It’s been a while since I’ve been on the blog train…I really love it, but man…it’s easy to get lazy!
We headed to Okinawa three weeks ago with eager and excited hearts. Because of our “low-budget” airplane carrier (also known as “gouge your eyes out while you travel and withhold food from you unless you buy their $3 snickers bar”), we had a rather circuitous route. Buddy headed out early so he could present our ministry at one of the churches there, so that left me rallying the troops.
I realized when we got to Japan that we had quite the religious whiplash…leaving our Buddhist monks in Thailand, we soon found ourselves in Muslim Malaysia with a constant awareness of which way Mecca was (I feel bad for Muslims who, like me, are directionally challenged even with the Sun as my guide).
Ceiling in my Hotel Room helping out directionally challenged folks
After Malaysia, we headed to Japan, known for their ancestor worship and then headed to our sweet fellowship with our Christian brothers and sisters in Okinawa. It made for some great conversation with our kids, and I reflected for a long time how many people don’t even get to see that kind of thing in their lifetime and we got to experience in 48 hours.
We spent such wonderful time together with people who are so dear to us – people we’ve been privileged to minister to, minister with and be ministered to by…Okinawa continues to be a home in many ways for us and we left there with our hearts filled to the top – with love and encouragement squishing out like soaked sneakers every where we walked.
Two of my favorite Oshmans!
We got to meet Hudson Coia for the first time! We love you, Hudson! (And Ron and Kristie!)
Our old Cadence Student Ministries Peeps!
The "cousins" at the beach!
Hanging out at Jen Oshman's favorite place, Dragon Palace!
We are so thankful for our time there, thank you to so many who encouraged us to go and to enjoy our time – we decided that, at our core, we’re 1st world people…the pavement looked so clean you could eat off of it! Nonetheless, we are/were excited to be back here and continue the ministry that God has given us. I feel roots beginning here…the kids looked forward to school and it’s fun to be home, no matter how great a trip one has!
Buddy left us on our way home to meet up with our DTS team in Cambodia…he arrives home tonight and this weekend, our team moves on to Vietnam. My colleague and I, Melissa, have the privilege of going to Vietnam next week to minister with/to them.
Our Team in Cambodia - Keep praying for the many flood victims in South East Asia!
Cool picture of Buddy and some of the studens at Angkor Wat, a wonder of the ancient world!
We love you guys! Thanks for keeping up with us – I’ll leave you with one picture of my sweet Megan (still not pictured on the home page of our blog) reading a book my dear friend Jess gave me…she read the whole thing and laughed at all of it (and how old I am now!) PS – Couldn’t figure out the placement for the photos – I’m getting a new blog template soon – hang in there with the unaesthetically pleasing page.
I turned The Big 4-0 on our trip! Ouch!