Lets start at the begining...

One of the fun things about starting a whole new youth program/youth group is the dreaming part. Dave and I have been enjoying praying and dreaming together about where to go with this whole thing. Usually stuff like this is not very fun for me (Andrea) but there is such a peace about being here and I find my heart so excited about starting something new.

Last week we spent time networking at the schools. This was wonderful. David and I picked out names for the Lester M.S. group and the Kubasaki H.S. group, High Tide and Common Ground. Check out the flyers David made, aren't they awesome?



This week we put our bid in for the contract, which closes this coming Tuesday. And then tonight we went to a youth group at Foster Chapel and the Kubasaki High School football game. We got to connect with a couple students, which was encouraging. It was a wonderful opportunity to just watch students and pray.

Home Sweet Home

A couple people have asked about our apt. Here are a couple recent pictures. As you can see we use every bit of space. =) Most of the pictures are just of our living room/kitchen.

Two months down, and many more to go...

On the 16th David and I went out to dinner for our two month anniversary. We didn't do anything on our first month so we decided to go out for month two. We went to the lovely Macaroni Grill on Foster. And we had the best waiter, this is not the norm on a military facility. =) But seriously he was great, we never had a half empty glass.

We loved celebrating our two months but its more fun to think how many more we have ahead of us...

Hanging out with MS students

This week Dave and I are covering for Chris while he is on vacation. On Tuesday we got to hang out with students during youth lounge and then run youth group. It was fun to see some of the students who I worked with last year and meet some new ones. We get to see many of them again today for youth lounge and Bible Study!

Thought you might enjoy some of these pictures!

Mr. Miyagi

What a day!

It started out with an early morning dive to Maeda Point. David and I arrived to a very calm and serene ocean. Seriously there were hardly any waves. And the water was so clear. We saw a lot of fish, coral, a sea snake, clams, and David saw a small octopus. It was beautiful. It's amazing to see God's creation under water.
After coming home and changing we headed to the youth building on Kadena to begin our week of covering ministry for Chris. We get to hang out with Junior highers this week!! After doing some planning we decided to head out to Kubasaki High School and Lester Middle School. We wanted to do some networking with the schools.

David and I really had no idea what to expect. We had been given the name of one of the vice principals but that was it. We walked into the office of the high school and found out the vice principal was still off island. A little disappointed we began to write a note to leave for her. The secretary and another admin lady started to ask questions about us. And soon found out they are believers too! how exciting! Dave and I left the school amazed by how God continues to open doors even with no contract.

David and I drove onto the small base of Lester to go to check out the middle school. Mr. Miyagi was our lovely gate guard. No joke, his last name was Miyagi. We had to hold back our laughter. David and I walked into the office at Lester and weren't really sure if they were even "open". A teacher asked us if we needed any help and we started to explain who we are. In the middle of our explanation the principal walked up. Through our conversation we found out his High School daughter attends Impact on Kadena! And I know her! He seemed very excited to have us around and already invited us to a school event on Friday!

God is good!

On another note, David's new very cool camera just arrived. =) Oh and his guitar made it safely.

Secret Church

David and I were able to team teach last week on the attributes of God. It was so much fun to be able to teach together!! Impact, the High School youth group on Kadena has a co-ed Bible Study. Over the past few weeks they have been doing a series called "Secret Church". They have been going through the core values of the faith and teaching for about 4-5 hours at a time. It makes for a long evenings but the students have been doing so well.

David and I taught for about an hour and then set up some prayer stations for the students. We wanted to give the students time to meditate on God's great attributes and to worship God. How glorious it was to watch High School students for 45 minutes be silent and spend time with God.