Visit to Okinawa May/June 2023

We have been in Okinawa for two weeks (our second time here) filling in for a fellow missionary on furlough.   On May 30 a typhoon was coming up from the Philippines.  On Friday, June 2 we woke to the aftermath of strong winds and rain sweeping through the Nago area (northern part of the island of Okinawa).  The above is the canal across from the church at nearly flood stage.  

This is across the street from the church just above the river. 

The shed was standing at the back of the church building.   The padlocked door was busted open and the contents spilled out.  Henry and I managed to take all the stuff out and righted the plastic shed and put things back in.   It was an experience not to forget. 

When I took out the trash at the back of the building from the street side, I saw the shed was blown over and around the corner of the building.  

 

 

Family Update

These are Peter and Jewel's family Easter photos.  Jewel is expecting their first son in July.  Arianna is next to her and Elorie is next to Peter

Sitting on the platform in front of the church pulpit

Here are the "egg heads"    :-)

Elorie and her balloon friend

Arianna in kimono 

Picnic day

Arianna invited her friends to ride the bus to Sunday School.  

 

Bridge Building in Ono and Kato across the Kako River

Work on the new bridge about 3 km from here continues.  Here are some recent photos of putting the steel structures in place.  It is supposed to be done next summer and the other bridge will be taken down sometime.  It has been interesting to watch the work over the last 1 1/2 years.

Approaching the bridge from the Ono side, we cross on the left side of the crane.  The crane lifts the steel structures and puts them in place.

The steel structure is in front of that traffic cone.  The white cement on the right is where the bridge will end.  

This is from the Kato side across the river.

These steel bars are for workers to get in place .  Here two of them are holding the crane that has the steel structure to anchor it in place.   

More later as things progress. 

First Snow of 2023

January 25, 2023, we woke up to snow on the ground, about an inch of thick and sticky snow, very rare here in Ono City.   These are photos taken around the house.

                                          Looking right out the front door

                         Our heater/AC unit with lots of little ceramic figures.

   Looking left out the front door.

                                          Driveway and our two vehicles 

                                                 

                                       This is the garden gate of our 

                                    neighbor across the street

                                      The corner of the house next 

                                    to the cars

                                            Sunrise after the snow stopped

                                                    Behind the house

                               Our neighbor put old used carpets 

                                on the ground to prevent weeds 

                                  This garden is in front of the

                                   house next to ours.  A huge 

                                   evergreen bush was cut down

                                   last week next to the snow-covered

                                     plate over the ditch

                                                From the 2nd floor window

Lunar Eclipse November 8, 2022 Blood moon

It was a very clear night to see the blood moon.   This is facing East out our backdoor in Ono .  My camera and phone camera did not take the best photos, sorry.  

                Partial eclipse getting dark from the bottom 

                            Here you can see the reddish moon 

  This was toward the end of the eclipse.  It rose higher in the sky as the moon turned red
 

New Roof for Inochi no Pan

 The roof at our previous church was leaking a bit, so Pastor Mawatari asked Henry to replace it.  He had estimates from companies upwards of  $20,000, so Henry got to work figuring out what was needed.   He called some preachers and asked if they could help and many said yes.  They have each done repair work at the Bible School and at our current residence in Ono City, so they knew what to do. 

 From the backside of the building before the scaffolding was put up.                               

October 31 the guys were able to remove all the old roof shingles and some of the plywood that was rotted.  November 1 it was a bit rainy, so they did not get much done and covered the roof with tarps to keep the rain out.  Nov. 2 the weather was great (for the rest of the week also) and they were able to get most of the roof shingled.  Nov. 3 they finished two of the smaller roofs over the door (4 total).  The last day, Nov. 4, they completed the new shingles and all the smaller roofs.  

Mrs. Mawatari and ladies from INPBC made the delicious meals.  I made pizza on Wednesday and several of the workers stayed for the Prayer service.  

Several ladies helped with collecting the old shingles and other stuff from the roof.  Then it was put under the house (to save the cost of having someone take it away).   

On Friday a new missionary and his two sons came to help, so we put them to work tearing the large tarp-like sheets (I forgot the name, it was between the plywood and shingles) and put the smaller pieces into plastic bags so it could go under the house.  Having three extra sets of hands was a great help.  Then we went around the house and cleaned up the scraps of stuff and put that under the house.  

We thank God the job went so well without serious injury.  

 

  Tearing off the old shingles and tossing them overboard.  

Some of the plywood was rotted, so it was replaced.  

                                        

The finished roof.  A job well done.  Thanks to all the helpers. 

Granddaughters Fall 2022

 

Alora and Clarity celebrated their 5th birthday in August.  This year's theme was Princess

     

                                                    

                                                  This one is Clarity in Blue 

                                          Here is Alora in Pink  top and bottom

Arianna's first day of school

She was so excited to be going to kindergarten.  Here she is riding the church school bus.  

                                        The sign she's holding gives details about her 

 

Ono happenings #2

 

  Rice was planted in late May/early June 

  The rice is growing nicely in some very large fields  

This looks like a dinosaur to me--it's vines growing up the electrical pole and onto the wires.   

One of my gladiolas growing in the garden wall. 

I saw this bus pointing to a berry farm.  Have not gone there yet.  

Harvest from the garden.  The yellow/green thing is a zucchini, next is a huge cucumber, last is two tomatoes and a skinny carrot.  :-)  

I fried the large zucchini and substituted it for eggplant and made parmesean --baked in the oven.  Very Tasty.  found the recipe at All Recipies.com  

For Father's Day we passed out 8,000 flyers and two new families came, one with a young boy.  They are both from Tokyo and have been here just a few months and are Christians.  Please pray they will come regularly and get involved in the work here.  The last Sunday in July a new visitor came for the first time.  He is my Japanese teacher and teaches at a local high school during the day.  Friday nights there's a Japanese class for anyone who wants to take it (lots of foreigners in the area working at factories).    My teacher speaks English and I invited him a few months ago.  He said in August he could come when summer vacation starts.   :-)   

That catches you up on what's happening here in this part of Hyogo-ken