Dear Friends,
Thank you so much for praying
for our missions trip...it was such a
wonderful time! We
arrived home late on Thursday, and even though we were
tired, it was hard to say
goodbye to our kids and realize that it was over!
Going into this trip, we really
didn't know what to expect...all I knew
(Jen) was that I had to have
enough food to feed 42 people for 5 days...my
life was filled with trips
to the grocery store and everyone staring at me
as I put 35 1/2 gallons of
milk in my cart. (A huge overestimation...we
donated a lot of milk to
the church!) Buddy was a little more in the know,
having been to both of the
islands previously on a "recon" trip, with Sam,
our friend who serves with
Campus Crusade and graciously agreed to be our
translator. I also
knew that we were camping, so on Friday night, we packed
a ton of coolers and ice,
lots of food, and we were off!
We had an 8 hour ferry ride
through the night, which was pretty uneventful,
despite the fact that I felt
like throwing up for the first couple hours. I
finally fell asleep and woke
up to find we had arrived in Miyako. Our team
of 30 departed and the remaining
12 had some more hours of boat travel to
their island of Ishigaki.
We were greeted with rain when we arrived, and
Meg, (Sam's wife) who already
was stepping out in faith by agreeing to such
a situation as camping, was
beginning to wonder (for the 100th time, I'm
sure) just what she had gotten
into!
That is when God graciously
began allowing us to see Himself taking care of
virtually every detail throughout
the week. The rain cleared, only to come
one more time during the
week (and that was at night with few people getting
wet), which was a huge testimony
to the locals who couldn't believe the
incredible weather we had.
And speaking of incredible,
I just have to tell you that we camped on the
most gorgeous beach I've
ever seen. So many times throughout the week, I
had to keep reminding myself
that just because we weren't helping flood
victims or ministering to
orphans, that we were still doing a bona fide
missions project! Taking
cold showers every day was a healthy reminder!
Our days were filled with
cleaning up beaches, doing programs in public
Elementary schools, visiting
a leper colony and making jellybean tracts of
the wordless Bible to distribute
to the Japanese children.
Our kids were so great, you
guys...we are so proud of them. On the way home
I talked with one of our
students who will be going to 9th grade next year,
and got to tell him how proud
I was of him...what a joy it's been to watch
him mature, and to give him
a vision for the man of God I could one day see
him being. Those moments
are what fuel us to give our lives to these
students. If you could
ever have the honor of knowing them, you too would
be busting at the seams with
pride...they served so well, and God honored
that by revealing to them
some of the things in their lives that were not
pleasing to Him. As God nudged
them to think outside of their comfort zone,
our students were willing
to go there knowing they had a loving Shepherd who
would stay by their side.
One night, we had a Western
night, where we served up hamburgers and hot
dogs (they LOVED it) and
our kids did a silly John Wayne skit (Buddy had the
forethought to have some
of them bring these really cool b-b guns that look
like real guns, but are a
total blast to play with) and then we showed them
the Jesus Video (a short
children's version) out at the campsite. Two young
girls, who thought they were
just going to the beach for the day, accepted
Christ that night, and changed
their lives for eternity.
We could go on and on...God
truly blessed us...and our students came back
with a real desire for these
outer islands of Okinawa to be inundated with
the Gospel. As we all
sang on the top deck of the ferry on our way home,
the sun was setting, and
we were about to pull into port, I thought to
myself, that these little
ones could truly change the make up of
Okinawa...their impact will
be felt for years to come...they are already
making plans for us to return
next year...
To God....be the glory!
Love, Buddy & Jen
Cleaning up the camp. Did you know that Newt hates you.
I doubt this girl even knows who Newt is.
Nikki with some of the Japanese students. The landscape near
where we camped.
WWF Thumbwrestling was a huge hit. Teaching the kids the motions
to the WooHoo song.
Praying with a Leper in the Leper Colony.