GROWING-GROWING AWAY

Here are some new picture of the kids taken from "Sometime Cafe"..We went out for ice cream one night the kids had a blast. As you can see all three kids are growing growing away day after day.

Barnett Wedding Anniversary and Birthday Celebration

This pictures were taken at Stacks Restaurant while we are helping the Barnett celebrate their wedding anniversary and birthday's. We spent the night eating, playing "Newly Wed Game" and the big winner of the night is Glen and Farah Phipps. Continue to pray for Pastor Rick and Kristy Barnett for all the things the LORD have entrusted them here in Calvary Chapel Okinawa for such a time as this.

JUST HANGING AROUND

Here are some pictures of the kids just hanging around the house while all of our furniture and stuff are finally out of our house.

Silas's Baby Dedication!

This last Sunday we dedicated Silas unto the Lord, it is a tradition that is taken from the book of I Samuel, it depicts a story of a young godly woman named Hannah that makes a promise to God if she is blessed with a child that the child would belong to the service of the Lord. So we also dedicate Silas unto the Lord that God would take His life and use it for the glory of God. WE recognize that before Silas was ours, he belonged to the Lord. So we ask that you would keep us in your prayers, that we might raise Silas to love and fear the Lord and to serve Him all the days of his life.

Damian and Sandra's 5th Anniversary!

The 29th was not only Silas's 1st Birthday, but it was also our 5th wedding anniversary. It was five years ago that God blessed me with Sandra to be my bride and helpmate. As I considered the last five years things haven't been perfect but I wouldn't trade them for anything. Our marriage, like our lives is a trophy of God's grace and I thank the Lord daily for the wonderful woman that He has brought into my life. Pray for us that God would continue to strengthen our marriage for all that He has in store for us, be blessed.

Happy 1st Birthday Silas!

Hey family and friends! Last Friday the 29th Silas turned 1. We had a wonderful time at lunch. We went to Four Seasons Steakhouse, it's his favorite : ) We had lunch and spent the day together as a family. Then on Sunday night Sandra made him some Philippino cuisine that we took to some friends house. She also made him a yellow cake with chocolate frosting another one of my I mean his favorites, I think the saying goes "like father like son" anyways we had a wonderful day together, if you have a chance send Silas a Happy B-day comment, he'll be super blessed.

PACKING AND CLEANING

The past couple of days our family has been busy getting ready to move out of base housing... We started with moving and delivering furniture to several friends homes, then packing books, clothes, videos, CD's and other things that we have accumulated over the past 3 years. Yesterday some of the girls from Calvary Chapel Bible College Okinawa came and helped clean the house, it was a huge blessing and we are very thankful for their servant's heart. Please continue to pray for all of the college students there in CCBC OKINAWA and for our upcoming move as well.

Micah the Rock Star

Hi everyone we just wanted to share new pictures of Micah jamming for Jesus, he was listening to some Crowder and decided to pick up Hannah's guitar, Sandra couldn't help but take a few shots of Micah's session and share them with you all. In the bottom picture he is doing some finger work, perfecting his ability to arpegiate. God is really awesome and we see many ways that He is shaping and molding the children He has blessed us with.

Women's Dinner

Here are some random pictures taken by Misty Blu from Calvary Chapel Okinawa Women's Dinner. It was a wonderful evening at Macaroni Grill for fellowship and getting to know the women from the church, seventy-five women attended the event. Please continue to pray for all the women here at Calvary Chapel Okinawa to grow in Christ and also to build relationship with one another....also keep in your prayer the new Women's Bible Study that will be starting this coming Friday morning on the book of Esther, the Friday evening Japanese bible study and also Thursday evening Coffee Shop Study they will be going through a book about prayer.

Silas new dew...

Greetings! Well with the temperature increase here in Okinawa and with Silas' long hair I finally decided to give the young man a hair cut. He is almost 1 now and it was about time. People have commented on how much he looks like Ghandi or a baby Buddha, we're not really sure about either of them. One thing is for sure that he sweats alot less now than he did before, be blessed.

Gen and Tamiko off to Austria

Meet Gen and Tamiko....both of these girls have been a tremendous blessing and a huge encouragement as they have been serving here with TC-1, a youth minstry of Calvary Chapel Okinawa. They are currently in Austria participating in
"A Vision for Life" a ministry of Calvary Chapel Bible College in Austria. They will be there for 3 months doing missions and Bible classes, so please remember them in your prayers.

MORE NEW PICTURES

Here are some new pictures of Hannah(4) taken from (Wed Night VBS at our church presentation of many songs they learn from the whole summer program), Micah(2) and Silas(11mos). They are all doing well
and growing so fast, we are trying to cherish these days of their life. Sandra started to homeschool Hannah(pre-K) and ofcourse Micah is learning along with his big sister, and Silas will turn 1yr old in couple of weeks.

KIDS NEW PICTURES

Here are some random new pictures of the little Velarde's....
As you can see...Micah is growing his hair like dad....
Little Silas is not so little anymore..his crawling around and tries to keep up
with Hannah and Micah. Hannah loves helping me around by watching her little
brothers. It's such an awesome priviledge to raise up the children the LORD
bless us with.

OKINAWA EXPO PARK

Here are some pictures taken when our family went to Okinawa Expo Park with our good friends Niel, Vanessa and JP Orpilla. We spent the weekend at OKUMA a military beach resort then off to the park for a day of exercise and sea explorations. Expo park is the home of one of the largest aquariums in the world. It is the home to the largest whale sharks held in captivity, we spent several hours there before we departed home. The kids had so much fun watching all the different sea animals. Before we left the park the kids cooled off in the fountains in front of the park. IT WAS SUCH A BLESSING TO HAVE TIME TOGETHER WITH THE FAMILY AND FRIENDS THAT GOD HAS BROUGHT INTO OUR LIVES!!!

Sandra's 30th...Part 2

Forgive us beacuse it has taken is so long to post the remaining picures from Sandra's birthday. We were incredibly blessed that while were out celebrating many of our closest friends came and "decorated" our house for us (toilet paper and balloons) much to our surprise when we returned home we were shocked by all the "love" that was demonstrated by the 400 ballons we found in the house. We count ourselves as blessed to have so much family here in Okinawa and friends with such a strong desire to make Sandra's day one she will never forget. Truly the Lord has blessed us out of our minds. PRAISE THE KING!!!

Danny and Michelle in Morocco

Many of you are familiar with Danny and Michelle if not they with another couple run S.E.N.D. Ministries, a ministry focused on Serving and Evangelizing Nations in Despair. They have been serving the Lord in Many countries over the last couple years. They have spent time in India, Israel and now Morocco, they passionately have hearts for the lost and have labored much to share the love of Christ to a non-Christian world.

They are currently in Morocco sharing Christ through many different ministries to include construction, orphanage visitation and worship. Morocco is heavily muslim, therefore it is a dangerous place for Danny, Michelle and their team. Please continue to pray for them, that God would use them mightily. Also pray that the Lord would soften the hearts of the people of Morocco so they can know Christ the Savior as Lord. Pray for vision and ministry opportunities for the team.