blessings in disguise

hey guys. lots of stuff has been going on.. well, maybe not lots and lots of stuff, but a good decent amount of stuff.

the last two weekends i've been gone on retreats. the first was the ladies retreat for all the female m's in japan and then last week i went on a retreat with the christian JET fellowship group. JET stands for the Japan Exchange and Teaching program. one of our m's here in tokyo works a lot with the christian fellowship group and so she wanted some of us jmen to go on the retreat and encourage some of the teachers with the work that we do. most of the teachers are still young like we are so they can reach out to the students they teach and to others their own ages.

the retreat itself was really great. it was sorta like a discipleship now if you know what that is. great worship and fellowship, awesome speakers, and lots of prayer time. we even had one day that had the afternoon open so i went snowboarding for the first time.

even though i went to be an encouragement to others, i truly was mainly blessed myself. i met some awesome people that really have a heart for what they do. they're not missionaries with the official term, but they use their teaching job to tell the students about God. now that is truly inspiring to me.

here's a few pictures from the retreat and other things as well. enjoy!


mount fuji seen from the chapel of the place we stayed at on the ladies retreat.


liz came back with us after the ladies retreat to spend a few days in tokyo. on one of the days she was here its snowed like crazy so we had a big snowball fight (which in japanese is ゆきがっせんをする or yuki gassen o suru). here you can see liz chasing rickie, one of the mks.


all of the journeymen in japan. we are a very good looking bunch. the cream of the crop.


kohei (the japanese guy next to daniel), trent (not pictured), and lindsey (not pictured) all had their birthdays at the first of febraury, so nikki and i threw them a birthday party at TGI Fridays.


my first snowboarding experience. i wish i had had some butt padding pants like eileen did. ouch. -_-;
but it was fun anyway!


i was a small group leader at the JET retreat. it was a great experience for me to lead and challenge others. here's me with one of the small groups i lead.


this is the christian JET fellowship group that was on the retreat. there were maybe 40 or so of us i think.

well, that's about it. for more pictures check out these link:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=15031&l=88abf&id=503303800
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=14755&l=a66f3&id=503303800