Midterms: Over! Typhoon: colder weather!

Hello again, it's now almost the end of October (seems to be that i post at the end of the month a lot). It has begun to become more cool (not too cold yet though), and the weather has been a bit crazy recently. Okinawa has pretty crazy weather sometimes, Michigan was the same.

(this was a couple weeks ago, the sky is just grey right now)

We are having a typhoon at the moment, the wind is strong (dangerous coming down the stairs!) and cold, and the rain changes its direction frequently. I am currently wearing two jackets, pants, a scarf, and shoes. Goodbye sandals for a while.

Midterm week is over! All of the students worked extra hard, we even took off Adventure Mondays to allow for studying. Everyone did extremely well in both my classes, and used the beautiful creative minds God has given them. I had the students in my Missions class make Newsletters (pretending as if they were sending them from the Mission field), and many of the students got very creative.

For my ESL 1 class (English as a Second Language level 1) they had to memorize a Psalm, the first half of the Old Testament books (written), and turn in a project: their family tree. I told them to be creative and make it however they wanted. They were the funnest thing to read and grade. Here is a picture of them:

This one is Chala's.


and this one is Aya's.

Here are some other photos of "happenings" during this semester so far.

We took our semesterly trip to Yomitan to see the lighthouse at Cape Zampa and the cliffs.

a special monument to a man in the war (got to learn that Kanji!)

The wind was strong, Brevick almost blew away.

We stopped at the local university Ryukyu まつり(festival) and saw some break dancers perform. We also ate a lot of food (didn't get a shot of that), and visited the different things set up by the students (themed cafes, game rooms, animal exhibits, etc).

We got to have a tour of the airbase to see some of the gear and airplanes used for rescue missions. It was a survival tour! (Chala got to try on one of the parachutes, she was so small in it!)

Trying out one of the ground vehicles.

The Green foot and green mascot figure on their uniforms is an old theme. They told us that the huge helicopters used were called "green giants" because of their color, and from the imprint they left when they landed on the ground: it looked like the footprint of a giant.

Futenma had a Fear Factor Challenge night! I went to help out with some worship, and photograph the games. It was intense, they withstood bombardments of pillows, ice cold water, and octopus filled Jello. Props to all who participated.

Logan and Cole came along to help cook that hamburgers and hot dogs. It was a blessing to be able to have american food.

I had a super awesome class last week for ESL.

I taught the students what the idiom "you've got guts!" means.

my first rainbow in Okinawa.

One of the great wonders of God's creative hand.

This semester has been pretty busy, with lots of studying, lots of ministry, and lots of growing. Having so many people in our house it sometimes feels overwhelming to try and build relationships with them all. But God keeps on showing me how precious and valuable each one of them is, and how its worth the effort it takes.

It really stops becoming a burden when you stop trying to do it all with your own power.

Isaiah 40:31,
"But those who wait on the LORD Shall renew their strength; They shall mount up with wings like eagles, They shall run and not be weary, They shall walk and not faint."

I feel a lot that i don't have enough to do it. I get weary, i want a long vacation sometimes to just rest and sleep, and not have to think. But i need to keep going, there is a work that has to be done, i can't faint yet.

But what do i do when i am going to faint? what do we do when we are not enough, and are going to fail soon?

Look up.

Psalm 121:1-8

"I will lift up my eyes to the hills - from whence comes my help?
My help comes from the LORD, who made heaven and earth.

He will not allow your foot to be moved; He who keeps you will not slumber.

Behold, He who keeps Israel shall neither slumber nor sleep.

The LORD is your keeper; the LORD is your shade at your right hand.
The sun shall not strike you by day, nor the moon by night.
The LORD shall preserve you from all evil; He shall preserve your soul.

The LORD shall preserve your going out and your coming in from this time forth,

and even forevermore."

God is always right there to help us. we just have to look.

God bless you, thanks for keeping up with the work God is using my life for.

-'manda