For a change of pace, we decided to go to an Indonesian church today. What fun that was. I only understood about 10 words, but I loved their energy. The pastor was so enthusiatic. I learned from Jason that he was preaching on the story of Cain and Abel and why God thought that Abel's sacrifice was acceptable and Cain's was not. Abel made the sacrifice by faith. They were so friendly, and quite lively in their praise music. It was a great experience for us. Afterward they had some boiled potatoes (well, at least it looked like potatoes, I don't remember the Indonesian name) with a hot salsa like sauce and they invited us to have some with them. So we all tried them-not too bad. After the service I was taking pictures of the kids with the digital camera and showing the pictures to them. They went nuts seeing themselves like that. What fun!!!! I went to my first baby shower since coming here. It was for an American girl that just had her 3rd baby. To tell you the truth, it looked very much like a shower in the States. Some of the ladies had ordered gifts online from Target and had friends from the States mail them here, so she got some very nice stuff. It was strange sitting here in the middle of nowhere looking at clothes and blankets from Target and Old Navy. It was a good chance for me to get to know some of the other Moms in the area.
Wyatt had a blast today. While the girls and Cale were napping we had an amazing storm and I told him he could go out and play in it. If I hadn't been on my way to the shower I would have loved to run out in the rain myself. It was coming down so hard, I could have easily bathed him out there. :) Two of the dorm girls ran out in it as well. Rain doesn't stop anything here. Life goes on even with blinding downpours.
My Bible study went well tonight. I got back from the shower just in time. We talked about friendships. What kind of friend are you? What could you do to be a better friend? We looked at Ps.55 where David talks about being betrayed by a friend, and Daniel 3 with Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednigo standing together for God and Ps. 1 where we are to like a tree ...and bear fruit. And we talked about what kind of fruit we are bearing? The kids are opening up more so we had some great discussions.
Well, we still don't have internet at the dorm so we are back in the computer lab. Garth is trying desperately to post 6 pictures. We have been here a half hour and one picture has gone through. So, we'll see.
Love you all,
Rachel
Sunday, September 30, 2007
Saturday, September 29, 2007
September 29, 2007 - Dirty Rocks
We had another beautiful double rainbow today right over the mountain. How amazing is that? God didn't just give us one HE gave us two!!!
We had some big thunder and lightning but no rain on us, just up on the mountain. We had great plans today to take our kids and some of the dorm kids on a boat ride. At the beginning of our blog pictures, when we first got here, Garth and I went on this same boat ride on Lake Sentani, but our kids were not allowed to go because we were having a meeting. So today we thought we would take them. However our plans were squandered. We were not allowed to go through on one bridge so we went all the way around to go on another, and when we got there we were told they were only letting traffic go one way and it was not the way we needed to go. So we would have to go up around the mountain and around to get there, and it was already getting late and Cale's eyelids were droopy, so we decided to just come home and do it another day.
One of our dorm boys, Beernt, has malaria. So pray for him if you can. Two of our dorm kids were supposed to come home from Australia on Tuesday and will be stuck there now until Friday. Two other kids are in Bali until Monday. It will be nice when we are all together , and healthy again.
The girls in the dorm had a blast playing with Emma, and Sophie's Barbies. They dressed them up by eras, the 60's, 70's, 80's...Garth took a picture but I am not sure if we should post it because 60's Barbie was a little too free with her clothing!!! :)
Garth and Wyatt (and Cale) had fun playing volleyball with some of the high school boys. On a hot day like today, they got so hot and sweaty. I could tell Cale was thirsty so I decided to go get water for everyone from our house. I brought back a jug of ice cold water and poured a cup for Cale. He came running over to get it with a rock that he had picked up from the ground. When he got to it, he plopped his filthy rock right in the cup and then went to drink it. He looked so surprised that the water was dirty, and surprised at me for giving him water like that. I thought about how God often has exactly what we need for the situation we are in, and we mess it up. Either because we are too busy or distracted or ignorant to notice what He is handing us. Or we have taken His great blessings and made them filthy. It is so easy to do that. Life gets crazy busy and we keep asking God over and over for stuff and He is right there handing us exactly what we need, and we are just running around throwing dirty rocks into it. It is one thing to ask God for something. It is another thing to be close enough to Him that you can hear His answer. Sometimes His answer is just what we want, and other times it isn't, but it is what is best for us. If we don't understand that, it is just like throwing in the dirty rocks. When we do understand, we grow and realize that His best is always exactly what we need.
So for now, my eyes are open and my rocks are down. Hopefully it will stay that way.
Rachel
P.S.- We have been having a terrible time with our internet and that is why Garth has not been able to post pictures. We keep trying, and will keep trying. Right now we are up at the computer lab because we have no internet connection at the dorm and we can't post pictures from here. Maybe if you all pray....Otherwise just make pictures in your head while you are reading. Ha HA. Also, Garth should get his laptop tomorrow. Wally went to the States and said he would bring it. That might help out with the picture situation. Bye
We had some big thunder and lightning but no rain on us, just up on the mountain. We had great plans today to take our kids and some of the dorm kids on a boat ride. At the beginning of our blog pictures, when we first got here, Garth and I went on this same boat ride on Lake Sentani, but our kids were not allowed to go because we were having a meeting. So today we thought we would take them. However our plans were squandered. We were not allowed to go through on one bridge so we went all the way around to go on another, and when we got there we were told they were only letting traffic go one way and it was not the way we needed to go. So we would have to go up around the mountain and around to get there, and it was already getting late and Cale's eyelids were droopy, so we decided to just come home and do it another day.
One of our dorm boys, Beernt, has malaria. So pray for him if you can. Two of our dorm kids were supposed to come home from Australia on Tuesday and will be stuck there now until Friday. Two other kids are in Bali until Monday. It will be nice when we are all together , and healthy again.
The girls in the dorm had a blast playing with Emma, and Sophie's Barbies. They dressed them up by eras, the 60's, 70's, 80's...Garth took a picture but I am not sure if we should post it because 60's Barbie was a little too free with her clothing!!! :)
Garth and Wyatt (and Cale) had fun playing volleyball with some of the high school boys. On a hot day like today, they got so hot and sweaty. I could tell Cale was thirsty so I decided to go get water for everyone from our house. I brought back a jug of ice cold water and poured a cup for Cale. He came running over to get it with a rock that he had picked up from the ground. When he got to it, he plopped his filthy rock right in the cup and then went to drink it. He looked so surprised that the water was dirty, and surprised at me for giving him water like that. I thought about how God often has exactly what we need for the situation we are in, and we mess it up. Either because we are too busy or distracted or ignorant to notice what He is handing us. Or we have taken His great blessings and made them filthy. It is so easy to do that. Life gets crazy busy and we keep asking God over and over for stuff and He is right there handing us exactly what we need, and we are just running around throwing dirty rocks into it. It is one thing to ask God for something. It is another thing to be close enough to Him that you can hear His answer. Sometimes His answer is just what we want, and other times it isn't, but it is what is best for us. If we don't understand that, it is just like throwing in the dirty rocks. When we do understand, we grow and realize that His best is always exactly what we need.
So for now, my eyes are open and my rocks are down. Hopefully it will stay that way.
Rachel
P.S.- We have been having a terrible time with our internet and that is why Garth has not been able to post pictures. We keep trying, and will keep trying. Right now we are up at the computer lab because we have no internet connection at the dorm and we can't post pictures from here. Maybe if you all pray....Otherwise just make pictures in your head while you are reading. Ha HA. Also, Garth should get his laptop tomorrow. Wally went to the States and said he would bring it. That might help out with the picture situation. Bye
Friday, September 28, 2007
September 28, 2007 - HYPERMARKET!!
WE HAVE A HYPERMARKET!!!!!!!!! It is kind of like a small version of Walmart. Kind of. It is right here in Sentani and it just opened today SO of course we HAD to go. It was air conditioned!!!! And CLEAN!!!!! It has an escalator and shopping carts with the cars in the front for Cale. Beep, Beep! We were escorted down to the store by a police man. How is that for service. They even have a place where you can check your helmets while you shop. It is so cool. And they had Frosted Flakes. It will eventually have some furniture and electronics, but right now that stuff is all stuck in Jakarta.
Today was Friday night games. Our boys did a good job, but they lost. However, last year when they played this team they got creamed but tonight it was a lot closer, so they are improving. And we also had Julie's birthday tonight after the games. She is now officially 15 years old.
Wyatt is spending the night at his friend Kreston house, Sophie went over to Maya's for awhile, and Emma had a birthday party so we were hanging out with Cale and feeling very "light" with so few children.
I know Carlena was nervous today when she heard that we fit 4 on Garth's new bike, but I will tell you -IT IS SO MUCH FUN!!! It is more like 3, because Cale doesn't really count cuz he is on my lap. Today, Beernt said that he wasn't feeling well, so we did a malaria slide on him and had to take a trip to one of the other hills for a nurse to read. So we just packed Garth, me, Sophie and Cale on the bike and went right over. Cale and Sophie are so funny on the bike. Garth will get on the bike to turn it around and Cale starts bawling everytime because he thinks that Garth is going to leave without him. Sophie comes home from Kindergarten asking Daddy when he can take her for a ride on the bike. If you ask Cale if he wants to go for a ride on Daddy's motorcycle he will drop what he is doing and say Bye, bye. And start walking for the door. It is definately a fun addition to our family.
Tomorrow if we go back to Hypermarket I will take a picture. I forgot how fun it can be to just shop, in air conditoning with Cale in a cart and not running everywhere picking up trash off the ground...that was very theraputic. :)
Goodnight to all my Walmart shoppers!
Love,
Rachel
Today was Friday night games. Our boys did a good job, but they lost. However, last year when they played this team they got creamed but tonight it was a lot closer, so they are improving. And we also had Julie's birthday tonight after the games. She is now officially 15 years old.
Wyatt is spending the night at his friend Kreston house, Sophie went over to Maya's for awhile, and Emma had a birthday party so we were hanging out with Cale and feeling very "light" with so few children.
I know Carlena was nervous today when she heard that we fit 4 on Garth's new bike, but I will tell you -IT IS SO MUCH FUN!!! It is more like 3, because Cale doesn't really count cuz he is on my lap. Today, Beernt said that he wasn't feeling well, so we did a malaria slide on him and had to take a trip to one of the other hills for a nurse to read. So we just packed Garth, me, Sophie and Cale on the bike and went right over. Cale and Sophie are so funny on the bike. Garth will get on the bike to turn it around and Cale starts bawling everytime because he thinks that Garth is going to leave without him. Sophie comes home from Kindergarten asking Daddy when he can take her for a ride on the bike. If you ask Cale if he wants to go for a ride on Daddy's motorcycle he will drop what he is doing and say Bye, bye. And start walking for the door. It is definately a fun addition to our family.
Tomorrow if we go back to Hypermarket I will take a picture. I forgot how fun it can be to just shop, in air conditoning with Cale in a cart and not running everywhere picking up trash off the ground...that was very theraputic. :)
Goodnight to all my Walmart shoppers!
Love,
Rachel
Thursday, September 27, 2007
September 27, 2007 - "Is he pulling me over?"
Garth and I had our "date" to Abeh. Ha HA!!!! Not really a date, I am kind of joking about that. We did not have any kids with us, but running to the grocery store and then the meat market is a pretty strange date. We had fun though. Garth made it pretty interesting at one point. He went through a very strange intersection and weren't sure how to turn, with the light or the traffic. So he went with the traffic. Not too long after we hear a siren and see a police officer on a motorcycle telling us to pull over. Well, you can imagine how well that went since we don't know Indonesian and he doesn't know English. We said "Saya masi belagar Bahasa Indonesia." " We are still learning the Indonesian language. " So through hand signals and broken words we figured out that you have to wait for the light. Later talking to friends here we found out that it was in our favor that we couldn't speak Indonesian because they almost always take you to court and make you pay. We were let go with no ticket or anything. Thank you Lord. What a trip. Thankfully the dorm van is more like a bus and we could easily fit all the stuff we needed to buy.
Tonight's email has to be short. It is so late since I have been up late working on a birthday cake for one of our dorm girls whose birthday is tomorrow. It is almost tomorrow. So I need to go.
Love you
Rachel
Tonight's email has to be short. It is so late since I have been up late working on a birthday cake for one of our dorm girls whose birthday is tomorrow. It is almost tomorrow. So I need to go.
Love you
Rachel
Wednesday, September 26, 2007
September 26, 2007 - Storms
Today Garth and I were out on the motorcycle just driving around when an Indonesian guy on a motorcycle came up along side us and tapped Garth on the arm and made a gesture with his hand. we both thought he was asking for money, which was odd. Why would he ask us for money while we are driving? But we soon figured out that he was telling Garth that his turn signal was on. Now we know what that hand gesture means.
Things I have learned:
1. That my girls can hold "it" for a really long time when the only bathroom is a squat pot
2. What it feels like to have a chechuk crawl up your arm, or in Garth's case, your leg
3. How fun it can be to have a motorcycle
4. If you think you saw something move out of the corner of your eye, you did
5. Just because it doesn't look like rain or smell like rain doesn't mean it won't rain
6. The internet is very unpredictable
7. There is no road rage in Indonesia
8. There is no such thing as driving lanes-don't worry, Mom!
9. It's ok to buy fish out of a bucket on the back of someone's motorcycle
10. It's ok to buy pork out of a burlap bag
11. Don't put your hand in any cabinets or drawers unless you look first
12. Always turn the light on at night-that's when critters come out
13. Check your bed before you get in
14. If you can't see Cale he is probably doing something he shouldn't
15. Check your toothbrush BEFORE you use it
16. Be flexible!
Cale, everytime he hears thunder,will run and bury his face in my chest and wait for my arms to go around him and tell him it is ok. Well, today it was not enough that I had my arms around him, he wanted my face next to his and he had his hand on my cheek and he wanted to know that I was not moving. I love it. It is so sweet and endearing. The whole time I was thinking about my relationship with God. How the Bible says that "God is our refuge and strength. A help in time of trouble." I love that He is always there for me, ready to put His arms around me, willing to let me put my hand on His cheek, letting me know that He is not moving. He is here for me. How sweet is that?! What a great God we have!
Sweet dreams-
Love you all,
Rachel
Things I have learned:
1. That my girls can hold "it" for a really long time when the only bathroom is a squat pot
2. What it feels like to have a chechuk crawl up your arm, or in Garth's case, your leg
3. How fun it can be to have a motorcycle
4. If you think you saw something move out of the corner of your eye, you did
5. Just because it doesn't look like rain or smell like rain doesn't mean it won't rain
6. The internet is very unpredictable
7. There is no road rage in Indonesia
8. There is no such thing as driving lanes-don't worry, Mom!
9. It's ok to buy fish out of a bucket on the back of someone's motorcycle
10. It's ok to buy pork out of a burlap bag
11. Don't put your hand in any cabinets or drawers unless you look first
12. Always turn the light on at night-that's when critters come out
13. Check your bed before you get in
14. If you can't see Cale he is probably doing something he shouldn't
15. Check your toothbrush BEFORE you use it
16. Be flexible!
Cale, everytime he hears thunder,will run and bury his face in my chest and wait for my arms to go around him and tell him it is ok. Well, today it was not enough that I had my arms around him, he wanted my face next to his and he had his hand on my cheek and he wanted to know that I was not moving. I love it. It is so sweet and endearing. The whole time I was thinking about my relationship with God. How the Bible says that "God is our refuge and strength. A help in time of trouble." I love that He is always there for me, ready to put His arms around me, willing to let me put my hand on His cheek, letting me know that He is not moving. He is here for me. How sweet is that?! What a great God we have!
Sweet dreams-
Love you all,
Rachel
Tuesday, September 25, 2007
September 25, 2007 - English Muffins
Today I learned how to make English Muffins. Ibu Poppi makes the most splendid English muffins and I asked her to show me how. It is most certainly not as difficult as I thought. If anyone would care for the recipe just let me know.
I apologize for the delay in getting pictures on the blog. The internet is not being friendly toward Garth in that regard. He has been trying in vain to get them on and will continue to do so, but the connection has been so amazingly slow, it just hasn't allowed him to post them. So one day you will wake up and be surprised that the pictures are on.
Garth figured out the gas station here. It is quite confusing. There are pumps for cars and pumps for motorcycles. We of course were in the wrong one. You have to pay the man ahead of time and then he fills up the tank for you. One thing we have noticed here is that when you are driving, if you catch another drivers' eye and smile they ALWAYS give you a huge smile back. Even if you are stuck in massive traffic, they smile.
The Muslims are having a holy holiday right now (Idul Fitri), through till the 11th of October. They fast until dinner. Then the 12th and 13th they feast. So when we are out we are to show respect by not eating in their shops or giving Cale snacks during their fasting time. We are told that we need to stock up on staples now because everything will be gone during feasting and all shops closed. So on Thursday we are planning a big shopping trip to Abepura. My friend Jodi said that she would watch Cale so it will kind of be like a "date," just Garth and me! I have been to a lot of places on dates but never to an Indonesian meat market. First time for everything.
I want to thank everyone for the emails and once our system starts working better I will answer them. My back is doing better. The doctor said let my pain be my guide as to what I can do. So I have been able to pick up and hold Cale with no pain (I have so missed doing that), I can bend and lift and I started up walking my laps today-so it is all good!!!! Emma is about the same. She feels fine, and is taking the medicine, but still does have the cough. I will keep you informed.
Ya'll take care now,
Rach
I apologize for the delay in getting pictures on the blog. The internet is not being friendly toward Garth in that regard. He has been trying in vain to get them on and will continue to do so, but the connection has been so amazingly slow, it just hasn't allowed him to post them. So one day you will wake up and be surprised that the pictures are on.
Garth figured out the gas station here. It is quite confusing. There are pumps for cars and pumps for motorcycles. We of course were in the wrong one. You have to pay the man ahead of time and then he fills up the tank for you. One thing we have noticed here is that when you are driving, if you catch another drivers' eye and smile they ALWAYS give you a huge smile back. Even if you are stuck in massive traffic, they smile.
The Muslims are having a holy holiday right now (Idul Fitri), through till the 11th of October. They fast until dinner. Then the 12th and 13th they feast. So when we are out we are to show respect by not eating in their shops or giving Cale snacks during their fasting time. We are told that we need to stock up on staples now because everything will be gone during feasting and all shops closed. So on Thursday we are planning a big shopping trip to Abepura. My friend Jodi said that she would watch Cale so it will kind of be like a "date," just Garth and me! I have been to a lot of places on dates but never to an Indonesian meat market. First time for everything.
I want to thank everyone for the emails and once our system starts working better I will answer them. My back is doing better. The doctor said let my pain be my guide as to what I can do. So I have been able to pick up and hold Cale with no pain (I have so missed doing that), I can bend and lift and I started up walking my laps today-so it is all good!!!! Emma is about the same. She feels fine, and is taking the medicine, but still does have the cough. I will keep you informed.
Ya'll take care now,
Rach
Monday, September 24, 2007
September 24, 2007 - Connected!
We have internet again. I am learning to not take so many things for granted. It is so nice to talk to you guys every day. I really missed it.
Yesterday we took a bunch of the dorm kids out on the town to do some shopping. How fun. We found a nice little trinket store that had every kind of ash tray you could imagine right by the baby sippy cups and the toy cars, drums, vases, and squishy balls. We did go to the toy store and yes, I did take pictures. Now that the internet is up Garth can post them.
Sunday night was my first High School girls Bible Study. It was a really nice group of girls, about 12, and we had a great time together. I asked them what was their favorite fairytale. We talked about what happily ever after means to them, and what hopes and dreams they have for themselves for the future. And then we talked about what it means to have a true faith. How do you live that out. They are very open to talk and will have a lot to teach me.
I took Emma to the clinic today for her cough. She just can't seem to get rid of it. They told her she has something called ronchi ( I don't know if I spelled that right). But it means she is getting liquid in her lungs. So she is on one form of medicine and if she isn't better by Thursday she will go on something stronger. She doesn't seem sick except for the cough. It hasn't slowed her down at all.
My back is feeling better every day. I can bend and lift carefully, and the Doctor said that I can start walking and excersising again.
Thank you for praying.
Garth is standing here waiting to post the pictures so I am going to end.
Love to you all
Rachel
Yesterday we took a bunch of the dorm kids out on the town to do some shopping. How fun. We found a nice little trinket store that had every kind of ash tray you could imagine right by the baby sippy cups and the toy cars, drums, vases, and squishy balls. We did go to the toy store and yes, I did take pictures. Now that the internet is up Garth can post them.
Sunday night was my first High School girls Bible Study. It was a really nice group of girls, about 12, and we had a great time together. I asked them what was their favorite fairytale. We talked about what happily ever after means to them, and what hopes and dreams they have for themselves for the future. And then we talked about what it means to have a true faith. How do you live that out. They are very open to talk and will have a lot to teach me.
I took Emma to the clinic today for her cough. She just can't seem to get rid of it. They told her she has something called ronchi ( I don't know if I spelled that right). But it means she is getting liquid in her lungs. So she is on one form of medicine and if she isn't better by Thursday she will go on something stronger. She doesn't seem sick except for the cough. It hasn't slowed her down at all.
My back is feeling better every day. I can bend and lift carefully, and the Doctor said that I can start walking and excersising again.
Thank you for praying.
Garth is standing here waiting to post the pictures so I am going to end.
Love to you all
Rachel
It's a Cale and Mommy moment.
Cale wanted to eat by Poppi.
Sharieta and Beernt flew to Wamena to spend the weekend with their parents.
Traffic got backed up at the bridge. Merging here isn't as bad as it looks.
We've got a deal on a new motorcycle.
Cale thinks he's going to drive.
Sophie looks good with a helmet.
Emma and Daddy on the bike.
Emma and Mommy reading a letter from Carlena. We miss our family.September 24, 2007 - We're back
No, we did not vanish off the face of the earth, and no, I did not go into a relapse, and no, we didn’t hop on Garth’s motorcycle and ride to a far off island paradise, like Bali…or whatever else you may have been thinking. We are all fine. We just lost our internet connection and were told it has to do with the system in Hong Kong. So we have been patiently waiting. Even now I am typing this in Word in hopes that the system will come back on so I can send it.
Friday was crazy for Garth. We went to the all school chapel in the morning because our dorm kids were in skits, then Garth took 2 dorm kids to the airport to fly to Wamena to see their parents, (had to wait for 7 goats to cross the road on his way home), had lunch, took 2 other dorm kids to the airport to meet their parents and go to Australia to get their visas renewed, came home right when his motorcycle was being delivered, changed, had dinner and then went to the gym for the volleyball games. Speaking of which, the boys team never got to play. During warm up an Indonesian guy spiked, came down on the net, and broke it. Bummer! It gave us all a chance to go outside and notice the moon. Absolutely amazing. It was huge and so close to us with an enormous ring around it. Garth says, “In Wi. a ring around the moon means it is going to snow.” Emma says, “It’s going to snow? Great!” Sophie says, “Mom, is the moon like a drink?” And I just stood there in astonishment thinking, “My Dad would love to see this!”
Today we went out on the town. Ibu Poppi needed some cheese and Garth needed a helmet. He got one with his bike but it is too small. I told him maybe if he cut his hair it would fit! J In case you don’t know you can vote on that decision on our blog. I don’t mind it long or short, so let us know what you think. We took some dorm kids and hit 3 different stores looking for keju (cheese). I found out one store, Aneka Mas, has a great upstairs that looks much like a toy store. I was so impressed. Our kids love it. They haven’t seen toys like that in awhile. They had so much fun. We didn’t have much time so we told them we will go back and let them pick something out next time. There was a whole room of stuffed animals…You should have seen Sophie’s face. We will take the camera when we go back..
We got a package from my Mom and sister!!!!! We opened it up and Sophie reached for the stuffed animal, Wyatt reached for the Incredibles movie, and Emma and I just started bawling when we saw the letter from Carlena. Being away from you all is SO hard. My heart just aches for you. It will be such blessed fun to see you again. I can’t wait!
You are so loved and missed and prayed for. Thanks for caring about us. It means a lot.
Bedtime for me. I will fall asleep listening to steady rhythm of raindrops falling all around.
Love,
Rachel
Friday was crazy for Garth. We went to the all school chapel in the morning because our dorm kids were in skits, then Garth took 2 dorm kids to the airport to fly to Wamena to see their parents, (had to wait for 7 goats to cross the road on his way home), had lunch, took 2 other dorm kids to the airport to meet their parents and go to Australia to get their visas renewed, came home right when his motorcycle was being delivered, changed, had dinner and then went to the gym for the volleyball games. Speaking of which, the boys team never got to play. During warm up an Indonesian guy spiked, came down on the net, and broke it. Bummer! It gave us all a chance to go outside and notice the moon. Absolutely amazing. It was huge and so close to us with an enormous ring around it. Garth says, “In Wi. a ring around the moon means it is going to snow.” Emma says, “It’s going to snow? Great!” Sophie says, “Mom, is the moon like a drink?” And I just stood there in astonishment thinking, “My Dad would love to see this!”
Today we went out on the town. Ibu Poppi needed some cheese and Garth needed a helmet. He got one with his bike but it is too small. I told him maybe if he cut his hair it would fit! J In case you don’t know you can vote on that decision on our blog. I don’t mind it long or short, so let us know what you think. We took some dorm kids and hit 3 different stores looking for keju (cheese). I found out one store, Aneka Mas, has a great upstairs that looks much like a toy store. I was so impressed. Our kids love it. They haven’t seen toys like that in awhile. They had so much fun. We didn’t have much time so we told them we will go back and let them pick something out next time. There was a whole room of stuffed animals…You should have seen Sophie’s face. We will take the camera when we go back..
We got a package from my Mom and sister!!!!! We opened it up and Sophie reached for the stuffed animal, Wyatt reached for the Incredibles movie, and Emma and I just started bawling when we saw the letter from Carlena. Being away from you all is SO hard. My heart just aches for you. It will be such blessed fun to see you again. I can’t wait!
You are so loved and missed and prayed for. Thanks for caring about us. It means a lot.
Bedtime for me. I will fall asleep listening to steady rhythm of raindrops falling all around.
Love,
Rachel
Thursday, September 20, 2007
September 20, 2007 - Free at last!
Garth is a free man now that he has his license. He has been a man about the town and loving it. He went out with Cale and then with Sophie when she got out of school. Garth said Cale was so funny. He had his hand hanging out the window and was yelling "Pagi" (which is Good Morning) to everyone. I will take a picture of Gus, the big dorm bus that we can drive so you can picture it. When Garth went out with Sophie to the store, they were waiting for a worker to go in the back and get a case of cleaner. All of a sudden Sophie started to cry. She buried her head in Garth's legs and was bawling. Garth said, "What is wrong?" Sophie said,"I miss Ang. She used to come over for pancakes" So Garth felt terrible. He said he almost started to cry. Do you know how he handled it? He said, "Why don't you go pick out a toy." So Sophie came home with a new pink poodle!!! I wonder if this will start a pattern...Garth....
I am improving everyday. I was able to sit in the kitchen and make some cookies. The dorm kids helped me. I also helped a little bit with dinner. It felt good to do something off my back. All I am on now is the Indonesian equivilent of Tylenol. I am being very careful-no bending or lifting. I am not standing long or sitting long, and I even took a long nap today.
Wyatt is really starting to love these dorm kids. He said tonight that they are all his favorites. Then I said something about the dorm kids and Wyatt interupted me and said,"You mean, our family, Mom. They are our family now." It is amazing how God can blend so many different people together in such a short amount of time. He is cool that way.
I must say good-bye. I need to go lay down and close my eyes for a long time and dream.
Love,
Rachel
I am improving everyday. I was able to sit in the kitchen and make some cookies. The dorm kids helped me. I also helped a little bit with dinner. It felt good to do something off my back. All I am on now is the Indonesian equivilent of Tylenol. I am being very careful-no bending or lifting. I am not standing long or sitting long, and I even took a long nap today.
Wyatt is really starting to love these dorm kids. He said tonight that they are all his favorites. Then I said something about the dorm kids and Wyatt interupted me and said,"You mean, our family, Mom. They are our family now." It is amazing how God can blend so many different people together in such a short amount of time. He is cool that way.
I must say good-bye. I need to go lay down and close my eyes for a long time and dream.
Love,
Rachel
Wednesday, September 19, 2007
September 19, 2007 - Up and at 'em!
I am feeling a bit better. Thank you to everyone back home that was praying and offering advice and to everyone here that made me stay in bed. The muscle relaxers are actually working this time and I have been able to relax and not keep my back so tense. It is such a relief to not have constant pain. I have been faithfully doing my excersises and I know that that helps. I am told that I will always have to be a bit careful when it comes to my back as I have a greater chance of doing this again now. I have still been spending quite a bit of time in bed, my system is not what it used to be. I am quite tired and worn out by the littlest of things. But everyday I make progress. I have been finding useful ways of spending my time, from reading every magazine I could find, old and new, to watching the checuck in our room (gross, didn't know he was there until I had to lay around all day!), to writing cards for all the dorm kids of what I appreciate about them, to working on my Bible study lesson for the Sunday night girls group, to hanging out talking with the dorm kids that come to visit, (YEAH),making up games with my kids, reading books, and last night some friends let us borrow their portable DVD player so I could watch a movie in bed. So Garth and I watched Fever Pitch-the only hang up was that the power kept going off and then you have to wait for it to go back on and then find your place...but that was fun. It has been quite a while since Garth and I watched a movie together.
GARTH GOT HIS LICENSE TODAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! The first thing he did was go down to Multi-Jaya and buy diapers. Way to celebrate!
No, he celebrated at the pool. Today was a half day of school so Garth put Cale down for a nap here with me and then took most of the dorm kids, our kids and some extra kids to the pool for a couple of hours. They had a great time. The dorm kids are already giving us the list of where they need to go and when-now that we have wheels. Pak Fillipus, who is in charge of getting licenses-brought my paper copy in for me to sign in bed. And as I looked at it I noticed that there was a big plop of checuk poop right on my face in the picture. Only in Indonesia. Oh, well. I do not have my license as I think it will be a while before I am up to driving on these bumpy roads.
O.k. here is my Sophie story. I was laying in bed when everyone was eating dinner and Sophie came in my room crying. So I reached out to hug her and she said, "Mommy, are you going to be sick forever?" And I thought, "Oh, my poor dear. This has been harder on her than I thought." So I said, "No, Soph, Mommy is going to get better." And she says, "Oh good, cuz Daddy is making me eat the potato soup!"
On the other side of the "I care about you"coin is Emma. I woke up this morning and felt the hot water bottle on my back. Garth said she got up and put it in the microwave and then snuck in to put it on my back to help me feel better. She is a sweetie. And Wyatt has been making me cards. Cale has been so sweet, laying in bed with me, looking at magazines.
O.K. I just wanted you all to know that I didn't forget about you. I just haven't been able to sit, and shouldn't be sitting now. I am ready for bed. But I will leave you with some verses that I have been thinking about a lot lately. In Psalms 37:1-7-I love the first few words of each verse, cuz it is how I try to live my life. The words are: "Don't worry or be jealous, Trust in the Lord, and do good, Delight yourself in the Lord, Commit your ways to the Lord, Be still before the Lord and wait patiently for Him, and refrain from anger." There is a lot more in there that you should read. It's good stuff.
I need to go.
Thanks for your support and prayers,
Love
Rachel
GARTH GOT HIS LICENSE TODAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! The first thing he did was go down to Multi-Jaya and buy diapers. Way to celebrate!
No, he celebrated at the pool. Today was a half day of school so Garth put Cale down for a nap here with me and then took most of the dorm kids, our kids and some extra kids to the pool for a couple of hours. They had a great time. The dorm kids are already giving us the list of where they need to go and when-now that we have wheels. Pak Fillipus, who is in charge of getting licenses-brought my paper copy in for me to sign in bed. And as I looked at it I noticed that there was a big plop of checuk poop right on my face in the picture. Only in Indonesia. Oh, well. I do not have my license as I think it will be a while before I am up to driving on these bumpy roads.
O.k. here is my Sophie story. I was laying in bed when everyone was eating dinner and Sophie came in my room crying. So I reached out to hug her and she said, "Mommy, are you going to be sick forever?" And I thought, "Oh, my poor dear. This has been harder on her than I thought." So I said, "No, Soph, Mommy is going to get better." And she says, "Oh good, cuz Daddy is making me eat the potato soup!"
On the other side of the "I care about you"coin is Emma. I woke up this morning and felt the hot water bottle on my back. Garth said she got up and put it in the microwave and then snuck in to put it on my back to help me feel better. She is a sweetie. And Wyatt has been making me cards. Cale has been so sweet, laying in bed with me, looking at magazines.
O.K. I just wanted you all to know that I didn't forget about you. I just haven't been able to sit, and shouldn't be sitting now. I am ready for bed. But I will leave you with some verses that I have been thinking about a lot lately. In Psalms 37:1-7-I love the first few words of each verse, cuz it is how I try to live my life. The words are: "Don't worry or be jealous, Trust in the Lord, and do good, Delight yourself in the Lord, Commit your ways to the Lord, Be still before the Lord and wait patiently for Him, and refrain from anger." There is a lot more in there that you should read. It's good stuff.
I need to go.
Thanks for your support and prayers,
Love
Rachel
Monday, September 17, 2007
September 17, 2007 - Looking for Lessons
This is the day that the Lord has made. I will rejoice and be glad in it. Even the hard ones like today. Today started last night. Rachel’s back started hurting her the first week we got here. She thought it might be because of the hard floors she was standing on all day so she started wearing shoes more often. Not sure if that helped or not. Then on Friday, Sept 7th she noticed that it started hurting a little more. She doesn’t remember doing anything out of the ordinary that might have injured it. Then came our trip to Vanimo via bumpy roads and a day after we got back we took another trip to Jayapura that consisted of almost two hours on the road. All that mixed in with ojek rides and carrying Cale finally did her in. Yesterday she left church early because it was hurting so bad and last night she didn’t sleep for more than three hours. She is now bedridden. Dr. Di came to see her this evening and she believes that it is a herniated disc. Rachel and I almost pleaded for something stronger for the pain than what we received from the clinic earlier and she gave Rachel some Vicodin. It is 11:00pm now and Rachel is sleeping much better. Hopefully it will last through the night. Our children are worried about mommy. Please pray for them. The dorm kids are concerned too and have stepped up to help more in the kitchen. We usually do devotions right after dinner but I told the dorm kids I would be in our apartment with Rachel and there wouldn’t be any devos for the evening. Wyatt told me that the kids got together and prayed for Rachel instead. So…we’re looking for the lessons God has for us in this. Please pray that we find them and that my wife’s back will heal soon. Thanks.
Garth
Garth
Sunday, September 16, 2007
September 16, 2007 - Difficulties
So many times in our lives things happen that we don't understand. And often in the back of our heads we say,"If I was running this deal I would have done it differently." When in reality if we were in charge we would mess things up like crazy, for sure. But anyways to let you know why I am saying all this. I got back from the doctors today and found out that I have a herniated disc in my back. From what? Well, it could have been volleyball or basketball, running, or walking up the hills, or the ojek rides over all the bumps or just from picking up Cale. Who knows. I have always been real active so these activities shouldn't have been bad, but apparently I did something. Last Friday, I remember noticing that my back was hurting. But I didn't think anything of it at first. I have been doing so much and standing on these hard floors in the kitchen-there's no carpet. So I started wearing my shoes more in the house thinking that would help. I got some icyhot and did some stetching on that muscle, along with taking Aleve. However, nothing helped. It just kept getting worse. Then we had all of our trips to Vanimo and to Jayapura and I didn't have time to do anything about it. But this last Thursday the pain started to spread around to my hip, then yesterday it started to go down my leg. So the doctor came here to see me and told me that it is the disc. She gave me some muscle relaxers and put me on bed rest. I have an appt. for Tues at 11 so I will let you know more. Pray for Garth because now he has so much more to do. Praise the Lord that we have pembantus to help with the cooking and cleaning. If anyone has advice on what I could do to help my disc heal, please let me know. I will try just about anything at this point.
Last night was the first youth group here on the hill. They met in the church. The whole thing is student led and they do a fantastic job. About 50 kids showed up and they asked Garth to come and speak. They have their own praise and worship band and boy, do the kids love to sing! Garth taught them table climbing and they loved that. So it was a really good night. They got together and prayed for about 30 minutes. They were praying for people effected by the earthquake, friends of theirs trying to get visas to stay, parents that were far away... They mature quick here.
The dorm kids are all pitching in to help so I can stay in bed. They worked on lunch and cleaning up and feeding Cale. Wyatt and Emma and Sophie gave me a foot massage, and rubbed cream on me and did my hair.
I was hesitant to put in the blog about my back because I know it will make you feel bad, especially my family. I am ok Mom, Dad, Eena...But I wanted you all to pray so that maybe I get better quicker. I have never been a quick healer but maybe this will be the exception.
So I won't be able to do much of anything but I will be able to read e-mails :) Hint, hint.
Love you all
Rachel
Last night was the first youth group here on the hill. They met in the church. The whole thing is student led and they do a fantastic job. About 50 kids showed up and they asked Garth to come and speak. They have their own praise and worship band and boy, do the kids love to sing! Garth taught them table climbing and they loved that. So it was a really good night. They got together and prayed for about 30 minutes. They were praying for people effected by the earthquake, friends of theirs trying to get visas to stay, parents that were far away... They mature quick here.
The dorm kids are all pitching in to help so I can stay in bed. They worked on lunch and cleaning up and feeding Cale. Wyatt and Emma and Sophie gave me a foot massage, and rubbed cream on me and did my hair.
I was hesitant to put in the blog about my back because I know it will make you feel bad, especially my family. I am ok Mom, Dad, Eena...But I wanted you all to pray so that maybe I get better quicker. I have never been a quick healer but maybe this will be the exception.
So I won't be able to do much of anything but I will be able to read e-mails :) Hint, hint.
Love you all
Rachel
Saturday, September 15, 2007
Friday, September 14, 2007
September 14, 2007 - Double Blog!
I know that Garth already sent out an e-mail, but I kept thinking of things I wanted to say and he wouldn't let me so I am writing my own. He is a goof, but he did a good job.
O.k. the windows live messenger that we have in our aptartment has expired so we may not be able to IM you until Garth gets his laptop on the 28th. Just wanted to let you know. However, we can still get e-mail so keep them coming!!!!! :)
A funny story about Emma. I got one of her school papers back. They were to color a picture of a door and write what they would like to find behind the door. She said "If I could look inside the door, I would like to find a wunderland with puppys that lik my fingers!" Interesting...
The kids are adapting their new culture into their make believe here. The girls were playing Barbies and had them carrying things on their heads, walking through the jungle and making rice. It is so interesting to listen to them. They brought Barbies with in the taxi and I think it helped Emma to not throw up. She was preoccupied and did a great job of not getting sick.
The trip was long, but it is behi
nd us. I am so glad. We were just going to head home right after the fingerprinting since Cale was so tired, but Garth decided that we could go to KFC since we were right by it. YEAH!!!! And praise the Lord we did, cuz right when we came out, our driver got a call that we had to go back to the Immigration office because they forgot to have us sign something. If we hadn't stopped at KFC we would have been almost home. But this way we were right by it. It is a blessing when things work out like that. It was funny at the police station when we were getting our finger printing done, the officer stopped and went to get his camera so that he would have pictures of himself fingerprinting the Americans. We are putting a picture of him on the blog. He was smiling the whole time. There were 2 ladies in the Immigration office that said they saw us at the PNG border on Tuesday. They are from Holland and will be going to a place called Wamena to teach with an organization called Edu
venture. It is always nice to run into people that speak English. And our taxi driver stopped at his house on the way home because he had to use the toilet-he got out and said "3 minutes". You wouldn't see that in the States.
I am an official Indonesian Ibu (MRS.) now. I rode an ojek home side saddle! With a bag and a box of groceries! Most of the ladies ride side saddle so I fit right in. (An ojek is our taxi motorcycles) They are starting to know me at Multi-Jaya. Today I got on the ojek and he didn't even ask me where to go-he just knew. There aren't many white skinned people but there are TONZ of ojek drivers. Ibu Poppi taught me how to make maple syrup today. It is easy. I guess I thought it was hard. You take 6 cups of sugar in a big saucepan, 3 cups of hot water, and 3 tsp. of maple flavoring ( you can get it at Walmart). Stir on the stove until all the sugar is dissolved. Done. You can also add fruit filling or fruit to flavor it. We will try it tomorrow and see how I did.
The boys volleyball team won their games tonight. All 3 games. The Indonesians are surprisingly good, though. Most of them play in barefeet, but they have uniforms and a coach and everything. It is such a neat ministry opportunity. I was playing with one of the little boys tonight that kept getting water out of the water cooler. They hardly ever have cold water like that, and I am sure their water is not filtered like ours is. We do allow some of them up to the spring on the hill to get fresh water. They line up with jugs every morning. One of my pembantus was there with her friend to watch the game. She wanted her friend to meet me so we sat together for awhile. Oh, the Ballpark hotdogs were great.. I thoroughly enjoyed every bite.
Cale is much better. He just had some weird stomach bug but woke up fine. Thankfully tomorrow, we will be here all day so he can be in a normal schedule.
Good night to all
Love
Rachel
O.k. the windows live messenger that we have in our aptartment has expired so we may not be able to IM you until Garth gets his laptop on the 28th. Just wanted to let you know. However, we can still get e-mail so keep them coming!!!!! :)
A funny story about Emma. I got one of her school papers back. They were to color a picture of a door and write what they would like to find behind the door. She said "If I could look inside the door, I would like to find a wunderland with puppys that lik my fingers!" Interesting...
The kids are adapting their new culture into their make believe here. The girls were playing Barbies and had them carrying things on their heads, walking through the jungle and making rice. It is so interesting to listen to them. They brought Barbies with in the taxi and I think it helped Emma to not throw up. She was preoccupied and did a great job of not getting sick.
The trip was long, but it is behi
nd us. I am so glad. We were just going to head home right after the fingerprinting since Cale was so tired, but Garth decided that we could go to KFC since we were right by it. YEAH!!!! And praise the Lord we did, cuz right when we came out, our driver got a call that we had to go back to the Immigration office because they forgot to have us sign something. If we hadn't stopped at KFC we would have been almost home. But this way we were right by it. It is a blessing when things work out like that. It was funny at the police station when we were getting our finger printing done, the officer stopped and went to get his camera so that he would have pictures of himself fingerprinting the Americans. We are putting a picture of him on the blog. He was smiling the whole time. There were 2 ladies in the Immigration office that said they saw us at the PNG border on Tuesday. They are from Holland and will be going to a place called Wamena to teach with an organization called Edu
venture. It is always nice to run into people that speak English. And our taxi driver stopped at his house on the way home because he had to use the toilet-he got out and said "3 minutes". You wouldn't see that in the States.I am an official Indonesian Ibu (MRS.) now. I rode an ojek home side saddle! With a bag and a box of groceries! Most of the ladies ride side saddle so I fit right in. (An ojek is our taxi motorcycles) They are starting to know me at Multi-Jaya. Today I got on the ojek and he didn't even ask me where to go-he just knew. There aren't many white skinned people but there are TONZ of ojek drivers. Ibu Poppi taught me how to make maple syrup today. It is easy. I guess I thought it was hard. You take 6 cups of sugar in a big saucepan, 3 cups of hot water, and 3 tsp. of maple flavoring ( you can get it at Walmart). Stir on the stove until all the sugar is dissolved. Done. You can also add fruit filling or fruit to flavor it. We will try it tomorrow and see how I did.
The boys volleyball team won their games tonight. All 3 games. The Indonesians are surprisingly good, though. Most of them play in barefeet, but they have uniforms and a coach and everything. It is such a neat ministry opportunity. I was playing with one of the little boys tonight that kept getting water out of the water cooler. They hardly ever have cold water like that, and I am sure their water is not filtered like ours is. We do allow some of them up to the spring on the hill to get fresh water. They line up with jugs every morning. One of my pembantus was there with her friend to watch the game. She wanted her friend to meet me so we sat together for awhile. Oh, the Ballpark hotdogs were great.. I thoroughly enjoyed every bite.
Cale is much better. He just had some weird stomach bug but woke up fine. Thankfully tomorrow, we will be here all day so he can be in a normal schedule.
Good night to all
Love
Rachel
September 14, 2007 - Messy Fingers
So, some of you have been asking, "When is Garth going to write?" Well, here goes. I hope you're not disappointed, cuz Rachel has been doing such a great job. Let's give it up for Rach.
Friday morning...another trip. Today we were scheduled to be picked up by a taxi at 8:00am and drive to Jayapura (about an hour away) to do the next step in getting our one year visas. Before we left, we were treated to a new Sophiism. Sophie looked at Rachel and said, "Mom, are you gonna die soon?" Sophie, do you know something about this trip that we don't?
We were told that we would have a bigger car than the one that took us to Vanimo because we wanted to do some shopping for the dorm while we were in Jayapura and we would need cargo space for bringing it home. Guess who came to pick us up? That's right...the same guy who took us to Vanimo. I'm beginning to think that this guy doesn't know that the car has any gears higher than 2nd. He will be driving about 45mph in 2nd gear! And the curvy roads, oofta! With all these trips we have been keeping the motion sickness medicine companies in business. Buy some stock. Let me try to describe the journey for you. Have you ever been on a roller-coaster? Have you ever been on an old wooden roller-coaster? Imagine being on one of those for an hour...with other roller-coasters passing you and honking and spewing gas fumes at you. But, we are getting used to it. Emma kept her breakfast to herself this time and Cale is beginning to think this is what we are going to do every day.
We met Pak Flipus at the Immigration office at about 9:30. He is the go-between for the school in regards to government matters. He had all our paperwork ready for u
s to sign. After the signatures came the fun part - fingerprinting. I went first. They inked me up and had me press on two different papers. I looked around the office and noticed that there was nothing for me to wipe my hands with. Good thing we've had children and I have a wife who comes prepared. What did we ever do before we had wipes? Cale was after me and he did remarkably well. He actually thought it was pretty cool. "Mom and Dad WANT me to get my hands dirty?" It was at this point in the game that I thought it probably wasn't the best idea to dress Cale in white that day. His clothes actually came through unscathed.
After the Immigration office we headed over to the police station for more fingerprinting and profiling. We got inked up again and this time they had us sit next to them as they looked at us and wrote dow
n a description of what we looked like (i.e. hair color, eye color). They even asked Wyatt if he had ears (maybe his hair is getting a little long). And Indonesia now has on record that I have a tattoo. I think that info took Pak Flipus by surprise. After all this we were very hot, tired, and hungry. Cale was way past naptime, so we decided to go to the KFC, eat lunch and head home. We weren't going to go shopping, especially since we didn't have any room in the vehicle for the food. Next time you're in town we'll take you to the KFC. It's really nice. They even serve your food on nice porcelain plates. And the french fries...pretty good.
I've always thought of myself as a person who is open to change. I've done my fair share of changing in life. I tell people that I was born on the West coast, raised on the East coast, and I ended up in the middle. Now God has me on the other side of the world. Sometimes it all seems so surreal. But as we've been over here we've had to be very flexible (you've probably noticed that in Rachel's previous writings). And God keeps flexing us. This past week's adventures have expanded my comfort zone even more. And hopefully, as my comfort zone expands, God will be able to use me more.
Thanks for praying,
Garth for the fam.
Friday morning...another trip. Today we were scheduled to be picked up by a taxi at 8:00am and drive to Jayapura (about an hour away) to do the next step in getting our one year visas. Before we left, we were treated to a new Sophiism. Sophie looked at Rachel and said, "Mom, are you gonna die soon?" Sophie, do you know something about this trip that we don't?
We were told that we would have a bigger car than the one that took us to Vanimo because we wanted to do some shopping for the dorm while we were in Jayapura and we would need cargo space for bringing it home. Guess who came to pick us up? That's right...the same guy who took us to Vanimo. I'm beginning to think that this guy doesn't know that the car has any gears higher than 2nd. He will be driving about 45mph in 2nd gear! And the curvy roads, oofta! With all these trips we have been keeping the motion sickness medicine companies in business. Buy some stock. Let me try to describe the journey for you. Have you ever been on a roller-coaster? Have you ever been on an old wooden roller-coaster? Imagine being on one of those for an hour...with other roller-coasters passing you and honking and spewing gas fumes at you. But, we are getting used to it. Emma kept her breakfast to herself this time and Cale is beginning to think this is what we are going to do every day.
We met Pak Flipus at the Immigration office at about 9:30. He is the go-between for the school in regards to government matters. He had all our paperwork ready for u
s to sign. After the signatures came the fun part - fingerprinting. I went first. They inked me up and had me press on two different papers. I looked around the office and noticed that there was nothing for me to wipe my hands with. Good thing we've had children and I have a wife who comes prepared. What did we ever do before we had wipes? Cale was after me and he did remarkably well. He actually thought it was pretty cool. "Mom and Dad WANT me to get my hands dirty?" It was at this point in the game that I thought it probably wasn't the best idea to dress Cale in white that day. His clothes actually came through unscathed.After the Immigration office we headed over to the police station for more fingerprinting and profiling. We got inked up again and this time they had us sit next to them as they looked at us and wrote dow
n a description of what we looked like (i.e. hair color, eye color). They even asked Wyatt if he had ears (maybe his hair is getting a little long). And Indonesia now has on record that I have a tattoo. I think that info took Pak Flipus by surprise. After all this we were very hot, tired, and hungry. Cale was way past naptime, so we decided to go to the KFC, eat lunch and head home. We weren't going to go shopping, especially since we didn't have any room in the vehicle for the food. Next time you're in town we'll take you to the KFC. It's really nice. They even serve your food on nice porcelain plates. And the french fries...pretty good.I've always thought of myself as a person who is open to change. I've done my fair share of changing in life. I tell people that I was born on the West coast, raised on the East coast, and I ended up in the middle. Now God has me on the other side of the world. Sometimes it all seems so surreal. But as we've been over here we've had to be very flexible (you've probably noticed that in Rachel's previous writings). And God keeps flexing us. This past week's adventures have expanded my comfort zone even more. And hopefully, as my comfort zone expands, God will be able to use me more.
Thanks for praying,
Garth for the fam.
September 13, 2007 - No Earthquake here
DO NOT WORRY-WE DID NOT FEEL THE EARTHQUAKE!!!!!! Some of you are saying "Oh, phew, Praise the Lord!" and some of you are saying "What earthquake?" There was an earthquake in Jakarta that registered 8.2 but we are about an 8 hour flight from there.
Garth had an adventure today. He went to the pasar with me for the first time. The pasar is the market where we can get fruits and veggies etc. It is a labyrinth of booths with many unique smells and sounds. Sorry we did not take the camera there cuz the batteries were so low. NEXT TIME.
We spent the day unpacking and then repacking for our trip tommorrow, going to the pasar, and cooking, and peeling eggs and potatoes ( for the Junior class they are in charge of the meal tomorrow.) I am excited about the meal.. It is real Ballpark hotdogs from the states. YEAH!! Then I went to a parents meeting for Juniors and Seniors that are interested in attending colleges. Don, you will be interested to know that one of our dorm girls will be going to Wheaton College in the fall of 08.
Cale got sick today, of course right after we got him out of the bath and had his clean clothes on he started throwing up. But when can you ever plan those kinds of things? So now I am wondering if maybe Emma had a flu bug and not just motion sickness and now Cale has it. Either way I hope no one is puking on the car ride tomorrow. We will be going back to Jayapura to the police station to get fingerprinted so that we can get our visas. Yes, we were just there yesterday and asked ahead of time if it could be done while we were there, but for some reason it couldn't. So we have an hour drive there and an hour drive back which won't be bad if no one is car sick. So pray for calm tummies. Oh, I wanted to mention that yesterday we laid Cale down at about 3:30 pm and he slept until 9:00 am the next morning. Like 18 hours. He was making up for 2 days of no naps and now he is sick and will have a no nap day again tomorrow.
O.K. there is a balding yet HARRY guy in Wisconsin that keeps misplacing our blog address-would you tattoo it on your arm already on a nice ANGle so you can read it?
http://anearfulfromtheericksons.blogspot.com Bookmark it or put it in your favorites so you have it.
Off to bed.
Love to all,
Rachel
Garth had an adventure today. He went to the pasar with me for the first time. The pasar is the market where we can get fruits and veggies etc. It is a labyrinth of booths with many unique smells and sounds. Sorry we did not take the camera there cuz the batteries were so low. NEXT TIME.
We spent the day unpacking and then repacking for our trip tommorrow, going to the pasar, and cooking, and peeling eggs and potatoes ( for the Junior class they are in charge of the meal tomorrow.) I am excited about the meal.. It is real Ballpark hotdogs from the states. YEAH!! Then I went to a parents meeting for Juniors and Seniors that are interested in attending colleges. Don, you will be interested to know that one of our dorm girls will be going to Wheaton College in the fall of 08.
Cale got sick today, of course right after we got him out of the bath and had his clean clothes on he started throwing up. But when can you ever plan those kinds of things? So now I am wondering if maybe Emma had a flu bug and not just motion sickness and now Cale has it. Either way I hope no one is puking on the car ride tomorrow. We will be going back to Jayapura to the police station to get fingerprinted so that we can get our visas. Yes, we were just there yesterday and asked ahead of time if it could be done while we were there, but for some reason it couldn't. So we have an hour drive there and an hour drive back which won't be bad if no one is car sick. So pray for calm tummies. Oh, I wanted to mention that yesterday we laid Cale down at about 3:30 pm and he slept until 9:00 am the next morning. Like 18 hours. He was making up for 2 days of no naps and now he is sick and will have a no nap day again tomorrow.
O.K. there is a balding yet HARRY guy in Wisconsin that keeps misplacing our blog address-would you tattoo it on your arm already on a nice ANGle so you can read it?
http://anearfulfromtheericksons.blogspot.com Bookmark it or put it in your favorites so you have it.
Off to bed.
Love to all,
Rachel
Wednesday, September 12, 2007
This was our view of the ocean as we were driving 
Walking to the ocean from the consulate
Naked as a PNGer
Thatch house
Mommy found ice cream bars-I thought it was lipstick 
God made some awesome scenery
Cale being a goof ball at the border-He doesn't know, but as soon as he turns around all of the people are just waiting to pinch his cheeks and rub his hair September 12, 2007 - PNG - What a ride!
"The Tale of Two Erickson's"- (well, actually 6 Erickson's). We are safely home from Papua New Guinea. I bought a hat to prove I was really there. What a trip!! It began when our 6 am taxi didn't get here until 7:15 am. The taxi was a 6 passenger car with
no trunk and there were 8 of us and luggage, a playpen and a carseat. It was tight. AND...even though we all took anti-motion medicine, Emma got quite sick and was puking. This is Emma- throwing up with her head in the bag saying "Mom, it feels like my head is being cut off!!!" She has always been the dramatic one. SO, that was a long 2 hours to the border. The driver would just pull over and put the barf bag on the side of the road and keep driving. Everything went 
well with all of our passports and then we walked over. Richard was our taxi driver from there and he showed up with a pickup truck ( which was great for the luggage) but tight for all of our bodies. And another hour or so over rain water covered bridges, (Richard counted 23 of them). PNG is SO differnet than Indonesia. The houses were thatch instead of cement and up on stilts. The jungle is amazingly thick and the trees just keep going and going up to the sky. They have cicadas there all the time. So that was a familar sound. They do speak English and pigeon so many of them could understand us. However, Cale kept speaking to them in Indonesian- they looked the same to him. The PNGers kept touching us and rubbing our faces and hair. We were the only white skinned people there except for a young couple that we met at the border from California. They have been backpacking through Asia for 10 months and are headed towards Sentani so we may see them again. There were a few people that followed us and took videos of us.
We did encounter some problems. The hotel that our friend Andy called and made us reservations at said that they had no record of it and that they were full. Along with the other hotel in town. Those were our two choices since we didn't have
any transportaion. Those hotels would be close to the market, the ocean, the consolate, restuarants...but we had to find something else. So we found a place way up on the top of the mountain that let us stay for 96 kina, they said at first, then 196 kina, then they said it would be 396 kina. They told us that after we had showered and gotten ready for bed and Cale was already asleep. They said we would have to move. But we managed to sweet talk her and plead our case (plus I gave her one of the Good Housekeeping magazines someone had just given me) So she let us stay for 196 kina. Thank you Lord!!! The only problem was there was no food. Thankfully I brought some snacks and we just tried to make it hold us over.
God sent me an angel yesterday. We turned in all of our visa stuff and they g
ave us a stack of papers to fill out. So we walked from the consolate to the ocean (Pacific) so the kids could play while I filled them all out. I had grabbed a pen to use and half -way through the first form the pen ran out. Now this is in the middle of nowhere-I had a time crunch to get these forms filled out, and no pen. I looked behind me and there were two PNG ladies sitting there watching me. I asked them if they had a pen and one of them did. Praise the Lord again!! If you knew where I was sitting and the odds of someone right by me having a pen you would have been as blown away as I was. She was an angel! While we were on the beach 4 little kids were running around us, staring. Brenda, you will love this story...One little boy, Max only had a shirt on, nothing else
. I could tell that Sophie was watching him and after awhile she said to me, "Mom, is, that part of his shorts?" I said "Uh, No." She said "His privates are hanging out!"
And Emma's funny line of the trip, "Mom, I can't see my eyeballs." The kids really did great considering the circumstances. Cale had 2 days of no naps. It was hard for all of us but they hardly complained. Our taxi driver, Richard, took us to a supermarket today and I found ice cream bars so there are 2 pictures on the blog of us enjoying them with him.
We asked a young couple that teaches at the school here to stay at the dorm while we were gone and we were told that it went well. So that is a relief. We missed the kids. Wyatt picked pieces of coral out of the ocean for each kid, and he
thinks that he found a bloody shark tooth, so he is pretty excited about that. They can't wait to go back to the ocean.. That was the highlight of the trip.
I was reminded on this trip how patient Garth is. I am patient to a point and then I just don't feel like being patient anymore. I am constantly reminding myself to work on that. Still, even though I am here, I expect things to kind of go as I planned. That is so not the Papua way. They have their own set of rules here. Things will get done when they get done and time is never a factor. I have a hard time reprogramming my brain that way. I am so time focused. I am still in the frame of mind "Hurry up, hurry..." I need to just slow down. I am reading a great book about that right now called Breathe by Keri Wyatt Kent. Hopefully I will learn from this culture and this book to slow down so I don't miss what I am supposed to notice.
O.k. I can't wait to sleep in my bed tonight. We had 4 twin beds for all of us in the hotel last night. Try sleeping like that...with things crawling around. Makes you really appreciate your own bed.
World's apart-still in our heart,
Rachel
no trunk and there were 8 of us and luggage, a playpen and a carseat. It was tight. AND...even though we all took anti-motion medicine, Emma got quite sick and was puking. This is Emma- throwing up with her head in the bag saying "Mom, it feels like my head is being cut off!!!" She has always been the dramatic one. SO, that was a long 2 hours to the border. The driver would just pull over and put the barf bag on the side of the road and keep driving. Everything went 
well with all of our passports and then we walked over. Richard was our taxi driver from there and he showed up with a pickup truck ( which was great for the luggage) but tight for all of our bodies. And another hour or so over rain water covered bridges, (Richard counted 23 of them). PNG is SO differnet than Indonesia. The houses were thatch instead of cement and up on stilts. The jungle is amazingly thick and the trees just keep going and going up to the sky. They have cicadas there all the time. So that was a familar sound. They do speak English and pigeon so many of them could understand us. However, Cale kept speaking to them in Indonesian- they looked the same to him. The PNGers kept touching us and rubbing our faces and hair. We were the only white skinned people there except for a young couple that we met at the border from California. They have been backpacking through Asia for 10 months and are headed towards Sentani so we may see them again. There were a few people that followed us and took videos of us.We did encounter some problems. The hotel that our friend Andy called and made us reservations at said that they had no record of it and that they were full. Along with the other hotel in town. Those were our two choices since we didn't have
any transportaion. Those hotels would be close to the market, the ocean, the consolate, restuarants...but we had to find something else. So we found a place way up on the top of the mountain that let us stay for 96 kina, they said at first, then 196 kina, then they said it would be 396 kina. They told us that after we had showered and gotten ready for bed and Cale was already asleep. They said we would have to move. But we managed to sweet talk her and plead our case (plus I gave her one of the Good Housekeeping magazines someone had just given me) So she let us stay for 196 kina. Thank you Lord!!! The only problem was there was no food. Thankfully I brought some snacks and we just tried to make it hold us over.God sent me an angel yesterday. We turned in all of our visa stuff and they g
ave us a stack of papers to fill out. So we walked from the consolate to the ocean (Pacific) so the kids could play while I filled them all out. I had grabbed a pen to use and half -way through the first form the pen ran out. Now this is in the middle of nowhere-I had a time crunch to get these forms filled out, and no pen. I looked behind me and there were two PNG ladies sitting there watching me. I asked them if they had a pen and one of them did. Praise the Lord again!! If you knew where I was sitting and the odds of someone right by me having a pen you would have been as blown away as I was. She was an angel! While we were on the beach 4 little kids were running around us, staring. Brenda, you will love this story...One little boy, Max only had a shirt on, nothing else
. I could tell that Sophie was watching him and after awhile she said to me, "Mom, is, that part of his shorts?" I said "Uh, No." She said "His privates are hanging out!"And Emma's funny line of the trip, "Mom, I can't see my eyeballs." The kids really did great considering the circumstances. Cale had 2 days of no naps. It was hard for all of us but they hardly complained. Our taxi driver, Richard, took us to a supermarket today and I found ice cream bars so there are 2 pictures on the blog of us enjoying them with him.
We asked a young couple that teaches at the school here to stay at the dorm while we were gone and we were told that it went well. So that is a relief. We missed the kids. Wyatt picked pieces of coral out of the ocean for each kid, and he
thinks that he found a bloody shark tooth, so he is pretty excited about that. They can't wait to go back to the ocean.. That was the highlight of the trip.I was reminded on this trip how patient Garth is. I am patient to a point and then I just don't feel like being patient anymore. I am constantly reminding myself to work on that. Still, even though I am here, I expect things to kind of go as I planned. That is so not the Papua way. They have their own set of rules here. Things will get done when they get done and time is never a factor. I have a hard time reprogramming my brain that way. I am so time focused. I am still in the frame of mind "Hurry up, hurry..." I need to just slow down. I am reading a great book about that right now called Breathe by Keri Wyatt Kent. Hopefully I will learn from this culture and this book to slow down so I don't miss what I am supposed to notice.
O.k. I can't wait to sleep in my bed tonight. We had 4 twin beds for all of us in the hotel last night. Try sleeping like that...with things crawling around. Makes you really appreciate your own bed.
World's apart-still in our heart,
Rachel
Monday, September 10, 2007
September 10, 2007 - Contentment is not a result of your circumstances
I am a little bit nervous right now about our big trip tomorrow. We are going to Vanemo, Papua New Guinea to get our visas (hopefully). A taxi is picking us up at 6 am to drive to the border (2 hours). Another family was going to go with us and they speak Indonesian so that would have been helpful, however they can not go as they were not able to get their travelling visas to go in time. So there is a man, Pak Barenz that will meet us there and help us on the Indonesian side. Then we get in another taxi (or bus) and drive 45 minutes to the consolate office in PNG. We need to turn in our papers and wait. The plan is that by the next day we should be able to get our visas. We will be staying overnight in a "hotel". And then coming back the next day. We will be close to the beach so hopefully we get cooled off in the Pacific Ocean. I am nervous because the whole ordeal could be a short process or a long process depending on whoever is in charge that day. We will not be able to drink the water there, not even to rinse off our toothbrushes, so I am bringing a bunch of bottled water. If it only takes a day or two I will have enough stuff packed but if it goes too much longer we will have to buy some stuff there-somewhere. So I am nervous about all that. Many of us get car sick in Wis. and here the roads are terrible and the drivers are crazy-but I bought some Indonesian motion sickness syrup that we can take before we leave, and some ginger candies to suck on. If you wouldn't mind, pray for us throughout the day as you think of us. It will be long and hot, and Cale will miss his naps...Thanks.
I keep thinking about a saying I had up on my fridge back home"Contentment is not a result of your circumstances." It is something you have inside. My contentment comes from my relationship with Jesus and really has nothing to do with where I am living and what is going on around me. Jesus can help me feel content even when I am smacking bugs, or wiping the buckets of sweat off my forehead, or sitting with a dorm girl that just twisted her ankle in a volleyball game...He can help me IF I let Him. That is what I am trying to do.
So I need to go off to bed because our morning will come real quick tomorrow.
God bless you,
Rachel
I keep thinking about a saying I had up on my fridge back home"Contentment is not a result of your circumstances." It is something you have inside. My contentment comes from my relationship with Jesus and really has nothing to do with where I am living and what is going on around me. Jesus can help me feel content even when I am smacking bugs, or wiping the buckets of sweat off my forehead, or sitting with a dorm girl that just twisted her ankle in a volleyball game...He can help me IF I let Him. That is what I am trying to do.
So I need to go off to bed because our morning will come real quick tomorrow.
God bless you,
Rachel
Sunday, September 9, 2007
September 9, 2007 - Pepper Boy
You can all start calling Cale "Pepper Boy" if you want. Somehow today he got ahold of a big container of pepper, got the top off and then dumped it on himself, on his arms and hands and then in his eye. Oh, and all over the floor. What a mess! He was quite uncomfortable until I washed it all out of his eye. Surprisingly though he never sneezed.
It was fun today playing volleyball with a bunch of our dorm kids. I haven't played in so long and I loved every minute of it. Then tonight , the little kids had soccer and then we watched the highschool kids play soccer. They have 5 teams here that play just for fun every Sunday night. You would think that the ball is glued to their feet the way they maneuver it through crowds of people. They used moves I have never seen before. I can't wait for soccer season to begin so we can watch them play with the Indonesians.
You know, today I was reflecting on the things I like and don't like about Indonesia and I decided to stop before I had really began because I don't want to look at this experience that way. Then I might be tempted to compare what list was longer and dwell on the things I don't like. That only takes my focus off of the whole ministry. I want to accept this as one big experience, not just a list of things I am having a hard time getting used to. God can help me overlook those things or just help me get used to them. But I will tell you , spending time with these dorm kids really helps me forget about the things I don't like. They are definitely not on my list.
We had a pleasant surprise today. We got a phone call here from 2 girls that were in our youth group back in WI. We were able to talk to each other for about 12 minutes. I won't mention their names because they failed to ask their parents permission first, and I don't want to get them in trouble!!!!!
Wait till they get that phone bill!?!
The Indonesian meal that I made with some dorm kids turned out good. I was happily surprised.
Tomorrow will be crazy for us. We have so much to do to get ready for our trip to Vanemo on Tuesday, so I need to go to bed.
Love to all,
Rachel
It was fun today playing volleyball with a bunch of our dorm kids. I haven't played in so long and I loved every minute of it. Then tonight , the little kids had soccer and then we watched the highschool kids play soccer. They have 5 teams here that play just for fun every Sunday night. You would think that the ball is glued to their feet the way they maneuver it through crowds of people. They used moves I have never seen before. I can't wait for soccer season to begin so we can watch them play with the Indonesians.
You know, today I was reflecting on the things I like and don't like about Indonesia and I decided to stop before I had really began because I don't want to look at this experience that way. Then I might be tempted to compare what list was longer and dwell on the things I don't like. That only takes my focus off of the whole ministry. I want to accept this as one big experience, not just a list of things I am having a hard time getting used to. God can help me overlook those things or just help me get used to them. But I will tell you , spending time with these dorm kids really helps me forget about the things I don't like. They are definitely not on my list.
We had a pleasant surprise today. We got a phone call here from 2 girls that were in our youth group back in WI. We were able to talk to each other for about 12 minutes. I won't mention their names because they failed to ask their parents permission first, and I don't want to get them in trouble!!!!!
Wait till they get that phone bill!?!
The Indonesian meal that I made with some dorm kids turned out good. I was happily surprised.
Tomorrow will be crazy for us. We have so much to do to get ready for our trip to Vanemo on Tuesday, so I need to go to bed.
Love to all,
Rachel
Cale getting a new "do."
Nice step stool, Cale.
Lydia's 18th birthday.
Dance, dance revolution!
Our first Friday night volleyball game. We won!
But Korey turned her ankle...bad.
Next birthday...Sungsu!!
Emma got her first motorcycle ride with Lexie and Uncle Jason.
Do you think Cale will learn not to put pepper in his own eyes? Hope so.
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