November News

Wow! Is it really November already? Well we haven't posted in such a long time....sorry about that!

Here's a little life update from the Mahaffies:

School has started and two & a half months have already flown by! We experienced a later start to the school year than we anticipated (due to a typhoon), but we've been going strong ever since the beginning of September.

*Here is a picture of us on the first day of school!

We've both been busy & blessed with a variety of things; schoolwork, church, masters classes, Bible studies, spending time with friends, weekends away, after school clubs, decorating and setting up our apartment, exploring the island, trying new restaurants, relaxing at home, reading, watching our favorite shows, baby showers, weekly video chats to friends and family, and enjoying our beautiful ocean-view sunsets each night.*

For me (Brittany), school life has been quite the adjustment -- transitioning from elementary (3rd grade) to middle school (7th and 8th grade). I really have come to enjoy teaching middle school though! I'm also learning a lot of history and facts/information about countries, since the main classes I teach are U.S. History and World Geography. I am currently teaching about European countries in my geography class and we just happened to be talking about the Netherlands. So, my students got a special guest speaker...Mr. Mahaffie!! Tommy came into my class and taught the students about the Netherlands (and a few Dutch words).

I've been attending a weekly Bible study with a few of my friends here. I also got to participate in one of my best friend's Zoom Baby Shower! Abby (my friend) lives in the Dominican Republic, but we still threw her a baby shower, virtually (oh the crazy, but awesome world we live in!) We have several people in our lives who are pregnant and we are excited to celebrate with them, whether here in Okinawa, or from afar.

For Tommy, he has been busy with teaching PE, schoolwork from his two masters' classes, and running club after school. Due to the COVID situation we could not have our regular fall sport seasons, of volleyball and cross country. So our school allowed for a few small sports clubs to take place after school. Tommy has been helping out with running club for middle and high school students, a few times a week after school.

He has been enjoying working on some wood projects in our school's wood shop, too. He recently completed a project for our home; he built a wooden stove-top cover to place over our oven/stove-top, to add some extra counter space in our kitchen.

Tommy and I have both been trying to help out more at our church, Calvary Chapel Ginowan (Ginowan is simply what city the church is in). Tommy has been making and serving coffee in the morning and I have have started working on the sound ministry once a month.

In October, we took a weekend trip up north and we finally made it up to the aquarium (Tommy's first time), and he LOVED it! Here are a few pictures to show how cool he looks next to the amazing and massive whale sharks and manta rays.

*We were recently blessed with a free Christmas tree! One of our friends and coworkers was getting rid of her artificial tree and gave it to us! So we just had to set it up early :) Let's just say, we're excited for Christmas.

But first....THANKSGIVING! We are both very excited for Thanksgiving. We are two very worn out teachers who are in desperate need of a few days off. Plus, we have decided to organize a group of our fellow teachers/neighbors/friends to join in a traditional American-style Thanksgiving feast! One of our friends graciously got us a turkey (from on base, shh...) and we are very excited to cook a turkey together and share it with our friends!

Thanks for reading & participating with us as we live & work here in Okinawa, Japan. We ask for continued prayers as we seek to be faithfully used by God to reach the students at our school and the people who live in our community.

Send us a message if you want to say "hey," we'd love to hear from you!

*Again, thank you so much for those of you who donate to our ministry, we could not do what we do without you! If you would like to start donate, we'd love it! (Let us know if you have any questions about that).