October Update
Ryan, Scotty & Buddy	October 30, 2003
Please pray for: 1. Cell group leaders to be dicsipling others. 2. Strength for Jen as she enters her last two months of pregnancy. 3. For our marriage to remain strong despite the demands of ministry and soon to be 3 kids! 4. Jr. High Escape retreat to Nakiin from October 30^th until November 2^nd. 5. Cell Group retreat over November 21,22,23 as we look to teach our students leadership skills. The Rathmell’s PSC 80 Box 15702 APO AP 96367 Phone: (81)98-932-0096 E-mail: buddyandjen@rathmell.com We’re on the Web! old.rathmell.com	Homecoming Dinner a Great Success This year for homecoming we had a wonderful dinner for our students. Jen and Lauren (an intern from this summer that has stayed on as staff while she works in Okinawa and lives with her mom) along with about 15 staff and parents did a great job of turning a sterile chapel annex into a lovely restaurant for an evening. We had about 45 students come out to enjoy a beautiful evening with Buddy’s world famous rib-eye steaks and blackened chicken. (As a good youth pastor, he completely stole the recipes from our friend Shane Long) Cell Group Retreat Yesterday I had the pleasure of visiting a retreat facility that I have never used on Okinawa. The facility is not the type of place you would want to stay. In fact, I am only using it because my normal facility is already taken. The wind was blowing off the ocean at about 35 mph which caused the shutters to slam over and over against the run down old building. As I left the building and walked onto the beach it was like I was in a different place. The beach is as awesome as the building is awful. Inside a small cove it is covered with fine, white sand and has a nice grass lawn about 30 feet from the ocean. I jumped from rock to rock between waves to climb up to the top of a small island and feel the wind against me. It was a beautiful experience. There I prayed for God to be at work during our cell group retreat and for specific students. Would you join me in praying that God will be at work in the hearts and lives of students the weekend before Thanksgiving? Family News Adrianne turned 3 last month! She has since enjoyed many of what she believes to be the inherent rights of being such a “big girl”. (Translated, “now I get to do whatever I want, whenever I want!) On the same day as her party, Jack got his first haircut which amounted to a lot of screaming and kicking Daddy, and quite a handsome boy in the end. We can’t believe the lady cutting his hair did such a good job in the midst of all his flailing! Jen continues to expand every day and looks forward to Christmas more than she ever has before! Getting a baby out will be the best present ever, even more than the Barbie van that I got when I was 10. Baby due date: Dec 27 Baby Megan hopefully out by: Dec 20. Jen turns 29 for the 4^th time on October 26^th. Buddy has stopped going to the gym to work out, but realized that doing pushups with 2 toddlers on your back and wrestling with them for about 20 minutes does just about the same thing! It is really fun to have some cooler days…Buddy just had to come get a sweatshirt to go outside on our swing, and Jack just about had a fit trying to figure out how to put a windbreaker on the other day. It was a bit labor-intensive for him…couldn’t get out the door fast enough. (Usually a diaper is enough!) These days are fun for going to watch the sun set at the beach and enjoy being outside after having such a love affair with the Air Conditioning Units for the last 6 months. Family Health on a scale of 1-10 (1 being “sucking air and barely making it until bedtime and 10 being one of those days where everything seems to go right): 7.2 – after coming out of a slump of Japanese renovations on the house and getting settled into some new ministries…things are looking up for the Rathmells.