Congratulations, Josh and Mileng!

Our Nephew Josh and Niece Mileng were wedded recently. Congratulations!

William was the Ring Bearer and was very careful in carrying out this big responsibility.

Alee, Dustin and Tysha. Alee and Tysha were Flower Girls and Dustin was the Coin Bearer. They all did a fine job!

Recent Saipan Salvation Army Youth Activities

We've had several outings with our youth since the last post. They've had a trip to the zoo, countless beach barbecues and a day at the water park. Here are some shots from the water park.

R.J. blasting down the water slide. He likes to make big splashes.

Libby used an infatable vest and had a great time kicking around.

Dustin preferred the body boards.

Kobe zipping down the water slide.

Saipan Salvation Army Meeting October 8, 2006

We have two Youth Fellowships each week. They begin on Friday night and run pretty much through Sunday evening. If there's a long weekend, they run through Monday nights. Some kids come for a few hours, some for the long haul. We all have a great time. We study, play and do various activities. They like to cook a lot and this weekend, they wanted to make spaghetti with alfredo sauce and caramel popcorn. After making the alfredo sauce, the kids decided that spaghetti is boring so they decided to have macaroni alfredo instead. Devan came and although he didn't want to get involved in the cooking activities, he was an avid participant in a lot of other stuff.

At first, he didn't want to get out of the van. He wanted to spend the night in it. He dragged out the infamous tent and when dinner time came, he didn't want to come out. Annie fed him through the side window. The kids later began calling the tent the "technology tent" because there was a portable fan inside.

He wanted to play MarioKart but it was too complicated for his age. The other kids gave him an unconnected controller and he was convinced he was playing. He thought he won every race and would leap up and do a victory dance. "Suckers! You lose-you lose! I win!"

He played Uno, too. He played with Annie but we forgot that he's learning his colors. He called out the color of each card dealt, which for all you non-Uno players means that we knew what their cards were. He also had an interesting way of holding his cards. Despite all this, they won quite a few games.

This fellow doesn't mess around when he gets sleepy. He zonks out quickly, as if there's a sleep switch somewhere.

October 1, 2006 Saipan Salvation Army Meeting

Today we continued our study of the the life of Joseph, covering chapters 39-40.

We are careful to point out that this is not a story about a coat of many colors but about God and His sovereignty. If you have been studying along with us, you will probably remember that God had revealed to Abraham many years earlier, that the children of Israel would at some point go into Egypt and be oppressed there for more than 400 years.

The account of Joseph is primarily about God making provision for the children of Israel by sending them into Egypt to escape a terrible famine. As we study it, we can see God orchestrating events as He pleases. Although we are not told much about what Joseph’s thoughts were, we can easily imagine how crushed he was by the betrayal of his brothers and at having been imprisoned again because of false accusations.

However; God is sovereign and was in control of Joseph’s life every step of the way. There is much to learn from this account but the purpose of this blog is not for me to preach a lot, so I will now step down off the soap box, lol.

Rosie celebrated a Birthday this week. We had a hoe-down for her at Neng's. There were a lot of folks there but our little camera has a small lens, so I could only capture of few of them singing "Happy Birthday". HAPPY BIRTHDAY ROSIE!!!

After Sunday School, Dustin and William lined up the chairs and made a train. They sang "choo choo" a lot.

After the train thang, Dustin played his favorite Superhero for a while. Up, up in the sky...it's a bird...it's a plane....

September 24, 2006 Saipan Salvation Army Meeting

Today, we began our study of the life of Jacob's son Joseph in Genesis, chapter 37. There are many important spiritual lessons to be learned in studying the life of Joseph and there are also many practical lessons, as well. Anyone who is or aspires to be in a supervisory, management or administrative role should undertake a study of him.

Rie has been working on her clapping skills. Her Dad Bob explains that she has a portfolio of claps. There's the general clap of happiness/excitement, an attention-getting clap and even an angry clap. We've also noticed a warning clap, which is what she gives when she wants...er, demands...to be picked up. You get the angry clap if you make the mistake of putting her down....she doesn't like that. You grow girl!

After our fellowship meal, someone made bishu ("bee - shoo"). It can be made with various ingredients and our kids usually use a powdered soup base that contains tamarind, which is somewhat sour. They add tabasco or other hot pepper sauce to it and sometimes unsweetened Kool Aid or other powdered drink mix for an extra measure of sourness. The result is a powdery mix that is both very sour and spicy hot. They dip raw veggies into it and it's always a big hit. Here is a group diving into it.

Momma Nanny

Having a House Church presents special challenges. To say that Annie's weekends are frantic would be a good start. She dearly loves ALL children and no matter how busy she is, she makes time to show them a lot of affection. Of course, the kids love her in return and always seek attention from "Momma Nanny" (they can't seem to say Momma Annie).

Eh? What's this? Someone's getting attention from Momma Nanny?

Time to que up! Annie was so busy that she didn't even notice that photos were being taken.

Of all the memories I will have of Annie, the most vivid will always be those of her with all our little Sunday School kids gathered around her.

Fishing Fellowship

A nice late-day shot of Annie and William fishing. William loves to fish and has his own special rig. This pic brings a lump to my throat because it says a lot about Annie and her love for kids. William's Mom Miling took these photos with a simple cell phone camera. Is she good or what?

One of the ships just off shore. There are always several boats around and they're great neighbors. They even put up lights during the Christmas season!

Another great shot of Annie and William.

Hawgs

We keep Youth Fellowship as intersting as possible and the kids sometimes like to go fishing. Naomi bagged a Grouper and a couple of small Mafuti (in the plate).

Kayla bagged a buncha red fish of some sort. She's holding her hawg here. "Fight Roni" is a big deal in Japan (from whence her shirt) but I'm clueless about what/who Roni is.

We're hoping to do a puppet ministry but don't have performance type puppets. Kayla and Naiomi found some toy stuff lying around at home and put some skits together for the toddlers. In this shot, they're leading the kids in a song. They were a HUGE hit. The kids got really excited and kept rushing the "stage".

Behind the scenes action. I was tossed out for not being in possession of a back-stage pass.

Major Hudson Returns!

Our Divisional Commander, Major David Hudson, visited us again recently. This time Major Sharon Hudson was able to accompany him, along with Major Brian Saunders, the new Guam Corps Officer.

With Annie on the long stairway to the last Japanese Command Post from WWII. It's a long way up and down!

Major Saunders checked out the entrance to the command post but didn't go in because of several inches of water on the floor from recent heavy rains.

July is a big Birthday month in our congregation and family. We had 3 birthdays this weekend and several more in the upcoming week. About 12 total!

We took a pause today in our continuing series in Genesis, for a sermon on the basics - faith. Our usual fellowship followed, then off to Neng's to celebrate Carmen's birthday. Couldn't get the captions to line up properly with the photos....aargh!

Bob and Taisha celebrated their Birthdays yesterday. Here they are, holding the cards our Youth Fellowship made for them.

Carmen with her custom card.

This week's Saturday Night Youth Fellowship group (from the front and proceeding left): E.J., Marica, Anjerika, Banzai Dana, Kayla, Naiomi.

ChewBang being ChewBang....chewing up a cup!

July 2, 2006 Saipan Salvation Army Meeting

We continued our study of Genesis today, looking at the life of Isaac. 11 adults, 15 children and 4 cradle roll babies attended. We had our usual fellowship meal together afterwards. Annie and the kids from our Saturday night Youth Fellowship made a really nice soup, which was readily consumed by several of us who have been fighting a flu. Later in the afternoon, I fired up the Islandbillie grill and barbecued some beef and pork steaks for another fellowship gathering. We fellowship a lot!

Rie is now mobile!

ChewBang working on his open-the-door-close-the-door-endlessly skills.

He also made the miraculous discovery that if he tapped a cerain lever, water would come out! Here, he's just biding his time until Annie looks away, so that he can do it again.

William grows more responsible each week. He stacked the Sunday School chairs today.

June 18, 2006 Salvation Army Meeting

Our message today was from Genesis 25. Abraham passed away and was buried in the cave in Machpelah, with Sarah. We saw God's faithfulness in blessing Isaac and giving him assurance. We saw the birth of Jacob and Esau, and Jacob's attempt to swindle Esau of his spiritual birthright, even though God had already declared it to be Jacob's. Esau readily gave up these important spiritual responsibilities, which included being a type of Priest to the family and the great honor of being head of the chosen line from which Jesus would descend. Esau thought nothing of his spiritual birthright. In fact, he despised it. He thought so little of it that he traded it for something of almost no value - a bowl of stew! Among the things we learned from this chapter is that we must carefully avoid the unbelief of Jacob and the flippancy of Esau.

Our Niece Rima and Anjerika are home from Hawaii for vacation. We are very close to them and delighted to spend time with them!

Mark intended to pose with Anjerika but several of the kids love him so much that they had to pose with their Uncle Mark.

Quinton had been sitting on the floor and chatting with some of the other kids, when ChewBang wondered over and laid his head on Quinton's arm...and promptly went to sleep. Quinton didn't want to disturb him and valiantly stuck it out until ChewBang woke up.

Josh and his God-Son Escalo. Escalo is cameracentric now and always does his best to pose when he sees a camera. He got so intense that it looked like he would jump through the lens!

June 11, 2006 Meeting. HAPPY BIRTHDAY MALEKAI!

We celebrated Malekai's (ChewBang) first birthday today! He took his first steps at last Saturday night's fellowship and is now zooming around with a great deal of energy and zeal. He can be seen here clapping as we sang "Happy Birthday" to him.

He enjoyed his birthday cake but was especially taken with the ice cream cones.

Willam and his Grandpa Frank. Frank noted that William licks his ice cream cones quickly, like a lizard.

It was a long weekend for our birthday boy. He and I slapped congas together on Saturday night. The "bang" part of his nickname "ChewBang" is well-deserved. When he got bored later, I taught him some simple rhythms and we slapped them together on the kitchen table. He did them perfectly...at barely a year old! He pooped out after cake and ice cream on Sunday and I had to get this shot. He had his hands on a bag of birthday party goodies and had also found a purse. He was probably going to empty the purse and put it all back in....he spends a lot of time emptying stuff out - whatever he can find - and then putting it back in...over and over.

June 11, 2006 Meeting - Message Summary

Our area of study today was Genesis 24. This is a very rich chapter and just as chapter 22 pointed forward to Christ, so does this chapter. It gives us pictures of God the Father, God the Son and especially God the Holy Spirit. If you are following along with our study, please see a brief summary of this below.

Abraham
· Abraham was a picture of God the Father, in that God the Father makes a marriage between His son Jesus and Christians (the Church), just as Abraham made the marriage between his son Isaac and Rebekah.

· Abraham demanded that Isaac not intermarry with the sinful Canaanites, just as God demands that Christians keep themselves separated from sin.

· Another important lesson here is that Christians should not marry spouses who are not Christians. Such a marriage will be greatly stressed and may not succeed.

The Chief Servant
The chief servant was a picture of the Holy Spirit in several ways.

· He did not speak of himself but of his master, just as the Holy Spirit speaks not of Himself but of God the Father and God the Son (Jesus).
· He called out the Bride (Rebekah), just as the Holy Spirit calls out the Church (Christians) to be the Bride of Christ.
· He brought the Bride to the Bridegroom, just as the Holy Spirit brings us to Christ. Please note that it is the Holy Spirit who brings us to Christ. Men may preach the gospel or witness to us but only the Holy Spirit brings us to Christ (salvation).
· He gave gifts to the Bride, as he saw fit, just as the Holy Spirit gives gifts to all believers (Christians), as He sees fit.

Isaac
Isaac was a picture of Christ (Jesus) in several ways.

· His Bride was called out by the servant, just as the Holy Spirit calls out sinners to become Christians – and therefore, the Bride of Christ.
· He went out to meet his Bride and took her to his late Mother’s tent, which was the place that Isaac’s Father (Abraham) had prepared for them. On the day decided upon by the Father, Jesus will take the Church (Christians) to dwell in the place prepared by His Father (heaven).

Rebekah
Rebekah was the picture of the Church (Christians) in that:

· She was called out by someone to become betrothed, just as we are called out by the Holy Spirit to become betrothed to Christ (to be saved or to become a Christian).
- She stepped out in faith and agreed to become betrothed to someone she had never seen, just as we step out in faith and agree to become betrothed to Christ, although we have never seen Him.

June 3, 2006 Meeting Photos

Alee and William are best buds. Alee waits for him every Sunday and pounces on him when he comes through the door. It looks like a wrestling match but it's a hug fest.

Escalo was energetic today. He wanted to hang out with Annie and be taken with her, wherever she went. She played puppets with him after Sunday School. Turned out that he was a mite frightened of puppet reindeer.

Bob took his turn at passing out Bibles from the Bible basket.

Liberty noshed on tuna sandwiches, pork and beans and fresh carrots. She also did very well in Sunday School, especially with her coloring page.

Sermon Notes Experiment

Some of the readers of this blog want to know more about what we study, in order to follow along. Some are also curious as to what sort of messages are given when planting a Church. So, I'm trying an experiment today. This post consists mainly of my sermon notes from today's message. Some of the bullets/numbering did not come through when pasted from the Word file on which I had the notes - sorry - I don't know how to fix that. If you want to follow along with us in the future, just send a comment with your email address and I'll forward our sermon notes to you!

As you study Genesis 22 on your own, please remember that this is just one example of the gospel being presented in the Old Testament. This was not only a test for Abraham and Isaac but was also God giving the gospel to them. If you are a new Christian, please don't neglect the Old Testament. Study it as much as you do the New Testament and never make the mistake of thinking that the Old Testament has little to say about Jesus or the gospel. In fact, the Old Testament if full of the gospel message and is primarily about Jesus! Please also remember that one can have only a very shallow understanding of the New Testament, if one does not understand the Old Testament. Please contact us, if we can be of any assistance to you! (Do so by leaving comments, which then come to us by email - we will NOT post them or make them public, of course).

Abraham’s Final Test/God Presents The Gospel
Genesis 22

As we have progressed through the book of Genesis we have seen many themes.

As touching God, we have seen the incredible long suffering of God, His great love, His great kindnesses, His great faithfulness and many other wonderful things about Him.

As touching man, we have seen our incredible wickedness, our total depravity, our inability to repent (stop sinning), our absolute refusal to obey God or listen to His counsel and many other awful things about mankind.

We have seen the beginnings of God’s plan to provide a way to be saved, after the fall of Adam and Eve doomed us all to eternal separation from Him.

We have seen that His plan was to set aside a chosen people and that eventually, Jesus would be born from the lineage of those chosen people (Jews/Hebrews/Israelites).

We have seen that God chose Abraham to be the Father of the chosen people and thus, the Messiah (Jesus).

Last week as we studied the birth of Isaac, I pointed out that some Bible scholars believe that God would not allow Abraham and Sarah to have His blessing (the child of promise – Isaac) until the sin in their lives had been addressed.

Although we didn’t spend a lot of time talking about it, God also tested Abraham 4 times. They were:

Leaving the land of his relatives (obeying God, not knowing where he was going).
Having to separate from his Nephew Lot.
Losing his son Ishmael (Isaac was the chosen line).
Being obedient to the point of having to give up his son Isaac…the subject of today’s message, found in chapter 22.

First, we should define what is meant by “test” here. The Bible does not seem to mean the kind of test in which God doesn’t know the outcome (impossible, because God is omniscient, although His immutability could perhaps come into play).

Rather, it seems what God is doing is refining and proving Abraham. Perhaps a good way to understand more about it, is the way in which gold is “tested”. In refining gold, the smelter (?) will often refine the gold by melting it many times, in order to rid it of impurities…in other words, he “tests” it. He isn’t trying to find anything out about the gold; he’s simply refining it and proving its purity.

Today, we are going to see Abraham’s final test by God. God will not be testing Abraham to see how he will react but as part of His refining of Abraham. We should also remember that Isaac, too, had a test (trust and obedience).

Not only is chapter 22 the account of Abraham’s final test but it is also a presentation of the gospel!

Even having read the material many times, having had Sunday School lessons, Bible stories and sermons about this account, many folks don’t notice this.

Many also don’t notice Isaac’s age when this occurred. Bible stories and Sunday School lessons often have pictures of Isaac portrayed as a young boy but we can tell by comparing Abraham’s ages listed in other chapters, that Isaac is at least 30, perhaps as old as 33.

As the chapter opens, we see God ordering Abraham to take Isaac to the land of Moriah and to offer him there as a burnt offering.

It is very, VERY important that we pause here to point out that God would never order you or I to kill anyone as a sacrifice. God had no intention of having Abraham actually carry out the act of killing and sacrificing Isaac. God knew what the outcome would be.

Abraham simply obeyed God.

The Bible does not tell us what was going through Abraham’s mind but it must have crushed him to have to lose his beloved son Isaac, the child of promise. After having been through all the things he had to suffer, to be blessed with such an important son – only to have to see his life given up!

Note in verse 4, that it took 3 days for Abraham, Isaac and their servants to reach Moriah. That means that Abraham had to think about all this for 3 days! That was plenty of time for Abraham to try to come up with a way to save Isaac’s life or to simply choose not to obey God.

We must note that God had matured Abraham’s faith, obedience and belief to the point that Abraham was willing to obey Him.

Perhaps it is better if I simply summarize Abraham’s actions briefly, then spend the remainder of our time together to point out how all this presented the gospel. We need not go into the genealogies given in the final verses of this chapter.

We see from the rest of the chapter that Abraham, knife in hand, was about to kill Isaac; God told him not to do it and provided a ram for the sacrifice.

In verse 12, we see that Abraham had been willing to not even hold back his beloved son. He loved God so much that he would have obeyed by killing his own son and offering him up as a sacrifice, in order to please God!

This shows us how much spiritual maturity that God had given to Abraham over the years. There was no righteousness in Abraham that was of his own doing. Only God could grant him that kind of righteousness. It is the same with Christians. Only God can give us righteousness.

At this point, I’d like to talk about how God presented the gospel here. He did this by using types and ways of pointing forward to Christ.

Abraham is a type of God the Father here, in not holding back even his beloved son and being willing to offer him up as a sacrifice.

God the Father did not hold back His only son Jesus but allowed Him to be killed and offered up as a sacrifice for the sins of the world.

Isaac is a type of Christ here, in that:

a) He was the only and beloved son (as Ishmael was not the child of promise and was not born of Sarah).
b) He was innocent and it would have not been just, had he been killed.
c) He nonetheless obeyed his Father, and was willing to be sacrificed.

· Jesus is the only and beloved son of God the Father.
· Jesus was totally innocent and it was not just that he was crucified.
· He nonetheless obeyed His Father and was actually killed and sacrificed, that anyone who would come to Him could be saved.

Some things that also pointed forward:

Isaac had to carry the wood to the place where he would have been killed and sacrificed.

· Jesus had to carry his cross to the place where He was actually killed and sacrificed.

The ram that God provided was a substitutionary sacrifice (substituted for Isaac).

· Jesus was a substitutionary sacrifice for all sinners who would come to Him.

Abraham got his son back on the third day. This was a type of the resurrection.

· Jesus was resurrected on the third day.

Isaac was approximately the same age as Jesus, when He was crucified.

The place where Isaac was to be sacrificed was near the place where Jesus was crucified. Many Bible scholars believe it to have been in the same place.

So what have we learned?

We learned that God builds and matures Christians into what He wants them to be.

· Abraham and Sarah were not given their blessing (Isaac) until the sin in their lives had been dealt with.
· God put Abraham through 4 tests as He matured Abraham spiritually.

We learned that only God can cause spiritual growth.

Abraham could never have brought himself into spiritual maturity. He would never have been able to make himself willing to sacrifice his own son!

This is proof that we cannot help ourselves spiritually. Only God can help us.

We learned that God was preparing mankind for the eventual coming of the Messiah (Jesus). He presented the gospel to Abraham and the world in the example of Abraham being called upon to offer his only son for sacrifice.

Naiomi Graduates 8th Grade!

Our eldest Chimichanga (Granddaughter) Naiomi graduated eighth grade last night. She was very beautiful and mature beyond her years as she came out in her cap and gown. Grandpa was very proud of her and got all teary-eyed.

We had a great Church service today, continuing our study in Genesis at chapters 20-21. Next week, we will be looking at Genesis 22, Abraham's final test. This chapter also presents the gospel...this surpises many who have never noticed (including me, at one point). More comments on that next week!

It was a busy time for Naiomi but she somehow found time to pose. Note her leis. There are many different types of leis and Annie created one with flowers and candy, and one with money (bills woven into creative flower-like shapes).

Naiomi and her Dad Jun and Mom Jackie, after the ceremony.

Saipan is the front door to Asia and there are people from many countries here, including Japan, Korea, Taiwan, the Philippines and China. Naiomi's class honored this rich heritage by presenting the flags of several of these countries. Here, she is carrying the flag of Japan. A student behind her can be seen carrying the Korean flag.

Naiomi and my beloved wife Annie (Nomi's Grandma) got a quick photo before the ceremony started.