Christmas, studying, artwork...

So Christmas was fun. I got sooo much that i didn't ask for, didn't deserve, and am completely blessed by it all (and also overwhelmed!! i have too much!!)

(it snowed a lot again!)

I now own six bibles, two bible cases, and multiple notepads to fill with notes. Thank you everyone, i think i will be good on bibles for now (unltil these six fall apart ahahaa)

It was really good to see all my relatives and friends this year for Christmas. we had lots of good food, and good times laughing about our lives and things we do. I got to hear some pretty sweet stories about my grandpa's time in the navy when he was younger. He got to live on bermuda! (i think that's how you spell it).

lately, i've been trying to get back into drawing and painting. I used to be so brushed up on it, i feel so out of practice. But i don't want to lose it. As Amber was pointing out, i've come so far with it, it would be a shame to just lose it. And i know God can definelty use it, even though it's in ways i can't imagine or think up. (He used it in korea!)

I've also started studying kanji, my brother has shown me some of the ways he used to learn them (he knows over 2,000 kanji). It's a really cool way, i think it will work. i really want to learn the language, i know it's hard (i've already studied it for three years, though it's gone down to remembering hardly anything), but i also know i can do it. God gave me a brain, He gave me the ability to learn these things, and I know He will give me the capability to learn it all the way through if i just try my hardest and give my best. He's pretty darn cool like that.

anyways, i don't have a lot of photos at the moment (isn't too much i have done that is really that interesting to take a photo of), but i did get a camera as a graduation present from my parents (thank you guys, it's something that definetly blesses me) so i will have photos of whatever does happen in the future.

(here's one of me and my family though)

God bless you all, stay safe this new year's and last bit of Christmas parties and such. Praise the Lord, we made it another year huh! don't forget to look back and see what He has done this past year in your lives, im pretty sure you will be amazed, even if there were hard things.

peace in Jesus,

-'manda

snowing, winter, coldness, snowing...

So, Michigan is a lot colder than i remember it being.


I've sort of adjusted to it (sort of meaning that i can bear the coldness on my face and eyeballs now), but it's rather dry here too. Less dry than California was (and should be expected because its winter), but harsher on the skin than Okinawa teehe

Anyways, i've not been doing too much. just visiting people, eating, helping with some shopping, trying to recreate okinawa-dishes of food, walking the dogs in the snow.



i took some photos, and some videos (we'll see if those work).




(the front of our home)


(it snowed a lot that night)





(when they picked me up from the airport)


(cooking Taco-Rice with my little sister)


(the jello my grandma gave me)


(the path we walk the dogs on, before it snowed alot)




This wednesday, i got blessed with being able to fill in at my aunt's company as the receptionist ('manda gets to answer phones!) while they attend their company christmas party. then it's christmas eve at my other aunts house with our grandparents, and then christmas morning with the family, and dinner at my first-mentioned-aunt and uncle's home. We normally go to a chinese buffet on Christmas day for lunch, but this year my aunt wanted to cook and eat at their home (which will taste super good, though it's a little sad not to eat with the vietnamese at the chinese buffet...).




^_^ God bless you all, thanks for reading and following along with me in prayer.

Merry Christmas (stay warm wherever you are!)



-'manda

Graduation!

Well everybody-


I GRADUATED!!!!! I made it! やった!!!



This past wednesday night, we have a Bible study/graduation night. We had worship and a short message from pastor Tommy, because all of the graduates (four of us) all shared from the word.





Me, Christina, Tom Cotton, and Bu-chan (ahaha) all graduated together.








It was a really blessed night, it was a really cool thing to graduate here in Okinawa. I am so blessed by the people out here, and the things that the Lord showed me and did in me here. It is a place of wonderful memories and amazing works of God happening everyday.




(Bryce rockin' out)



(he graduated too ^_^)


(we started together, we ended together)



("oh, what a hunky man! he's graduated!")


Also, the update on my circumstance is this: I am back in Michigan!
I was going to update sooner, but i was keeping my coming back a secret to suprise a friend (yay surprise!).


It is snowy, and cold. VERY cold (though i don't get much sympathy from people here because i came from an island). it is good to see everyone again, my little brother isn't little anymore! everyone has grown and looks different!

I'm going to put up a post of our new home (They moved while i was gone), and of all the snow in my next post.


Thank you for all your prayers, i really appreciate them. I need them a lot.
stay warm, and stay in Christ's deep, great love.




(Oki semester fall 2009)



-'manda
(pictures curtousy of Tamiko Murakami :] )

cold weather, changing circumstances...

It's getting colder here in Okinawa, which has also brought a lot of random spurts of rain.

(Take note of our hats and coats)

Like today, in the morning it was raining super hard! But then mid day it was bright and sunny and hot!

But now, it's raining again and cold again. Praise the Lord then, ね?

We also headed down to Kokusai dori a couple weeks ago (sorry, haven't updated consistently).

All of the students got to see the cool shops and had sea salt ice cream (i passed, it didn't look great, but i'm also lactose intolerant ahaha).

(the students are stoaked!)

(this little tiny Okinawan lady helped me try on a Kimono)

(gotta have one of my infamouse "dorky" posed pictures)

So, there is an update in my life to post on here.

I had applied for my missionary visa a long while ago, and have been waiting for it to come in.

The visa I was staying here on only lasts for 90 days, and that 90 days ran out today (Nov. 24).

So, the office amazingly granted me (and Dean, another student out here) an extention on our passports to have time to buy tickets out of the country.

Well, here is a prayer request: I have two options, one is to head back to the states, to Michigan and stay with my family there, and the other is to head back out to Korea and help at the church there again.

So I would like to ask prayer for God's guidance; that I would be senesative to the Holy Spirit and go where He wants me at this time. Both places are good places, I just want to be where He wants me to be. (and this is not a long term stay either way, but the first step of many on this next continuing adventure of my life with Jesus).

Thank you for all of your previous prayers, and your future ones. Prayer is one of the most precious gifts we have here in our lives. Thank you God.

-'manda

skype calls

Sometimes, i get to talk with my family on skype, and i really get blessed by it.
My family is growing up a lot (my little sister and brother are all big now and looking older and older...). It's sad not to be there with them as they grow up, but i know they have will grow, and sometimes grow better with an absence there.



Being away really makes me love my family, shows me what i have. I really enjoy talking with my little sister. She keeps getting more and more pretty. If you think too, please pray for her, she is making life choices, and i want her to make one's that please the Lord.



He has blessed her with a talent to dance, and i know she can use it for His glory, that it would please Him. I really want to see her do good with it.

God has given us such a gift ot have a family down here while we wait to come Home. Even if it's hard and difficult at times, it also comes with many blessings which we all too often look past. This life is not promised to be easy (in ministry, in our families, in everything in life). But it is promised to be a blessed life as we follow Jesus Christ. He is amazing.

That's all for now. There is not too much ministry that i am joining in, but a lot of school. There are only 4 more weeks left of the semester, and then graduation. This time has really been a lot of growing and learning, which i know is going to be put into use and action/application in the coming days after graduation. Pray for the students here, as they go back home and variouse places during the break. We want to live for Christ, and a life that counts for Him.







ありがとう


-'manda

John 13:1-38 (i encourage you to read this)

"Jesus left us such an amazing example of love and serving one another. He said “hey, look at these people around you. Your not above them, you are not too big to serve them. Go, love them like I have shown you.” There is no excuse that we can give to say we don’t know how to serve them or love them. Yes, it will be hard, but Jesus has shown us how to, He even loves us with that same love He wants us to show. This is an amazing love He is calling us to give and to show, but it should be displayed in our lives, despite our circumstances and the people it needs to be towards. You’ve got to show love, its part of you now since Christ saved you.
I keep having moments when God just whispers that He is love. “I am love.” I remember something that I love that I learned first semester of Bible college and partly from church back home. The grammar in the text when God says to the children of Israel “I AM” is an un finished sentence, there is no period at the end of it. It’s a sentence left unfinished, that we might fill in the blank of whatever our need is. He is our strength, our courage, our wisdom, our righteousness, and our love. He is all of it.
He’s going to be what we need, and He won’t call us to do something we can’t do. He will give us what we need to show this kind of love."

This is something i studied for my homework, and it gave me an amazing, preciouse, golden "nugget" to hold onto and really learn and understand.

I really encourage you to read this chapter and see what God shows you. This is something too many of us take forgranted, i know i did. I brushed over the verse where Jesus tells us to love as He has also (verse 34). We should not do so, don't follow my example, follow His.

Don't forget: God so loved us, He Sent His Son.

^_^

-'manda

Semester Girls

So we've been missing our girl's this semester as they have been in Korea this past week.

We have 5 girl students this semester (if you don't count me), which is smaller than last semester, but still very big for what they normally have for girl students at this campus.

We are SO blessed by them this semester (God's hand is seriously in our lives and on our D' House, we really have no problems living together.

After class one day, Tamiko took us up on the roof to take some group photos, and here they are! Everyone is so beautiful (God blesses us with beautiful young women, in face, but more so in heart and in spirit).

(It was rather bright that day...hard to keep your eyes open)

(Ina was excited to be out of class teehee)

^_^

(me with Anna and Emi, our two international students)




And this one's for Tamiko, because she got cut out of the other photos that we took by accident!
We love you Tamiko, thank you for being faithful to teach us in our class each week ^_^

Praise the Lord, He is so good to us and for us. He provides all things, and gives us the strength to do all things He has prepared and called us to do. :] who is a God like our God?

God bless

-'manda