Hello Friends & Family,

Thanks so much for your prayers both for Chris and the Jr. High retreat to Nakijin. Chris has been very consistent in his time with God the past 10 days and I think much of it has been your prayers for his growth. Dan Combes, a Malachi missionary from Germany, came out and shared from God’s word about friendships. First, he shared about our ultimate friendship with Jesus Christ and then about friendships with peers. If you do not get our hard copy prayer letter (and have no idea what I mean about praying for Chris) and would like to please email me with your name and address in the body of the letter and we will be glad to add you. We will have a webpage up with more specifics about the retreat in a couple of days.

We have fully recovered from 72 hours last weekend with Jr. Higher’s. It was the first retreat in the eleven that we have been on in 2 ½ years that we had enough volunteer staff sleeping with the kids that I got to stay with Jen and our kids. Granted, by the time that I got to our cabin every night they were well into REM sleep. A couple of nights I did go to bed before the festivities had ended, leaving our very capable volunteers to run the show so that I could try and rest my knee from a soccer injury. After the retreat I decided I should get my 10 day old injury checked out because it wasn’t getting any better. The doctor gave me some medications and exercises and told me to stay off it for 3 to 4 days after the X-rays showed it was only soft tissue damage. So this past week was pretty relaxing.

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Here is a photo of the family that we had taken a month or so ago

We are really enjoying being parents as Adrianne is able to communicate more and more each day. Last week Adrianne and I were on our way to drop of the Share Jesus without Fear video cassette course to one of the local pastors here on Okinawa. Rick Barnett is the pastor of Calvary Chapel Okinawa and has been a great encouragement to me. I asked him to mentor me but at only 2 years older than me he thought it would be better if we met as peers. He seems much more mature than I am. Maybe it’s because he is pasturing a church and I am spend my days with Jr. Highers. Anyway, when we showed up at his church on Sunday night the praise team was there practicing for worship on Sunday. We walked in and dropped off the stuff as they were finishing a song. I asked if they could give Rick the bag I had brought him. On the way out one of the ladies that knew us waved to Adrianne and said hello. Adrianne said hello back and asked me a question about them. I told them that they were singing because they loved Jesus and they had Jesus in their heart. In the car on the way home Adrianne piped up, “I have Jesus in my heart, too.” “That’s great!” I told her. “Jack have Jesus in heart?” She asked. “Hopefully when he gets older.” I tried explaining the gospel to her in terms a 2 year old could understand and she looked back at me with a blank stare. There are many things in life that Adrianne is waiting for Jack to get older for; to play with her, get baths in the big tub, eat real food, etc. I look forward to the day when we all are in the presence of Christ together. Would you pray that God would draw Jack and Adrianne to himself and that they would live their lives for Christ and not themselves?

Running to win,

Buddy & Jen, Adrianne and Jack.

PSC 80 Box 15702

APO AP 96367

buddyandjen@rathmell.com

81.98.932.0096