Miyako Day Trip 9/17/2011

Our youth mission trip to Miyako in August was a huge success, but a lot of our students were bummed they had to miss out because of family vacations or summer jobs. So we resolved to go again on a Saturday so that families and other people who weren't eligible last time could have a chance to serve God down south. We made good on that promise earlier than I anticipated. It turned out September 17th was the best day this fall for our hosts, so once again I planned a big mission-oriented event in about a week and a half. We had 26 people go with us this time, which is awesome! We packed everyone into two big rental vans and a couple of personal vans along with one ton of rice and lots of toy and furniture donations and drove south along the coast early Saturday morning.

I was very excited that James was able to go with us - not only because it gave him the opportunity to finally get involved in something with the youth group. But also, one of our vans blew a tire on our way down there and so he was able to help it get back up and running as quickly as possible. It still took about an hour, which put us well behind schedule. But the kids were great and found ways to amuse themselves as they waited. The picture below is of them playing a game of "Ninjas".

It's remarkable to see how much has and has not changed in the last six weeks. They have done a lot of work in that time - continuing to sort through and recycling a lot of the debris. We saw many homes and businesses with large piles of freshly cut firewood from all of the trees that were knocked over. But there are still open fields full of concrete grids where houses used to stand, and many of the piles of debris are still stacked along the side of the road. It's going to take months if not years to really clear it away - but in many ways they have made so much more improvement than New Orleans ever did. I am still so impressed with the Japanese work ethic.

Our first stop was at the OMF international base to unload the rice and furniture donations. The kids were great - immediately organizing themselves into an assembly line to get everything out of the vans as quickly as possible so we could spend as much time as we could at the school. We brought down enough rice to feed 200 families for at least a week if not more. What a blessing!


We had been to the school we visited before - which was really fun because some of the students recognized each other, and the Japanese kids opened up to us much more quickly. We didn't know that Saturday was a festival and so there were a lot fewer kids than we anticipated. But we were much more intentional about sharing the gospel with them via songs and stories this time, and made sure that those few kids went home feeling God's extravagant love.

Below are pictures of us praying and reading the students the story of David and Goliath. We had some awesome students and translators who came along to ensure that we could communicate the message as effectively as possible. We also taught them the motions and words to Jesus Loves Me and sang it with them.

Jesus loves ME!

After that we shared some American snacks with them and they gave us some of their Japanese snacks. Then we did some arts and crafts projects and gave them some gifts. Seeing the smiles on their faces is always priceless.

This trip was entirely worthwhile, but I think I need a break for a couple of months from planning last-minute mission work. However, I'm thinking about partnering with my friend Lisa who helps run the youth center on base and doing a toy drive so we can bring Christmas to the Japanese kids in late November!

We Will Never Forget

September 11, 2011 was a rough day for us this year. Not only was it the 10 year anniversary of the attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon, but it was also the 6 month anniversary of the earthquake and tsunami here in Japan. I'm not aware that the base did a whole lot to honor either anniversary (I had just returned from the States and was still a little jet-lagged and preoccupied preparing for James' return from Alaska). But I do know that many of us thought long and hard about it that day and continue with our resolution never to forget the massive loss of life and all the sacrifices brave people have made since then in an effort to help their nations recover.

Samurai She-Go

While the guys were gone in Alaska, we decided to have our own silly, feminine version of a roll call and naming. For those who are unfamiliar with the fighter pilot world - a "role call" is essentially an official work party where the guys get together in the squadron bar after work on a Friday and drink, tell silly stories, sing fighter pilot songs and select call signs for new people. Many spouses in the fighter world have their own naming ceremonies, and all get matching party dresses (made out of old flight suits.) We decided to be a little more original and pay homage to our Samurai mascot by all getting Yukatas (summer cotton kimonos) instead! Some of us went with our squadron colors of blue and yellow, but we're pretty lax about things like that. It was mostly just fun to get all dressed up and tell silly stories about the ladies who have been in the squadron the longest.

 Each person would come up front and sit in the hot seat while people told silly stories about them. Then we came up with call signs inspired by those stories, voted on the one we liked, and officially dubbed them with our very ancient plastic samurai sword. =^)

After the naming, we all went out and sang Karaoke. The Japanese people in there were highly amused that we were all attempting to wear kimonos. We had fun with it, though! Now I can say that I've participated in real Japanese karaoke. B^)

San Diego Trip 2011

Since I wasn't working on Labor Day, I decided to take a week long trip to San Diego to visit James' older brother Sam, his wife Alison, my niece Madison and new baby Abigail! Each time we've seen Sam and Alison, I've only hung out with them for a few hours at a time, so this was a unique opportunity to get to know them better and to help them out with the kids. It was a pretty laid back week - mostly spent eating at my favorite restaurants, shopping, and playing with the girls. But that's fine with me - quality time with family is hard to get when you live in Japan! I also had fun taking lots and lots of photos of the family!

I felt a little guilty, spending time in Cali with James' family when he couldn't join me. He was on a temporary deployment to Alaska for five weeks so I traveled out to the States on my own. What I didn't know was that our commander gave the guys a chance to take a couple days of leave over Labor Day weekend and so James took a redeye down and surprised us! It was great reuniting with him, watching his mom's reaction, and watching him play with our nieces. He's always so good with kids!

The first night he was in town we met up with some of my friends from college for dinner at a beautiful restaurant/brewhouse. I'm so thankful that I have some friends who live close to family so I can reconnect with them when we're in town.

The next day, we went to SeaWorld!! I've never been there before but always wanted to go when we lived near to San Antonio - so this was a real treat! We watched the Shamu show where the killer whales do tricks and jump up in the air and splash the audience. Then we walked around to the other exhibits and saw a bunch of different types of aquatic animals including sea lions, penguins, sea turtles and sharks!

On Sunday morning, we went over to Alison's parent's house and I did a mini photo shoot for Abigail utilizing some creative ideas of hers. Then James' cousin Alex drove up to Vista so I finally got to meet him. Then we all went out to dinner at another of our favorite restaurants. We ate SO much good food on this trip!

 Below is us with James' cousin Alex!

Monday morning, James had to head back to Alaska. So after saying farewell in the morning, we went and explored the world-famous San Diego Zoo! I always love zoos, but this was definitely an experience. They have animals there I've never seen in person before including koalas! After the zoo, we took a ride on the little Balboa Park Railroad.

On my last day in California, Alison and I shopped till we dropped in the morning, then picked up lots of fresh ingredients at a local grocery store (VERY exciting for me!!) and cooked some nice family meals. Like I said - it was a very low-key trip compared to my other recent travels, but I really enjoyed myself and am sad that we don't live closer to Sam and Alison so we can hang out more and be more involved in the lives of our nieces. They're both so cute, and I miss them a lot!!

A Day at the Beach

Thank the Lord - this summer was much more mild than last summer. But August was still a very hot month, especially with no A/C. So my friends and I took a day and escaped to one of the few beaches that is consistently cleaned and open for swimming on the Pacific coast. The water was warm, but the coastal breeze was nice and cool so we enjoyed spending some time relaxing in the sun and - of course - taking lots and lots of pictures!

Below is a picture that I'm particularly proud of snapping. Lisa, being the epic person she is, decided she wanted to make it look like she can fly. It took what felt like hundreds of times, but we made it work!! So fun.

Most of the time we were in the water, we mostly had fun jumping through waves. It never ceases to amaze me how powerful even a small wave can be. It makes me appreciate what the Japanese people went through with the tsunami.

On our way home, we FINALLY managed to catch one of the gorgeous sunsets we have over the base beach on camera. It turned out to be perfect conditions for silhouettes and thankfully Kendall makes a perfect model. What a great, summery day!