There is something great going on at our church this week. We have a special group from Life Action doing meetings in the evenings at 6:30, and they have been wonderful. Last night the speaker was talking about how we all have a thirst for something (like an emptiness) in our lives and we try to fill it with different things like food, clothes, things, attention, affection, even our own busyness, etc. but that longing is never truly satisfied. It is a longing in our heart for something more. The only thing that will truly fill that hole and give us real satisfaction is God. Not the God that some people think-He is not waiting to hit us over the head with a club when we do wrong or sitting up in Heaven shaking His big, long finger at us-it is the God that loves us so much that He wants the best for us, He wants to change our life. The speaker asked, “Where is your heart?” He said, “Look at your checkbook and you will see.” He also asked, ”How thirsty am I for God?, Where do I run when I need satisfaction?” People and things will not give me true satisfaction. My heart will be restless until it rests in God.
We studied the story in John 4 about the Woman at the Well and how God cared about her even though she was living a life of sin. That story shows that if you come to God and give Him a chance, He is the One that can fill your deepest longing. It has been very good for me to hear. I often will run to other things or people instead of God or get too busy to spend quality time with God. He encouraged us to write down a list of the things that we use to try to fill our emptiness. I had 15 things on my list. I am hoping this year to work on that and change it from 15 to 0.
If you live anywhere near us and would be interested, you are welcome to come to the meetings tonight and Wednesday. It is worth it and you won’t be disappointed.
Love to all-
Rachel
Wednesday, June 25, 2008
Sunday, June 22, 2008
Donuts and Airplanes - June 21, 2008
Brewers - Orioles game - June 20, 2008
Sophie got a special birthday ice cream dish at Friday's at Miller Park.
Eating dinner at Friday's in the ballpark.
Sophie and Emma chillin' with Bernie Brewer.
Thursday, June 19, 2008
Teacher Sophie
It would have been so fun to have Sophie for a teacher. She and Emma were playing school in the living room while I was in the kitchen so I was able to eavesdrop. These are some of the highlights of Sophie’s day as teacher:
She told the students upfront that this would be the funniest day in their school lives. She said that they would have no homework just be able to color all day, and the ,”Kid that bes the goodest will get this” she said as she held up a picture she had colored. They were all instructed to draw a dog and when they finish throw all work on the ground. The girl that was bad she sent to sit by the boys and the boy that brought a snake to class was sent home. She passed out Bubble Gum and took everyone to Culver’s after school. Doesn’t that sound fun?
Garth and I had a great time working outside today on the yard. He cut down a bunch of dead branches and we cleared out an old wood pile and did a lot of burning. The weather was amazingly gorgeous with a brilliant blue sky with little wisps of occasional clouds drifting by. I am sure he will be sore later as he split many of the logs by hand, just like Pa Ingalls except without the brown suspenders.
Wyatt had a fun day over at our neighbors house. They have 3 boys. Cale slept in until 9:00 this morning so he was still up when we had a picnic lunch in the backyard.
My Grandpa is getting transferred over to a nursing home in a half hour so my Mom and I are going to meet him there and make sure he is settled alright. He wanted to go home but he needs 2 full time nurses there just to survive and that would have been difficult. We are hoping that his spirits are not down with the move. His room is full of pictures of the family and pages that the kids have colored for him so we will put all of that up in his new room. He is not doing well so keep praying for him.
Thanks.
In case you are interested, our Indonesian presentation will be at Calvary Community Church on July 6th at 6:00 p.m. You are all welcome to attend.
Love to all,
Rachel
She told the students upfront that this would be the funniest day in their school lives. She said that they would have no homework just be able to color all day, and the ,”Kid that bes the goodest will get this” she said as she held up a picture she had colored. They were all instructed to draw a dog and when they finish throw all work on the ground. The girl that was bad she sent to sit by the boys and the boy that brought a snake to class was sent home. She passed out Bubble Gum and took everyone to Culver’s after school. Doesn’t that sound fun?
Garth and I had a great time working outside today on the yard. He cut down a bunch of dead branches and we cleared out an old wood pile and did a lot of burning. The weather was amazingly gorgeous with a brilliant blue sky with little wisps of occasional clouds drifting by. I am sure he will be sore later as he split many of the logs by hand, just like Pa Ingalls except without the brown suspenders.
Wyatt had a fun day over at our neighbors house. They have 3 boys. Cale slept in until 9:00 this morning so he was still up when we had a picnic lunch in the backyard.
My Grandpa is getting transferred over to a nursing home in a half hour so my Mom and I are going to meet him there and make sure he is settled alright. He wanted to go home but he needs 2 full time nurses there just to survive and that would have been difficult. We are hoping that his spirits are not down with the move. His room is full of pictures of the family and pages that the kids have colored for him so we will put all of that up in his new room. He is not doing well so keep praying for him.
Thanks.
In case you are interested, our Indonesian presentation will be at Calvary Community Church on July 6th at 6:00 p.m. You are all welcome to attend.
Love to all,
Rachel
Monday, June 16, 2008
June 15, 2008
Happy Father's Day to all of you! I am so blessed to have been able to spend today with my Dad. He is great! If you don't know him you should meet him. I know you would love him. He helped make me who I am-for sure.
Last night we had a slumber party here as Donald and Carlena spent the night so we were all together for the day. Today we made a spectacular roast for my Dad with lots of trimmings and then had a fun time of presents and the kids put on a show and the crazy ones of the bunch made up a lovely song...I won't go into it. Then some went to the hospital to see Grandpa, and the rest of us went to a park by our old house and went to visit some neighbors we haven't seen in ages. Such fun!
Friday night we had a bonfire and were able to roast marshmallows and make S'mores. Sophie was in heaven with those S'mores. She was about to polish off her third when we stopped her. That girl has sugar in her veins instead of blood.
My Aunt and Uncle from Indiana surprised us and came for the weekend. That was wonderful! I wasn't sure how I would see them this summer so I am so glad they made the trip.
I am having so much fun being in the kitchen again!!!! You have: white eggs instead of brown eggs with bird poop all over them, powdered sugar that is not as hard as a brick, noodles that come in bags instead of making them from scratch, wheat flour, strawberries, veggies that don't have to be soaked for 20 minutes prior to eating, sour cream, cream cheese, goldfish crackers, real milk-not powdered, real vanilla instead of vanilla crystals, and I could go on and on. I am loving it!
My Aunt flew here from Indonesia to see my Grandpa, her Dad. He is not doing so well. The doctor's found out he has a tumor in his head, his kidneys are not doing well, and neither is his heart. He is such a great guy and is loved deeply by his whole family and everyone that knows him likes him. He has played semi-pro ball in Chicago and before he went off to World War 2, he tried out for one of the farm teams of the Cubs. He was called to service before he had a chance to find out if he made the team or not. While he was there he played pick up ball with Vic Wertz. Garth loves to get together with him and talk baseball. Grandpa remembers everything. Selfishly I want to pray for God to heal him, but that might not be the best thing. He is a Christian and his wife, the love of his life, passed away 4 years ago so he is eager to be with her in Heaven. I am sending a picture of my Mom and Sophie with him in the hospital. Amazingly, he got to see all 5 of his kids this weekend. I know that blessed him. Keep him in your thoughts and prayers.
Love to all-
Rachel
Last night we had a slumber party here as Donald and Carlena spent the night so we were all together for the day. Today we made a spectacular roast for my Dad with lots of trimmings and then had a fun time of presents and the kids put on a show and the crazy ones of the bunch made up a lovely song...I won't go into it. Then some went to the hospital to see Grandpa, and the rest of us went to a park by our old house and went to visit some neighbors we haven't seen in ages. Such fun!
Friday night we had a bonfire and were able to roast marshmallows and make S'mores. Sophie was in heaven with those S'mores. She was about to polish off her third when we stopped her. That girl has sugar in her veins instead of blood.
My Aunt and Uncle from Indiana surprised us and came for the weekend. That was wonderful! I wasn't sure how I would see them this summer so I am so glad they made the trip.
I am having so much fun being in the kitchen again!!!! You have: white eggs instead of brown eggs with bird poop all over them, powdered sugar that is not as hard as a brick, noodles that come in bags instead of making them from scratch, wheat flour, strawberries, veggies that don't have to be soaked for 20 minutes prior to eating, sour cream, cream cheese, goldfish crackers, real milk-not powdered, real vanilla instead of vanilla crystals, and I could go on and on. I am loving it!
My Aunt flew here from Indonesia to see my Grandpa, her Dad. He is not doing so well. The doctor's found out he has a tumor in his head, his kidneys are not doing well, and neither is his heart. He is such a great guy and is loved deeply by his whole family and everyone that knows him likes him. He has played semi-pro ball in Chicago and before he went off to World War 2, he tried out for one of the farm teams of the Cubs. He was called to service before he had a chance to find out if he made the team or not. While he was there he played pick up ball with Vic Wertz. Garth loves to get together with him and talk baseball. Grandpa remembers everything. Selfishly I want to pray for God to heal him, but that might not be the best thing. He is a Christian and his wife, the love of his life, passed away 4 years ago so he is eager to be with her in Heaven. I am sending a picture of my Mom and Sophie with him in the hospital. Amazingly, he got to see all 5 of his kids this weekend. I know that blessed him. Keep him in your thoughts and prayers.
Love to all-
Rachel
Tuesday, June 10, 2008
Finally Home! - June 9, 2008
What a GREAT week we have had! It has been soooooo fun to see everyone again. We are very blessed. It was beautiful to see our family and friends at the airport-they gave us a such a warm welcome. So many things have changed and yet some things are exactly the same. And how we feel about those we love is definitely the same. That doesn’t change over time or distance.I am LOVING being back in our house again. It is absolutely perfect. My parents have done such an amazing job on it. Being here is like therapy for the soul. Once I get used to the time change and get caught up on my sleep, my battery will get charged to overflowing. The kids are doing o.k. with the time difference-still getting up way too early, but we are working on that. It is so fun to watch them rediscover things that they forgot about. We went to Wal-Mart the other day and they were thrilled at the littlest things. Cauliflower, cantaloupe, peaches, goldfish crackers, pretzels, lemonade, donuts…Cale of course doesn’t remember any of it so for him it was like seeing it for the first time.
Our first few days were cold, temperature wise. I had to dig through our boxes downstairs looking for warm clothes. We have also had a bunch of tornado watches and warnings (which is interesting to observe because the girls pack up a bag of their favorite things and go downstairs until it is over-cute!), we have had severe thunderstorm warnings and flash flood warnings…the storms here haven’t been close to the torrential downpours of Indonesia, but it has been fun to be a part of. I love all these changes in weather, especially the cold.
So, one week ago today we had just arrived. Since then we have had various people over to reconnect, we took the kids to their old school to see friends, had lunch dates, refreshing family time, 5 doctor’s appointments, 1 dentist appointment, Sunday morning church, a special service for Garth’s ordination, a birthday party for Wyatt, a horrible bout of stomach flu that ravaged its way through our house and into our extended family, multiple trips to the hospital to visit my Grandpa, and given out about a 1001 hugs.
Our Indonesian presentation that was supposed to be last night has been rescheduled. I will let you all know of that date in case you are interested.
As I type the kids are all sitting at the table eating cereal. They are loving all of the cereal selections and real milk instead of powdered. I think they each eat like 3 or 4 bowls a day-especially Peanut Butter Cap’n Crunch and Cinnamon Toast Crunch. I am loving wheat bread and salad. I have missed that. Garth has been enjoying real potatoes and Ballpark hot dogs.
Well, thank you all for praying us safely home. It is a treat to be here!
Talk to you soon,
Rachel
We Made It! - June 4, 2008
Praise the Lord we made it! We weren’t sure for awhile there exactly what was going to happen. When we checked in at the Jakarta airport they told us that our reservations had been cancelled somehow. That is not exactly what we wanted to hear. They also mentioned that every flight out for June 1 and 2 were full. So we got together and prayed hoping for a miracle. There were 2 empty wheelchairs at the counter so the kids took turns giving Cale rides. That was a blessing while we waited. Finally they worked something out and got us on the flight. Thank you Lord. We were able to get right through customs and still make the flight. Every step of the way, God helped us. Due to the cancellation of our reservations, we didn’t have seats for our flight in San Francisco, but when we got to that counter they found us seats. Customs and immigration in California were amazingly easy. We were picked to wait while the officials went through all of our luggage, but it was a great time to do it. The kids were all refreshed from some sleep on the airplane and we had a nice bench to sit on whi
le we waited. It was a LONG trip, but the kids really did great! They got some sleep on the plane, Garth and I didn’t really, but we were able to function with patience-thankfully. We are so appreciative to you for praying for us and thinking about us during these last few days. Now, we need to adjust to the time change, and temperature difference. I am so excited to be here-we all are actually, and we will enjoy every minute.But for now, we need sleep.
Talk to you later.
Love,
Rachel
Our Travels So Far - May 31, 2008
Greetings from the capital city of Indonesia- Jakarta. We left Sentani yesterday at 9:30 in the morning flew to Timika, then to Bali and arrived in Jakarta around 4:00. Thankfully, we had decided to stay overnight at a hotel here to break up the trip a little and help us all get a good night’s sleep before two days on airplanes. It was wonderful. After a quick swim in the pool and some good healthy food from the hotel restaurant, (the kids went crazy over the broccoli and strawberries), we all got a good night’s sleep. I feel well rested and ready for our travels. Cale is taking a quick nap right now before we check out and catch the shuttle to 
the airport. He had a mishap yesterday. We were in the hotel changing for the pool. The kids were done and ready and I was still getting my shoes on. Cale ran out of our room and down the hall yelling, “Pool!” and didn’t realize there was a solid glass door there. He ran smack into the door and now has a nice goose egg in the middle of his forehead. We tried so hard not to laugh as we were consoling him. But it was hilarious.Otherwise, everyone is doing real well.
Keep praying.
See you soon.
Rachel
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