Another Week.

It's been a whole week again. Crazy how fast the time goes out here. We are loving it more and more each day. :)

This past week has been filled with time spend in our classrooms. Jake's been looking through all his science and math that he has to teach and I've been looking through all my subjects. Getting good grips on what exactly we'll be teaching will help us alot next week once we officially start with all our orientation. We'll finally meet all the other teachers then as well. Brittany and Mark, the other married couple comes early Saturday morning and we can't wait for them to get here!

This past week it's been Jake, me and Joel, the PE teacher, hanging out.

We spent some time touring the island see some more sights on the North side with Wesley this weekend again. It was incredible. All the pictures are up on Picasso our web album but here's a few for ya:

Jeffrey's Beach
and again. The waves are so strong here, you really can't swim.
Jake and an old WWII gun, by the Last Command Post from WWII as well.
View of the ocean...so beautiful!
CowTown Beach - again not a swimming one, just one for the waves

Overall we've been having a very good time adjusting and learning to live here. The weather is slowly starting to become normal...that is living in an apartment that's an average of 85 degrees. We're enjoying meeting more people from the church as well as locals around the island. We decided we are going to enjoy the next few days without being in our classrooms too much, because we start on Monday.

I hope that for all who read this that things are going well for you and what you are doing. We pray for people back home and want you all to know how much we do miss you. We love you all and until next time...

Weekend #1

This past weekend was great! On Saturday we had Wesley Horlings, a guy living here on the island, from my hometown, Holland Marsh, take us around the island. He picked us up in his 4 wheel drive Jeep and off we went. The first stop was at an old lighthouse. From there we could see the west side of the island. Then we drove up to Mt. Tapochao, the highest point on the island, which was a great overlook to see the whole island.

View from the lighthouse - you can see all the light blue water which includes the coral reef. Also that little island is called Managaha Island - where you get the nicest beach and nicest swimming and snorkeling area. Can't wait to go!

View of Garapan, the tourist part of the city, from Mt. Tapochao
South side of the island.

After all of the spectacular views from up top, more of which you can see at: http://picasaweb.google.com/jcqlnvndm, we travled down into the jungle to some cliff edges and beautiful beaches. Some of the beaches are too dangerous to swim at because of rocks and currents. Others are just gorgeous.

View of Obyan Beach on the south end from Naftan Point

Cliff edges, places where you dont' want to swim.

Lau Lau Beach, Wesley's favorite beach to go to and you can see why!

Among all these beautiful sights we saw some neat birds and banana and papaya trees as well. It's a pretty impressive area so far! :)
On Sunday we went to the 10 o'clock church service. We were introduced in front of the church and met some people who invited us out for lunch. We went to a great Chinese restaurant in Garapan where we shared all the individual courses that we had each ordered. It was something that we had never done back in the states (or in Canada for that matter). On Sunday afternoon we lazed around in the ocean behind the school. If you walk a block or so south of the school you come to a clear, less sea weedy area. So Jake and I swam and lounged around there for awhile. We got caught in a rainstorm so we waited the cold rain out in the warm water. It was alot of fun!

So far this week we've been starting to look through stuff in our classrooms and get our minds ready for the school year. Prayers for us as we begin to get ready, meet new teachers, students and parents are greatly needed and appreciated. It's exciting but kinda overwhelming at times too!

Until next time...enjoy those pictures: http://picasaweb.google.com/jcqlnvndm!

Love,
Jake and Jackie

Saipan in Pictures

View from our bedroom window!
Our bedroom, double bed and all!
the junior high classrooms on the bottom, and apartments on top
panoramic view of the campus, notice the open-air church behind Jackie
the sign on the road for our school!

The ktichen and living room and bedroom number 2 off to the right...

More pictures to come!!!

SAIPAN!!!

We made it!
It was 1a.m thursday, local time, and we had been traveling for traveling for 29 straight hours, but we finally made it. It was a good thing too because I don't think that Jackie and I could have handled even one more flight.
After going through customs and picking up our baggage, we went outside and were greeted by 3 people from SCS. Mr. Winkfield (the principal), his wife, and daughter, plus a big banner and two beautiful flower headbands.
The car ride to the school wasn't exciting as it was dark and so we didn't get to see much of the island last night. We unloaded all our luggage and brought up stairs on top of the middle school building to our apartment. I'll compare our new apartment to our old apartment for those of you who have visited us in Sioux Center. The layout of the apartment is basically the same, except we have two bedrooms instead of one. We'll try to get pictures of the apt. posted once we're all moved in.
After getting our luggage in, we turned the AC on and crashed. We both slept very well too. I don't really think that we'll feel too much jet-lag because we both felt fairly well rested today.
Most of today was spent running around the village with Mr. Winkfield. We did a little shopping, got drivers liscenses, and set up a bank account. Setting up the bank account took well over an hour. I guess thats just an example of the slower pace that the island runs on.
Thanks so much to all of you who have been praying for us. Our trip here couldn't have gone better. Thanks be to God.
Love,
J and J

TOKYO!!!

Well, we made it through the 11 hour flight! Thank goodness that one is over. We left LAX at 1:10 p.m. on tuesday, and we arrived at 4 p.m. local time, on Wednesday. Its kinda like we lost a whole day of our lives. Hopefully we get it back someday.
Anyway, the flight was really long. Three movies were shown, and an episode of a tv show, so that helped quite a bit. Jackie and I also managed to catch a little sleep. Oh, before I forget, I should mention that we have now been on the move for 23 hours, with eight hours still to go before we get to Saipan.
I have no doubt that we will sleep very well when we get to our new school/home, both because of exhaustion and because of sleeping pills. I can't wait.
Anyway, I have no idea when the internet service is going to run out, being as I didn't have to pay for it. So, before I get cut off, I'd better sign off.
Thanks for the prayers,
Love,
J and J

Airport Number 1 - LA

Jake and I are waiting in the Los Angeles airport, by gate 28 for our 1:20 flight to Toyko. We have about 2 more hours! We flew here this morning and won't finish all the flying until Thursday. We are soooo excited though. This morning we were a little nervous but now we are feeling much more excited and ready for this. I personally am so thrilled that I get to do this amazing adventure with someone I love and call my best friend. It's so wonderful that we can share this together and I can't wait to grow closer with him.
We'll hopefully send an email or something once we get to Toyko so everyone knows we've made it safe so far.
Thanks again for everyone's prayers and support thus far. It sure is exciting and sure is far away but we know we have some amazing family and friends that will always be there for us no matter where we are. Thanks so much!
Love J & J

Hello all, Jake here...
Jackie and I can not begin to count the number of people who have personally told us that they were going to check on our blog regularly. We kind of thought that maybe just our families would check the blog. We were very wrong. People who we didn't even know had computers have told us that they would keep an electronic eye on us. So to those of you who have spoken to us about the blog, and to those of you who will keep tabs on us, thank you. It means so much to us to know that you care about us and how we are doing.

Alright, enough sappy stuff.

Jackie and I are still in Sioux Center. We just got back from a little vacation with my family in the Black Hills, and are busy organizing, packing, shipping, and storing the stuff we've accumulated in the past 13 months. We need to be completely out of our apartment by Wednesday night because on Thursday we leave for a wedding in Des Moines. We'll return from that wedding on Sunday afternoon, and then on Monday, the 14th, we will leave for Minneapolis. We'll be staying over night with a couple of friends and then flying out of the cities bright and early on Tuesday morning.
So keep us in your prayers as these next couple days already are a bit overwhelming and new to us. Also as we say "see you later's" to good friends and family and especially as we fly for 24+ hours to our final destination...Saipan.
How exciting!
So until then...