us busy. I travelled to four 100 Yen stores (Dollar stores) across the island to find the necessary wooden letters to make a sign (each store only had a few of the letters!) I then spray painted, lacquered, and mounted it to the concrete wall of our church.
I bought a machine at a second-hand store to shampoo and clean all the fabric chairs.
In the evening time, I made up and ordered some church business cards (especially important in Japan). I also created a basic website and began translating it.
“~my house will be called a house of prayer for all nations.”
– Isaiah 56:7
At our first (unofficial) service at our new location, my sermon included Isaiah 56:7 “~my house will be called a house of prayer for all nations.” Kiana drew this picture to go along with the message; I love it!
God sets up the appointments…
This is Takayuki-san. We met him earlier this year outside an ice cream shop as Stacie and I were celebrating signing the paperwork for our church location rental. He and a friend offered to take our picture, thinking we were tourists but they were surprised to find that we spoke Japanese. He was very interested in our church and we exchanged information using the “Line” app frequently used in Japan. He attended several services while we were meeting at the Nago community center and even joined us online a few times, but we hadn’t seen him recently.
While we were walking as a family back to the church from a nearby convenience store, Takayuki-san happened to drive by in his bakery truck, at just the right time, on the right street. He didn’t even know our new church was there. He pulled over and came inside for a visit.
He mentioned that he is suffering from a hernia and let us pray for him. He told us that he has friends that he want to invite to church but was asking for advice on how to do that. God is good!
The Big Day: Our open house event
After months of delays, we finally reached the day for our “open house” event. The delays were certainly frusterating at the time, but I am confident that God was and is directing things to happen in His perfect timing. The turnout was great, considering that Okinawa is still in a state-of-emergency lockdown. Over 30 people attended, spaced throughout the afternoon.
It was wonderful to see Missionary Pastor Marsh who drove up from First UPC with several saints. A group from Sound Of Praise Church happened to be there at the same time. With so many church members there at once, Pastor Marsh suggested that we hold a small dedication service which I thought was a great idea. We sang a few songs and had some prayer. God’s presence was there and hopefully was felt by some of the visitors as well!
Fellowship, outreach, and much more in a busy month
We set up all of our chairs for cleaning and discovered that we could seat over 40 people, not including the Sunday school/nursery room. For a renovated, second-floor apartment, that is great, and more than we expected when we began searching for a place to rent.
After a very long day of moving and working at the church building, the children and I walked across the stree (Stacie napped!). How many pastor are blessed with the opportunity to soak their toes in such beautiful tropical water after a service! (Yes, those are rolled-up church clothes!) God is good, and good to us.
日本語 
English