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.! =)

Adjusting and Adapting

Our apartment building!!

   Matthew and I have been living on the island for a little over one month!! Whoot whoo!! We now have our own apartment, it’s awesome! We were able to purchase and have our refrigerator, washer and dryer the day we moved in!! The furniture store was out of ovens, so we had a lot of crock meals.  We did, however, get an oven this week!! We had internet installed and picked up a router, so we now have Wifi! As far as furniture, we have the three main things: a bed, couch and dining room table! We are planning on making everything else in due time. For now, we are glad to have a place we call home!
   We have enjoyed walking the streets where we live and checking everything out. The sea wall is very close to our apartment, so we like to go down and watch the sunset while looking for seashells.

Our FREE car

The first Sunday we visited the Kinser Chapel, a family GAVE us a car!! It was super encouraging for us. We didn’t know the family which makes it even cooler. I don’t really believe there is any other reason for someone giving us a car other than God providing for us. We are still adjusting to driving on the opposite side of the road and car. It feels like we are teaching ourselves how to drive all over again! There are some very tiny streets in Japan, so that always makes driving more fun. The roads that look like one ways really aren’t… they are just super small.

Driving on the left side!!

Ministry wise, Matthew and I will be focusing on two Marine Bases for the next few months, Camp Foster and Camp Kinser. Early next year, another Cadence missionary will join us on the field and take over children’s ministry on Camp Kinser, allowing Matthew and I to focus solely on Camper Foster.
   As of right now, the Chapel on Camp Foster has one kindergartener. Yup, only one kid attending. There is clearly A LOT of potential for ministry and we are excited for this challenge! We have started strategizing how to bring more families to the chapel, we have decided hosting Back Yard Bible Clubs is a great way to interact with kids. There are some logistical things we need to work out with the military, but we are super excited to get things rolling!!
   Camp Kinser has been extremely blessed to have a CRE (Coordinator of Religious Education) who has structured a children’s ministry for the Chapel. There are a handful of kids attending Sunday School on a weekly basis and we have enjoyed getting to know them the last couple weeks. Matthew and I have starting working on a Christmas Play with them, which has been lots of fun. We are excited for this opportunity because it has given us an extra day in our week to get to know the kids more.

Our Cadence Team and volunteers!

We also had an awesome Thanksgiving yesterday!! We were able to serve Marines and Sailors on Kinser and Foster. Over 400 servicemen and women came for a home cooked meal! It was awesome getting to talk with some of them, play games and EAT! My heart was overjoyed. We ended our evening sharing a meal with our fellow Cadence team members and youth volunteers. It was good to be together with our Cadence family and build stronger relationships!
  We are incredibly thankful for each and every one of you that has followed us on this journey so far! We could not be here without you, so thank you for sacrificing your time and money to support us!! =) We love you all and have so many reasons to be thankful!! =D

No Matter the Distance, Christ is the Difference (Part 2)

   From Yokosuka we took an hour train ride, a three hour plane ride and an hour car ride to get to Okinawa, Japan! Our first stop that night was The Harbor, a hospitality house. On Sundays, they have a service so we were able to sit in and meet some servicemen!  Monday, we were up bright and early to meet with the Youth missionaries (Don and Mark). Don and his family run the youth ministry on Camp Foster and Mark, along with his family, run youth ministry on the Kadena Air Base. They teamed up to bring their high school students together for a retreat over the weekend; we were able to catch the last day! There were daily sessions, worship, games and a time for personal devotions for the teens to take part in. They seemed to have a blast! The speaker for the retreat was our friend, Mike Hilt. We met him along with his wife during candidacy this past summer.

Our friend, Mike.

   On Tuesday, we met with two chaplains on Kadena, Chaplain McCain and Chaplain Sellers.  They were excited to meet with us and pleased to hear Cadence is forming a children’s ministry. Chaplain McCain and Chaplain Sellers expressed how having a structured children’s ministry would be invaluable. Having missionaries focused on children’s ministry would allow the Chaplains to provide a better adult ministry. Parents want to provide good, healthy and fun environments for their children. As it stand right now, their children’s ministry isn't growing because they don’t have man power to run it. Sarah and I would become some of that man power. Chaplain McCain and Chaplain Sellers also mentioned the huge effect CCM will have on marriage retreats (as we shared in our previous post). They repeatedly told us having CCM in any chapel would be a blessing and have a great impact on the chapel community!  Wrapping up, the Chaplain McCain and Chaplain Sellers said they will pray for God to provide everything needed for us to be out in the field as soon as possible!

"GaGa Ball" with some Junior High students

   Later that evening, we were able to experience the junior high youth ministry on Kadena.  We saw a discipleship class on leadership as well as the middle school youth group.  When the parents started picking up their children at the end, we met another Chaplain. He had a daughter who attend the youth group. We told him about CCM and the first thing out of his mouth was “When are you coming??!?!”  We were pretty excited to know that Chaplains we didn't have meetings set up with were just as excited as the Chaplains we did meet with!!

   The next couple of days we were taken to visit the marine bases of Camp Foster and Camp Kinser.  Our meeting on Camp Foster was with Chaplain Bradley -Davila.  Chaplain Bradley -Davila was a wonderful lady full of the Spirit!  She was very excited to hear about CCM.  She had great insight for what CCM would look like between the three Marine Bases.  She said that CCM is needed to affect the whole family unit; the chapel ministry would grow and grow.  She understands that if the family’s children are taken care of in a structured, safe and fun environment then the whole family is going to benefit.  She also told us that any chapel would be stupid if they didn't want CCM.  This was very encouraging!                 

   On our last day in Japan we had the chance to meet with a Chaplain and his wife about children’s ministry. They echoed everything the previous Chaplains told us. We talked about how having CCM will be extremely beneficial having a tsunami effect. Meaning CCM will impact the kids first; reach their parents and then the military community as a whole! They were excited to know our hearts and our dedication is for children’s ministry! They also encouraged us to continue pushing to make our dream come to life!

       The theme for this trip can be summed up in two words: exciting and encouraging. We were excited to see Japan and our potential place of ministry, excited to meet Chaplains and hear their hearts, and excited to see Cadence in action! We were so encouraged by the support the Chaplains gave us; encouraged by their excitement for us to come and encouraged to get there as fast as we can! We see the need and the potential for children’s ministry in Japan and we can’t wait to see God move in the hearts of these children!

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!!