Hi Youth and Parents!

I hope all has been going well. It feels odd that I won’t be back at youth group this Saturday, planning and helping and seeing you all. Now that it’s all said and done, I’ve been reminiscing, scrolling through some of the blog posts and decided it would be good to send out a final newsletter email to y’all, as a personal note of my appreciation of your kindness and support.

A final recap

I was certainly blessed my last Fountain Saturday. Jacob played several songs, one of which was one we did at VBS, Happy Day. It may have felt odd to sing happy day on my last day, but it fell right in line with the message I gave from Philippians 4. As Paul shared his final hopes for the congregation in Philippi, so I too, shared my final hopes with the youth group, namely that they would 1) rejoice in the Lord 2) let the Lord’s peace guide their hearts and minds 3) put the good things they’ve learned from me into practice 4) trust God and take steps of faith to boldly share the Gospel.

We then sang Happy Day again, and this time, it made sense, that we were rejoicing in what God had done and what He will continue to do in the future.

We then wrapped up with Pizookie, which is icecream on top of freshly baked cookie.

On Sunday, it was a full circle-moment, for me to get to see Jacob, Eric, Colson, and Caleb lead worship in Sunday service. We had always talked about doing a youth service, and so getting to see this was very special. After the service, Kylie and I were called up to be prayed for, and I was again moved by everyone’s support, prayer, and encouragement.

Between this and the goodbye dinner presentation hosted a week earlier, Kylie and I were overwhelmed by all the love and support.

When I first felt that the Lord may be calling me to Washington, there was a good amount of turmoil in my heart. Over the course of these weeks, the work the church has done to send me off as well as all the precious relationships we’ve developed have helped me have a much greater degree of peace. These are God’s poignant reminders to me, and I will always be especially grateful.

What’s Next

Life without me will go on, and based on what I’ve seen from how the youth and WCCC are handling everything, it’ll be great. I don’t anticipate us trying to fill anyone else’s shoes (or flip-flops), but rather to put another pair right alongside the many pairs of faithful servants over the course of the history of this church. Eric and Kana and the pastors and the parents have agreed to step up to take a team effort approach, which will be awesome for the youth ministry.

Pastor Darren has put together a parent volunteer sheet to be a presence at youth group and to prepare snacks for the kids, which you can sign up and take a look at here. You can also look at our previous blog recap on the parent meeting for a more comprehensive look at what youth might look like going forward.

Kylie will be here on 9/10 and 9/24, so feel free to rely on her those weekends as well.

The YAC (young-adult, college) group also has kicked off, and is pretty sweet. You will need to double check with Eric R and Lucas Y, but I believe older high schoolers are also welcome to attend. Just be willing to put up with the craziness of college-aged kids.

As for me, Kylie and I drove up to WA this past Tuesday, and made it up, mostly without any issue.

Along the way, we got to see a former WCCC youth director, Chris Matsuoka and his wife Olivia who just recently moved to Eugene, OR, and I thought it was a uniquely special reminder that I am so fortunate to have been able be a youth director with former youth directors like Chris and Shugo helping build up the structure for such a strong group. I hope that the work I’ve done can help do the same for the next youth director. I’ve also taken great comfort in knowing that Christ, of course, is the ultimate foundation on which everything rests, so even if everything I’ve done is undone or comes to naught (hopefully not), our hope is ultimately in Him.

Something that’s been cool for me to do is to scroll through the blog old posts. When I started this journey, I didn’t know how long it would be for. I just knew I wanted the glory to go to God, and so it began. We played games, did lessons, went through pandemic, went on missions trips, had a lot of “ordinary” days and a lot of “online” days. The blog couldn’t possibly capture every moment and every conversation, but it perhaps as you scroll through you’ll see some of the growth and joy that I’ve had the privilege of being a part of each week. More importantly, I hope that if you scroll through all the old posts and/or recall my tenure as youth director, that it brings a smile to your face because of all that He has done. Praise God!

We would love to keep in touch. You can reach me at (562) 449 9157 or ksokamoto529@gmail.com. Our new address (we’re staying with my parents at least as of writing) is 3617 241st Ave SE, Sammamish WA 98029. Please don’t hesitate to say hello.

Thanks again for everything 🙂

Love in Christ,

Stephen Okamoto

Hi Youth and Parents,

As you may have heard, we’ve been discussing the updates for my transition and what youth group will look like for the more immediate future. In case you weren’t able to make the meeting, here’s a helpful recap for what was discussed, as well as the upcoming September schedule.

Taking the youth’s preferences into account, we asked them what they’d like to do for the next couple months. We won’t be able to do all of them obviously, but it’s helpful for the leaders to have an idea of what they had in mind. Here’s the list they came up with:

We next talked about the importance of having parent help and oversight while this transition takes place. While we hope to rely on Eric and Kana and the pastors, we recognize that this is beyond what their normal responsibilities are, and that they could use a hand. 

We’ve traditionally had a parent snack sign up list (thank you John for organizing), and we’ve made some additions to that sign up list: another column for parents to sign up to be present at youth group meetings. You wouldn’t need to commit regularly or even for the full two hours necessarily, but especially in the beginning of this transition, we’d like to give the youth group as much stability as possible. Your role there would primarily be to be the guard rails for the kids. There’s already a good structure in place: talking, game, snacks, announcements, worship, message/devotional, small group. We just need parents to help the kids stay within that structure, encouraging them to play (or you yourself can play) the games, helping lead a small group after the message (talking through the questions given to you by the message-person) and providing your own wisdom and context. Most kids are a bit shy when it comes to adults but they’re happy to get to know you and to have someone to listen to them. You don’t need to do anything other than just be there to help things move along, listen, ask questions, and have fun. 

You can sign up here to bring snacks and/or to be present at a youth group to support Eric, Kana, and the pastors: Snack and Parent Support Sign Up

We also shared about the job description for the new youth director. If anyone has any feedback or might know someone who would be interested, you can pass it along to them. If you have any questions or comments or suggestions regarding the job description, you can email the pastors at dkishimoto@westcovinacc.org or kwenell@westcovinacc.org.

This wasn’t mentioned in the meeting, but we later met a bit to discuss this upcoming month. Here’s the September Schedule thus far:

• Sat, 6/3 – 6-8pm – Stephen’s Last Saturday
• Sat, 6/10 – 6-8pm – Normal Youth
• Sat, 6/17 – 1:30pm-whenever – Pool Party at the Pacheco’s
• Sat, 9/24 – 6-8pm – Normal Youth

We concluded the meeting, trusting that God has and will continue to do great things in and through the youth and youth group. Please continue to keep them and the leadership in prayer! We are so appreciative and grateful for your support.

Blessings, 

Stephen Okamoto + Youth Leaders + Pastors

Hey Parents and Youth!

This past summer season has been a joy serving with you all and hanging out. This summer has been very full, and as such it’s been pretty sweet to get to lean into the Lord and all He’s had for us. I’ve enjoyed every minute of it.

We were disappointed that our NAOMI House trip ended up falling through due to COVID, but we really got to make the most of it.

Even before the trip was cancelled, we asked NAOMI House what their greatest need was and they answered school supplies. The team had in their mind for a small group of us buy backpacks and school supplies for the kids already, so when we couldn’t go in person anymore, we were able to pivot to each team member making a backpack for each kid. On Sunday and Monday we gathered as a team, filled the backpacks, and prayed for them. We also made curry for lunch and Navajo Tacos for dinner on Monday which was fun for team bonding.

On Wednesday, we got to have a team bonding event at Spo-cha, a pay-by-the-hour sports arcade, which was a lot of fun.

Chiaki took a lot of other great pictures and videos which can be viewed here: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1-7wvnDrSTKUso7zIgss7ITTf7bEde2h3

We also got to buy dinner for NAOMI House. They requested wings and pizza, so we got them Pizza Hut. We also got to enjoy some Pizza Hut and exchange some pictures, so it was almost like we were eating together.

On Thursday, we gathered and made dinner and dessert together which was super sweet.

On Friday, we had a brief Zoom call with NAOMI House and we got to see them open the backpacks on camera. It was a wonderful time, especially for some of our team who had never had a chance to meet them before.

On Sunday the Hamais from our sister church in Walnut Creek church visited us. It was lovely to see them, especially since we were hoping to see them at NAOMI House.

Additional Projects

We also got to several projects 🙂 We recognized that while filling the backpacks was a very special thing that each team member should do, the team also had other gifts, talents, and ideas for by which to bless to NAOMI House.

The worship team decided they wanted to put together a small album of worship songs that they were going to play at NAOMI House. They recorded the songs, took album photos, the whole gambit. You can check out their sweet album on YouTube for streaming, and bandcamp for downloads (bandcamp will ask what you want to donate but you can just put $0).

• For downloads: https://wcwg.bandcamp.com/album/-

Another group also conducted some interviews and documented the whole experience this week. Avery was gracious in editing this video together.

Lastly, Essie Zoriki had it on her heart to do a little extra something with all the funds she raised for NAOMI House, and so together with the team, she spearheaded coordinating buying each kid new shoes, shoes that they got to pick out themselves! The total came out be just under $20 dollars of the budget! Praise God!

UPDATE: We shared in service this Sunday about how we viewed the week. Here’s the video, starting at 38:22. We had 15 team members share + the highlight video, which was great.

Since I didn’t get to share, I just wanted to say that I personally was very blessed to be a part of all this. To see the team come together and be a blessing in spite of not being able to go on the trip, and to have a great time and to make a great impact was very gratifying and is a testament to the team’s hard work and servant-heartedness. Most of all, it is a testament to God’s faithfulness in allowing us to have an opportunity. While I hope that another team can go next year, I know that NAOMI House was blessed and that we were too.

Philippians 1:6 – “being confident of this, that He who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.”

Love in Christ,

Stephen

Hi Everyone!

It’s been a very fun, very full summer in terms of church activities. I’ve appreciated getting to hang out with everyone 🙂 Here’s some updates to what we’ve been up to.

NAOMI House Car Wash and Bake Sale Fundraiser

We had a great fundraiser for our youth missions trip! The team worked really hard and did an amazing job. Thanks to all who helped out, and thanks to all who contributed. Because of everyone’s generosity, it was a very successful fundraiser, and we even had a fun time doing it. It’s also been wonderful to have the Pacheco’s join our church ever since they stopped by at our bake sale. Brooke has been a wonderful addition to the youth group.

Vacation Bible School

This year’s VBS theme was Jerusalem Marketplace, in which kids got to travel back in time to ancient Jerusalem and hear about the shopkeeper’s perspectives on Jesus. There was lots of crafts, singing, and dancing. We ended the week with a BBQ leading into 4^th of July weekend, which was a nice time of rest and celebration for all the volunteers who worked so hard.

Beach Day

The beach day was a nice time to unwind for a bit and invite all of the families from VBS to hang out with us. There were quite a few of us who got buried in the sand.

Senior Dinner

The seniors (or rather, Freshman) are heading off to college soon, so it was nice to get together to celebrate with some of them. There are a lot of them so we weren’t able to get everyone there all together, so we’ll have to have another hangout soon. Eric and Lucas will be aiming to head up more of our hangouts, seeing if they can start a college-aged growth group so that people have a place in church, whether it’s building a community or only when they come back to visit.  

NAOMI House Updates

As you may have heard, NAOMI house has had a few COVID cases, so we are praying that they remain contained and that we are able to go on the trip. Please keep us in your prayers as we prepare. If we are able to go, stay tuned for daily-ish missions trips updates on this blog from the 23-29^th 🙂

Miscellaneous Fun

Upcoming

• 7/16 – No Youth this Saturday
• 7/23 – NAOMI House, No youth
• 7/30 – Youth Gathering, just to share and eat together
• 8/6 – Youth All-Nighter (somewhat tentative)

Prayers Appreciated!

Please continue to keep our youth group in prayer as we finish up the summer activities in the next month or so. Please also pray for this upcoming missions trip, school year, and that God would continue to watch over the future of our youth and youth group and leaders. Pray for his provision, guidance, and flourishing!

Thank you! 🙂 God bless

-Stephen

Hi everyone 🙂

We have very quickly moved into the summer already, with a remarkable 20 GRADUATES from youth group on our roster.

We were able to recognize some of our seniors during service, which you can view here (33:50):

Here are the full 20 students we’d like to recognize.

High School grads:

• Kai Ng
• Caleb Kubo
• Chieko Okawa
• Makoto Ishita
• Sophia Reyes
• Lucas Cortez
• Adrian Guero
• Jonathan Carvalho
• Antonio Villalobos
• Gio Munoz
• Tony Lassic
• Autumn Miller
• Gweneth Wu

Middle School Grads

• Ai Yasumura
• Aidan Fluksi
• Maika Kawasaki
• Tsukae Ishita
• Joshua Wu

5th Grade

• Dawson Wenell
• Noah Rivera

College

• Kana Aguero

Personally it was a joy to get to visit a few people’s graduations, though I didn’t get too many pictures on my own phone.

Youth Group Fun

We’ve been playing a lot of fun games lately. As summer goes on we have lots of things to celebrate, and more free time to have a good time. Here are a few snippets from some of our games.

Other Youth Stuff

We finished our Ed Center quite awhile ago, but we haven’t had a chance to share some of the final pictures yet 🙂

The girls have also been meeting regularly together, which has been cool to see.

Curriculum

Our summer curriculum has been pretty loose, based on what the church has been going through as well as spiritual and personal reflection regarding our own giftings, identity, etc. and how we can live out our faith in this regard. Once we set a more set schedule, I will do my best to give a clearer teaching schedule and discussion questions 🙂

Upcoming

Here’s the tentative upcoming schedule

• Sat, 6/18 – NAOMI House Fundraiser (9am- 1pm) + NH hangout (2pm) + VBS meeting (4pm) + Normal Youth & Father’s Day prep (6pm)
• Sat, 6/25 – VBS meeting (4pm) + Normal Youth
• Mon-Fri, 6/27-7/1 – VBS week
• Sat, 7/2 – Break! No Youth
• Sat, 7/9 – Normal Youth

Prayer Requests

• For Pastor Kory + Fam on his sabbatical, and Pastor Darren + Fam on Vacation

• For VBS, NAOMI House, and all the other youth events

• For spiritual growth for the leaders and kids

• For Nao and I, as we have our hands full, and for God’s leading and discernment for us

• That we use our time well over the course of the summer

Thanks a ton!

Love in Christ,

Stephen

Helloooooooo 🙂

The school year has really been flying by. It’s crazy that summer is right around the corner. I hope that we can persevere and continue to work hard, not only in our work and schoolwork, but in our faith and calling, to love God and our neighbor and to make disciples.

Fun times at Youth Group

I am especially grateful for the youth in this season. Through little to none of my own efforts, I have seen a great development of Christ-like character in them and I am especially proud of their hearts for the Lord, each other, and growing in what it means to walk in the faith. Given that it’s at the end of the year, there’s been a lot of school projects, testing, and general stress, so some fun is definitely required. Picture below is the middle school and high school girls group (thank you Kana and Kylie for leading!), our Easter Egg Event, and one of the many games we’ve played this month.

Here are some of my best hiding spots 😛

Education Center and Rotary

The Education Center continues to be a fun way for the youth to get involved. We have 8 youth participating either as tutors or receiving tutoring help. Everyone has been doing an excellent job working together with the kids. In addition to 3-D printers, we have t-shirt design coming up, and recently had a photography seminar, taught by a award-winning magazine editor.

West Covina Caused Based Rotary Club, a club formed to support the Education Center financially and logistically, hosted a “learn to make your own boba tea” seminar, in which Kylie and Kana helped prepare the materials, and Eric and Lucas taught it. It was big hit and delicious.

Upcoming

Sat, 5/7, 6pm – Mother’s Day Dessert Cooking – Meet in the social hall, bring dessert ingredients

Sat 5/14, 6pm – Normal Youth Group

Sun 5/15, 12:30 – Middle School Girls Group

Sat 5/21, 6pm – Normal Youth Group

Sun 5/22, 12:30 – NAOMI House team meeting

Sat 5/28, 6pm – Normal Youth Group; Guest speaker (probably) due to Stephen preaching 5/29

Sun 5/29 – HS and College Grad Recognition, VBS volunteers meeting after service

Resources

• How are we as Christians supposed to engage faithfully with technology? In what ways has it potentially become an idol? Some helpful insights from one of my friends.

• I’m not sure if I personally have ADHD, but I found this video helpful for understanding what some of the kids in youth group might be going through, and definitely could relate in some cases regarding what to do when it’s hard to be motivated:

Prayer Requests

• Please keep the staff in prayer as Pastor Kory goes on Sabbatical, as we will have our hands full while he is gone. Please also keep Pastor Kory and family in prayer, that they have a great vacation and are refreshed and rest in the Lord.

• Please pray for our IB and AP testers, who will be wrapping up their testing in the coming days, and then wrapping up school shortly after. Pray for perseverance, and trust in God

• Pray for NAOMI House preparation, that the Lord brings the team together and that God prepares us well

• The Lord is opening some interesting doors for our church and myself personally. Pray for wisdom, leadership, love for the Lord, sensitivity to the Spirit, and God’s sovereignty.

Thanks so much for your prayers, support , and encouragement. If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to reach out at sokamoto@westcovinacc.org! We appreciate you!

Hey Youth and parents! it’s been a busy March! I’ve been especially proud of the youth this month, as I feel like they have repeatedly stepped up to take their faith seriously, grow in community, and have fun 🙂 Here’s some of the ways we’ve done that.

Steps of Faith

We recently had Aidan get baptized! He’s been a growing leader in the youth group. Very proud of his maturity and thoughtfulness. Blessed to be a part of the baptism 🙂

We also had the youth do their own “youth-led” youth group. Youth-led doesn’t even need to be in air quotes because they literally did everything. We spent 2 weeks planning for it, and everyone said they enjoyed it. It seemed like everyone was more invested, which made it all the more worthwhile.

Having Fun

As a reward for the youth’s hard work, we had a fun event at SpeedZone with mini golf. It was fun to see everyone having a great time, and to see a few new faces.

Community Growth

The girls have really been investing in community togetherness, which has been a joy to see. They’ve had some fun events, and they wouldn’t even let me join, the audacity. 😤 The guys need to do more fun events. I did however get to hang out with a few of the older guys during their spring breaks, which was cool.

Gearing up for NAOMI House

We’re gearing up for NAOMI House. We have an informational meeting this Sunday 4/10 after service and the applications should be turned in the following week on 4/17. The trip is a whole lot of fun, as we get to spend time with the kids putting on programs, hanging out, and playing together. For last year’s trip highlights, scroll down to last summer’s posts about the trip. Also, here’s a link to the application as well as a link to the NAOMI House website.

• Application: https://docs.google.com/document/d/12j1zzP8hxS39de6f9cwUEa8d8rSBd_Ku5bGn8XgVWfw/edit?usp=sharing

• NAOMI House website: https://thenaomihouse.org

Prayer Requests

• For NAOMI House preparation and team formation, that everything comes together, and everyone who the Lord wants on the team would join
• For Easter to go well for our church family, that it would be a joyous celebration
• For the staff and Pastor Kory, as we prepare for his sabbatical over the summer, that we, by the grace of God, are able to step in for him and get everything taken care of so that PK can have a worry-free sabbatical and vacation. Pray also for the family as they are away from our church.
• For the youth leader’s own personal and spiritual growth, that we are taking care of ourselves, and that God might add more great leaders to our number.
• For the youth kids, as they finish up school, that they can persevere, finish strong and be faithful.
• For wisdom for youth parents, to continue to raise their children in the family of God.

Thanks so much everyone!

Much love,

Stephen

Hi youth and parents! Happy March 😊

We don’t have as much to cover this month since we posted only a few weeks ago, but there are some fun things ahead.

Small Groups

We’re officially launching small groups this month, sometime in the coming weeks. The girls already had their small group kickoff, and the guys will get there’s started in the not-so-distant future. We hope to have a schedule out shortly, but for now, we need to play it by ear and take inventory of everyone’s schedules.

Tutoring

We had several youth help out with the tutoring ministry. It was a lot of fun getting to celebrate before spring break, and it was so heartwarming. One tutor said that his kid really improved over the course of the 5 weeks in his reading ability, while another kid said they wish that tutoring would take the place of school. If you are interested in being tutored or in helping to tutor for this upcoming 5 week session, you can sign up here: https://www.westcovina.church/ministries/education-center/

Calendar

We have some events coming up. They are subject to change, but this is what we have at the moment.

March 5^th – Normal Youth, Eric and Kana taking lead, 6-8pm

March 12^th –  Normal Youth, Youth Group Planning for first self-led Youth, 6-8pm

March 19^th – Normal Youth, First self-led Youth, 6-8pm

March 26^th – Fun Event, Info TBD

April 2^nd – Normal Youth, Easter Play Prep, 6-8pm

April 9^th – Normal Youth, Easter Play Prep, 6-8pm

April 16^th – Normal Youth, Lesson on Holy Saturday and Easter

Sun, April 17^th – Easter

Now that I (finally) am getting a schedule in place, John Okura will help coordinate the food sign ups 😊 So be on the lookout for that in the coming weeks.

Prayer Requests

• Please keep our small groups in prayer as we attempt to start up! I know it’ll be fun and there will also be some growing pains. Pray that we can stick with it 😊
• Please pray for our seniors who are hearing back from colleges around now. Keep them in your prayers as it’s a pivotal and emotional time.
• Please continue to pray that the Lord provides leaders for youth group, and that we can develop leaders
• For the beginnings of NAOMI House applications and preparations, and that that goes smoothly
• For the state of our world, with Ukraine and Russia. War in the age of social media is an odd phenomenon and might be affecting us more immediately than we might think. Prayers for both world peace and God’s presence that brings Peace.

Thanks so much! Please don’t hesitate to reach out if you have any questions!

God bless,

Stephen Okamoto

Hi Everyone!

I hope that 2022 has started off for you well. It feels like everything is constantly changing. But one thing remains the same: God is on the throne. Hope whether life’s good or bad, you can take solace in God’s supremacy, and comfort in community, despite the difficulties of doing community well in the midst of a pandemic.

Speaking of which, here are some of the ways in which we’ve tried to do community over the course of the past couple months.

Retreats

We had several retreats that happened over the past few weeks.

Our Nichigo youth had the Equipper’s Conference in between Christmas and New Years with other Nichigo church youth groups, and they were at big bear. Unfortunately, it snowed so hard that they had to leave early to avoid getting snowed in. They ended up at our church in the pouring rain and finished up the conference there. I happened to be at church when all these youth kids started pouring in, much to my surprise, but my being there was God’s providence, since it allowed me to help for a bit, and Kylie was able to get sleeping bags for the youth who needed some.

Here are some of the testimonies of the youth. Although they were in Japanese and I couldn’t understand what was said, I could understand the heart and could tell were particularly meaningful. Chiaki was nice enough to get me the translated versions.

We also had our Annual Youth Retreat: Winter Vision, over MLK weekend. Kids were a bit disappointed we were online again this year, but it was a good decision given the scope of the camp and COVID concerns. I believe the theme “Stick with it” was particularly timely, and all the youth seemed to enjoy it 🙂

We had about 15 youth, and 6 staff, which was pretty good participation for us 🙂 Praise God that he is using bolstering the faith of our youth and providing avenues for encouragement and fellowship with our own church and other churches in our conferences.

Speaking of other churches in our conference, Pastor Kory, Pastor Darren, Pastor Yasu, and myself had a chance to go to the pastors retreat in Northern California. It was a wonderful time of learning, wisdom, and rest as I had many opportunities to connect with the Lord and other, more experienced ministers and I feel I gained quite a bit by attending.

Wedding

On a personal note, two of our youth leaders, Eric and Kana, got married on the January 29th! It was a beautiful day and a fun wedding 🙂 Please continue to pray for their marriage and support them!

Community Outreach

We restarted our tutoring ministry this year, and we have some exciting stuff, ranging from 3D printers, to wayy more tutors and students. If you are interested in tutoring or receiving homework help on Mondays and Wednesdays from 3:30-5, it’s not too late! Let us know.

Parent Meeting

We had a parent meeting in which I discussed last year’s highlights, upcoming vision for the youth, Q&A, etc.

Here’s the longform video if you’re interested, though you can also get the gist by skimming through the Google Slides as well. Bookmarks are in the video description for ease of navigation. If you have any thoughts or suggestions on the year, I would love to hear your feedback! Please don’t hesitate to send me an email.

NAOMI House Update

The dates are official, in part because they became the only option, as all other dates are already booked. We’ll be at NAOMI House from 7/23-7/29, so mark your calendars. Although NH is considered a youth missions trip, it is inherently a family ministry, so if you think you (and your family) are interested, please let me know! We’ll be posting more information in the coming months.

Upcoming

We have an exciting year ahead of us. Hopefully you’ve gotten wind of that excitement from the various events we’ve already had, from the vision we’re hoping to cast, and the faithfulness that God has, is, and will continue to show us.

Here’s our current schedule as it stands now, though it is subject to change.

• Sat, 2/12 – Normal Youth Group (6-8pm, Philippians)
• Sat, 2/19 – Normal Youth Group (6-8pm, Philippians)
• Sun, 2/20 – Girls Group Kickoff (after church)
• Sat, 2/26 – TBD
• Sat, 3/5 – TBD
• Sat, 3/12 – Normal Youth Group (6-8pm)

*Kylie and I won’t be there for the TBD Saturdays, though I imagine the youth leaders will be. We’ll try to organize to see what’s best to go in these slots shortly.

** Kylie and Kana were hoping to organize more girls group activities after church and so they’ll be kicking it off on the 20th to build fellowship and get input from the girls about what they’d want it to be about.

Prayer Requests

Please continue to keep the ministry and our youth and leaders in prayer! Specifically, you can pray for…

• The upcoming youth scheduling and planning
• God to help us to continue to develop leaders, commitment, community, and a vibrant faith
• Eric and Kana’s marriage! that God continues to bless it and help the grow together as a couple
• Our 7 seniors who will be finding out their college application results in the next two months or so.
• The Lord provision of more youth leaders, and myself more creative ways in which to utilize volunteers, along with the organization and communication necessary to do so well.
• Continued health and safety during the pandemic
• Sticking with it, and that we wouldn’t forsake community or grow weary of doing good

Thank you so much for your prayers, love, and support.

God bless,

Stephen Okamoto

Hello hello! I usually say I can’t believe it’s already this month, but December has stretched on a bit for me, haha. The holidays can bring a lot of things to do or worry about. On top of that, I managed to lock myself out of my house for 4 hours and on a separate occasion, my car for an hour. As annoying as those inconveniences have been, they’ve also been an exercise to be still and know that God is Lord. The car lockout ended up leading to a nice date at a boba shop with Kylie, so I hope you find some encouragement and feel the Lord’s presence, even in the midst of the stressful moments of the season.

December Highlights

Here are some things that we did the past few weeks.

Helping with the Toy Drive

Guys and Girls Hangouts

Christmas Party

Performances I got to see

Don’t forget to Register for Winter Vision!

this is our winter youth retreat. It will be worth it! and it’s free of cost! Just be brave and go for it! it’ll be Jan 14-16 and mostly online. Register here:

https://forms.gle/7chKUy4g6YeXpgrh7

You can follow the Winter Vision Instagram for updates: https://www.instagram.com/winter__vision/

Upcoming Schedule

12/25 – Merry Christmas, No Youth

1/1 – Happy new Year, No Youth

1/8 – Normal Youth + Parent Meeting. (somewhat tentative) mostly in hopes of casting vision for the new year.

1/15-17 – Winter Vision – Registration is not yet out but we will keep you updated. It’s looking like it’ll still be online but have some parts of it in-person regionally (divided between NorCal and SoCal).

1/22 – Winter Vision Debrief and Sharing Youth Group

1/29 – Normal Youth Group OR helping Eric and Kana with whatever they need pre-wedding.

1/30 – Eric and Kana’s Wedding!

If you have any questions or suggestions regarding the schedule, please don’t hesitate to reach out. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

-Stephen