Lagoon

This Saturday we went to the beach called Amay.  It was not the trash beach that we went to last time.  In fact this is one of my favorite beaches.  It has a very large fresh water lagoon that flows into the ocean with a soft sandy bottom.  It is so nice to have fresh water to rinse off all the grime and sand of the ocean in.  The waves were quite large there and were knocking me over.  So without even trying I wound up with sand in my suit and thanks to my sunscreen, stuck on my face as well.  It became at times uncomfortable and so after a few dips in the lagoon I felt so refreshed and comfortable again.  You know, life can get grimy and gross at times.  All of our mess ups and mistakes can really make our lives a mess.  But God’s great forgiveness is even more refreshing than the lagoon.  He is there to help make everything clean again.  He will give us a fresh start each time.  I am not saying that we have a free chance to screw up as much as we want and then ask for forgiveness and do it again and again.  That is not the way to live the abundant Christian life.  What I am saying is, when you mess up, don’t walk around carrying that grime, feeling bad and kicking yourself for messing up.  Go to the lagoon.  Go to God.  He is waiting for you and me to make a fresh start.

Shirts

We see the funniest shirts here.  The T-shirt makers try real hard to make the shirts look American but they do not know English so the wording is always wrong.  Below is a picture of what I am talking about.  Also some pictures of Cale out and about Sentani.  We do have car carts in one store!  That makes us feel right at home-like shopping at Wal-Mart (O.k., Not really-the cleanliness level is nothing like Wal-Mart, or the smell…)

I just got back from watching Wyatt’s first soccer game.  He is now on a team and has practices twice a week and games every Friday.  His team won and he scored one of the goals tonight.  That was exciting!  Cale of course, was hanging out by the girls bench, flirting…

Sophie had a presentation today in her class on the rain forest.  That was a fun project.  She learned a lot of new things and it was especially interesting since we are living so close to the forests she was studying.

We are watching some extra kids this weekend while their parents are away, and taking the dorm to the beach tomorrow which means I have lots to do and need to say Good-bye.

Love you all

Rachel

Hey

Hello to you from way over here.  How are ya doin’?  I wanted to send you some pictures of our last few days.  The Senior class had some fundraisers on Saturday.  One of them was a slip-in-slide.  That was so much fun for Cale.  Also we have been having quite a bit of rain lately which always makes for great puddles (which Cale is attracted to like a bug to the light!). Also, if you look closely at the picture of the raindrop that Garth took you can see the reflection of a palm tree in the drop.  Isn’t God so super cool?

A picture of my Growing up too fast daughter Emma…She has started asking to borrow my clothes.  I knew this day would come, but not so fast!  Cale wanted to type you an email just like “Mommy does.”

We also had another dorm birthday this week.  One of the girls we have from Germany, Julia, turned 16.  So we celebrated with Apple pie, peach pie and jell-o cream bars. Yummy!  Hope your day is delicious!

Love you

Rachel

Slow Motion

Today was one of those days where I think I got out on the wrong side of the bed.  This morning I felt like I was doing stuff in slow motion.  It took me forever to get through everything before church.  Then after church I was trying to get lunch on the table for everyone and I spilled a whole pitcher of water.  Then I dropped my bowl of soup into the container of rice.  And now, while I was making dinner, I picked up a cookie sheet that I had JUST taken out of the oven (What was I thinking?) and I burned both of my hands!  The other day I was trying to plug in some bad Indonesian Christmas lights and I got shocked.  So I thought it was because of the way I was holding it… so after I recovered from the shock, I tried again and got shocked even worse-of course it was a 220v plug!  Maybe I killed some essential brain cells with those shocks and that is why I keep having trouble today…

Anyways, we had a nice long weekend.  The kids were all off school on Friday so we did something special and had pizza.  On Saturday, a bunch of the Westerners here got together and had a big Barang sale (Garage sale-except it was in the tennis courts.)  That is so fun for me.  I am such a sucker for books.  I bought a ton of books.  That is about all.  Oh, and a stethoscope.  I love medical stuff as well.  The girls have been taking turns listening to the kitties heartbeats. 

Well, we happily have internet again.  Yahoo!  Do you want more good news?  My wonderful Niece, Annie slept 7 hours last night!  What a good girl!  I was holding a baby today in church and said to Cale, “Cale, look what I found.”  And he said, “Is it ours now?”  Haha.    Babies are such a blessing.  I am sooo glad we have a new one in our family.

Time to go-

Love you all

Rachel

Today at the Hostel

Today was a big day for the hostel.  We finally got our new stove!  And come to find out, there are two new stoves.  The guy that bought them for us couldn’t get one big one so he bought one sort of large and one small.  That installation took all morning.  It will be so nice when it is finished.  One oven is Indonesian made so the manual was all in Indonesian.  But the other one said “Made in Italy.” And the manual did have some English in it.  So I have been trying to figure it all out so I can teach the dorm kids and the pembantus.  Cale has had a blast playing with the boxes.  I made him a fort and he loves it.

Also today, our internet got fixed.  YEAH!  It hasn’t been working for a few days.  It is such a strange feeling when I have no way to connect with the world.  I am so glad it is working again.

Tomorrow is the last volleyball Games of the season.  The kids are playing against the parents.  I was asked to play since some of the dorm kids are on the teams.  That should be interesting.

Time for bed.

Love you all

Rachel

Our Weekend

Our internet has been down lately.  Garth will take this email up to the computer lab to see if he can send it.  Just in case it works, I thought I would check in and see how you all have been doing.  I heard there was a little bit of snow coming down by you.  WOW!  That seems early.  The other day Sophie was supposed to draw a snowman and she couldn’t remember what one looked like so she drew a man laying on the ground with snow falling on him.

Let me tell you what has been going on in our neck of the woods-

Thursday-Volleyball tournaments started.  Garth had to do a lot of refereeing and coaching.

Friday-We attended a Ballroom Dancing class put on by one of the missionary families.  That was really interesting.  I needed a taller partner,  I was trying to dance with Cale…haha.

Friday - Cale had his “school.”

Wyatt’s class had a performance.

Cale and I cooked up some pumpkins.  I let him scoop out all the seeds.  He thought it was so cool!  And then more volleyball.

Saturday- From 2:30 until 11 pm there were volleyball tournaments going on.  Talk about a long day for those kids!  But they did great-none of our teams won in the final round, but they played really well together and were much improved.  The Indonesian rules for volleyball allow the players to use their feet.  Many of them play barefoot and all of them use their feet to kick the ball up when it is too low to reach with their hands.  It is very amusing to watch.

Sunday- Was a nice relaxing day with not much going on.  It was perfect after a long late weekend.  I made taco salad using my sister-in-law Brenda’s recipe.  (The kids all say “Thanks you” for the recipe – they LOVED the salad).  Of course I had to make a few adjustments since there are certain things we can’t get here but it was delish!

Everybody hug Wyatt!

That is the end of the page so I must say Good-bye.  Hope you are all well.

Love you-Rachel

Bubbles and Beaches

My three year old Cale taught himself how to blow bubbles with his bubble gum.  He was riding on the motorcycle on a long ride with Garth and by the time the ride was over, he had mastered the art of bubbles.  I remember trying to learn that.  It was hard.  And I was much older-at least 8- when I figured it out.

Ever since we went to the beach last weekend, I have been thinking about something.  Imagine a pristine beach with beautiful, clear crystal blue water and miles of soft, white sand.  Imagine that the waves are crashing gently onto the shore as birds fly overhead and dolphins dive out in the distance.  Wouldn’t a place like that just refresh your soul?

I think that is how God felt when He made us.  We can bring Him so much joy.

Yet, what do we do?  We mess up.  We have snotty attitudes or we are impatient, or have bad thoughts or hold grudges.

Maybe some of us watch things we shouldn’t or read trashy books, whatever it is, we are polluting the “beach”.  Just like this beach that we went to, Base G.  The Indonesians have polluted it so badly that we will never go back.

I bet you look at that and think, “Oh, no!  What a waste!  How sad!”  Well, what about what we are doing to our lives when we continue in sin?  We are wasting it, and IT IS SO SAD!  What must God think?  How must He feel looking at us?  I know He always looks at us in Love-such immense love that we can’t even imagine.  He doesn’t love us any less when we mess up and more when we are doing good.  But still, He didn’t create us to walk around on Earth trashing our “beach.”

He wants us to be a beautiful reflection of Him.

Love you-

Rachel

Rainstorms

What do you do when it rains?  How do you feel?

Not just literal rain, but trials, troubles, tears???  We all love a gentle rainfall because it changes things up, gives us variety, makes things look fresh again…but what about when you have a storm in your life and you can’t tell when it will end and the rain just keeps getting harder and harder and you feel overwhelmed and soaked through and through??  We run for cover to escape the rain, don’t we?

We get the best rain storms here.  I love it!  The thunder is magnified and the lightning more majestic and the storms bound over the mountains with such force you just stand amazed.  Do you know what the kids here do when it rains?  They run outside.  They want to be a part of it.  They want to soak it in.

I want to be like that.  When God hands me a trial, I want to jump into it and experience it with my mind and my heart, so when the storm is over I am more alive.  Without the rain, life would be dull.  We need the gentle rainfalls and the difficulties of the storms to understand the purpose of being.  Just as the sky reflects the rain in a rainbow, we reflect God through our life. 

Next time a storm hits you and the rain is coming down and there are puddles all around you, don’t despair.  The storm won’t last forever.  Jump in, and splash around.  The water is fine.

Love you

Rachel