Goals

Today while I was out walking I decided something that I hope you will do with me. Once Labor Day is over and school starts, there really isn’t much to celebrate between now and Thanksgiving-unless you have a birthday or anniversary etc. So I was thinking that this would be a great time to set some goals to accomplish before Thanksgiving. I am not exactly sure what mine are going to be, I need to think about it, but I am going to pick three things. Will you do it with me? Now, if you are the kind of person that has a real hard time disciplining yourself in situations like this, then be realistic. Don’t say, “Lose 30 lbs.” Make a goal that will fit you. Maybe clean out the junk drawer, or eat healthier, spend more time with my children, get to know God better, watch less TV, read more, try to be neater, try to be more organized, spend less money, exercise more…whatever is you. Pick three things. I will let you know what things I pick. If you are willing to do this with me, send me a quick email and let me know. It will be easier to have someone to keep accountable to.
We had our first Friday night games last night and the A & B team of boys and girls played. All four teams did good for their first game of the season. It takes awhile to gel as a team. I know they will keep improving. Garth is one of the coaches for the boys teams. He really likes doing that.
We are getting to know the dorm kids. They are so different from the kids last year and we are really enjoying what they are contributing to the dorm. They seem to take pleasure in our kids and Cale is quickly learning all of their names. I was able to get some gluten-free recipes off the internet for our one girl that can’t have flour, sugar, or dairy, so I will be trying those this weekend. Hopefully they will turn out or at least be edible.
Hope all of you Walworth County folks enjoyed the Fair. I REALLY miss going there, and so do the kids. If anyone wants to send us pictures we would love it.
Talk to you soon-
Rachel

Senior Salad

A little bit of humor to add joy to your day. Garth and Sophie were talking about Christmas and their favorite part of it. Sophie said she likes presents. Garth said family. He said to Sophie that someday she will grow up and move out and then they won’t be able to spend as much time together as they do now. Garth asked her if she would still come home for Christmas. She said, “Yes. I hope you are still alive then.” She has already asked me if she could have my clothes when I die. Glad it is not something that is tearing her up. That silly girl.
We just got back from the library and checked out 3 bags of books just like we always do and now Garth is reading some of them to the kids. The dorm kids are back from the beach and have a wonderful time of bonding and initiating the freshman. The seniors are always in charge of that. I hear they made up a “senior salad” full of egg shells, leftover food and live crabs and other assorted things. That was dumped on various freshman, along with other crazy stunts. I have heard only good things from the weekend.
Garth spoke in church on Sunday and did a fantastic job. I always enjoy listening to him. He spoke on Ephesians 6 on the armor of God and how we need to be equipped for battle-not with one of piece of armor, but with all of them.
I need to tell you all the answer to the riddle about what word can be written forwards, backwards, and upside down and still read the same left to right: It is NOON. I had some good guesses. One guess from a few of you was tot-I could see how that might work with a
lowercase t.
Time for bed.
Love to all-
Rachel

Cale and Daddy on the see-saw at the MAF playground.

Cale is now big enough to walk across this swinging bridge by himself.

Colorful laundry on a hot Papuan day.

This massive tree was uprooted in a wind storm at the MAF compound. All it did was crush a couple fences. If it would have fallen any other direction, buildings would have been damaged and people could have been hurt.

We had an audience at dinner time.

The kids got balloons. They were all popped by the time we got home.

Kids dressed as cows.

Trying to order pizza. Not necessarily easy.

Friends waiting for pizza.

This tree was uprooted by a windstorm.

Cale got a lift.


Here is our view from the restaurant.



Heading to Jayapura to eat pizza.

This is the main street through Sentani.

Pizza-sort of

If I tell you we went into Jayapura last night for pizza with some friends, you will get a very Americanized picture in your head of what it might be like. O.K. erase that. It is not at all American. Our drive took over an hour since there had been a bad storm and a tree uprooted itself and fell on the road. In order to go around we had to wait and then pay a guy that was standing in the street. Once we got to the pizza place, we tried to order. We were told that they were out of large pizzas, but had medium. They were out of cheese bread sticks and the dip that goes with them. They were also out of Diet Cokes. So we ordered three medium pizzas: one with just cheese, one with cheese and pepperoni, one with cheese, bacon and black olives. There was one guy in the kitchen making food for the whole restaurant. Needless to say, it took awhile. Here is what we got: One pizza with mozzarella and feta cheese with ham, one pizza with mozzarella and bacon, and one with feta and black olives. We attracted quite a crowd in the window of Indonesians wanting to see all these weird Westerners eating pizza. It was a treat though as that is the only pizza in the area. It was good and we enjoyed it. We were right by a rally that was going on in support of breastfeeding and there were kids dressed up like cows and people handing out balloons. On the way home our friends showed us a Dunkin’ Donuts. We have never gone since it is so far away. The kids each picked donuts and we were surprised with each bite. There were kiwi filled and mango filled donuts along with some frosted with peanut butter, and a few with mint. There were croissants with sprinkles and others that we had no idea what they were. All in all it was an adventurous night. Especially when Cale threw our volleyball out the van window while we were on a winding road in the dark. Luckily it didn’t cause an accident. We couldn’t go back and get it, so now we lost a great volleyball. Bummer!
We are blessed to have little chances to hang out with friends AND enjoy familiar foods that remind us of home (sort of). J
Garth is working on his sermon. He is preaching tomorrow. Yah! Wyatt is playing with a friend. Sophie and Cale are playing house and Emma is playing with the cat.
I need to go check on lunch.
Love you all-Rachel

a great driveway!
Cale watching Daddy coach volleyball
we love each other sooo much

Meet our new cat - Gypsy Oreo

Some of our dorm kids

A riddle

I am sitting here on Thursday morning – the kids are all in school and Cale is still sleeping. I thought it would be a good time to get caught up on talking to you. The whole high school just left to go to the beach for the weekend. Every year at the beginning of school they do this. It is a great time to bond together. They sleep outside and cook meals over the fire, swim, snorkel, hang out etc. They will be gone until Saturday afternoon. So right now all we have are two eighth graders and our own kids. We are just starting to get into a real routine. There has been a lot going on where kids are here and there so after beach trip we will settle down and things will be normal again. I am trying to remember how to organize it all so I am not stressed.
My head feels a little fuzzy as my night was interrupted by Emma coming in at 3 to tell me that the cat was eating a chechuk. I decided to try to grab her, (the cat), and throw her out so she wouldn’t eat that thing on the kids beds. However, she took it and went far under the bed so I couldn’t grab her. So I had to sit there and listen to her eat it while I waited for her to come back out. I was so grossed out. Finally, the little princess stuck her head out from under the bed so I could grab her. One less chechuk to worry about, but, yuck!

See if you can figure out my riddle: What word can be written forward, backward or upside down, and can still be read from left to right? Clue: Lunch time
Let’s see who can be the first one to email me the answer or write it on my Facebook wall.

I need to go. Cale is waking up. Hope your day is sunny. Mine is cloudy and dark, and full of rain clouds.
Love
Rachel

Our New Kitty

Week #1

I have officially been here now for a week. Let me recap some of the highs and lows. Highs: Getting to meet our new dorm kids, Colton, Rachelle, Brittiny, Julie, Maike, Leonart, Elizabeth, Isaiah, Beernt, SongMin (maybe), two are not here and we are not sure if they are coming. Getting to see our friends Jason and Jodi again. Watching the beautiful sunset on the hill, the freedom the kids have to run around and play, extra time with Garth, our new kitty, and the motorcycle. Lows: the giant cockroach I saw running by Wyatt on our couch, the rat I heard in our kitchen ceiling, two break-ins by thieves with machettes in the house down from us, the dead rat carcass that was hanging from our inside doorbell box (Garth thinks someone did that as a practical joke-ha, stinkin’ha), no hot water in our shower, Wyatt and Cale getting locked in to Wyatt’s room because the doorknob broke, and the waterfall on our mountain is out of water (Garth says it’s broken).
What will next week bring? It is always an adventure!!!!!
I’ll keep you posted.
Love ya,
Rachel

We need some prayer

We are having an uncharacteristically quiet weekend. All of the dorm kids are gone except for 3. This is strange. I even got to sleep in until almost 8 and then made french toast for everyone, we ran to the store for some last minute school supplies and now Cale is napping, the other kids are playing, Garth is out and I am relaxing. It is nice when God gives me snippets of time to do nothing in. It is refreshing.
This weekend is a BIG Indonesian holiday-it is their Independence Day. I was talking to Sophie about it and she said, "Mom, it is the National Day of the Appendix." There have been a bunch of parades and we even saw one float.
On a much different note: I have something I need you to pray about. There have been two break-ins up here on our hill. We do have a fence all the way around the perimeter of our property and penjagas (security guards). No one can get in from the road without going through by the gate house and then the penjagas have to open the gate for them. Well, somehow (we think that someone jumped the fence) someone got in twice and broke into two houses and stole stuff. Once during the day and they stole the laptop of a teacher that had just got here from the States. She had only been here 2 days. The thief came during teacher orientation when the house was empty. Then again last night, 3 a.m., they came in while another teacher was sleeping and stole her clothes and stuff. The penjagas heard them and scared them off. They took the clothes, but left their machetes. The second time they got through the bars we have on the windows.
Now, I am certainly not telling you this to freak you out, and I am trying not to let fear get a hold of me here either. I am just as safe here as I would be in Wisconsin because I know that God is in control. But I must admit-last night we had movie night up in our Multi-Purpose Room (everyone was up there) and I left early to take some of our kids home for bed. I was scared walking back to our house in the dark, by myself. I was going around the house turning on lights and checking rooms before I let the kids in. I need to use this as a great opportunity to trust God. Pray that I will. We still need to be careful, though, so pray that we find a good balance. And pray for the ladies that had their stuff stolen-it would be awesome if they got their stuff back and whoever stole it could find out about the forgiveness Jesus can offer.
I need you to trust us into God's control-we are in His hands, so pray don't worry.
Love you
Rachel

The Indian Ocean

Looking at the birds

A typical Indonesian store

Our hotel in Bali

Saying goodbye at the airport

It was a long flight

Sleeping in our cabana before our flight and waiting at the airport

Honesty

O.k., I know all of things I am supposed to say, and all of the things I am supposed to feel, but I told you I would be honest and so I am going to be honest. I had a really hard day today. I know in the last email I mentioned about two of our dorm kids that have specific food diets. That really frustrated me at first because I know how busy I am doing regular things, and how limited the food supply is here, how hard it will be to make separate meals for them... We have two younger kids this year which poses new challenges as well. They will need more prodding and guidance than the older ones. There are various other problem areas but I won’t list them now, three kids haven’t even shown up yet, one is stuck in Jakarta and the other two we haven’t even heard from at all. As I was sitting with each set of parents and they were going over rules and information about their children I was feeling very overwhelmed. I felt like I was bobbing in the water with only my mouth and nose barely sticking out. With each new rule I was drifting farther and farther down. So, I went in my room and cried. Then Garth came in and we talked & prayed about it. I said I needed some time to myself for awhile and I read a bit. I have been reading out of this little book called God’s Promises and Answers for Women. It is excellent. These are some of the things I read: “Seek the Lord and His strength, Seek His face evermore! Remember the marvelous works that He has done…I sought the Lord, and He heard me, And delivered me from all of my fears.” It is pretty clear what I need to do. I need to seek the strength I would need from God, and remember how many times He has helped me in the past, ask Him to help me and He will get rid of my fears.
So I started praying and I realized that both diets could have soup. That is good news. Maybe if I could just make up a bunch of soup and have it in microwave containers in the freezer then they could heat it up instead of me making something different for every meal. My fears were starting to go away. As I lay there thinking about all of this I knew that even though this year was going to be hard work, I still felt like we were going to feel more like a family this year than we did last year. That was one thing I missed. We had so many kids that had been in the hostel for so long that they were a family but we weren’t really a part of it. This year will be different. I am sure of it.
Love you all,
Rachel

August 12, 2008 - Our Crazy Day

We are here and trying to get settled in. Yesterday was a bit crazy as Garth had orientation in the morning, then we had lunch, took the kids over to some friends house for the afternoon, then Garth and I spent the next 5 hours shopping for all of the supplies needed to run a house of 18. Shopping is not an easy thing here. We went to one store and got a bunch of things, but they had no eggs, they had shampoo but no conditioner, ketchup but no mustard, sugar but no flour…so we wound up going to a bunch of stores instead of just one. Talk about culture shock. Just a few days ago I was shopping in Wal-mart where you get what you need in one stop. There is nothing like that here. Afterwards, we went over to our friends house for dinner and cooked chicken on their grill. They had found some broccoli at a store here and made a chocolate pie so that was a treat. It was a nice way to end a busy day-relaxing with friends.

Today, Garth had orientation, kids were moving in, parents were wanting to set up meetings with us regarding care for their kids, I was trying to organize the pembantus, and send one to the market, figure out lunch…crazy. We have some new challenges this year-one boy has gastritis and can’t eat seeds, or fat or oil etc. and one girl has allergies and can’t have wheat, sugar or dairy. It is going to take some creativity to figure that all out. One of our girls is stuck in Jakarta, and some of the kids will be coming late due to a funeral. One of our pilots was in a plane crash on Sunday and did not survive. You can pray for the family as you think of them-he had a wife and 5 kids. The school director’s 8 year old daughter had a bicycle accident last week and ruptured her kidney so they are in Australia for a week at a hospital there. So you can see that there is a lot going on here. I am sure you are all busy enjoying the last few days of summer before school starts. Our kids all start school tomorrow. Please pray for that transition as well.

We had a wonderful time in Bali. I am so thankful we were able to do that. Just having a break in the flight like that to get caught up on sleep and adjust was such a blessing. I think we are back in this time zone and sleeping well. I am mostly unpacked-just one more bag. Yahoo!

Almost time for lunch.

Love,

Rachel

August 9, 2008 - Hi

Hi. A quick note. I am sitting in one of the cabanas by the pool. There are two. They are big flat beds with wooden posts and white curtains hanging down on all four sides. The big kids are sleeping in one and Garth, Cale and I are in the other. They are outside right by where people can walk but so far it has been fairly quiet. If it stays quiet the kids should get about 3 maybe 3 ½ hours sleep then we have to wake them for the airport.

Our luggage is all in the lobby. I sure hope we get it all through immigration with out any problems.

Thanks for all the support you have given us. We appreciate you.

Love ya,

Rachel

Tessie poo and Eena

August 5, 2008 - In Bali

With my own small bladder and 4 small children taking them to the bathroom on the airplane could be likened to a part-time job! YES< WE MADE IT as far as Bali!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Thank you, Lord!

The short version (if you are in a hurry)
The flight was long and a little bit harried, but we arrived without many problems. We now have a few days to adjust then an overnight flight back to Papua and we will be done.

The longer version (if you have the time)
We woke up at 5:00 a.m., got ready, and left the house around 6:00 a.m. in the pouring rain for Milwaukee. Once we got there, we found out that our flight to Chicago had been cancelled due to weather. The airline said that we could take a bus and get there around 10 or 10:30. However, my WONDERFUL family decided to drive us to Chicago instead. So, we said good-bye to Tessie poo (thanks for coming) and started the drive. It was still pouring and there was an accident in our lane where a car went under a truck. That slowed the traffic down considerably. Even with one porta-potty stop at a construction site, we still made it in plenty of time-said our horrendous sobbing good-byes-and made our noon flight. I am awful at saying good-bye. It literally rips out my innards! So many wonderful people came by these last few days to wish us well, and I could list you all, but then it would be the novel version. I love and appreciate all of you, please know that. In spite of all of the turbulence, not one of us threw up this time. Yahoo! Cale did keep bumping the attendant call button, even once in the bathroom he pushed it which sent an attendant knocking and asking, “Are you alright in there? Hello? Do you need some assistance?” Whoops!
We had a seat open up next to Wyatt which gave us a little bit of extra room, our baggage went straight through which is a huge answer to prayer, and the kids were able to sleep a bit on two of the flights so that is great. We landed in Tokyo after midnight our time but around 3 in the afternoon their time. This part was a bit harried. After landing in Toyko at 3, we had to go through security and catch the shuttle over to our terminal arriving just 3 minutes before boarding. It was nice to not have a long layover, but that was cutting it a little close, especially when we were all so tired. The kids did amazing! They all helped each other, and when one of us would start to get testy, someone else would encourage them out of it. Everyone fell asleep on this flight and slept right through the meal, so by the time we landed we were all pretty hungry. Luckily, I still had some grapes and crackers and a banana and apples. There is nothing at the Indonesian airport to eat, and we were anxious to get through customs and immigration. We had all of our passport stuff and re-entry papers and our visas, so we got through rather quickly. There was one bag that they opened up and searched through but that was it. Our driver from the hotel was waiting and ready-that is unheard of! He talked to Garth the whole way about America-“Do you know the Chicago Bulls? I know Dennis Rodman. And George Bush, Ronald Reagan, and Arnold Schwarzenegger…” It is always interesting what they hear about America from TV. We arrived at the hotel at 11 and filled everything out, and checked in. We were told the restaurant was no longer serving, so we decided we would rather sleep than eat anyway and after showers everyone was out. It is amazing how much better you can sleep when you can lay down instead of being upright. At 6:00 a.m. everyone started waking up-hungry! There is a very nice breakfast here at the hotel and my kids really enjoyed it. You should see their eyes light up at all of the choices available at the buffet. It is a very Indonesian breakfast with spicy rice and meat stuffed things, but there are also eggs, and bakery items etc. so they have fun.
Right now Garth is at the pool with the kids and I am in the room putting Cale to sleep for his nap. Please pray that we are able to relax and recharge these couple of days in Bali, because once we leave we have an overnight (2:30 a.m.) flight to Sentani and then that day unpacking, sleeping, and readjusting. The next day we have to buy all of the food and supplies for the dorm kids and the following day they all come. We really need to feel ready, and not exhausted.
You guys have all helped us get here in one way or another, and so I want to say thank you. I have mixed emotions, but I know God is good and will not let us down. He brought us here for a reason and if I have a bad attitude I will miss what He wants me to see. The last few days I have had a song stuck in my head that I love and it says, “Lord, I run to you. Nobody else will do.” I have been thinking about those words, because we all run to something when we are in trouble-our friends or spouse, food, whatever we can buy etc. We are looking for things to make us feel better, but nothing with fill us like He can. I am learning that more and more.
I will keep you posted on all our ups and downs. I have decided to be more honest this year with you all. There were a lot of struggles that I left out, but I think God will use them if I let Him so I will share with you good and bad so you can see how God is working.
Love you all dearly-
Rachel

The girls made us dinner

Cale giving Sophie a "good luck" hug before the big game

Wyatt's motorbike

Swinging on Grammo's swing