Next Stop, America

Back in November, we spent some time away getting to know
our fellow CSM missionaries from Camp Foster. It was
a great taste of what this summer will bring.

“We’re coming home, coming home. Tell the world we’re coming…” You read that right, Matthew and I are headed back to the states this month!! All Cadence Missionaries from the Untied States, Japan, Korea, Thailand, Cambodia, Germany, Spain and Italy will be gathering together for a week-long conference! The conference is hosted every 5 years and it just so happened to fall on our first summer in the mission field. This will be a week of gathering together as a Cadence family to refresh and encourage each missionary. From what we have been told, there will be plenty to offer: workshops, seminars, prayer, worship, honoring staff members, a talent night, games, sharing and free time for fellowship.

Currently, Matthew and I are feeling a wide range of emotions. We are extremely excited to meet our Cadence family that is serving all over the world, as well as, reunite with those we have had the privilege to meet. We are greatly looking forward to time for rest and to be poured in to. We are also thrilled to visit the East Coast. We have greatly missed our friends and family, tears of joy will most likely be stained on my face. Not to mention, we will have the joy in welcoming a new member into the family, my brother and sister in love are having a sweet little boy!! (Ekk! It could not have worked out any better)! Oh, and let’s not forget one of my favorite days of the year: Cow Appreciation Day! I am very much looking forward to biting into a chick-fil-a sandwich! ;) There is no doubt, we are glad to be visiting for a brief time. It will be fulfilling and well worth the trek across the world.

BLUE SEAL! One of our favorite places to build community.

In choosing to become missionaries, we chose a life of sacrifice. We gave up living close to our friends and family; missing holidays, birthdays and celebrating in all that life brings our way. (Yes, social media and the internet is a great way to stay connected and we love being able to easily do so with those in the states, but that will never take the place of being fully present). We also gave up the gift of having our heart in one place. As long as we continue in our lifestyle, we will have a heart divided between our home in Japan and our home within our friends and family back in the states. (This is something other missionaries, military families and anyone who lives a long distance from their relatives/close friends can relate to). This is where our wide range of emotions come in. We are absolutely thrilled to visit the states but at the same time, we do not want to leave Okinawa, even if it is for a short 4 weeks. In the last eight months, we have poured all that we have into starting new ministries, getting to know families and we have established a solid community. We have a strong sense of it being too soon before we return to the states. The main reason for that is because our summer is extremely packed, with the Cadence Conference smack dab between our two VBS’s. (If you know anything about VBS, you know there is a lot of work put into them, now times that by two—wowza). We are also planning to launch a new program in the fall, which is extremely exciting but needs a lot of planning and prep time. I would like to think that amidst our crazy summer, God is taking our relationship with Him to a deeper level. I believe He will be growing our understanding of what it means to have peace. The peace that knows God will work everything out for our good. The peace that allows us to enjoy each moment we are in, instead of worrying about the work waiting for us when we return and the peace that surpasses all understanding. It will be a summer of growing and stretching, not always fun but the end result will be incomparable.

One of the families we have grown close with! 

You may be wondering what are plans will be while we are state side. Well, wait no longer! :) We will fly to Chicago on June 21st and stay until the 25th. Because of VBS and our normal ministry days, Matthew and I will have had 10 consecutive days of ministry, ending with our flight back to America. We plan on using our time in Chicago to recover from jet lag and get some well needed rest. (Please know that it is extremely rare for us to work 10 days in a row. We make it a priority to guard our rest days). On the 25th, we will make our way to Wisconsin, where our conference will be held. From the 25th until the 28th, there will be a pre-conference for Cadence Student Ministries (CSM). (Matthew and I are the first Cadence Children’s Ministry (CCM) missionaries—making it the first ever CSM/CCM Cadence wide staff conference. Whoot whoo)! On June 28th, the rest of the Cadence missionaries will come, officially kicking off the conference. On July 5th, we will fly to the East Coast and fly back to Okinawa on July 14th. It is a short window, but we hope to see as many people as we can!

We would love nothing more than for you to lean in with us as we grow in a deeper understanding of our Creator. Pray for our hearts and minds as we enter into this crazy summer season. Joining us in prayer for both VBS’s, conference, traveling, volunteers who will run the ministry while we are gone, and that we find time to rest. I would also ask that you would pray for our marriage. Busy times can become very stressful times and we desire to love each other well in the midst of it all. Thank you so much for partnering alongside us, encouraging us and believing in us. We are extremely grateful to have such a strong support system!

Strengths and Weaknesses

Okinawa CSM/CCM staff

At the beginning of a new year; making resolutions, plans to improve, to be a better person, to function well as a team is exactly what our Cadence team did at our first ever Cadence Student Ministry/ Cadence Children's Ministry, CSM/CCM, conference. (Sarah and I are the first CCM missionaries). It was a time of looking to the future, seeing where we want to go and asking the Lord if He would direct us there.  It was also a time for us to get to know each other better because over half of the Asia team arrived on the field 3-6 months ago,  To help us understand each other better we all completed a ProScan Trait Survey. It is like a personality test that identifies an individual’s four basic personality traits and a whole lot more; strengths and weaknesses, sources of motivation, energy level, current satisfaction level, and sources of stress.

Sarah and I were both hesitant about going away for a whole week to do a conference. Our thoughts were, “it’s the new year! We have so much to do! We have so much planning and so much work to do, so we shouldn't be going to a conference! We just got on the field!!”  It was a rookie outlook on what conferences can do for a team and for our own renewal. Needless to say, we followed the guidance and wisdom of the leaders set before us and made the journey to the first ever CSM/CCM conference.

During our free time one afternoon, a few of us
explored a waterfall.

We had our conference at Okuma, which is a resort on the Northern part of Okinawa that is for U.S. Military.  Our leadership brought in guest speakers, Darrell and Cheryl Hammond from Higher Ground Consulting, for the week to help us understand the ProScan test. They are experts on building teams and improving communication between people.  While we talked about a lot of information over the week, my big takeaways were the motivators and demotivators for the team (especially when it comes to Sarah).  The motivators are something that truly drive you to take action. We all took time to look at a list of motivators that were specific to our ProScan results and defined 4 of them.  After that we all shared with each other our motivators.  I shared that cooperation, friends, happiness, and outside activities were the things that get me to take action.  If I have one of those things in my life, I love to take action and get things done quicker!  Happiness is my number one motivator.  If I’m not happy, I’m not effective. Period.  Sarah’s motivators are stability, structure, time to adjust to change, and strong leadership.  Knowing these will help me motivate her to do her best!  We had a chance to talk to Darrell and Cheryl one on one about these different motivators. They told me to encourage Sarah to take time out of her day to reflect and have moments of peace.  This will help her feel less stressed and be more motivated to do things, not just in work but in life.  While most of her motivators are going to take time to establish, we have started working on them.  It was great insight for me as a husband to understand that these things are important to my wife!  It is making me a better husband and person! The demotivators also helped me better understand how and why Sarah communicates the way she does.  While the demotivators weren't unfamiliar to me, I just didn't have a name or description to put with them.  Putting a name to something always helps me better understand.  All of this information is also going to help me with my new teammates as we begin to work more together.  I’ll be able to know how I can be most effective when working with them or just hanging out. It was such blessing to go to the conference!  We came back refreshed, ready to hit the road hard!!

Our leadership team encouraged all of us to get to know 

each other better. Sarah and I did that by sharing 

meals with those on our team.

Sarah and I have come to a clearer realization that rest is important!  Whether you are in ministry or not, taking time to rest and reflect on life is important.  Cadence International is helping us realize this. This past conference, we learned a lot, on top of  getting refreshed! After making an international move and starting two overseas children’s ministries, it was needed and will continue to be needed!  Looking to the summer, we have our all staff conference. This is a conference for every missionary within Cadence to attend and it is hosted every 5 years.  While we still have a little bit of the “we just got here” bug; we are totally on board with being refresh and renewed by all the stories of ministry happening on U.S. military bases around the world. We will be sharing the details of our summer conference in the weeks to come, stay tuned!

THREE Months in...

     We are entering into our third month on the island.. WHAT?! So crazy to think about, time is moving so quickly for us and we feel like we have so much to share with you!! From personal updates to ministry updates, it seems like we have a lot going on! So here it goes…

     

Matthew at the start of his desk

     We have a second car, whoot whoo! It’s called a fun cargo and we love it! It is fairly spacious for the size and has AC, which is a must on the island. Our apartment is still coming together. Matthew has been taking one of our days off to focus on building things for our apartment. He has made a shelving unit that fits in our closet for the clothes that aren't hung and he's made a desk for the each of us. It is so relieving to have all of my clothes out of suitcases/off the floor and in a home! Our office is starting to feel and look more like an office now that we have desks, but it is far from finished! Next, Matthew will be working on an entry table and more counter space for the kitchen, I will do all the painting and detailing when he is finished.  We are also on a hunt for a guest bed. We will be having our first guest this week and it would be nice if he had a place to sleep! ;)

                

Enjoying a visit to the seawall

We have become more intentional about setting aside one day a week where we rest and enjoy our new life in Okinawa. It has been very easy for me to justify not resting because we still have so much to do in our apartment and because there is a lot of ministry planning to accomplish. But the truth is that no matter how much we get done in a day, there will still be more to accomplish on the following day. There is always work to be done and I don’t think that will change. Remembering that, as well as, remembering that we need time to rest so that we don’t burn out has helped encourage the time away from all that needs to be done.

                

     We have some exciting news to share regarding Camp Foster… We now have 4 children coming on Saturday evenings! Whoot Whoooo! We have grown from 1 to 4 and we know we will continue to grow! For the month of December, we taught on what and what not to get wrapped up in during the Christmas season and how that can carry throughout the entire year. Each week, we spent the first few moments together wrapping the kids in various Christmas themed décor, it was pretty great! This month we will be teaching on Commitment-making a plan and putting it into practice! I am excited for this month's Life Application because we will be giving the kids practical ways to live out their lives for Christ!

                

     We will also be kicking off the New Year with Commitment on Camp Kinser! We are excited to have the same program on both bases because it will lessen our work load a bit. By the end of the month, we are planning to have our weekly bible studies up and running on both bases, which we are hoping to stream line as well.

Some of the picture frames the kids made. 

     We also had a lot of fun directing the Christmas Play for the kids on Camp Kinser. They performed it on the Sunday before Christmas and they did an excellent job! This past Sunday, we had a Christmas party. There were three stations for the kids to rotate between; snack, games and crafts. Matthew led the kids in some games and from what I hear it was pretty great! The kids had a donut eating contest… where they weren't allowed to use their hands and the donuts were swinging on a string! I led the kids in a little picture frame craft. Of course, I enjoy anything crafty so it was a lot of fun! We used our finger prints to make a string of Christmas lights and wrote the beginning of Matthew 5:16, "Let your light shine..." We had a total of 34 kids cycle through, it was a great turn out!

     As always, we are so incredibly thankful for each one of you!! God is using your prayers and support to impact His kingdom!! Thank you, thank you for choosing to walk alongside this journey with us!

*We did not add any photos of the kids because we haven't asked permission from their parents.. But don't you worry, we will post ministry in action once we get the O.K.! =)