The other day we were watching a Hillsong United video, it is one of the kids favorite things to do. The Lord has gifted Micah with a great love and ability to play drums. He is constantly pre-occupied with the drums wherever we go and whatever we are listening to he is constantly banging on something working out a beat. The Lord has brought together a little worship team here in the house, Hannah also is very passionate about playing the guitar, among those things the Lord has given them a heart to worship the Lord, it is their favorite thing to do, to sings songs unto the Lord.

We are grately blessed and encouraged by the children that the Lord has blessed us with. We aren't sure yet what Silas' gift will be but whatever it is we know that the Lord has a great plan for all of them. Please contniue to pray for our kids that God would move mightily in their lives as they continue to grow in the grace and knowledge our Lord.

This past weekend we were so blessed by the body here at Calvary Chapel Okinawa. The church hosted a rummage sale for us in front of the church. People brought in all their old household items they no longer needed. We had couches, dressers, bookshelves, paintings, power tools and a whole bunch of other miscellaneous things, all the proceeds went into our Italy Mission fund.

Many different families came out and helped sort, price and sell all the goods. We were so blessed. The church staff passed out flyers to the surrounding neighborhood and the Okinawans came out in masses to buy all the stuff they could find. We started around 8:00am and finished packing everything up around 7:30pm. It was a great time of fellowship and just sharing the love of Christ with our Okinawan neighbors. Some of the women had opportunities to share with some of the women and we even received payment in cucumbers.

All in all it was a wonderful day and once again the Lord showed up and declared His faithfulness as we had beautiful weather, all the forecasts were predicting rain all day. We thank Pastor Rick who is pictured in the orange vest, his family and all of Calvary Chapel Okinawa who made this event possible.

LATE ENTRY!!(sorry) HAPPY MOTHERS DAY!!!!!We spent Mothers Day at church and a lunch buffet with friends from church. we had a wonderful time together fellowshipping and eating. After we finished lunch and snuck in our lunchtime Sunday afternoon nap we went to Tropical beach for a BBQ and outreach with Pastor Tom of Calvary Chapel Ginowan. We had a great time there seeing many friends that we haven't seen in a while. Thank you mothers for all that you do for your children, you truly are a wonderful gift from God and we are so grateful for all of you.

As many of you know that for the past 2 years Sandra and I have been serving the high school students at Calvary Chapel Okinawa. It has been an incredible time for us as we have experienced God in dynamic ways as He works through us. We have witnessed high school students whose lives have been changed dramatically as they submit themselves to the power of the Holy Spirit. It has been an incredible experience for both of us, we are grateful that God has not only counted us worthy but also enabled us to serve in this capacity. We have been totally blessed.

One thing that we have done in the last 2 years has been to cultivate a heart for missions and evangelism in the hearts of the students. We have routinely been out street witnessing in Mihama, a place where Okinawans and Americans alike gather to hang out with friends. It is always exciting to see God use these kids to evangelize a lost nation, we have seen God use many kids in wonderful ways. Last Friday night we were out witnessing and thought it would be a good night for a group picture since several of the students that are apart of TC-1 High School Ministry will be graduating soon, we will miss them so much, but we know that God has wonderful plans for all of them as they move into their next season of life and service unto the King.

My friend Mike Kavanaugh just returned from a mission trip he took with The Harbor a ministry of Cadence International they went to Thailand. They were serving in a Jai House, Orphanage (southeast of down town Chiang Mai?). They were working with 45-55 kids teaching an English Bible camp. Many of the kids as you know are abandoned. Many had their parents die from AIDS. Many of the kids come from women who were drugs addicts or "women of the night". The children eat rice, some grissly
meat and a mixture of lower quality vegetables and fruit, as well as
drinking water for most meals. Rarely any soda. Maybe some desert once or
twice a week.

For all the people that went it was a "life altering" experience as they were given the opportunity to show the love of Christ to those who are born into less fortunate circumstances than most. Pray for Mike as he continues to seek the Lord and His will for his life and pray for the children in the orphanage in Thailand. I am reminded of what James tells us in 1:27, Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, [and] to keep himself unspotted from the world. In the midst of our daily lives and service unto the Lord let us not forget what is pure and undefiled before God, let's keep that perspective, God bless you guys.

Pictures here are some really good friends of ours, Mike and Sofia Ortiz. Mike was one of four guys that I lived with after giving my heart to the Lord. The Lord has used Mike in my life in tremendous ways as a friend and a brother over the last 7 years that I have been serving the Lord.
A few years ago after marrying, Mike and Sofia moved to Sweden, where they still live and are college students/missionaries. The Lord is doing a wonderful work in and through their lives in Sweden. Pray for Mike and Sofia that they would be led and filled with the Spirit of God on a daily basis as they serve the Lord in Sweden. Also pray for Mike and Sofia as they go stateside for the summer that the Lord would provide jobs for them and a place to plug into that they may be encouraged and refreshed. Make sure to leave Mike and Sofia a word of encouragement in the comments below.

One of our friends from church, Tamiko emailed me some pictures of the kids that she had taken at the church the other day. In Hannah's picture you can see the black eye that she received from her friend J.P's forehead. It truly is amazing how fast kids grow, it is just a reminder to me that I need to spend as much time with the kids as possible because soon they will be out serving the Lord away from home, like the scripture in Psalm 127 says, "Like arrows in the hand of a warrior, So are the children of one's youth. Happy is the man who has his quiver full of them."

ITALY! As many of you know our time in the NAVY is rapidly expiring. We are down to about 5 months and some change. We just wanted to share some interesting facts about Italy with you with the hope that you would pray for Italy as a country and for us as a family as we continue to seek God's will for our lives.

In Patrick Johnstones book " Operation World " He has written that there are 30,000 towns in Italy without an evangelical witness. In Veneto, the region in which we may be living He states that there are only 400 believers out of a population of 4,000,000 that's .0001 percent or 1 believer for every 10,000 non believers you can see there's a great need for prayer.

Veneto is in northern Italy, it is where we are praying about spending some time serving Pastor Craig Quam who serves as the Pastor of Calvary Chapel Montebelluna. Please continue to keep us in your prayers that we would clearly hear the voice of God and be lead by the Holy Spirit as time in Okinawa expires. We are grateful to all of you for your prayers, be blessed.

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Check out Micah's fresh hair cut, we finally cut it after almost a year of letting it grow. It is starting to get hot here in Okinawa and Micah was already starting to sweat up a storm. I also got tired of finding traces of dinner in his side burns and bangs.

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As I stated in the last blog that was posted, while we were in the states we had the opportunity to visit friends and family. Among some of those friends that we were able to visit were Daniel Sedota and David Downs (pictured with the pretty green fanny pack) David is leaving soon to serve at Calvary Chapel Montebelluna in Italy. We had a wonderful time at Starbucks in Fullerton as we were able to share thoughts that we had and vision that we shared for the country of Italy. Pray for David as it is a difficult area of ministry that the Lord would lead him and guide him as he arrives in Italy. Also pray for Italy as a country as they have a very small evangelical influence that the Lord would soften people's hearts and send labors in to the harvest. Be blessed David and encouraged in the Lord, we will be praying for you.

Greetings again from Okinawa! It has been a while since we last published to this blog but our heart is to keep you our friends and family updated with all that the Lord is doing here in Okinawa. We just returned from the sates after spending time with our family and friends there for three weeks. We had a wonderful time as we took the kids to Disneyland and various places. We are doing well after returning just trying to get back to our normal schedule of life and all that the Lord has for us here. The jet lag hasn't been to bad for Sandra and I but the kids are a different story. They took about a 14 hour nap yesterday and woke up this morning at around 5:30 so hope fully this schedule will soon come to an end. Well May the Lord bless you guys in all that you do for His name and kingdom.