UUGH

I am so sick of school...I think I'll quit and become a buger flipper or something! The only thing thats keeping me going is my Japanese class. It's so fun!

I'm Back!

Well here I am back in good ol' Birmingham. Ok..I'm ready to go back to Okinawa! I miss being there already, cant wait to go back!

1 week to go... :( , :)

Well, I just finished a grueling week of VBS. We did a 5 day Mon-Sat (minus Wed) program, with the theme of Water Works, water stories in the Bible. There were 12 kids and two of us teachers, no bad considering--I've had worse...I mean better! Only thing that's bad is that VBS is over, but all the songs are still stuck in my head.
I cant believe my trip is over!! 1 week left...and I'm in trouble. I brought with me 2 vacuum bags ( where u can suck all the air out) , so I started packing a few days ago, both bags are full and I'm only half packed. I have at least a week and a half worth of clothes still in my closet. Looks like I'll have to fork over the money to ship it through the mail :*{.. (Maa iika) Oh well that's what I get for shopping with so much enthusiasm!

pics

Here we are arriving at the aquarium.
How about waking up to this face!
This is the center tank, the largest in the center. It goes all around the bottom floor.
Another shot of the big tank.
Smaller tank.

umai

Yesterday we went up to the Aquarium in Nago Okinawa, about an hour away. It's said to be the 2nd largest aquarium in the world. I have to admit, it was pretty impressive. There were fish everywhere (go figure) in these huge tanks. In one, they had to have at least 50 different types of fish. They were all so bright and colorful and (freaky looking) quite lovely, I mean. I'll have to post the pics later ( I swear I will, on my dogs life :) ) . It was funny being there with a lot of Japanese. I kept hearing them say 'Oishisoo'-They look good!, and 'Sono tabeta'-I've eaten that one. They may have thought I was laughing at them when I started snorting...
Then we went to a place called Pineapple Park, were they have almost everything there made from pineapple (of course). Free samples (we were there for a while) of cookies, cakes, chocolate (milk and white pineapple chocolate --ooiiishiii so good), juices, even soap. I almost didn't make it to the car...everyone was like 'Rachel come on we have to go...' and 'Girl, put the the cake down, step away from pineapple..' , I guess me stuffing my face at every table did look kinda bad !!

Whoa!

Wow! What a great Sunday Night service! I'm having ambivalent feelings about coming home, but now I cant wait! 3 weeks left, look to the East Aug 5th!

Seoul, Korea

Picture this, a market place full of shops (literally hundreds) in a 3-4 block sector, at least a thousand people, and little guys on scooters carting their shop items to who-knows-where barreling up and down these crowded streets honking their horns, willing to run down anyone who gets in their way. That's pretty much what Nandemon marketplace felt like. Oh, but it was great! Nothing better than buying Coach and Louis Vitton and just about any other brand name you can think of for almost nothing! I ended up not buying to much, just a few $5 skirts and shirts. It was cool though, I would definitely recommend vacationing in Korea just for the shopping. Korea also boasts the largest church in the world. No joke, it seats 80-90,000 people, and there are at least 200 people there at all times praying 24/7. I didnt go in, just saw in passing, but it was HUGE! I think they said its a Full Gospel church. But anyway, services were good, I met some really nice people, and had a great time!

And just as an afterthought, Korea has a much better Cold Stone Creamery than we do. They have alot more flavors. I know that was random, but I threw it in anyway.

Kankoku iku!!

Today I'm off to Seoul Korea for the Summer AMD Conference! YEA, 5 days of shopping, church, shopping, cheap massages, shopping, Korean restaurants, and shopping! Its great! I might have to buy more luggage for all the stuff I'm bringing back to the States, sigh* , I was already at the weight limit to begin with. BUT, whatever, Hold My Mule! I cant leave a stone unturned!
btw, I checked the tennis scores this morning, (whoa) Federer and Nadal completely shut out any hope there was for the underdog!!

Hiiii!

This past Sunday a bunch of us went to the Hosmer's (another missionary) church for a special/revival service. It was so cool! They sang all of their songs in Japanese (their congregation is mostly Japanese people), they even sang our favorite 'I'm Trading My Sorrows' ,it sounds much better in Japanese, I'll have to get the words. Maybe we can sing it! (HAAAA) But anyway, the guest speaker was Bro Vowtaw, who has been a missionary in Taiwan. So we've got a Chinese speaking missionary with no Chinese... then, BAM, there were about 10 Chinese guys that came in off the street just to see what was going on! Talk about God's good timing. They loved the service though, during worship there was one who could not stop taking pics with his phone, they loved the music (I don't know if they spoke Japanese), a few did go up to the alter, but I don't think any got the Holy Ghost.

In other news, Hitomi and I did sing our Japanese duet on Sunday. Then someone had the audacity to say I was flat on one of the songs (Oh No HE DIDN'T!). But that's ok ...I'll be strong...Thank you Jesus!!

Tanoshikatta!

Ooook, I was having so much fun I forgot about blogging... So, here you go! Pics from today, fresh and new! Today I helped escort a group of kids from mainland Japan, they were here to get the American experience (come to Okinawa to get Americanized...go figure..) so, we took them onto the Air force base to go shopping and bowling, the whole nine yards. These students spoke very little English but "Your friendly neighborhood Rachel" was there ( with her poor Japanese ) to save the day. Their hostess was a woman from church, Sis Marsh (see pic 1), she is very animated, she would make all of these hand motions when she was explaining something to them, they would then turn to me for the translation with a look of "What in the world is she talking about" on their faces. I would then turn to them and say "Wakaranai (I have NO idea!)". No, just kidding ,I tried my best! But anyway, here are the pics! Enjoy!
This is Yumiko, Kie, Makiko, and Sis Marsh

Here they are at the bowling alley.
Here we are at the military Base Exchange, aka Aafes, aka military Walmart

Here are some pics from the outreach we did at the Handicap center about two weeks ago. The kids here are very sweet. Some of them have been there for years and haven't seen any of there family since they've been there....its so sad :*O**. I felt a little awkward at first, not quite knowing what to do or expect, but everything was fine once I got behind the puppet stage: My third home!
Here the kids are doing hand motions to "Head and Shoulders, Knees and Toes" ( the church version)

More "Head and Shoulders..."
This is a group shot.
The lovely puppets!

Old Pics

I was doing some picture scanning at the church here and found some old pictures of the Tschidas. There pretty funny, from 1982! (Hope they dont mind me showing them :O) )

Sunday School Decor

Here are pictures of our sunday school room for the new quarter. It took us two and a half days to complete our room. The theme is King's Orchard, learning the fruits of the spirit, so the entire room is decorated to look like a fruit orchard (those transparancies were really time consuming to draw!) We did all of this preparing for sunday school but when Sunday came, we had no kids! Acually we did have 1 but he is 13 and not even supposed to be in there, poor kid had to sit through an entire lesson written for 7 and 8 year olds :)~ ! Oh well, we're praying for more familes to be drawn in, so everyone please be in prayer with us! ( Minna san Onegaishimasu!)

This is Hitomi and Ty taking down the last theme.

This is Tatiana (one smart 2 year old)
This is the outside door (entrance to the Orchard)

Now we're getting somewhere!
It was hard to get the staples to go through the walls, but the coloring was easy.
This is the toddler room
This is the same wall after we completed it

The hard workers....

Taikutsu na

I found someone with a voice as soft as mine..... how annoying. After every sentence i'm like "WHAAAAT?? SPEAK UP, I CANT HEAR YOU!! " Now I know how everyone feels when they talk to me. Next time, seriously, just yell at me "ENUNCIATE AND PROJECT PLEASE". Anyway, I started singing in church yesterday, well for alter call anyway. Most of the songs they sing I havent sang since I was about 9 so, I'm goning to need a little practice first. It was ok for the most part I guess :/~ . Well its Memorial Day and we're not doing anything. There was a picnic planned but those plans were scratched due to expected rain. Of course today came, and not a drop of rain. So, here I sit........and type.... Ha ha but not for long! I'm going to the park! Later! (Ja,Mata!)

Sweating is Wonderful...

If ever you want to relax...find a steam room. Those things are awesome! I go with a few of the ladies from the church onto the military base here to go to the gym. First we work out, and do that whole bit, then we head straight for the steam room! Its much better than the sauna, the sauna does nothing but make you feel gross, but the steam room...!!! I could stay in there for hours. The steam opens your pores and makes you skin so soft afterwards, its great for your hair too. Here's the best part, we were talking with a Korean woman while in there and she says that the steam room is the reason Koreans are so small and slender. Being in there will make you sweat off all those extra pounds! So, hop up people! Go find a steam room to relax and shed pounds in!

This is good

Great news...I'm joining the praise team here! Don't think that's exciting? Oh, trust me it is :)~ We had one Okinawan receive the Holy Ghost on Sunday. Apparently shes been trying for a while to get it. She said she kept trying to say "Arigatou" but couldn't get it out. Her kids are in Sunday school here, and don't speak any English. Soooo, in 2 weeks we are starting a new Sunday school program and I'll have to translate to them (AAAAHHHHHH!!!!).
I watched both Sunday services (New Life) on the Internet, of course, and thought everyone would want to know--the cameras do give close-ups of everyone on the platform :), so smiiiiile!

Its a lot harder to keep up with this blog than I thought it would be. From here on out, I'll try to write every 2-3 days. So, I went to two services this week. The music is a little different than what I'm used to, but you've got to work with what you've got . They don't have any musicians right now, so, they use a floppy disc loaded with songs ( older ones from hymn books) and put them into the keyboard to play during service. There are about 40 people in the church, that includes 10 or so Okinawans. They are really hungry for the truth, so keep us in your prayers.

I went to some old WWII tunnels this week. The whole network of tunnels were dug with hand tools by the Japanese soldiers during the war. It was huge!!This is a pic showing how they dug.This is the tunnel entrance.This is the same entrance looking up.This is a picture of the wall riddled with a hand grenade when 4000 Japanese soldiers committed suicide to prevent being taken by American troops.

This is more of the tunnel. It was so crowded in the tunnels that the soldiers had to sleep standing up.

These are pictures of the city of Naha. It looks like this any angle you turn, no such thing as empty space here.

I watched the Wed. night service (on Thursday morning), good to see Amber and Katie , Welcome Back!!!! You girls did good on your testimony and translation, I hope I can do that when I get back :}. It was funny to see Ephraim do announcements :*D . I was going to laugh but I thought he might hear me (lol), and get nervous. But... good job anyway!

:)

I went to Tuesday night Japanese bible study last night. Wow, talk about fast pace. Usually Bro Parker is there to teach while someone translates to Japanese, but he wasn't there this time. Soooo, was in a Japanese bible study instead of a translated English bible study (felt a little out of place there...). I would like to say I kept up with all of it, but, I didn't. It was me that had the translator :). After that I went to eat with one of the Okinawan couples, and they said they would only speak Japanese to me. That was interesting. At first I kept choking and stumbling over my words :D~ but I eventually caught up (oh yea!). I'm having lots of fun here and may not come home!! (j/k) - Later ;)

Here ya go

Sorry these pics are out of order, this should be down in the new friends section. Anyway this is us Sunday night at Starbucks in the American Village, they have about 3 Starbucks in a two block radius.
I love these steps leading to the bed!

State of the Art toilet. It has all of these buttons that I dont dare play with ( notelling what would happen)
This faucet is on the tank of the toilet. It has soapy water that comes out when you flush so you came wash your hands right there. it also keeps the in side of the toilet clean (because I wont :)~ ).
These are some of the church members ( sis. Parker on the right)

New friends...

These are pictures of my 'apartment'.
Small kitchenette.
Even came with a Japanese washer.

This is the shower room. You stand outside the tub , scrub down, rinse off and then soak in the tub. Oh, dont worry, there is a drain in the floor.

This is my bed with lots of storge space underneath.

Well here are the pix, enjoy! Ill type some more tonight!..