Rusty & Amber Meridian!

Meridian, Idaho

2011-09-07T22:59:00.000+09:00

Hey everyone, wanted to let you know that we've arrived safely in Meridian, Idaho and are almost done adjusting to the time zone!

The Lord completely blessed our travels, thank you for your prayers.

First, that God gave us favor with Adelle's visa - we got her a re-entry permit right at the airport!
Second, that the flights were all quick and easy.
Third, Adelle did not cry a single time on any of the three flights!

We are currently looking at serving at a local Calvary Chapel, Calvary Chapel Meridian. Please be with us in prayer for which direction the Lord would have me to serve there.

I hope to get some pictures up soon!

Heading Home!

2011-08-23T18:07:00.001+09:00

神様がアメリカにかえるように導いてくださいました。 8月31日に発ちます。主が引き続き、私たちを導いてくださるようにお祈りください。神様がミニストリーのビジョンも与えてくださるように。

みんなのおいのりとサポートありがとうございました！

Hey I just wanted to let everyone know that the Lord is leading us back to America for now. We'll be getting home in Idaho on the 31st. Please pray that the Lord will continue to lead and guide us and give us vision for ministry in Idaho.

Thank you everyone so much for your continued prayers and support!

I hope to continue to update my blog for any followers who want to know what we're up to!

P.S. Sorry Adelle didn't look happy :D

hi

2011-06-08T16:01:00.000+09:00

We are still alive

lol

The Big Move!

2011-02-28T20:11:00.005+09:00

(Pictures Below)

Hey everyone! Sorry for the long pause in updates!

Things are going very well here. We just moved over to Fuchu to be in ministry with Pastor Rich (Calvary Chapel Fuchu and We Go Eigo Fuchu).

The move itself was a blessing. The Lord is completely taking care of us and both Pastor Travis and Rich have been helping us along the entire way, and everyone in between as well! We moved on Saturday, Feb 26th. We started at about 9:30 am, and including a drive that probably took well over an hour, finished completely at 12:50. It was incredibly fast, no one got hurt, nothing was broken and everyone was such a blessing. Thinking of everyone who helped, Rich and Candice, Michael, Logan, Peter, Kenta, Keichi, Mr. Toyota, Mr. and Mrs Miwa, Yuki (their son), and Aki too! (I don't think I forgot anyone...)

We had a lot of help and were incredibly blessed. Thank you for lifting up in prayers.

Things on my heart:

Spurgeon talks of that as we grieve for the souls of others, our many selfish grievances become less and less significant. Simply that I may win more to Christ through my life. Few people are moved by a selfish spirit, but those who live like Christ, that's what it's all about.

To quote Pastor Chuck (talking of idols), "But tragically, a man becomes like his god. If your god is a dumb stupid little idol, you are becoming like your god...You see, you have two things. You have one, a man making his god less than himself, and becoming like his god. That's why idolatry is always a debasing, degrading experience."

This to contrast our God, "But the LORD is in his holy temple: let all the earth keep silence before him (Hab 2:20)." The life lived unto one's self is a life filled with endless unsatisfaction, whereas, "The just shall live by faith." Hab 2:4

Please keep us and the ministry in prayers.

We have a lot of events/dates to keep in mind that are coming up, a lot that I don't even have written down on my own calendar yet:

-March 5th, Jr. High and High School night at CC Fuchu
-March 11th, internet guys come to get us some internet juice!
-Marth 12th, We Go Eigo Fuchu bowling at Round 1 - opening night, please pray we can reserve!!
-March 16th, Amber's mom and brother arrive to have some vacation with us!
-March 18th, Spring Vacation starts
-March 19th, Dig Down Deep with CCFuchu as we dig out dirt and rocks from the parking lot to replace it with good soil and grass!
-April 29th,30th Calvary Chapel Japan conference, if I'm not mistaken, don't quote me on this one. ;), seriously.
-May 1st, CCFuchu new building dedication, Please pray that the Lord would reveal Himself to the many who do not yet know Him that will attend!

We went to Tama Zoo on the 24th with We Go Eigo ICPK

Train Ride to the Zoo

Valentines Day!

Adelle Pictures

2010-12-28T18:25:00.006+09:00

Thank you so much for all of your prayers! Amber had the baby safely and they are resting at the mid-wife's still. I'll post back later for more update, I have some photos for everyone!
(Note: Blogger wouldn't let me upload more photos, working on it now)
(Update 2: It seems that at this time, Blogger will not allow me to upload any photos at all, not even on a new post. However, I do have all of the pictures I was going to post up on my facebook. My FB is Russell Spearman - Should have a picture of me, Adelle and Amber :) )

The Upcoming!

2010-12-03T07:17:00.002+09:00

Yep, there's a lot of new things that are going to be happening in these winter months!

First up is going to be....Our baby~! That's right, this month, our baby [Secret Name here], will be coming soon. As of this morning, Amber has gone off of the Pre-mature birth safety medicine. Also as of today, even if the baby is still early (Technically due on Christmas Eve), she can now safely deliver at the mid-wife's place. Praise the Lord, really. He has really taken care of Amber and the baby through the pregnancy. There was more than one complication that the Lord just took care of.

There's a lot of events going on with Christmas, parties and plays and the such. There's a lot of fun to be had, and also a lot of work, so please be with us in prayer that everything would roll out just fine.

One other thing I'd like to ask prayer for is that the Lord would guide and lead us concerning moving. We're likely to move in January to Fuchu, so that I can be close to the pre-school that I work/minister in. This would cut about 3 hours of commuting out of my day, which would help a lot with just relaxing and family time.

Please pray that the Lord would give us favor with all things moving considered. That we would be able to find goodness in the new place and favor with those who we are moving from. Thank you, we'll keep you all posted with the baby and the move!

Don't forget to add us on facebook,
Russell Spearman and Amber Spearman.

Tomorrow is December!!

2010-11-30T11:56:00.003+09:00

Well guys, only one more day left in November.
I don't have any pictures to share with you, just a quick disclaimer.

We are approaching the 37th week of the pregnancy and that means we are entering into the safe zone for birth. The doctors where a bit concerned about a month ago, that I would go into labor sometime in November so they put me onto a medication to tell me to relax. Its worked but once the 37th week rolls around the doctors had no fears and its perfectly safe to have your baby so I will be discontinuing my medication.

So we will see what happens. She could decide to make her way onto the scene only hours after I stop the medication or she could push past her due date. Officially she is scheduled to be born December 24th, Christmas Eve. But at this point, I think it's anybody's guess.

So, with that in mind, we may miss or postpone our December update.
Once we're home and settled, of course pictures and an update will come, so stay tuned for that.

November smells like a baby

2010-11-08T10:01:00.007+09:00

November is here and its about time to get you guys up to speed!
We have been having a blessed month as the weather is now much cooler and we can almost taste Christmas around the corner! Ive already been around to the stores to see what kind of christmas decorations are available and will soon begin to make some good ol' homemade decorations to go up with our tree the first week of December.

We also had some visitors this last week! Our friends Tommy Ruiz and Eder Diaz stopped in for the annual Calvary Chapel Pastors Conference from Okinawa! I was blessed with the time I got to spend with them and I heard the time up at camp was a blessing for all the guys. Their text was Philippians and the topic was joy. I am planning on studying Rusty's notes from the sessions starting this week.
Also, during the first week here the church held a baby shower for us!! We really had a good time and good fellowship. Our military families hosted the event on base, so it was exciting for us all to go to "America" for the day. We played silly games and of course had a bite or two to eat!
We are truly grateful for all the gifts and support we have received. Ive included pictures at the end of this post but they are so packed full of baby stuff you might have a hard time even seeing what we got! Its just a mass of pink and white cuteness!!
We often thought of having children but always firgured it will still be in the distant future, and we often thought "How would we even get all that baby 'stuff'?" and we should have known God would indeed provide for us. We thank you so very much for supporting us in this time of learning and depending on God.

Thank you.

The Diaper Cake!!

We are blessed to have our baby crib. It's a pack-and-play and fits into out Japanese house. A regular crib just would never fit.

Its quite full right now.

Don't forget all those good smelling bath soaps, and of course you can't forget the Butt Paste!!

We are so excited and blessed, and not to mention, our house is smelling a lot like a baby now!

"A woman, when she is in labor, has sorrow because her hour has come; but as soon as she has given birth to the child, she no longer remembers the anguish, for joy that a human being has been born into the world." John 16:21 (nkjv)

Jamie Harris

2010-10-29T06:31:00.003+09:00

Hey everyone, we're going to give everyone a late October/November update soon, but I wanted to introduce (as you can see at the top of our page for the weekend) Jamie Harris. He's my best friend and I wanted to link some of his new stuff he's been working on.
BY THE WAY: Amber did the graphics for Jamie ;)

Please keep in prayer:

Amber and the baby (the time is getting close!)
The men's conference coming up soon, should be a blast!
Tomorrow is the Harvest Festival alternative, Family Fun night at Fuchu!

Should be getting a few pictures too! :)

Mid October

2010-10-13T09:44:00.007+09:00

October is just about half way over now. Its begun to cool down significantly around here and we are really enjoying the Autumn nature. Here are a few snapshots from whats been happening this month!

Yeah, i know. Its just dinner, but it was really good! We stepped out with a friend in Kokkubunji and had a great dinner with him.

On a more "regular" note, we had the preschool's Sports day earlier in the month. We had a good turn out of about 30 kids and most of their parents. No one suffered any injuries and we had some really fun games with both the parents and the kids. Sports day can be a really big deal in japan and the parents always try to get to the event. It was great to see everyone get into it.

Our most recent event was the Calvary Chapel Tokorozawa Family Camp!
We went almost over to chichibu, to Hanno and booked us a few cabins and fire pits at a prefecture campground. Kind of like a State Camp Ground back in America.

Most of the church was able to make it out and we really had a good time. It rained the first day, but after than we had a beautiful blue sky and even got to have a huge campfire.
The kids are already excited for next year and we just about have the campfire smell out of all of our clothes. All in all, it was a fantastic family camp.

Summer 2010. One year in mainland.

2010-09-08T14:38:00.013+09:00

It's September.
Already?

I can only assume that I'm not the only person on earth saying that, but I can't believe it's been over a year now since we moved to mainland Japan.
Life has changed a lot, and as I notice my maternity clothes starting to fit "right" I can see how things will only change more.Tokyo life has gone so fast and we've faced more lessons than we really intended to over this last year. We've learned how important "Family Time" is and how important it is to keep the doors and windows shut when the AC is on.
We've seen how drastically different a day can go when you begin it by reading your bible and how your entire life perspective can change just by taking an at home test.
I do have to say, for those of you who follow the blogg (even for as slow it is to update) that we are so thankful for your prayers and support. It's been a rough year but that is how we learn what the good times truly are.
God has been so consistent and faithful.

We've never gone hungry and we've never been stranded inside of our problems. We've always had plenty and never lack.
It really is something, when you begin to see the books and chapters of the bible in your life. Not just something you read or try to memorize, but when you are challenging yourself to live them out day to day.This summer has gone by very fast, and unfortunately we don't have many pictures to show for it. I have a few and I'll share them with you with a small caption if I can remember why we took them.

Life continues on at the preschool :)
________________

We held an end of the school year fun day to kick off the summer. Balloons where a big hit.
________________

We got a chance to go up to Okutama camp and have a church picnic and baptism. The water was cold and the food was great. Plus their was a guy with a star on his head.
________________

We also concluded the preschool with a play. Noah's Ark. One of Noah's sons was just too worn out.
________________

Next we flew back to America to spend a month visiting with Family. It was both a hard month and a beautiful month. As most of you know, my father passed away the morning I flew into Idaho. Another life changing experience to add to this year, but the very fact that I was even able to be in America during this time was like God was saying "You are mine."
We spent the month with my mother and got a chance to fellowship. God blessed the time we had and is still continuing to teach us from it.

We also got a chance to spend some time in Idaho after our time in Texas. Our closest friend, Jamie got married! Rusty attended the wedding for the both of us (I was in Texas with my mom) and served as Best Man. Weddings are such a beautiful thing. God created a beautiful covenant and I'm so happy that we could include this into our summer.

Again, thank you everyone for keeping up with us and we'll see you more as the months progress.

-Amber, Rusty and baby S.

2010-06-24T19:20:00.004+09:00

Well, i guess its about time for what has become our monthly update and picture

This time isnt as clear, unless you are pro at reading ultrasounds. Good luck for those who are not.

You can probably see the head and backbone, but the rest is kind of hard to see :) But we where blessed to see the baby again and when we took a look, the baby happened to be quite awake and active. Jumping around and moving all over. Things looked magnificent. I cant feel anything yet, but im sure im pretty close to it. Also aside from feeling tired earlier in the day, im feeling pretty well. God has really been keeping his hand over me and my morning sickness and i havent missed a day of work yet.

Fast changes!!

2010-05-26T18:34:00.004+09:00

Well amber went to the doctor again today and we got to take home a few more ultrasound pictures. What a difference just a few weeks makes!

The head is distinguishable and in a few angles you could see a hand near the nose. Things are moving fast and the doctors don't see any problems.

Thank you for your prayer support! We hope this picture encourages you to keep it up!

Coming in December

2010-05-09T16:21:00.005+09:00

Hey everyone. W e just wanted to let all of you look at a picture that we received recently :D

He or she is due Dec. 24th.

Videos

2010-04-14T21:17:00.003+09:00

Hey everyone! Well, they aren't in a perfectly clear view due to the uploading, but beggars can't be choosers ;)

There are three videos so far, and more to come.
1~2) English schools We Go Eigo Fuchu and Tokorozawa team up for a camp every year and these are 3 out of the 4 skits that we did. One of them didn't record super well, so we didn't get it up, but the other three are still pretty good.
3) This is the Pre-School at Fuchu, just a cap on some the fun stuff that happens :D

Again, we're going to be getting up a few more videos, they should be focused on what we do outside of work (but there is going to be a photo video of the Okutama Camp too).

Thanks guys, keep us in prayer :D

2010-04-13T16:13:00.001+09:00

Hey everyone, I got a couple movies ready to post, but I've had some problems exporting them to the correct file formats. Unfortunately, every export takes time, so please bear with me while things are being exported!

Thanks :D

Hey guys

2010-04-12T21:31:00.002+09:00

Hey everyone! It's been a long while, we apologize.

Tomorrow, I have some free time and I'm going to put together a video for everyone to watch. It will include bits and pieces of what kind of stuff is going on.

Just as a forward, we have two main ministries that we are a part of:

1) Our church in Tokorozawa - Helping in whatever is needed, Sunday school, fellowship, Friday nights home fellowship at Travis' and some other stuff like that.

2) Our sister church in Fuchu has an international Christian pre-school and after-school English programs that we assist in daily, it's great to see the new church growing, largely due to the fact that Rich and Candis (us included) are living real Christian lives and it's reaching the parents. What a blessing to hear Japanese kids singing kids Christian songs that they learn in English like, The B-I-B-L-E, Jesus loves me, and many others.

Please be in prayer for our ministries and for the Japanese people. Pray that we would be obedient to the Lord in all things and that we would put our faith in Him alone!

Thank you everyone for your support. Look for us tomorrow!

Prayer and Spiritual Warfare.

2010-02-15T13:21:00.003+09:00

Just wanted to drop by and share a with you guys a little bit.

This week the topic of spiritual warfare has been on my mind a lot. Last week in our midweek womens study thru 2nd Corinthians was the beginning of it. Ive always liked the topic because I think that understanding it helps a lot when you run unto it. I also like it because its one "problem" that we can always fix and win against. We find much encouragement in Ephesians and Galatians about it and thru a deeper understanding of it we can learn to use the defenses God has given us.

Even this morning (my day off) I was hit with a good chunk of it. It can be easy to give ourselves excuses and say things like "im just off today" or "its the weather" or whatever. Ive even found myself saying "its just my emotions" as if thats even a real excuse anyways. In all honest those are just thin coverings for what we're really saying; "I care more about myself than anything else" or "I matter most." If we are honest, thats what we really mean. And when we are feeling that way, of course we're going to get down because we are humans with a smelly aroma of sin.

But this morning I remembered to rely on Jesus. The battle was hard but it was also beautiful. In Romans 8 we are reminded to be "more than conquers" thats a verb you know. It means "to be more than a conqueror, to gain a surpassing victory" and that is exactly what Jesus has in mind for us because He has already done the fighting for us.

In a world that tells us to stand for ourselves I would like to stand without my own defenses, but I want to stand under the defense of Jesus. I know I cant do it on my own, so I don't want to try putting up all the philosophy and sociology I have been subliminally taught all my life.

I just want the Cross. I want to let something so simple fix all my problems. Ever since I have decided to live this way I have joy and a real purpose in life.

-Amber

2 weeks, one post.

2010-02-08T14:07:00.007+09:00

Here we go guys. See if you can keep up!
On the 6th, we went to the Karaoke as a church. Travis waned to do something special for everyone who helps out in Childrens Church. So everyone who could met us at a Karaoke joint not that far from the church. As you notice from the pictures, it trumps any kind of Karaoke you may find in the states. Its a real sport out here!! We got a room that sits 20 and two microphones. We had lots of shakers and tambourines too. You can order all kinds of foods, sweets and drinks at one of these places.

Just about everyone came, and all but maybe 2 sang!

Looking for the perfect song...

But last week was the real party. One evening, just before we went to bed, we noticed that it was snowing like crazy outside!! I know we weren't the only ones who threw on some snow gear and headed outside.

Kicking back almost another whole week, we had Koinonia Klub like usual. Monopoly in full swing. We had the most kids we have ever had come this time, which was really great. We want the kids to come bcause they like hanging out, not because they are use to coming. With more kids, they get a bigger oppertunity to build friendships and choose how they want the evening to go. I left my camera out on accident, and this is one of the photos i ended up finding. A pretty good shot!

Please remember to pray for Daiske (dai-skay). He doesnt know Jesus by any other form than christmas but he still comes faithfully every week to hang with us.

We also thought you would like a peek at some bonsai trees from the nursery close to our house.
We are pretty sure they are plum trees. Ume. They look like the famous Sakura flowers, but they bloom earlier, have deeper colors and cost significantly less.

And yo end it off, catch a smile from some of our friends. They had a great time with the chalk!!

-The Spearmans

Evan had a birthday!

2010-01-25T12:21:00.013+09:00

On saturday, Evan had his birthday party! He turned 6 on monday or tuesday last week, but he had his party at the church on Saturday so all his church friends could come. And not being ones to turn down a good party, me and Rusty headed on over.

Just about all the church kids came and it was a good bunch of faces. Everyone was so excited for Evan. Even the littlest ones.

They played lots of balloon games and never seemed to run out of energy.

We also played Musical chairs. After the kids, we had the adults play too.

I guess it got a little rough...

(just kidding its face-paint)

So we took a breather and played the famous, Pin-the-Tail on the Donkey. I think we had 2 winners.

Just waiting for that chocolate goodness (or maybe for what comes after cake; presents?)

This kid is set on sugar for a few months.

And to wrap things up, their was a massive game of balloon volley ball. Hosted and sustained by the kids.
I think he had a very, very happy birthday.

Something other than monopoly...

2010-01-22T21:57:00.004+09:00

I forgot to throw these up, so here you go.
Most saturdays at the Koinonia Klub, we play monopoly with whatever kids show up.
We only have one girl who comes, her name is Haruna.
We both went bankrupt pretty early, so we spent the rest of the night doodling. Here are some of our compilation creations.

^ note the Balloon. Rusty made it into the masterpiece. Oh and there you go, get an eyeful of my japanese handwriting and spelling hahah. Haruna said it was legible and the spelling at least somewhat comprehensive. *phew* My kanji on the other hand....well, lets just say i made the attempt that it woudnt make it into the pictures to well.

This one is all Haruna. She drew a picture of me

Ice Skating Adventure!

2010-01-20T15:09:00.006+09:00

On Monday, Jiai and I took the girls group out ice skating in Higashi Fushimi! We got our ice legs and before we knew it we where skating like the pros (minus all the jumping and fastness...)

It took us a few minutes and some international shoe sizing, but we got our skates on.

I had black ones and so did Jiai, but Angel and Sayaka had red ones.

Off they went! This was Sayaka and Angels first time ice skating, but they picked up on it quickly!!

We stayed at the rink for a few hours, so when our feet started to hurt, we played a game. We had to guess what we had on our forehead by asking yes or no questions! We had a pretty good time, and just for the record; Team Amber won by 5 points!!

I had Tinker-Bell

Angel had Bell

Brittney had Arel (do i see a theme?)

And Jiai had Jasmine. She really got into the part.

Unfortunately i wasn't quick enough to get Hitomi or Sayaka with the paper on their heads!

It was a long day, and to be honest, I was a little sore the day after, but it was well worth it. We had a good time, and no one broke any bones.

Praise the Lord!

A Warm Welcome

2010-01-17T23:03:00.004+09:00

"Oh, taste and see that the LORD is good;
Blessed is the man who trusts in Him!"

-Psalm 34:8

The Lord just loves to bless us, and here is just another testimony.
Be encouraged and know that the Lord desires only good for us. We where blessed with a Heater/AC unit!!!

We don't know who provided for us to have this, but the Lord does and we are making sure to praise Him for it! We've had some chilly nights here in Japan, but God knows our needs.
Praise the Lord for his provision!
We got everything installed on Saturday (within an hour! those guys are fast!!) and had a nice and warm nights rest.

-The Spearmans

Mid January Blessings

2010-01-13T14:38:00.012+09:00

Well guys, looking back its just short of a month, so here's whats been going on with the Spearmans.

(get ready for lots of pictures)

We're back in full swing at the Preschool in Fuchu. We thought you might like to take a peek at some of the faces.

I guess 'Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes' is an exhausting song.

Runa and Kana, what a pair!

Also, the morning class is much different than these older kids (not older by much) so i would like to introduce you to just a few of our morning crew. We see most of these kids 2-3 times a week (some every weekday) from 9am untill 2:30. We have a blast!

Masafumi!! Our manliest man.

Karina, sporting the newest Burton outerwear.

Yuichi, our little thinker.

Anghous. This little guy has a language all to his own.

Haruki. One of our most fluent kids. And not to mention, one of our biggest Pink supporters.

___________________________

Shortly after the New Year one of the families from the church invited some people over for lunch. Their house is beautiful and was designed by the father. Wow!!
We had Sukiyaki. My first time eating raw eggs!

(the cooking process)

Checking in on the foods. And yep, a whole egg gets cracked into your bowl. (but, i suppose its optional xD)

After Lunch Rusty and Travis gave us some live entertainment. It looks like Travis is a little grown out of his Violin. lol (it's belongs to the families two youngest)
___________________________

After church on sundays, all the kids run over to the small park by the church and play soccer, and a bunch of other outdoor games. Even in the bitter coldness, they still go faithfully.
___________________________

Saturday Koinonia club is going pretty good. We're still goin' strong on Monopoly, even if we did loose all the game pieces. The clue figures seem to be working well.
___________________________

God blessed us with a couch!!! One of the ladies from our church moved back to her parents home town and she asked us if we could take her couch! Well, we have been waiting on getting a couch and the Lord decided to pick one out for us, for free!! What a blessing it is, really to be taken care of by the Lord. We had looked at a lot of shops for a sofa, but nothing seemed to fit right with money or size. But this one is perfect. Its a sofabed also, which is exactly what we wanted.

Looks like its already getting put to use!!
___________________________

This picture is a bit harder to explain. Japan is kind of like disney land...just kidding. At the Local park, a club visits about once a month on sunday afternoons. They are mostly university students all enrolled in clubs (a BIG deal in japan). These guys are cosplayers. They all make costumes of their favorite fictional characters and meet up and take pictures (sometimes with professional photographers)
This group is from the video game Final Fantasy 10.
___________________________

This may look like cosplay, but believe it or not; this one isnt!! Last monday was a national holiday, so me and rusty went down to Ikebukuro (part of the more city side of tokyo) and popped into Sunshine City. Before that we went to Patisserie Swallowtail. (click the link if your interested in more info) and got a sweet. The clerk is wearing their standard company uniform. Japan is a country filled with all kinds of attractions and specialties. This is just one of them. Click here to see the guys uniforms. (as seen pictures on dolls)

We also stopped by NamjaTown, but we didnt go in. This an amusement park developed by Namco, the video game company. We just didnt have enough time to do an amusement park today.

Its the 23rd already? what??

2009-12-23T22:09:00.007+09:00

So i realized today its been a long time since we updated. And we have done a lot too. Including my birthday and christmas parties. All without posting a picture. We don't have too many, but for all of your sakes, we will share a few images from our busy, busy month.

We will start with my (amber's) 22nd birthday.

(From the left: Karina, Fardin, Meri, Me, Koudai, Haruki)

I started the day off going to work, and was suprised around lunch time. The kids (and their moms, and rusty) all threw me a party with a big cake! Its about an hour and fifteen mins to commute to the preschool, so i was pretty amazed to see rusty at the school. And it was a real blessing to have the moms of these little guys come too. They are really sweet and they even made me a card.

Rich and Candice gave me the rest of the day off, so rusty took me out to dinner in Shinjuku! We went to this great place named Mokuola (pictured above lol) and we got some awesome burgers and fries. We also go to know our waiter a bit. He spoke great english, so we have a few short conversations with him when he could spare a moment (it was pretty packed)

We then closed the night with some coldstone. They sang us a special welcome to tokyo song and everything.
It really was such a wonderful birthday and i feel so blessed to have such a wonderful husband to spend it with. The Lord is blessing us way more than we deserve or could have asked for.

Next up was the Tokorozawa WeGoEigo Christmas party. The picture is Mike and Jiai sharing the christmas story to the kids in full details. They don't really know much about christmas other than santa, jingle bells and special (really expensive and tiny) christmas cakes. So we wanted them to know the christmas story and also ended with the easter story. Pray that these kids will remember in their hearts as they grow older.

Lets see what next?

Taco Rice!
We totally got blessed by a family in the church with some taco seasoning and fixings, so we got right to making our "Okinawan soul food". Taco rice is always a welcome site in our house. (and you can see our christmas tree, just barley in the background! That was ALSO a gift from another family from the church! [also note the box of ornaments, still left unhung. we'll get to that christmas eve hahaha])

Just last saturday we went a few stops away to Tachikawa with a few people from the church and saw the Christmas Illumination. It was cold, packed and shiny but a good time. Lots of lights and some beautiful fireworks to end the evening.

This whole display is all champagne glasses with lights under it. Pretty cool huh?

_______________________________

Well again, im sorry for the delay, but for now this is Merry Christmas and Happy New year. Keep looking at Jesus for 2010!

-The Spearmans

2009-12-15T15:06:00.002+09:00

Kitchen and Rooms Video

I got the video for the kitchen and rooms.

Once again, thank you so much everyone who is praying for us. The Lord has been so faithful to provide for every need that we have, both physical and spiritual. Thank you.

I'll try to post up other events soon!

House!

2009-12-15T14:36:00.002+09:00

Hey everyone! I have so much to say and it seems so little time.

I threw together a quick video to show the outside of our house, I should be updating soon with the inside, with all of our new household things inside!

Also, I have some pictures of some Christmas events that have happened, I'll try to get those up soon too.

Quick Update!

2009-12-02T22:58:00.002+09:00

Hey everyone, just wanted to give a real quick update on things (sorry I didn't have time to get pictures up, but hopefully tomorrow I can post em up.)

So, by God's grace, we got the free-standing house for rent! We were/are in the process of getting everything moved over and getting all of the small things that are needed for daily living. We were surprised when we realized that it just seems like there's a million different things you need to buy for convenience when you move into a new place (tape, band-aids, silverware, dishsoap and sponges, towels, bathroom stuff, everything that you *can't* think of when you are shopping for it ;) ).

For a quick update on our weekly schedule (rough update), We Go Eigo Fuchu (English school across town) we go to five times a week. I go monday and wednesday and Amber goes Tues, thurs and fri. We both have We Go Eigo Tokorozawa classes during the times we have off from Fuchu as well. I attend a pastor's devotion on Tuesday morning and Amber attends the Women's Wednesday on a Weekday (I just right now named it that, it's still unofficial though). Saturday nights we have Koinonia Klub, and Sunday we both are in weekly schedules for helping with kid's church.

Also, We'd like to sincerely thank all those who have put Amber and I up into a place and have helped us out - as far as actual housing goes. Don't worry we are also sincerely thankful for different kinds of support that others have given as well. But right now we would like to mention my parents, Pastor Tommy and Pastor Travis for specifically putting us up into a place until the Lord moved us into our own.

Thank you so much for your prayers and support, please, please continue to pray for us!

Again, this was somewhat of a quick update, I'll try to post back within the next day or two WITH pictures! Thanks everyone!

November fly-by!

2009-11-27T23:06:00.005+09:00

Well November has been a busy month!
We've been staying busy at the church in Tokorozawa and we've been sharpening our ABC's down in Fuchu!
Starting a few weeks ago, even rusty has been heading down to the preschool once a week to help out with the classes. Wednesday is now his day on, and my day off. Also it gives me the opportunity to attend the women's fellowship at CCT. It' all in Japanese, but its a great way to hone my "Japanese ears" and get to know the ladies from the church better.

It's starting to get pretty cold around here too, but no snow. It's pretty rare to get snow, but not unheard of, so we'll see what Christmas brings us. Along with December brings us a big step. We found an apartment (right next to the church) and will move in on the 1st! Here are a few pictures from the inside.

Thats dining room/kitchen (sorry we couldnt get the whole thing in one picture)

And thats the kitchen (minus out fridge)Cant forget the shower room :]

Upstairs is next. This is the "right side" room. It has another one (pictured below) thats almost the same size. They have a sliding door between them.

Hopefully we can get some pictures when all the shutters are opened and theirs a little more decoration to look at. Untill then, you can take a look at these other things....

Tonight we went bowling. We went with the pastors family and another family from the church. We had a really good time, but somehow rusty ended up buying Kenta juice due to the difference in their scores :]

Hey and check this out! Some guy signed this and his signature is a real piece of art! Japanese people are artisans!

Well, anyways, thats whats up with us.
Keep us in your prayers please. Spiritual warfare is tough, but we have unlimited back up ;]

-Amber and rusty

Long Needed Update

2009-10-17T15:16:00.024+09:00

Hey everyone, sorry for the time in between updates. I had planned on updating on Monday, but I'd just gotten busy during the whole week. I'm not sure on the actual date taken on a lot of events, but I'll try to post them in order from bottom, oldest to newest. Newest being on the top.

There's been a lot of fun in the last month, with a lot of pictures.

Before we get too excited and just look at pictures, I'll give a quick update on how we are doing and what we are doing. Right now, Amber is continuing to work at We Go Eigo Fuuchu (Rich's English school). She currently goes four times a week.

I teach English twice a week (at this point, looking for more). We help with the Koinonia Klub on Saturday nights and help with church on Wednesday and Sunday. On Tuesday and Wednesday mornings, a few guys from the church have early morning devotions that I attend to. One of them is all in Japanese, so wish me luck on those days!

Me and Amber (mostly Amber, because shes really creative and good with art stuff) made a flyer for the English school here in Tokorozawa (the one that I teach at) and as soon as I get it translated into Japanese, I'll be handing them out and sticking them in mailboxes.

I also have the chance to attend a Japanese class twice a week, a near 1 on 1 tutoring for only 1 dollar (about) for an hour and a half of good teaching/immersion in the language.

Me and Amber also are regularly (almost every week, about 3/4 times) helping out with Kid's Church on Sunday mornings. We also got amber a new bike at Costco for a great deal.

We are really doing great out here. We love it here and really appreaciate all of the prayers that are going into ministry out here. Thank you so much and please continue to pray for us!

Okay, Pictures!
(Description of the picture will appear directly under the picture.)

These are a couple pictures from the park (somewhat) near Rich's English teaching place. Sport's Day took place here as well (I'll show that after the next picture).

____________________________

Another park picture.

____________________________

This is We Go Eigo's (Rich's English school in Fuuchu) Sport's Day.

Sport's Day is pretty much just that. You get your school together, along with your parents, family and friends and go do a bunch of organized sports, races, relays, and other fun physical activities. There are a lot of games where even the parents are involved.

This was the group picture before lunch.

____________________________

This was a towel race that we had. Two people had to carry a towel together while holding a ball in the towel. Older kids and parents had to get an additional pair and toss the ball using a flinging technique, learned only through experience, to the other pair.

____________________________

This was tug of war. Tug of war happens at certain festivals and at most sports days.

____________________________

Another of the many games available at sports day. Throw the balls in the basket/hoop.

____________________________

Racing is also important on sports day. There are also many relays that take place.

____________________________

This is me taking last place behind some eight to ten year old's (I think).

____________________________

Amber led the routine morning exercises!

____________________________

The following series is from our trip to Kawagoe. The couple following pictures are from the big temple area.

This is the temple front.

____________________________

This is a shrine. Yes, the water bottle does have a meaning, though I don't remember what it is.

____________________________

From my understanding, these are fortunes that you've gotten and you tie them here to make them come true. It's supposed to be good luck.

____________________________

These are some statues. I can't tell if they are Buddha or not.

____________________________

The following series is also from the same day that we went to Kawagoe, the old town place.

This was a picture of some friends.

____________________________

Amber looking cool next to a restaurant's moat with some fishies in it.

____________________________

This is a shrine.

____________________________

This is a line of shops. They were on both sides.

On a side note, you can pay people to carry you around in a highly glorified wheelbarrow for fun, or for something. Maybe to be cool. But you can do it. It comes out somewhere near a dollar a minute (more because of the exchange rate).

____________________________

This is a really big famous tower that has been around for hundreds of years. Pretty cool.

____________________________

Another picture of the tower.

____________________________

This was actually the first picture I took of the Kawagoe trip. I uploaded it first, so it came out last. ;)

____________________________

Happy Birthday, Michael! Sorry for the blurry picture. I tried to get Kaoru (sorry if I spelled your name wrong!) in the picture as well.

____________________________

No, it wasn't Amber's birthday, but she was happy for Michael.

____________________________

The following pictures are from the Tokorozawa Matsuri (Festival). This picture...I think it might represent villages battling. But then again, I didn't have a guide and I have no idea. But I think given the context, it looked like a battle. There was no live violence.

____________________________

Sweet picture of this guy on the roof of the wagon thing at the "Battle."

____________________________

Yeah, there were a lot of people here.

____________________________

Seriously, there were probably a zillion people there. Or more. Actually, I hear that there are some festivals that far outdo the number of people here. There are a few that reach in the many hundreds of thousands of people, so I hear.

____________________________

Someone always gets hurt, or bitten. Just kidding. Parents were putting their children in the dog thing's mouth just for fun :)

____________________________

I have abosolutely no idea what was going on here. I don't think it was Japanese. There were a lot of people.

____________________________

This was part of the parade before it got to the actual festival site.

____________________________

This is another picture of a wagon thing before it got to the festival site. That's Ruben in the front. He goes to our church :D. Sorry if I spelled your name wrong.

____________________________

The following few pictures is from Travis' son, Evan's Sport's Day. Basically something like what I used to do as a kid - a track meet, except they do a lot cooler things, even the parents participate in relays and other racing games with their kids. The entire day is just filled with a lot of fun. Also, most of these kids right here are around 4-5. Japan has some pretty good organizational skills, even among kids.

Unfortunately, somehow I didn't get any pictures of Evan's race. He was easily the fastest kid out of anyone else in his age group there. I would also bet that he would be in the top ten fastest of some of the older kids that were there too. He's a quick boy.

____________________________

Here they were performing a little dance to a song. Pretty amazing for kids.

____________________________

Little kids doing a six person pyramid.

____________________________

The pyramid complete.

____________________________

These are some of the littlest ones at church on Sunday mornings. They're all so cute.

____________________________

For a couple Sundays, some of us at the church gathered at the park to play some volleyball. Unfortunately, I only remembered to capture some pictures after we were done with our organized playing. There were a lot more people before I took the picture.

Also, on a quick note, our park is really big. It used to be an American military base, but is now a giant park. It's really beautiful and a great place to go spend time there for different occasions.

____________________________

A picture of a walkway at our park.

____________________________

Another picture of a pathway in our park ;D

____________________________

Ninjas. This is at our park. Sometimes on Sunday afternoons a bunch of people who like anime (Japanese Cartoons just to be easy), dress up like their favorite characters and take a bunch of pictures....basically.

____________________________

This starts a series of pictures from our Family Camp vacation we took with the church over to Okutama camping place thing. We had a lot of fun and good fellowship. The following pictures will be of our cabin and some of the outdoor places that we were at (in Okutama).

____________________________

This is a blurry picture of the upstairs girl's room.

____________________________

This is a picture from the balcony-like window from the girl's room overlooking the main area.

____________________________

That's a picture of the top bunk of the boy's room.

____________________________

I think this was the back of a concrete factory. I thought it looked pretty cool.

____________________________

Thought all the homies would like this one. Gave me a giggle.

____________________________

That's me on your left and Amber on your right.

____________________________

Windy river. I named it that, just now.

____________________________

It was really pretty there.

____________________________

Well, that was Silver Week. It was pretty packed.

____________________________

Update!

2009-09-16T12:03:00.015+09:00

Hey Everyone! We're sorry it's been such a long time since we've updated our blog.

Amber and I have been doing so well out here. It seems we have just been blessed in every way possible, thank you so much for your prayer.

Right now, Amber is teaching Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday at an English school in Fuuchu and she has a couple of English conversational lessons as well. She's been quite busy lately, but she's been doing very well.

I teach on Tuesdays and Wednesdays and have a youth group on Saturday night. We both assist in church activities on Tuesday, Wednesday, Saturday and all day Sunday.

Amber and I both have Japanese lessons on Monday and Friday for an hour and a half. It can be pretty intense! They like to use the immersion method - by far the most effective, but also really hard sometimes.

The church in Tokorozawa has been taking complete care of us. They have been helping us get settled in...in every way!

We've done a lot of fun things here so far, including going to the big cities, going to the zoo and finding all sorts of different things along the way.

Please look forward to more posts soon!

This is a super big porcupine. I was really amazed at how big it was. I thought they shoot their quills, but they don't :D
__________________________________

These are a bunch of penguins, they can swim super fast. They are all lined up and excited about feeding time. They waddle pretty funny too. I like the loner off to the side.
__________________________________

This is a red panda, I think. It is pretty small and super cool looking. It looks like something out of Kung Fu Panda. Probably is.
__________________________________

This is a wolf, it was pretty big. It is also Tokito's favorite animal, I think.
__________________________________

There is a park that used to be a military base. It is so beautiful. It's a gigantic park filled with greenery and giant trees and beautiful flowers, places for sports, fields, courts, you name it! I went running here today on their AstroTurf track. I couldn't run the whole thing - not yet at least. It's a long track that winds through most of the park.
__________________________________

We went to a city called Akihabara, it is kind of like nerd paradise, or just short of it. This is a Gundam, people climb in them and go fight stuff. It isn't real.
__________________________________

This was a pretty big display of a dragon thing, I thought it looked cool, so I took a picture.
__________________________________

We saw the World's smallest girl here. She's 1 foot 11 inches.
__________________________________

This is Shibuya, the most busy intersection in the world.
__________________________________

Another picture of Shibuya.
__________________________________

Random crazy picture. Lots of huge advertisement TV's.

__________________________________

These are some random people that we accidentally took a picture of. This is the largest temple in Tokyo - I think.

Look forward to more posts!

We made it

2009-08-31T21:15:00.003+09:00

Flying domestic is way better than international.
We arrived in tokyo with no problems. But the typhoon has brought in some COLD weather!!!
It's rainy and so cold my feet are reminding me more and more as the night goes on!
But tomorrow we are told it's going to be back up in the 90's!
Praise the Lord that he has provided for us to stay in Tokyo!
Keep us in your prayers and thank the Lord for the work He is going to do!

Tokyo bound

2009-08-30T18:36:00.000+09:00

Tomorrows the big day. We're moving out of Okinawa and going to live in Tokyo. Wow!
August went by so fast and it's hard to believe we're moving out. Okinawa has been a blessing and it will be hard not to cry once we leave. But the people we have come to call family will always be just a phone call away.
Well, still got some stuff to pack, so stay tuned for our Big City updates.

A Very Delicious Day in Japan

2009-08-25T15:55:00.006+09:00

Tomorrow is almost here!

And 'Manda is going to be here!

She will fly from Korea back to Okinawa tomorrow morning! Praise the Lord!!! I know ive missed her a lot, but she has been a blessing in Korea im sure. She has had the oppertunity to teach and plan lots of things. But im very excited to have her back on Island. It's been too long!

But before i forget today is a special day.

Aside from the fact that i got to enjoy fresh, only a day old Guava.

Yum!

The most exciting thing is that today is National Ramen Day!!

Ta daaa!!!

We love Ramen around here. It's a chinese noodle, but we'll gladly call it our own ;)

Me and Joel have been working most of the day to create our own home made noodles and broth. The kitchen is smelling good and we're excited for the outcome.

But somone had to pop our bubble. We found out that it's not just National Ramen day. It's National Instant Ramen Day. *sigh* instand ramen was invented 50 years ago, chicken was the first flavor. Ah well. We still like the home made stuff!!

Have a bowl of Ramen for us.

Overcoming one fear at a time.

2009-08-21T10:59:00.009+09:00

I did it guys.
Today i killed the biggest spider i have ever seen.

Yeah, I killed it.

I killed it dead with rustys shoe.

This morning i woke up before rusty. I was getting my sandals on to go to the bathroom (our bathroom isnt in our house lol) and i saw a brown thing on the wall above rustys awesome converse.
I thought it was a common gecko, an adorable Gecko. But i was wrong.

It was actually a young Okinawan Brown Spider.
It was horrible.

Here is a picture i found online of one of them. It's not my hand, spider or picture. I just wanted to let you guys know what kind of morning i had.

The spider in this picture is a little huskier than the one i killed. The one this morning had a slightly thinner body, but it was about the same size regardless.
I tried to kill it with the toe of Rusty's shoe and it scrambled away, so i put the shoe flat and gave it a sonic blow with the sole. Unfortunately the sound of the attack woke up rusty and i had to explain the whole event. Then he went back to sleep for another 10 mins or so.

I threw the caucus outside in the yard by the Shaquasha tree and a colony of ants where later seen carrying it away to some unknown hole.

All in all, just another day on the Island.

Clean kitchen!

2009-08-20T14:37:00.004+09:00

Whats today? Thursday? Right.

Well, Last night Rusty got the oppertunity to teach the mid week bible study at CCginowan. Tommy decided that since we are leaving Okinawa (for those of you who don't know, we are moving to tokrozowa August 31st!) soon, that he wanted to give rusty a chance to say what the Lord has been putting on his heart. Rusty spoke out of Ephesians and Tokito translated (thanks Tokster) and they had a good time. What a good experiance for Rusty. He is use to teaching Jr. High kids for only 20mins or so. This time it was his peers and also those who are a bit older. Seasoned christians who are deep into the Word. Rusty was a little nervous, but excited to share with everyone what the Holy Spirit had shown him. It's amzing the things we are capable of doing when we are excited and when the Holy Spirit shows us how. He gives us blessings and joy over the things we are to teach. It becomes more like overflowing than preaching. God is so good to us in that way isnt he.

As for today, we spent this morning cleaning! The kitchen and cafe all look great and i almost forgot to mention! We got a new sink in the kitchen! It doesn't leak and it's a lot deeper, its such a blessing. The guys are great here, and usually always do the dishes so i know if im feeling the blessin' they are twofold.

And none of that would be possible if you guys didnt pray for us. Thank you. Im so grateful for your prayers and support. I know me and rusty are feeling them every day.

Monday

2009-08-17T18:04:00.003+09:00

Today has been just beautiful and its been a good day to get into the Word. After going to market today, we made lunch and had a relaxing afternoon.
We've been hanging out with Tommy's kids for most of the day. We're going to be leaving in a few weeks so it's been nice to hang out with the younger 2.

Today has also been hot.
At 7am it was already humid enough to make you sweat by standing, Praise the Lord we have air conditioning when we sleep. It's 6:10 while im writing this and it says 88/feels like 99 with 70% humidity. Phew. Sunset is in an hour and we have a dew point of 77 degrees. I guess that what you should expect from a tropical island in the middle of the ocean.

Let the Lord bless you guys

August sun

2009-08-13T10:25:00.004+09:00

Sorry for the lack of bloggage, we have had a wicked run of the flu at the church. Almost all the missionaries and students have gotten sick within the last 2 weeks. Including rusty and myself. We are pretty sure rusty had the swine flu, but it's a lot weaker out here and they don't even take you at the hospital for it. Too many people have it, so they just turn you away. We are advised to sleep, stay away from other people and drink lots of fluids. Rusty is doing really good, he just has a cough hanging around. I'm feeling pretty good too, but i also have a cough. They are deminishing, and thank you for all the prayer, i never got a fever like rusty did. We have all been spending some quality time in our beds and in the Word.
Please keep us all in pray tho, we still have students to send home and thru immigraton back to America. Also we will be getting a handful of brand new students in about 2 and a half weeks, so we would like to make sure the whole virus is gone before they come to school.

Aside form that, our August is shaping to be a hot and humid one.
The temperatures have been around the mid to upper 80's, but whats killer is the humidity. We usually have between 79-88%! No hair straighter can compete with that!
Ministry is going strong aside form that fact that we had to cancel a VBS this week due to the severity of the flu on Island. We are continuing to ministry to the Body of Christians on Island and getting ready to send home our S.O.S Students.

Thanks for keeping up with us even when we are sick.

-The Spearmans

Typhoon...

2009-08-06T15:10:00.003+09:00

2 typhoons are spotted off the coast of Okinawa. The winds and rains are really picking up around here even tho i have heard we won't be getting hit directly. We brought in all of our decorations and plants that could easily fly away and are getting ready to see the rain. Although Okinawa does not usually suffer any fatalities from it's seasonal Typhoons, other areas in the world are not so fortunate. Please pray that the church building will stay intact and that God would provide safe harbors for those who have none.

sorry guys

2009-08-06T15:08:00.003+09:00

Well guys, i'm sorry to announce but my old faithful digital camera has finally broken!
3 years was a good run for my little guy. This explains my lack of photos, but you can still keep up with us on e3missions.com and check out the great photos there :)

Park English VBS!!

2009-08-02T16:57:00.003+09:00

We're getting ready for a week full of our English Explosion VBS!
We have so many kids in the area tha we decided instead of inviting them to the church for the VBS, we would take it to them!
It will be taking place at the Park close to Tommy's house
(here is a link with a few pictures of the park)
It's going to take place from 9am-lunch which will be the hottest time of the day, so pray that we all have the energy and that we don't run out of drinking water!!

Keep an eye on e3missions.com for more pictures!

Payer Request

2009-08-01T16:05:00.004+09:00

Hey guys, we would like to ask you guys to keep the christian body here on Island in prayer. The swine flu is just beginning to hit Okinawa.
3 of our friends (including a baby under 3 years old!) have been diagnosed with Swine Flue. Immune systems are a bit weaker here, so please pray for strength and a quick recovery of those who are sick.

Kinser Chapel

2009-07-26T16:25:00.003+09:00

Sunday morning was another good time at Kinser Chapel. Rusty and I (along with a few others) go on base every Sunday morning and help out with the chapel. We are always up to our elbows with kids ministry of some kind.
Rusty has been hanging with the Jr. Highers for a while now and is always around for them to hang out with. I spend the morning with everyone under 5th grade. We have a great time memorizing our weekly bible verses, playing with play-dough and watching videos like The Story Keepers, VeggieTales and McGee and Me!

Be encouraged to know God has been blessing this small, but consistent ministry.

M.E.L.T

2009-07-23T14:40:00.006+09:00

We are all still recovering from burnt corneas (just kidding). We all watched the Solar Eclipse yesterday and wrote it down in our history books. It was the buzz word at church all night.
But Thursday is a new day and after a good class on evangelism and japanese we all packed into the van and went to the university for M.E.L.T.

A group of Christian Koreans are in the area until the 31st and they blessed us with a skit. It was powerful and moving. Christianity and sin are strange concepts for many Japanese, even the idea of Heaven and Hell is weird to them. The skit was a good bridge to tell the students how our lives use to be like the skit and how we have changed. The gospel went out, so please pray for those who had ears to hear it.

Prayer Request

2009-07-21T20:05:00.002+09:00

We would like to ask you guys to continue to pray for our S.O.S Japan ministry. As you may be aware, it's a 5 week program for summer 2009. We have invited a group of young guns to get a taste of missionary life. We are about a week and a half into it so far and we are just starting to get into the swing of things. We are letting them play tourist for the rest of this week before we really crack down. Please pray that these new students would understand the ministry here in Japan and develop a love for theses lost people. We would also pray that they grow in their walk with the Lord and develop into men and women of God.

S.O.S

2009-07-16T13:47:00.004+09:00

Well here are some pictures from the S.O.S group. Don't know if you can tell yet, but we're all getting a nice tan!
We have a bunch of new faces and personalities to get to know. These next 2 weeks are our "tourist" weeks, during which we will visit all the tourist traps on island as well as get some serious beach time. After that, it's lots of camping outreaches and English practice!

Please continue to pray for this group, we have so much new energy!
We started our missions, Japanese and evangelism classes in the mornings so please pray that the Holy Spirit will do something awesome with these lives.

July!

2009-07-09T14:14:00.003+09:00

Here is a run down of July so far in Oki:

July 4th was a blessing for the group here. The Futenma base chaplian's assistant, invited us all over to her house for a BBQ. It was so great eating good old american style hamburgers and homemade cookies. Afterwards we went to Kedena Airbase and milled around the festival. The fireworks were beautiful and the mass exodus afterwards was a challege in and of it'self! Within the next week or so we had lots of hanging out time with people who are leaving and coming.

On tuesday, the Amargo family celebrated Ina's birthday at the Futenma bowling ally and invited the whole church! It was such a blessed time of bowling and snacking. The Amargo family are all so joyful and giving. They made sure everyone was having fun, as well as making their daughters 18th birthday one to remember.

Tom Cotton flew out this week to visit his fiance` and then will fly home to attend his sisters wedding, we will miss him for a few weeks but we will see him back this fall. Ina Amargo, along with the whole amargo clan is heading out to Tokyo this week to get Ina settled in. She will be ministering in the Tokyo area with Megan. Her family is going along to see the sights, climb Fujisan and give her one more hug.

Also, along with everyone leaving, we also got some new faces around the Cafe. Adam and Jonathan showed up last night and are the first crew for S.O.S Japan! Jonathan is Joels brother, and Adam is a long time friend of both Eder and Joel. We are hitting everything Okinawa to get them introduced to the Island. But i think the wall of humidity is a pretty good welcoming party by it'self ;) They are the first group and we are excited to meet everyone else this weekend and next week. Please keep everyone in prayer as they are traveling or adjusting to the weather.

-The Spearmans

June is almost over

2009-06-28T16:41:00.003+09:00

Well guys, believe it or not, July is just a few nights away. Things have been kicking at a good pace here in Ginowan. As we sit back and remember the events of this month, it seems so far away!

We started this month seeing many of our good friends to the Airport. They are all doing well and staying warm and fed. Many of the students are either home, or ministering on another continent. Our Korea group is keeping social and are always on the move, they are blessed and blessing those around them.

Shortly after that, the Ruiz family (our pastor and bible college director) returned to the states for a short furlough. I would hardly call it a break of any kind, as they did ministry almost the whole 3 weeks they where gone.
While they where away, we took time to regroup and do some much needed spring cleaning around the Café. Things are looking first class around here.

Our Japanese youth group has also seen a number of additions over the month as well, welcoming a new Christian named Yuu. Praise the Lord! He is a highschooler and very shy, so please pray for him as he starts to understand how life is going to change as he follows Christ.

Now, as the month is closing, we have welcomed the Ruiz family back to the Island and we are looking forward to the new faces that will be joining us this summer.

S.O.S Japan! (Summer Of Survice, Japan!) will be kicking off July 13th with a growing group of willing hearts. The program is 5 weeks long, and is going to be packed with English Teaching outreaches, concerts and camping trips all around the Island. Please keep us in prayer as we desire to make an impact on this Island for Jesus Christ. This is a dying, hopeless society and they are searching for some kind of Light.

The weather is heating up and so are our hearts for the land before us. Lets get the Gospel out and see what Jesus has planned for us!!

-The Spearmans

Happy Birthday Rusty!

2009-06-21T16:53:00.001+09:00

Saturday was Rusty's birthday!! He finally hit 21! After eating lunch, we had a smoothie party at the Cafe. Later that night people came over to the Ruiz house and we all hung out. They brought so many snacks, we couldn't finish them all! Rusty was totally blessed by the friendship and fellowship. Thank you everyone who stopped by and gave their birthday wishes.

-Amber

Summer in Okinawa

2009-06-19T15:06:00.006+09:00

For those of you who don't follow us on facebook, i would like to share with you a short video i made. It highlights the past Bible College semester and some of our trip to Korea. I hope you enjoy it and are blessed by it.

Thats just a sneak peek at what we do all the time around Okinawa. I hope it made you smile.

Happy Birthday Trevor

2009-06-14T13:52:00.006+09:00

Last night Trevor had a bunch of us all over to celebrate his birthday. It was a night filled with cake, chocolate fondue, homemade chocolatechip cookies, chips, cheetoes, ice cream, soda, tea, coffee and air conditioning!!

It was so much fun taking a night to hang out with Trevor and wish him well.

Happy Birthday Trevor, keep 'em comin'.

Art work.

2009-06-09T14:30:00.004+09:00

Hey guys, just wanted to share with you about an opportunity amber has this month.

Amber is working with 2 guys to put together a flier for a island wide worship rally. It's going to be called Peace and the whole idea is that we want to share with everyone where the true source of Peace comes from.
It's going to be a fun project, and as soon as it's available, we'll show you the finished products!

June

2009-06-05T12:47:00.005+09:00

June is upon us and things are starting to shake up around the Koinonia Cafe. Okinawa is getting warmer and a humid Japanese
summer is beginning to turn the corner. With this change, we had to let some of our friends go.

On Wednesday morning we saw off Megan, Amanda and Dean.

Megan is now in mainland Japan, serving alongside Rich and Candice in Tokorozowa.

Amanda and Dean

flew off to the not so far away land of South Korea to fall in line with Calvary Chapel Daejeon. Mike Loudermilk is training them along with former Ginowan crew Sossimo and Daniel. It was just the opening to another adventure when we took them to the airport and the goodbye's were not so bitter, because they will all three be back in August to attend the Bible college
once again.
They could not ignore the promoting of the Holy Spirit, and although they loved Okinawa, they knew that if they did not go they would be saying "no" to God.

With that in mind, i would like to challenge you to search your heart today. Where is God leading you? Is he telling you to leave something you love? Is he promoting you to change? Have you walked away without even saying anything? I pray that you would take some time today and get honest with God.

Even if you don't know how to change whats happened, at least get level with him and trust in Him to show you the next step.If you have any prayer requests, please feel free to e-mail rusty and I and we would love to pray for you.

________________________________________________

Prayer Requests:
Please pray that we would continue to be faithfull in fufilling our ministry in japan by Preaching the Word of God, not our own.
Please pray for Yumiho, she moved to mainland but before she left, Amber was able to share with her about God.

Praise reports:
Ambers Father is doing very well, and is looking to start going back to work
Rusty's mom is recovering well from her sugery.
Amanda is in Korea! Praise the Lord!!

The summer is beginning....

2009-05-27T15:47:00.003+09:00

This week is a pretty big week for Calvary Chapel Ginowan. Pastor Tommy and his family will be taking a trip back to America for a few weeks to attend confrences and seminars. That means most of us students and interns will be spending a few weeks without Tommy's guidance. Please pray for us as this will be a time when satan will try to attack us.
Although we will be without our "leader" we know that our Heavenly Father will be guiding us and directing us. We are never alone as christians, especially on the mission field.

If the Lord has put us on your heart to pray for, please pray over these things:

That Calvary Chapel Ginowan would be well taken care of while Tommy is gone.
That the Ruiz family would be blessed in the states and their travel there and back would be smooth and enjoyable.
For strength, unity and peace among all the missionaries at the Cafe.
That the Holy Spirit would remind us if we left the coffee pot or AC unit on lol.

Thank you all for your prayers!!

-The Spearmans

The best year of our lives!

2009-05-23T23:19:00.007+09:00

Today is a very special day for the Spearmans. One year ago, we stood before God, the one true God and created a covenant to each other in front of Him and our close family and friends.
It has been a short year, filled with so many adventures. It had it's hard times, but they are far out weighed by the blessings and joy we have experienced. God has been faithful and true to bring us past circumstance, and to focus on the true essence of Love. We cannot express to you how much we appreciate your prayers for us, we have felt them this whole year in such strong ways.

We stand here today, loving each other immeasurably more than we did only a year ago. Jesus Christ is the sole reason for this. As we have been immersing ourselves into God's word, our bibles, we have been growing more and more into the kind of Love Jesus Christ showed us on the Cross. We still have so far to go, but praise God we are not where we were a year ago.

To celebrate this occasion, we spent the whole day together. It was relaxing and peaceful. For dinner we went to the local grocery store and partook in one of our favorite hobbies: Shopping for a cheap combination of prepared foods! Japans markets are filled to the brim with all sorts of items you can throw together for lunch or dinner, but it's up to you to select a big expensive lunch box, or use your cunning to put together you own. This is a favorite hobby of ours!
After this, we went to Sky Lark Gusto! (pictured below)

They offer all sorts of foods, but along side that they have a "Premium Drink Bar"!

This can be ordered onto your food or standing alone. We ordered it by it's self and helped ourselves to all sorts of fruit juices, coffee's and Herbal Teas! What a treat. It's refreshing to go to a "Bar" with no alcohol! We spent a good 2 hours there (they allow long sitters) and after that went to PuriKura!

PuriKura is basically it's a huge photo-booth with a green screen. You select different kinds of digital backgrounds and take some awesome pictures. After that you use a touch screen/pen to decorate the pictures with images and text. It's always a blast and pretty funny too. These pictures do not do them justice, but here's a sneak peak.

Thanks for Celebrating with us!!

Joyfully,
-The Spearmans

Bible College Graduation!

2009-05-18T09:38:00.020+09:00

______________________________________

Rusty has finally done it!
He is officially graduated from Calvary Chapel Bible College!

It's been a good 2 years and God has grown him drastically. He holds his diploma as a different man from when he held his application papers.
Thank you all for supporting Rusty thru the hard times of bible college and for listening to him when he was sharing something with you that he has learned.
If you have a moment, click on the videos below to hear his short graduation speech. (The sound quality is not very high, so you may or may not need to plug in headphones.)

We are now standing with open arms to see what God is going to do now what we are not inside the boundaries of school. Please continue to pray for us as we are ministering in Japan.

-the spearmans

Visa.....APPROVED

2009-05-14T16:46:00.006+09:00

"Know therefore that the LORD thy God, he [is] God, the faithful God, which keepeth covenant and mercy with them that love him and keep his commandments to a thousand generation" Deuteronomy 7:9

Well guys, we got the phone call today and ran down to immigration. We applied for 3 year missionary visa and were approved for 1 year missionary visas! Although we did not get the 3 year, we are blessed to have a whole year to be established in Japan and once our 1 year is up, we will re-apply for 3 years.

Now that we have a missionary visa we will be free to travel to and from Japan easily and we can also apply for Japanese bank accounts and other things our temporary visitor visas would not allow. We can start to build our Japanese style life and get ready for whatever God has in store.

Once again we would like to thank you for all your prayer over our paperwork. The Lord hears and blesses.

Finals!

2009-05-13T15:18:00.003+09:00

Finals week is upon us. Rusty is polishing off some of his classes and turning in his final exams. He graduates tomorrow!

I am so proud of Rusty and of all the hard work and dedication he is putting into his Bible College experiance. Expect to see some pictures of his graduation soon!

_________________________________

On another note, today was the final day of our Ruth and Esther class. I was given the oppertunity to teach thru the two books and offer it as a 1 credit class. This was a first for me thru the bible college. Last semester I was teaching the "Womens Discipleship" class, but this semester was my first time being assigned to a book of the bible and getting to teach it expositionally.

The word has so much inside of it if your just willing to look. Even text that is so old can hold so many truths and principles for us today!

I know I was blessed with the study time I put into it and it's so cool to see it coming to an end without exploding. What a cool oppertunity the Lord gave me!

-Amber

Golden Week was so much fun!

2009-05-07T09:53:00.005+09:00

Happy Golden Week!!!

Many of you do not know what Golden Week is,
Here is a link to a very well put together web-page about it.
But for those of you who don't want to read the whole page, it's basically a week of National Holidays all gathered in one week, so many of the people get 5 to 7 days off work. Among the other holidays, we celebrate Children's Day.

We went to the beach and got to see a traditional game from Japan. The kids smash a watermelon on the beach, but since it's kind of messy, recently they have upgraded to putting it on a tarp or in a plastic box. It's kind of like a pinata without the sugar.

Also, you know when kids day is coming up, because you see these carps flying off all the houses. They represent the Father, mother and then all the kids who live in the house. It makes the roads look so festive!

Also during this year's Golden Week, Calvary Chapel Ginowan took the opportunity to host a Worship Conference. We sent fliers out to mainland Japan and invited whoever would come. The event started Sunday night and ended Wednesday afternoon. We had workshops on singing and basics on guitars, along with focusing on the psalms, remembering that David was a Worship Leader.

It really was a blessed time, and even tho we where all running around, our spirits were refreshed. Thank you once again everyone who flew out from the Tokyo area.

Enjoy the short video of Hakugaijin, our local band who mixes japanese and english for a delighful musical experiance. :D

-The Spearmans

Equipped Youth.

2009-05-01T15:11:00.002+09:00

Well it's Friday in Japan. So that means tonight we have Equipped Youth on Camp Kinser.
We have been having such a blast hanging out with the kids and getting into the word with them. They are such a great group of kids and we always manage to have a fun night of bible and games.
Last week we tried out a new style of game (we usually play hide and seek, sardines or infection), and this week we will be working out some of the kinks. It's called Bible Battles. <--- Follow the link for more details, but it's basically a mix between Capture the Flag and Sword Drills. We still have a few tactical rules to try out, but I think the kids got the hang of it. Next week will be a shorter night because Camp Kinser is hosting a Volunteer Appreciation Dinner and we will be attending with the Kids. After the dinner we will go back to the chapel to play some games to wrap up the night.

These kids are awesome, but they still need prayer. 3 of them will be moving back to the states sometime this month, so we only have a few more weeks with them at the most! Please pray that what they learn at youth group will stay with them as they go back to the states. Also, please pray that they will find good christian fellowship back in America.

-The Spearmans

Prayer Request

2009-04-29T13:00:00.005+09:00

We would like to remind you to pray for our Visa Applications. We sent them in about 2 weeks ago now, and are still waiting for news on them. It can take anywhere from 1 week to 1 year to get a visa.
We are praying for somewhere in the middle! (preferably before the month is out!)

Please pray for the application process and that our paperwork will be sufficient for immigration.

Rusty and I would like to go wherever God leads us and we know he will provide for us just as he has in the past. Again, thank you for all your prayer and support.

-The Spearmans

South Korea pictures.

2009-04-25T11:29:00.003+09:00

Since blogger has a lack of space for pictures, i would like to make available to you my picture albums from Facebook.com

If you follow the links below you can get to all my pictures from Korea and see all the fun things we did, amazing food we ate and beautiful people we met.

Link 1

Link 2

Please pray for Calvary Chapel Daejeon and CC Cheonan. Churches are on every corner, but the church is dead, so pray that the solid teaching of the word will transform my genration to stand up and live a life for Jesus.

Prayer Request.

2009-04-23T10:08:00.002+09:00

About a week ago, Amber's father went in for surgery. He is still recovering and is running into some complications.
Although the doctors are still very optimistic, he is extremely uncomfortable while he is waiting for his health to come back to him. Please pray that his discomfort will be shortened and he will be allowed to go home very soon.

ただいま。。。

2009-04-23T10:04:00.002+09:00

We're home!!

We landed back safely in Japan yesterday afternoon! We had such an amazing trip with so much ministry and fellowship. What a blessing it was for Rusty and I to take some "time off" for a different ministry. Our hosts are so wonderful and they provide so much for us, it's a blessing!

I forgot my uploading cord, so i can't show you any pictures, but i will be home tonight and i will try to get some images up.

Thank you for your prayer and support!

South Korea!

2009-04-17T08:32:00.002+09:00

In about a half hour we will be heading off to South Korea! We're taking a team of 14 people for a short term mission, 6 days to south korea.

Please pray for us as we will be organizing and preparing a lot of outreaches and bible studies!

Check out the e3missions blog for more updates!
Expect to see us back Wednesday.

-The Spearmans

Paperwork...

2009-04-14T16:25:00.002+09:00

Please pray for me and Rusty as we are now beginning to fill out our paper work for 3 year missionary visas. Please pray that the Holy Spirit would show us what to fill out and how to word it.

Easter Oki Style!

2009-04-13T18:54:00.002+09:00

Happy Easter!

On Sunday, all the bible college got up early to set up the sun rise service on the roof. Our early morning was well worth it as God created one of the most beautiful sun rises i have seen yet! After the service the whole church went down to the cafe for a big style breakfast of eggs, pancakes and spam! (You know you've become an islander when you like spam more than bacon)

Also as some of you know, we split up into teams of 3 or 4 and go out to the military bases on sundays so that we can help out in the nursery or teach the kids so the parents can sit in the service, so we also went on Easter. Many of the teams where out late because the church blessed many of us with pot lucks and buffets! What a celebration, and it wasn't over! Sunday night we replaced the regular W2 (sunday night service at the Koinonia Cafe) for another big potluck dinner and party!

(it was so full i took the picture from the outside!)

Our packed house was filled with fusions of american, mexican, japanese and okinawan food and it was all so wonderful. We praised jesus late into the night and rocked the whole neighborhood!

Candy, Toys and Allergy Medicine!

2009-04-10T15:48:00.004+09:00

What a Surprise!!

On Tuesday we received an Easter package from Rusty's parents! They sent all three of us things we would find in baskets from Grandma, even Chocolate Covered Marshmallow Bunnies! Thanks for sending us some chocolaty comforts from home!! It's always so much fun to
get any kind of mail or packages out here, especially when you don't know its coming!

Another awesome thing, is that they also sent a few huge bags of other Easter candies that we will be bringing to church to bless the other Americans and also we can introduce our Japanese friends to some sugary foreign candy! It's so much fun blessing others with a blessing we also have!

Tonaki jima

2009-04-08T07:25:00.006+09:00

Tonaki!
_____________________________________________

Everyone farms here, even just a little.
_____________________________________________

Most of the houses look like this! No western style here!
_____________________________________________

Check out this bug! It was about the size of my thumb! These things sell for about 50-60 bucks on okinawa and the kids keep them as pets. They train them to fight and knock over the other beetle. Kids don't really get to have cats or dogs, so big bugs like this are the new indoor pets.

_____________________________________________

Rusty was the donkey lol.
_____________________________________________

This was our church service. Throw up a tent, sing some songs, get into the word.
_____________________________________________

Our group gettin ready.

_____________________________________________

Craft time!
_____________________________________________

This was the alter call!
_____________________________________________

We're back guys! Still alive. Our adventure on Tonaki Jima has come to an end and we return suntanned. Rusty and I, along with 'Manda, Eder and Joel went on the late boat saturday morning. (we stayed back one extra night because we all have ministry on base and didn't want to cancel) We arrived on Tonaki around 10am and we received a warm welcome from the rest of the students who arrived on Friday morning. Thank you all who where praying about the water, it was the smoothest i had ever seen it. It was as if our Ferry was driving on a gigantic pond the whole way (2 hours!) This was in stark comparison to last semester when most of us spent the 2 hours puking! But anyways, shortly after we arrived we took a hike to see the island and then ate lunch. God has created such beautiful places, i wish i could show them to you all.

_____________________________________________

Tonaki is a small island off the coast of Okinawa, Japan. It's population is about 400 people and it has only 1 christian who takes residence there. No churches, as everyone is primarily bhudist and those who aren't are Shinto. Here is a link so some condensed facts of the island.

Get some of the energy out!

_____________________________________________

Friday afternoon was the beginning of our Outreach to the kids. The adults won't come to any outreaches, but the kids come in droves to play games and learn some English. We played a detective game with the kids. They interviewed 3 characters (Nicodemus, John the Baptist and Ponchas Pilate) to find out who the mystery man was. Saturday we had a play for them to find out it was Jesus. It was great and we had so much fun getting everyone in bible costumes.

_____________________________________________

Everyone did a great job and many of the kids raised their hands to have Jesus be their best friend. Please pray for these kids.

The only christian influence they will receive is our group and Izulu (the christian on the island) but he is limited to what he can do without compromising his job. Please also pray for him, that he may grow in the Lord when we are not there to encourage him.

Even tho we just got back, please pray for our next trip. Next week Friday we will all be shipping out to South Korea for more ministry.

Halfway

2009-03-29T15:49:00.002+09:00

Hey everyone, we've made it halfway into the semester! We've learned a lot and have so much to look forward to. Classes are going great and we are still learning so much and look forward to continue learning everything that our classes have to offer.
__________________________
We had Friday nights, Equipped again this last Friday and we really had a blast again. The Lord is completely blessing the ministry that is going on there.
Also, just to let you all have insight of how the night is going on: We first open up with a small ice-breaker, there are usually kids showing up that a lot of us might not know, then we have Manda Drew, who has been completely blessing us in leading us in worship -- lead worship! After worship we get right into the Word, we've been going through the book of John and are going through it systematically. After Word, we have snack and then we've been playing "Hide and seek Tag." It has been a lot of fun and the kids try to scare each other a lot while trying to be sneaky and get to base before those who are it tag you out! However, on Friday night, I was being chased by one of the Bible College students, I tried to turn, but I was running to fast so I had to stop myself from running into the wall by using my hands. Well...the wall was made out of some really weak stuff, so my hand ended up going through the wall, it was pretty funny, except for the fact that i made a hole...Everything turned out alright though and no one got hurt!

We (me and the leaders who help me) are also constantly getting new ideas and vision on how to better the ministry that is going on there. Please continue to pray for fresh vision and an outpouring of the Holy Spirit and for His continual work in all of our lives.
__________________________

Some things to keep in prayer:

Next weekend we are headed out to Tonakijima, an island with a 2 hour ferry ride away, we are going to have some awesome ministry there while we camp out on the shores!
A couple weeks after the Tonaki trip, most of the Bible College will be heading out to our short term Korea missions trip, please pray for safety, witnessing opportunities and that the Lord would prepare hearts to be harvested!
A short time after the Korea missions trip, Japan has golden week which nearly everyone has off (adults too!), truly a golden week! During this time, we are going to have a worship conference at the church here, this is for the Japan Calvary Chapels.

Thanks so much for your unending support!

Thank You mom and dad!

2009-03-25T08:12:00.002+09:00

We finally got it! Our long awaited package has arrived!
Look! it's full of american candy! All those things you tend to miss for no apparent reason! But also some really awesome medications and toiletry items!
I've also started learning the guitar, so my dad threw in some sweet pics and a tuner than teaches you cords also! You guys are really awesome and we appreciate how you guys are keeping us full of candy! (so do the other students, because we shared the robin eggs and creamsavers with them ^_^)

Equipped Youth

2009-03-22T15:38:00.006+09:00

Friday nights are our newest event of the week. Last week Rusty started up a youth group on Camp Kinser. The first week was small, but as you can tell, our second week exploded! It's been so amazing to see God bring the kids.
As we are expositionally going thru the book of John we are
hoping to make a real and
lasting impact on these kids.

God has been giving Rusty the vision to really equip these kids in the Word in the same way that we have been equipped for everything they will be going thru in their highschool years.
The youth group is a Jr. High youth group (it is the biggest age group that previously had no ministries) and these kids are still young enough to be impacted positively for Christ. We have a time of worship and bible study, and then we spend the rest of the night playing high activity games like hide-n-seek in the dark and our own version of "Infection!".

Please keep us (Rusty, Amber and 'Manda) in prayer as we are trying our best at something we don't know how to do, and for all these awesome kids. Please pray that the Lord would touch their hearts and show them it's cool to be a christian too!

a collection of pictures

2009-03-18T12:46:00.005+09:00

The past 2 weeks have flown
by without much warning at all.
Here are some of the joyful pictures
that came from it!

__________________________

__________________________

__________________________

__________________________

__________________________

__________________________

__________________________

__________________________

__________________________

-the spearmans

smack down by the customs

2009-03-17T15:10:00.008+09:00

Well I guess it happens to everyone, and it was just our time.
My mom decided to be a real sweet heart and send me and rusty a package filled with all sorts of snacks and reminders of home, but to our surprise, we didn't get a package but we got all this paperwork along with a warning of customs violation!

We're not in trouble or anything, and it's not really that big of a deal but as we can see in this bright and clearly marked flier, Beef Jerky is not allowed to
be shipped into japan.

Apparently from what I could gather from it, some sort of outbreak happen awhile ago with pigs and all packaged meat from america or canada has been labeled unsafe unless intentionally inspected by a customs officer. But because we just want our package, we decided to fill out the paper work to get it back to us.

We really just wanted our
care package, so we our only option
was to consent to incineration
of non-permitted articles
(the thought of which made pastor Tommy cry out because he wanted to snag a piece!).
Alas, we shall not have our beef jerky, but within a few days (hopefully!) we will receive the safe, un-life-threatening package!

what a beautiful life

2009-03-11T12:54:00.004+09:00

These last few days have been a little gloomey around here. The sun has been behind the clouds and its been cold and rainy. But even tho sometimes that tends to stroke a mellow tone in our hearts, as christians we should be looking at it as a way that the Lord makes us quiet, especally in our hearts. At least, that is what i know it means to me. God has been moving my heart to quietness so i would like to share with you a few things he has reminded me of.

Although I am far away from home, and from my family I have been given a new home and so many new beautiful people to grow close to. I am living out the life I have always wanted to and the life I was designed to live. I can't believe it many times, and I am prone to wonder how long it will last. But even while I wonder how long I will get to live this way, I am so content. I understand more what it means to abide in the Lord. To make the Lord my life.

Everyday here in ginowan, we are doing ministry. We have no room for shallow christianity and we have no financial provisions for procrastonating. The Word of God, our bibles are our real and tangible guides and strengths. For so long I was seeing christians at church and christians at class, but now I see christians doing so much more. I see christians working. I see christians living. I see christians loving. People will always be people, I understand this, but I have never been in such a place of surrender to the Lord. We are all growing, but growing closer to the Lord has a sparkle that just growing in life does not carry and I see that in the eyes of these people I stand next to in ministry.

I would like to thank everyone who has prayed and supported rusty and I, it has put us and kept us in a place where we are seeing the Lord in ways we didn't even know how to ask for.
Please continue to pray for us and for the little island we call home now because it so despretly needs Jesus. Please remember they are a nation with no hope.

Laundry day!

2009-03-08T15:51:00.006+09:00

Well every once and awhile it happens, we have to do laundry. I thought some of you may be wondering how we do it here in Okinawa! So here is a detailed, step-by-step picture demonstration!

First, we look for one of these guys! The sign says Coin Laundry, Bingo! (this one is our favorite so far, its a 2 min walk from the cafe!)

Then off we go with our biggest suitcase filled with dirty laundry. This is just the most efficient way of carrying it around. (notice how small this one is? Some are bigger, some are smaller!)

Alright, next is the washing machine! At this laundry station, its only 200円 for a full cycle! The machines are smaller than most American ones, but they also dont throw fits as often if you fill them very full, so it doesn't bother us much. ok....next!

Here are the dryers! They are huge machines!! But they are pricey! 100円 for 7 minuets. ($1/7min) So it's good so much can fit into one. We try to use as many as we can at once to cut down the price. We seperate all the things that take a long time to dry from the things that will take only a little while and try not to put in 7 more mins than we need! It's quite a game, but i think we just about have it figured out!

And lastly, our amazing laundry soap! It may be small, but it gets everything super clean! This bottle costs aboooout 280円 and will last us alllllmost the whole semester! (and it smells great!)

Mandas birthday

2009-03-08T15:45:00.006+09:00

this is a few days late, but in the 5th 'manda turned 19! we had a cake and walked to Mister Donut! Happy birthday 'manda!_____________________________________

Japanese hair cut

2009-03-04T16:11:00.008+09:00

Yesterday me, rusty, manda and tokito all went out to get us girls a haircut.
First we went to a salon i went to last semester, but it was closed. We learned some new information about japan too! Tuesdays are the normal day that salons take off, and mondays are barbershop off days. Who knew? Well we found out and unfortunately everywhere we went that was open, was about 3,500yen! A little to pricey for just a trim and a style! So onward we went, and soon we found a salon that was open, and would cut our hair for 2,000yen each. 20bucks is about right, so we decided to do it!

These ladies where the cutest thing. Tokito translated what he could (ありがとうートキトさん)but they where so chatty, and they really just assumed we understood what we said by their hand motions and pointing, so adorable. But at the same time, they understood how complicated japanese can be, so they knew we didnt catch most of what they where saying. They talked to us a lot about our hair, how we look like movie stars and our clothes. They where so cute and we had such a good time.

What do you think?

Mines so short, but Rusty gives it an enthusiastic thumbs up, so its prefect in my book!!

'Mandas isnt that different, but with the weather here, you need thin hair.
So she asked to thin it out and shape it around her face
alittle more, ちょかわいい〜〜マンダちゃん！So cute Manda!

Also, afterwards we spent some quality time at King Taco.
We got some ジュンーボーバーガ and ポーテートーフーライドー Jumbo hamburgers and french fries! What a day!

(the ladies also said something about okinawa being part of california...does any one know what their talking about? Please comment if you do...)

To Korea!

2009-03-03T12:35:00.000+09:00

Hey everyone, it seems that me and Amber are going to be able to make it to Korea again this semester! We are not going because we have to renew our visas, but because the Lord brought in finances for us to go! We are really excited about being able to go and experience what the Lord has for us there! There will (not a confirmed final) be about twelve people going this trip.

________________________________________

We have been taking a class (with a lot of others) this semester called Biblical Preaching/IBS (Inductive Bible Study). We are learning all about how to give a Word centered devotion and how to prepare a message. The focus is to learn the principles of how to deliver an exegetical study. We have both benefited so greatly from this class, and will continue to be.
(Exegesis (from the Greek ἐξηγεῖσθαι 'to lead out') is a critical explanation or interpretation of a text. Biblical exegesis: The goal of Biblical exegesis is to find the meaning of the text which then leads to discovering its significance or relevance. (Via wikipedia.org))

________________________________________

Well, not everything can be spelled right.

________________________________________

Oh yeah, Tokito Escaped through Mordor.

________________________________________

Thank you everyone for all of your prayer and support. God bless you in everything you do!

-The Spearmans

another monday adventure.

2009-03-02T20:53:00.000+09:00

Today was such a beautiful day. Monday is our school adventure day. It's a chance to the new students to see more of the island. God gave us such a wonderful day for kicking around the northern part of the island. Although it was cloudy, it was the best for walking around outside. We visited a smaller island off of okinawa that you can drive to, and then we went to pineapple park, and then the aquarium! What a gift. I hope you can enjoy the pictures. Rusty and myself didn't go inside of the aquarium this time, but we got a chance to discover some beautiful coral during lowtide. The pictures dont do it justice for the colors and wide open spaces, but im sure you will be blessed.

-The Spearmans.

A giant owl!? *phew* good think it looks like he already ate!

Pineapple park! Do you see the little pineapples? We ate so much....

It's so amazing every time we go out to the water. Sometimes i forget how clear the water is and how good God is for making it.

The Land where ye shall never thirst....

School becoming the norm...

2009-02-26T11:04:00.000+09:00

Well, eventually it happens. We are just shy of 4 weeks into school, and it has drifted into the normal routine for all of us. Classes are running smoothly, and everyone has a good grasp of the schedual.

Next week we are all looking forward to going to the Aquarium and Pineapple Park up north. Expect to see some beautiful pictures form myself and the other students.

The weather has been beautiful, even tho it's starting to get a little hot and humid. Keep us all in your prayers as we will be needing to adjust to the weather here.

Also please pray for Rusty as he is going to be opening up a new ministy on Camp Kinser. Pray that the Lord will show him directly and clearly what he needs to know and plan.

-The Spearmans

Saturday, Suday, Monday

2009-02-23T19:24:00.001+09:00

Here is a quick, version of our weekend! Saturday 'Manda and Me painted the water tank for the church, so that during our church dedication on Sunday we could bless everyone with it. We painted a typhoon on the tank with Psalm 90:1,2!

Next was the evening! We went out to Mihama American Village and played some worship sets for Jesus! We handed out some fliers for the church and took the chance to talk with the people walkin' around.

Sunday! The Church Building Dedication! We had such a full night of food and fellowship! We had lots of curry and Hokaido Stew. We also invited a few fellow pastors from the area to celebrate with us.

Also the Roof is lookin' nice as we got the fire pit started for the first time Sunday night. Rusty did a great job keeping the fire from burning down the building.

Pastor Masaidosan giving a blessing for the church!

Monday was a free day for us, and me and 'manda adventured out. We found a cute bakery and took a few minuets to enjoy some of Japanese sweets before we went to Purikura!

i got chocolate and coffee while 'manda enjoyed cheesecake and orange juice. ^_^

Yumm!!~~

i have my fathers nose! ^_~

Praise the Lord for such a wonderful weekend!

A few recent pictures.

2009-02-19T15:47:00.001+09:00

This a sky view of a war memorial we visited.

A Sakura blossom after the season.

Rusty and Tokito flying down the slide at the park!

The Last M.E.L.T of the japanese school year.

2009-02-12T13:02:00.000+09:00

Well, today was the last m.e.l.t of the Japanese semester at the Ryukyu University. (Japanese school ends in Febuary, and the new year begins in March) It's been a good semester getting to know some of the seniors. It's sad to know many of the people we have gotten to know will be moving back to the mainland for their jobs, but a few of them have gotten jobs in the surrounding areas and we will be seeing them at our evening services.

Please keep praying for the m.e.l.t ministry, as it opens a very impacting door for much of the younger community in Okinawa that would have never presented itself before. Christianity is known in Okinawa, but all thoughts of it are either actually Catholicism or Mormonism. So getting to know us thru m.e.l.t is a great, casual to come to a fuller understanding of Grace.

School in full swing!

2009-02-04T16:05:00.000+09:00

Well, with all the students here and orientation over with, we have started classes officially. Everyone has a packed schedule and we have lots of hard working students this semester.

Poor Eder, he just wanted to keep up with everyone else! Ah the consequences!
(but we all really know this would never happen to a mac)

Rusty and I have been keeping ourselves busy till the late evenings keeping up with everyone. Rusty is working on his last semester and is taking over 23 credits to finish! (Keep him in your prayers!!) And I am teaching the books of Ruth and Esther.

We are really enjoying being back on island and our Japanese is coming back (and expanding!). This semester Pastor Tim is offering the book of mark as a class, only given in Japanese. I've decided to sit in every week to soak up even more of the language. I won't be graded on it, but he will expect me to participate in the next few weeks once I get more comfortable!

Even with the work load, we can find the time to relax and take in the sites too, what a blessing.

Home sweet Nihon!

2009-01-29T09:59:00.000+09:00

We made it. Around 9:30 local time, we made it safely into Okinawa, Japan! Slightly tired, but over joyed we got a chance to see everyone, because we crashed the end of Wednesday night service! God has a funny way of keeping things in line, because while waiting for our connecting flight in San Francisco we bumped into 2 other students (Megan and Nathan) who where on both our next flights! We all made the international transitions as a group and even picked up some Tacoyaki in Osaka!

It's such a moving thing when you see the faces to love so much. Getting to see everyone after church, and give them big hugs really reminded us why we are so called to this island. Each person is such a treasure and it's such a blessing getting to be part of their lives.

See yaaa!!

2009-01-26T17:04:00.000+09:00

Well, our bags are packed, tickets are purchased and a plethora of American candy has been stashed. We leave tomorrow morning, early in the morning, so pray for our travel and immigration processes. Once we are there, we'll let you all know how things are going.

God has really blessed us with the time we had in Idaho. Seeing our family and friends was such a refreshing time, and getting some basic medical attention will benefit us in the years to come. Thank you everyone for all your support while we where here and for giving us so many amazing opportunities.

-The Spearmans

Buying the tickets...

2009-01-24T11:14:00.000+09:00

Well, the doctor said he could go and if we have any problems we'll just figure it out on a naval base. We're going to be buying our tickets tomorrow, but we have them on hold already for this Tuesday in the morning!

Keep praying for us tho, we still need it for the long flight out there!

Praying.

2009-01-22T14:19:00.000+09:00

Well things have been a little strange the last week or so. Rusty's surgery had put a damper on our plans for going back to Okinawa. We where thinking rusty would need enough time to recover which would eat into our time in Okinawa, and the semester would start without us. But, Friday we go for his post op visit and from our point of view things have been going great so we are assuming the doctor will give him a clean bill of health. If so, we will be flying out within the week!

Please pray that Rusty's body would heal even more and that the doctor will say he is ready for flight mode.

Taking it easy.

2009-01-16T07:29:00.000+09:00

Rusty's surgery went textbook perfect. We'll be taking a few days to kick back and heal up, so keep us in prayer.
Rusty is doing great, but requires a little R&R. Still no word on how this will effect us heading back to Okinawa before school starts, but whatever the outcome it's all planned by God!

Praise the Lord.

Some unexpected turbulence.

2009-01-11T04:31:00.000+09:00

Watch out, here it comes, the curve ball!
This Wednesday Rusty will be going in for surgery. It's not major (phew!), but we would still appreciate some prayer to back him up! This wasn't expected and we're not really sure on all the post op details, but we are expecting the best and we're happy God has his hand over it all. The timing is a little weird to us, but we know God has the big picture so everything's going to work out great!

Praise the Lord

Getting ready to go back!

2009-01-07T05:39:00.000+09:00

Rusty and I are starting to get into gear for heading back to Okinawa. Within the next few days we will be getting our one way tickets so please pray that the price will stay stable and also immigration won't throw a fit when we show up with no return date!

We are doing that because we are going to be applying for our 1 year missionary Visa's as soon as we arrive.

We are so excited to meet the new students and

reunite with all our okinawan super buddies, keep us in prayer and all those who will be flying out soon to stay with us at the Bible College.

Moxie Java Show

2009-01-04T03:13:00.001+09:00

Yesterday was a busy day for us! Jamie was scheduled for a show in Caldwell so we stopped by to support our friend. The turn out was really good and the other band that played was really friendly! The coffee was great, and the music was even better. For those of you who didn't make it out, I got some low quality video clips that you can tune into! Enjoy!

This second one is a clip from a song Jamie wrote with rusty and me in mind. It's a really sweet song, and it's humbling to know we have impacted his life so much, but Jesus does crazy things with crazy people, so I guess we can blame it on him ;)

We love you Jamie, and we are so excited to see what God has planned for you in the next few years. Thank you for being such an outstanding brother and friend.

Rocky Night!

2009-01-04T03:06:00.001+09:00

Last night we went over to Robert and Monica's to eat some of the best snacks and watch Rocky IIII!
We stayed up into the early hours of the night watching this robust cinematic masterpiece!
Nothing creates more of an environment for fellowship than a gargantuan russian!

But all joking aside, it was such a blessing getting to hang out with rusty's old boss and good friends. We really enjoyed the company and we always look forward to the next time we can invade their house!
Thank guys for inviting us over, it was a blast!

Good job Jamie!

2009-01-02T11:06:00.000+09:00

Today we would like to introduce you to Jamie. He is our closest friend here in Idaho, and has been for years. Rusty has known Jamie since middle school and I got to know him in his early highschool years. God has blessed us with his friendship and we are so happy to see how God is using him.

Jamie is a worship leader and youth pastor here in southern ID and he has been given a few chances to record his original music in the past. It's been awhile since his last EP so he has been filling his spare time with live shows at local coffee houses but today he was given the opportunity to record 4 more songs for free!
The results are beautiful!

If your interested in hearing some of his Music, and maybe one of the tracks he recorded today you can click HERE!
I hope you enjoy his gift as much as we do.

Taco Rice!!

2008-12-31T10:58:00.003+09:00

Well, latley we have been missing the food back home so much, we decided to make our own Okinawan dish tonight!

Taco Rice in all it's double chub glory! And notice the fashionable little bottle of Tapatio on the side! For those of you who don't know, you may be thinking "But Amber, that's just a plate of taco salad!" And to the untrained eye, maybe it would be, but THIS is Taco-Rice

Taco rice is famous on Okinawa. It was created by the military guys years ago who wanted a taste of home and an Okinawan twist was thrown on the bottom (rice, and we always have cabbage, not lettuce!) It's so popular on Okinawa that you can find it in many restaurants and stores.

It looks like rusty enjoys it too!

Snow!

2008-12-31T10:41:00.000+09:00

Rusty and I are having a blast over here in Idaho. We're doing all sorts of Idaho things! As you can see from the pictures, Rusty has taken full advantage of the unusual amount of snow we got over the Christmas break!

Christmas was also such a blessing, thank you everyone who sent us such wonderful gifts! Even if we sat down and made a list, we wouldn't have listed such helpful and useful things. ^_^

Our Blogg!!

2008-12-29T15:03:00.000+09:00

Well guys, here it is! Rusty and I have just opened up this shiny new blogg and we're planning on putting it to good use! Drop by once and awhile to see what we have been doing!

-Amber and Rusty