A Warm Welcome

"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

A Very Delicious Day in Japan

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.

Clean kitchen!

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

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

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

Payer Request

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.

S.O.S

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!

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

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

Summer in Okinawa

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.

Art work.

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!