Jet lag is real!

So we began our travel across the world on Thursday morning at the Charleston airport. We had a total of 6 different flights, the longest being 14 hours (NY to Tokyo). We were a little nervous about all of the switching and long plane rides and everything, but God really blessed us and it all went really smoothly!!

So 36 hours, 1 sunset and 2 days later, we finally made it to Saipan. Unfortunately our luggage didn’t make the trip that day but we were able to figure it out and come back and get it all the next day.

Joy and Rose picked us up around 4am and we finally got in the bed around 5:30. We both slept till about noon and then Billy and William gave us a fun tour of the island! We ate spicy Thai food, ran into a huge pack of Chinese tourists (that we now know are everywhere on the island), learned some history and saw some awesome views.

Later we went to a big festival called Taste of the Marianas. We got to try a ton of authentic island food and saw some island dancing and karate.

Sunday morning we all went to Church 360, one of the Churches that the Jones family runs. Billy preaches, Joy does children’s church and youth, they all lead worship and pretty much do everything that there is to do. Gibbs and I already got to start helping with doing slides and children’s church and transportation and hopefully will get to help with even more as we learn everything.

Church 360 is a good mix of Americans and Koreans and there are around 50 people attending each week (which is pretty large for Christian churches in Saipan). They have seen a lot of growth in this church and are hoping to draw in more of the locals around the area as well.

Sunday afternoon we got to go explore Tank beach some, which is walking distance from their house! I got to snorkel some and I got to see a lionfish, a flounder and tons of other awesome fish.

Kagman Community Church meets on Sunday nights. This is the church that is really close to the Joneses house. This church is trying to reach the Chomorro people living here which is an almost completely unreached people group.

It’s a pretty new church and they are still trying to get the word out about it and work on getting more people to come. We are planning a basketball tournament for next weekend to try and draw more kids and families to come to the church. So please pray that we will have a good turnout and that people will learn about the church and start attending!

We are looking forward to a busy week helping out the Jones family and leaning more about the Churches and how we can serve!

-Tinsley