Garth and I sat down the other day with Bill and Aimee, a couple that will be taking over the new hostel as of the middle of Feb. They have never been dorm parents before so they had a lot of questions. We are not entirely sure that the hostel will be completed by then, but hopefully things will get done quickly here at the end. My Dad helped paint when he was here, but there is still quite a bit to be done. The family has 3 kids close in age to ours, 10, 7, and 5. We met with them at our house and only after about an hour when I took them into our kitchen to introduce them to our pembantu’s did I see the look on Poppi’s face. She looked horrified. She explained to me later that she thought that I was so sad about my family leaving that I was going to go home and that this couple was going to be the new dorm parents for this hostel. Poppi said she was trying to listen to all of the English words to see if she heard any she knew. She heard me saying “dorm parents” but didn’t understand the other stuff I was saying. She was so relieved when I explained it all. She has really softened with me since we first came. After my family left I laid low that whole day. The next morning I was in the kitchen when Ibu Poppi and Ibu Yulli came in. Poppi looked at me and said, “You o.k., Ibu?” I said I was o.k. and they both gave me a big hug. That is huge! House help rarely shows that much emotion or affection for their boss. I was really touched. Today I made all 4 of our helpers cards and printed out pictures that my Mom had taken of them when she was here and gave it to them as a thank you. It is wonderful to see how much a small act like that makes a big difference to them.
Today I went to help Jason take care of Yanis’ foot. In case you don’t remember, Yanis said that Satan threw him into the fire and his leg and foot got badly burned and started to gangrene. He has been getting treatment now for 11 days and we are starting to see improvement. I was a bit queasy today when I was helping Jason, but I need to learn what to do because Jason will be gone for about a week in Jakarta and I said I would do it for him. It will be a stretch for me. I love medical stuff, but this is all open skin on his foot and up his leg-just open skin and sores. I have never seen anything like it.
On a much different note, most of you don’t know that I have been doing book reviews for a magazine for over a year (and loving it). I wasn’t sure however, if the editor would let me keep doing it here since it would be difficult to send me the books. He did decide though, that he would let me, we just have to figure out exactly how it would work. My dream is to have some of my children’s books published, but this is a great place for me to start. I am very thankful that he will let me continue.
We sat down today as a family and told the kids that we would like them to think, and pray about whether or not we should stay another year. We asked for their feelings and got pros and cons on both sides. They all mentioned things they miss back home and things they would miss here if we left. We mentioned that this cannot be a decision based on feelings. It needs to be decided because we all feel like it is what God wants for us. We had some good discussions and said that we would gather again in a few days and decide. Please pray for us that we would know for sure. I have been praying that God would be real to the kids and not just a Being. I talked to them about how the more time you spend with someone, the more you know them and what they like. It is the same way with God. I also said that if they are in the other room and I whisper for them they might not hear me. But if they are sitting next to me they will hear everything I say. So the closer they are to God the easier it is to hear what He is telling us to do. Garth was talking about how God always wants what is best for us and just because we obey doesn’t mean our way will be easy. Every step of our journey is for a reason and will teach us and help us grow if we are willing. So we can’t just decide based on what we think will be the easiest, but on what God thinks would be best.
This is tough because it is such a HUGE decision-please pray for us. Thanks.
Oh, and pray for my family too. They are still adjusting to the time change. Right now it is 3:30 a.m. and Mom is writing emails and Dad is working on taxes. Carlena too.
LOVE YOU-
Rachel
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