okinawa

it has been almost a week since we returned from japan, and most of the team is still trying to recover from the fourteen hour time difference, travel, and keeping with school life and schedules.
if there is only one thing i am allowed to say about my experience in okinawa-

a beautiful gift...

however, i can say a lot more : )

every morning i would look outside our apartment window (located on okinawa christian school international grounds) and see the ocean nearby, just beyond the small town of yomitan. one day we walked down to the beautiful water (the china sea) combing the beach, finding hermit crabs, sea urchins

and i just stood there with rashelle
neither one of us spoke
we just stood there, face to the salty wind
silently worshipping
drinking in
not just the sight of sunset and fog barely revealing another island in the distance
but of the rhythm of the waves
the smells


the video shooting for the project went well
we interviewed some of the most adorable children on the planet
some of the most dedicated, faithful missionaries i have ever met
and tried to capture the heart, vision, and life of the school

we had the amazing privelage and challenge of leading all chapels
i borrowed a guitar
acted in some skits
and had the opportunity to share about the cost of following Jesus Christ

and as i was speaking to them i was reminded again of that cost-what it means to surrender
and that following Jesus Christ is what i was created for
and that it is in Him that i will only be satisified completely-with certain hope - unafraid

and i was reminded that my life is not my own, the path that i try so hard to lay out for myself is really in the hands of He who gives me my very breath

being in that place, learning about the war and how it forever changed and affected that island
eating traditional food, shopping in the supermakert
talking to people who have lived there their entire lives

in many ways i began to understand more about my culture, my heritage, my family...
and it was like a part of me had woken up
and i could finally completely breath, and understand
and feel

it was strange
yet familliar
painful
yet healing
hard
yet refreshing

and i cannot wait to go back again