Shorebreak '07

On April 8th, twenty-eight students and six staff traveled from Yokosuka to Okinawa for our high school spring break trip, which we call Shorebreak. Shorebreak is a camp that relates most to Hume Lake or Forrest Home back in CA. We had three different youth groups from all over Japan (Yokota, Yokosuka, and Kadena) and had around 180 students and staff. It was an awesome week. In the past, the camp was run by the Malachi staff, such as Nate and the other youth leaders from Yokota and Kadena, but this year and I guess for the past couple of years Azusa Pacific University has been sending out a team to run the camp for us. To say the least, APU did a great job. I was blown away by the all that they had prepared for the camp and was even more at amazed at how God worked in the lives of our students while at Shorebreak.

The theme for this year was "MARVELS" and was focused on the miracles of Jesus. The whole camp was about super heroes and it all built up to the fact that super heroes don't die; they tend to come as close to death as possible and then somehow escape. However, our true Superhero came to this earth and died for us. He came and conquered death for all of us when He rose from the dead. This was powerful for a lot of the students and really moved them to make decisions about their relationships with God.

Every night we had small group time with our specific students. I had 4 guys in my group and thoroughly enjoyed every evening with them. I prayed throughout the whole week that God would demolish my expectations and he totally did. So many of our students opened up and really responded to the Gospel. It will be exciting to see how Shorebreak affects our youth group. Nate and I are both pumped about how much unity this week brought to our group and we are so excited to see the students connecting more. Please be in prayer for all of the students and staff as it is tough to come back into your normal life and change things.

Shorebreak was an awesome trip. I had the sunburn to prove that I had a little too much fun at the beach. We were on Tokashiki Island the whole week and had two beautiful days at the beach. I'm working on the Shorebreak '07 video right now and it should be finished in the next couple of days. You can check it out soon on our youth group website www.yokosukastudentministries.com. Thank you for praying for us while we were at Shorebreak. Praise God for all that He is doing in the lives of the students!

Cherry Blossoms

About two weeks ago Japan's most beautiful and shortest season ended. This is the two to three week season when the cherry blossoms are in bloom. It was beautiful! People make special trips to different parts of Japan to view these trees and they are definitely worth the trip. Japan would look a lot prettier if these blossoms stuck around the whole year or even half the year, but after some rain and some good wind all of the blossoms are off of the trees. It literally looks like it is snowing when a bunch of blossoms fall off of the trees. Anyways, here are some of my pictures that I took. Enjoy!

Ramen Sweaters

At this point you should have figured out that I like to eat ramen and fried rice. In fact, I know that I like to eat it a little too much. Also, you know that my favorite place to go for ramen and fried rice is Eigi san's. If you noticed that the title of this blog is ramen sweaters than you are probably wondering where the whole sweater part comes in.

One day a group of us from the Lighthouse were planning on going to Eigi san's. Before we left I went into my room and changed my sweatshirts and when I came out people asked me why I changed my sweatshirt. I was a little embarrassed because it is was a stupid reason, but I told them "I needed to put my ramen sweater on." I was thinking that I would receive some scrutiny from the rest of the group, but before anyone could say anything Rebekah blurted out, "You have a ramen sweater too!" For those of you who don't know Rebekah, she is Hope and Jenna's teacher. She lives on the fourth floor of the Lighthouse and has become my big sister here in Japan. She takes good care of me and has been a great fill in for Sara for the time being. We've had some really good conversations and it has been a blessing to live in the same house as her, even if she does pull some pranks every once in a while.

I didn't specifically pick my Hume sweatshirt as my ramen sweater, it happened by default. You see, here in Japan it is not impolite to slurp, as a matter of fact, I think that you are considered more Japanese if you can slurp. I've been eating ramen for the past 8 months now and I still haven't perfected the art of slurping; my ramen sweater is proof of that. What happens is when I slurp and when Rebekah slurps and most other foreigners slurp, the ramen tends to swing up, hit your chopsticks, and put a nice dark stain on whatever you are wearing. Most Japanese come into the restaurant in suits and walk out without any sort of mess, but I always seem to come away with more spots on my sweatshirt. These spots don't come out and so it’s always a bummer when you get ramen spots on whatever you are wearing. That is the reason that Rebekah and I have ramen sweaters. I think both of us thought that we were the only ones and so we both agree that it’s pretty cool that we have them. Its will be a great souvenir to bring home and I'm planning on showing it off (along with my slurping skills). The pictures are from a recent visit to Eigi san's.

A love discovered in Japan!

Since being in Japan I have discovered my love for..........chocolate milk. I don't know what it is, but the smooth chocolaty taste of chocolate milk in my mouth is amazing. Before I came to Japan, I wasn't a huge fan of chocolate milk. I mean I liked it, but it wasn't something that I drank very often. However, that changed when I came to Japan. I don't really know how it started or where my first taste of such goodness occurred, but after the first couple of glasses of chocolate milk I was hooked. Almost every shopping list that I give to Louise has chocolate milk on it and if it doesn't, her or Nate will ask me if I still want it. Normally, the answer is “Sure, if you must.”

Many of you know that on Thursday nights we drive out to Ikego for youth group. It’s about a half hour drive out to Ikego and Nate and I always have fun conversation on the way over there. Q2, the name of our youth group in Ikego, is awesome right now and really is a highlight of my week. I always look forward to going there because the group of students that come are a lot of fun. They are asking really good questions right now and just have a lot of excitement when we play games and when we study God's Word. It has been cool to see each of them grow as individuals as they learn more about God.

A confession that I have and Nate can attest to this also, is that I also look forward to Thursday nights because I get to have chocolate milk. The little shoppette there always has chocolate milk (Well not every single time. One time I went there and they didn't have it and I almost cried. j/k) and its such a great snack before youth group. I also enjoy buying an extra one to stash in the refrigerator where our youth group is to bring home with me after. Many of the people at the Lighthouse have become fans of chocolate milk because of what I have shared with them, but all of them know not to touch my chocolate milk because I always write a big, "JEREMY'S: DON'T TOUCH!" Its necessary to write this because my food is in the big refrigerator and anyone can grab it at any time and get away with it. When my sister came and visited we went through a couple of cartons of chocolate milk and she too agrees that it is very good. I already told my mom that she will need to put chocolate milk on her shopping lists when I return home. If she doesn't though, I think that I will buy it myself. Wow, I didn't know I had very much to say about chocolate milk. It's good. You should try it sometime. But make sure you get the "California Sunshine Ultrafresh" kind because it’s the best!

Peter Pan!

I like Peter Pan. Many people ask me what I what to be when I grow up and I say Peter Pan. (Which can't really happen because Peter Pan never grows up.) I've put together a Peter Pan costume and even have video tape of me and my buddies watching Peter Pan back in the day.

Anyways, I recently got my own copy of Peter Pan. I remember one day about two years ago when I wanted to watch Peter Pan and I couldn't find the video. I looked all over the house, asked my whole family, but we couldn't find Peter Pan. Before I went home in December, somehow I found out that Disney was coming out with a two disc platinum edition Peter Pan and I couldn't wait. I put it on my list for Christmas, but soon found out that it wouldn't be released till March. I soon forgot about Peter Pan, until I went to youth group in Ikego and found it sitting on a rack in the little shoppette. I could hardly keep my excitement in. Nate and my sister can share with you about how excited I was. (I admit it. I really was acting like a little kid.) I walked out of the store with my own copy of Peter Pan and am so excited that I can watch it any time I want. It's such a fun movie and even though I haven't had a ton of time to watch it, I know that there are many times ahead of me where I will be able to sit back and think about not growing up.