Rhonda’s Birthday

1st a Coffee

Well, every year in January, at least for as long as I have known her, Rhonda has had a birthday.  This year was no exception and while I don’t quite remember which birthday it was we celebrated I did manage to remember to take her out for coffee and a meal.   The first part was quite easy to do as Rhonda received both a brand new Starbucks tumbler and a Starbucks gift card, so I just naturally took her to the best Starbucks location in Yokohama.

CoCo's

On the way home, unbeknownst to Rhonda, all our family present here in Japan was awaiting at her favourite resturant.  CoCo’s.  Plans had been afoot for awhile and the scheme worked wonderfully as we walked in and already seated and waiting were David & Tamara and of course Mary.  We had a great meal together just being family and celebrating the goodness of God for the last year.

Birthday Cake

After a wonderful meal together we took  David & Tamara to the station then headed home.  The birthday celebrations stretched into Sunday.  Right after the service we brought David & Tamara home for a birthday dinner followed by a wonderful home made cheese cake courtesy of Mary the baker.

High School Ministry 5

Cody

Yeah!!!! another couple of brothers.  These guys are from the United States and both attend the American School in Japan (originally started in the early 1900s by missionary parents for their kids)  which is near Mitaka City where we used to live over a year ago.

My friend here is Cody.  Cody loves competing in sports .  He also has a relationship with Jesus that is totally awesome.

Cody’s younger brother

Conner

Conner also likes sports and his strongest attribute is persistence and determination.  He never quits even when things seem impossible.  From what I hear it is not too easy being a friend of Jesus at ASIJ.  However I am sure that through the steadfastness of Cody and the determination of Conner that many of their school friends will know something of the love of Jesus.

SOE YWAM OZ Director

Tom Hallas

As I mentioned before, this was the very first SOE held in Australia.  One of our teachers was Tom Hallas who was the Australia National Director.  Tom had visited the Anastasis with his family to help lead a ship DTS  when I was on board in Greece and it was there that I had learned about this school.

Tom was a very intense speaker but his heart for Australia and evangelism was easy to feel as he shared and taught.  Tom was not living on the base at this time so we did not get to see him and his family all the time.

The SOE was held at what used to be a Catholic property.  It was a wonderful facility in a nice farming community.  During the school I had to do a project on the Gospel and the poor, so I did research on what poverty was as defined by the local community and social services and what was actually being done to combat and relieve poverty.  This was in a community where when I arrived at church for the first time the greeter welcomed me and said “You must be from YWAM”.  I asked him how he knew and he answered, “Easy.  You were walking to church.  Everyone else drives”.

Tom Hallas

The results were rather interesting.  Depending on whom you asked, up to 35% of the community were living in poverty.  The questions I was working with were:  1. How do you define poverty 2. Based on your definition of poverty what percentage of the community would be poor 3. What was your group doing about the situation.

I had a very enjoyable time doing

Tom Final Pic!

this project and learned many things I had not known before.  For example,  the Salvation Army was the only organization in the area that was reaching out to meet the full needs of a person ie  Spirit, Soul, and Body.  The Catholic outreach called Saint Vincent De Paul did not see themselves in any way related to the local Catholic church so would not in any way direct people in need to that church.

Well, that is enough rambling for today.  I hope to continue this monologue later…..