First Day of Summer School

I am camera-less at the moment, but I can give you a little update of my time on Okinawa. I landed on Wednesday morning, well truly it was almost noon by the time we were out of the airport. Lisa Sorley picked me up at the airport and we were able to run to Jusco (AEON now) to change some money to yen and grab a quick bite to eat (and a Quickly Bubble Tea - Boba Tea, whatever you call it). We then rushed our way back to OCSI where I got settled, some, into apartment 404. We had to immediately get ready for Lisa Metz and Daniel Kennedy's wedding. They were both former students of mine, but I had Lisa as a 3rd grader, middle school student and more. I have pictures of her seeing me off at the airport when I left Okinawa the first time. It was a real treasure to see the two of them commit their lives to each other and to the Lord. I was blessed to reconnect with many of my former students and some special OCSI friends at the wedding itself. What a way to start my time on Okinawa! I was, however, ready to go to bed by the time the wedding was over. Thursday, my first full day on island, I spent my morning settling in and having a planning meeting with Lisa Sorley (maybe there are about to be too many Lisa's in this post). We will be team teaching 4th and 5th grade this summer. My job is to be the "Math" expert and Lisa will be the "Language Arts" expert. We will also use our classes to help lead the chapels each morning. I am also in charge of that program, but I have some WONDERFUL assistance with it this year. I hope the kids will grow through it and love it, but I digress. After our planning meeting, Lisa and I went our separate ways. I decided there was too much day left to stay home wondering what to do, so I went for a 5 hour exploration walk/hike/shopping trip. Occasionally, the tropical cyclone/storm that had settled in would downpour rain and I would have to shop longer at a certain store, but for the most part I stayed dry. My main goal was to hit a 100 yen store and just see the treasures there. For those of you who aren't familiar with them, 100 yen stores put our dollar stores to shame! They are great places to spend HOURS of time just looking at the treasures, and believe me . . .it is more treasure than junk there. By the time I wandered home, however, I was too tired for dinner and just went to bed. Friday, was a full (and then some) day at school. I worked until almost 9 PM trying to get things ready.

Saturday, was a fun day. One of my friends over here, Gail Anderson, asked me what the "Social Director" was planning for the day. Little did I know that I was the social director. Well, I decided I had better live up to my title, so I managed to connect with some people by around 11 AM and we drove North on the island to go Kayaking through a Mangrove. It was beautiful that day and we had a great time. I will try to find some pictures of that event. I strongly recommend it for anyone who lives on island... Once done, however, we had to rush back to OCSI so I could meet up with some former students in Mihama (the hang-out capitol of Okinawa). Lisa Metz Kennedy and her husband Daniel met up with Erika Horikiri Doggert and her husband. I felt so overwhelmed by God's greatness as I listened to these young adults talk about the ways they serve the Lord and continue to keep Him important in their lives. I loved the evening and I love those students! They also introduced me to a truly Okinawan treat, zenzai. Zenzai is Okinawan shaved ice with azuki beans and mochi. The kind they encouraged me to order then had sweetened condensed milk poured over the top. YUMMY! Sunday, was another day of reunions. I was able to drive myself down to Central Baptist Church, but I had to duck out a little early to meet up with some friends from my chapel 2 praise team. Randy and Kathy Fagan, and Kathy's sister Geni, met up with me at church. We hit a 100 yen store, did a little shopping (I cannot say where or what for because somebody will learn their Christmas Presents that way), and then I made Yaki Soba for everyone back at my apartment! It was a relaxing and reunion filled day. Finally, today. Today was the first day of summer school. All together, in the 4th and 5th grade combined class, we have 13 students. It feels larger because we have about 6 very active boys! I still need to learn names, but believe me . . . a few stick out immediately. Discipline will be a bigger issue this summer than it has in the past. They are good natured, happy children - which pleases me - but it is rather difficult to keep them on task and their listening skills really need improvement. Add to that the fact that Lisa and I have never worked together. We don't want to hurt the other's feelings, so there are some situations of balance that we will all need to figure out. It started well, but as with everything I know things can get better. Chapel was okay this morning, however, I will always covet your prayers for that. This year we are using a musical called "I Witness News - Live from Jericho" as our theme. I wrote out some daily lessons and used skits from the musical to teach the kids about God's promises, His faithfulness, and our hard-headedness . . . to put it in a nutshell. I pray they kids can enjoy themselves, but grow more and more in their faith and love for God. I have been going out for a walk each morning that I have been here. Before church on Sunday I took a long walk (one that SHOULD have been my training route if I would have been training for the Great Wall Marathon! It was a crazy hard walk, but I didn't know it even existed until I stumbled upon it in my exploring that morning.) Well, as I was walking back to school, I was going up a VERY VERY long hill. I was starting to feel it in my legs and I was sweating pretty well, when a thought came into my head. That hill that I was climbing is one that used to be on our long walk-a-thon route. When I would walk that, I never once even noticed the hill. It was easy going DOWN it. That struck me. How like our walks of faith that is. It is so easy to coast - to slide downhill - to go with the flow. It is NOT easy to grow, press on, or maintain good discipline at all times (that is like going uphill.) The view from the top is amazing, but there is a lot of work involved in getting there. I just finished reading the book "Safely Home". While reading that, I realized how relaxed in my faith I become as an American. I am very encouraged to grow, grow, grow. I need to climb that hill - every day. The view from the top will all be worth it in the end! I think that is the message of chapels this summer too. It is too easy to forget what God has done. I don't want to wander in the desert for 40 years . . . I want to enter his promised land. I pray the kids we will work with this summer will want that too. Now, it is 6:00 PM. After lunch I came to school briefly (or so I thought) to do some planning and then go for a bike ride. I am still here and I am getting ready to go out to eat with Cruzados. I will work for pictures tomorrow. Thank you all for your patience in reading this. The next posts will be shorter and more entertaining, I hope!