Hume Lake & Shuri Castle

Last week we had two Hume Lake staff out here visiting Okinawa. Hume Lake is running our annual HS spring break trip, Shorebreak. David, Buddy and the guys were going to go out to Tokishiki Island to check out the site for the camp but the weather was bad so we had an afternoon to kill. Since we had some time we headed down to Naha and checked out Shuri Castle. It was impressive but its just not the same as castles in Europe. =) The best part was they give you this flier with a map of the castle. And as you go through the castle you can stamp your flier. If you get so many stamps kids can go get a prize. =) I lost my paper so I didn't get a prize. Well, also I am not 12.

Also, you take your shoes off when you go inside. They give you a bag for you to carry your shoes in. =)

How do you make sure your turkey tastes good?

You put 1/2 pound of butter on it! =) We had thanksgiving with some our volunteer staff, Ally, Paul, Michelle and our fellow Malachi friends Kate, and Heather. Ally made our lovely 25 pound turkey and she did put 1/2 pound of butter on it. It was so tasty! It was fun to all bring some thing. I even made a Pumpkin pecan pie. I wasn't sure if it would turn out but every one seemed to like it. Heather made these AMAZING smoked salmon stuffed mushrooms. After a very filling lunch we sat around watched a movie and even took naps. =) I think the most exciting thing that happened is Heather dropped Jello salad on Kate's dress. It was hilarious. Kate loved that she got to wear sweats for the rest of the day.

Okinawa D House

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Information for Malachi D-House Information

Common Ground

Last week we got a box of Finger Blasters in the mail. None of the students here had played with them before, needless to say they were a big hit. I think David was the only one who shot two people in the eye! ;)

We have only been holding youth group for about a month. But both groups are growing and have such a great energy. David and I are really loving our students. David has been working with some of our High School students to start up a worship band. The newest member is Kendra who has an amazing voice and has such a heart for worship. She is one of the Chaplain's daughters here and is the only girl in an all boy band. :)

Funny things in Japan

here is some local signs here in Okinawa. Only in Japan!

David defies death. ;)

So last week David and I went to take pictures of all the bases we are currently working with. We were in the car all morning driving around. We passed by one of the parks I went to with some Jr. Highers last year and I told David he needed to see the "drop" slide. so we went and checked it out. Thought you might enjoy some pictures of this adventure. I laughed so hard when I saw David's face when he got to the top. The slide is unreal. No where in America would this be legal.

1st Volunteer Staff Mtg!

Last night we have some of our volunteer staff over for dinner. We played acouple rounds of boxing on our new Wii and enjoyed a tasty dinner. For David and I this was way exciting. We are only a couple weeks into youth group and we already have STAFF! What a blessing.

We are really looking forward to working with this group of people. We love them already.

Crawling in a dark cave! Fun?!

The other day, Dave & I went exploring with some of our Malachi friends. The first part of the day Chris, Dave, Heather and I went spelunking. What is that you might say? Well, basically it's crawling through caves. It was a lot of fun but we did get a bit dirty. We found bats, some nasty looking centipedes and some crazy, huge crab (Only Chris saw it).












After that adventure we went back to base, and picked up lovely Kate. We headed up to Nago and went to the famous Pineapple Park. Before Hawaii became big exporters of pineapples, apparently Okinawa supplied the world. Who knew?! We only paid 5 bucks and got to ride on these little carts and then try lots of samples of pineapple stuff. Pineapple cake, pineapple chocolate, pineapple candy, pineapple bread and tons of other stuff. It was crazy. But hey, we were full after leaving. =)