The Weekend

Our first weekend together as a dorm was spent at the beach, of course.  (Not the same beach we overnighted at.)  This beach is called Amay.  We spent the day jumping off rocks, playing water tag, building sand sculptures, wave surfing and lounging around in our hammocks.  We got up extra early and left by 7:30 so we would have the beach to ourselves.  The Indonesians usually flood the beach around 2 or so.

Friday night we watched Despicable Me together back in our Hostel apartment.  There is one room that is air conditioned and it is back in our apartment.  It is a real treat for the dormers to be able to hang out back there.  We laughed so much during that movie.  It is so funny!

I am being daily reminded about the verses God wrote in the Bible about us all being different, like the parts of the body.  One is no more important than the other, but we all need to work together for a common purpose.  That is like the Hostel kids right now.  They are very different.  Hopefully everyone will get along and enjoy each other for the last few months.

Thanks for all your prayers for us here.

Love you all-

Rachel

Racquetball

I am sitting here listening to a wonderful rainstorm falling around me.  Garth and the dorm kids are out at the pool (Not exactly the best place to be during a storm).  Hopefully they will be careful.  Cale is sleeping and Wyatt is doing some soccer stuff.  I noticed that we have our internet back so I thought I would quick write to you.

Getting through this week was better than I had originally thought.  I am so thankful that I feel so healthy right now because I needed all of my strength in the kitchen.  I feel like I lived in there a few days this week.  Haha.  Good thing I love to cook.  Our pembantu that cooks has been sick and has been gone all week so I have been filling in.  I have no idea when she will be back, so we are just taking one day at a time.

The Hostel is getting healthy again.  That makes me happy.  There are quite a few people in the community that are sick with dengue and malaria right now, so please pray for those mosquitoes to find a new place to call home.

One of my favorite ways to get exercise is by playing racquetball with Garth.  We try to get in as many games as we can here because we have no idea if we will be able to play when we get back home to America.  This week when we were playing, I was thinking about something. One part of the game is to get out of the way of your opponent.  If you are in the way it is a hinder and you have to do the play over. There are many, many times that I am in the way and I see Garth winding up to hit the ball, but my face or some other part is in the way, so he holds back and stops the shot.  Yes, my life flashes before my eyes.  (That boy can hit, hard!)  I am always so thankful that he can pull back the shot quickly so I don’t have racquet lines all over my face, or worse. I can clearly see what the results of standing in the wrong place at the wrong time would be.  I can see the consequences.  What if God allowed us to see glimpses of that?  Things like the results of us talking snippy to our husband, or being impatient with our kids, or skipping our quiet time with Him…It would be great to get a glimpse of where those actions lead over time, to see how powerful each action and decision can be.  When I am only thinking about myself, those things don’t matter.  Like in racquetball, when I am only thinking about where I want to stand-that’s when I get hit in the head.  But each poor choice, each bad action does have a consequence.  Even if we can’t see it right away. 

Love you

Rachel

My Day in the Valley

This is the first week back to school after having a month off for Christmas and New Years.  It is so wonderful to have such a long break, but it sure takes awhile to get back into the routine.  Most of the dorm kids came back on Sunday.  We have two new girls, sisters from New Zealand.  Another girl flew here on Tuesday and another one of our boys got here this morning.  Now the dormers are all here.  We have had some sickness so far with a few missing school on Tuesday.  One boy came here with a broken arm.  He had to go to Singapore to have pins put in, and then instead of putting the pins under the skin, they left them sticking out.  That way he won’t have to travel back to Singapore to have them removed.  Hopefully someone here will be able to pull them out.  So he doesn’t have a real cast on-and it is kind of weird to see the pins poking out of his skin.

I had a rough day on Tuesday….kind of a day spent in the valley instead of on the mountain.  Emma was up during the night numerous times not feeling well, and wound up staying home from school, I woke up with a cold, and had to teach preschool all morning, Another dorm girl, (one of the new ones) is sick with a fever.  I don’t know her well enough yet to know the best way to take care of her.  We also found out that we had to move everything out of the apartment we are using for Preschool that day and have it clean because a new family will be moving in to it.  So that took quite a bit of time.  We need to find a new place to have preschool by Friday.  Then Ibu Poppi asked to borrow money (even though we told her that we are no longer loaning them any money).  When we said no, she got on a motorcycle and left!  UGH!

I was reading later in Psalms 62 verses like:  “My soul finds rest in God alone…”  “He alone is my rock, I will not be shaken…”  “Find rest, O my soul, in God alone, my hope comes from Him.”  “He is my mighty rock, my refuge.  Trust in Him at all times…”  I definitely wasn’t resting in Him.  I had let the problems of my day shake me.  I was all worked up and upset.  God’s peace and rest were there for me if I was just willing to accept it.  This day would pass.  I knew that.  Tomorrow would be a new day.  Verse 8 says to “Pour out your heart to God.”  So I did that.  Then Psalm 63 says “… I earnestly seek You, God-my soul thirsts for You, my body longs for You…”  then “My soul will be satisfied…my souls clings to You…because Your love is better than life.” These problems are not all that life is.  There is so much more available for me when I decide to cling to God instead of these troubles.

Today is a new, much better day.  Thank you Lord for that.

Love you

Rachel

Our Campout in the Beach

You haven’t heard from me for a few days because I left Sentani and went to live on a little piece of Heaven.  It was so super amazing!  Our family camped out at the beach for two nights-Tuesday, and Wednesday.  Some friends of ours that are seasoned campers were going to be there Tuesday night so we joined them and then had Wednesday night all to ourselves.  Can you imagine?  What an experience!!  You take a boat out to the beach, and then have the Indian Ocean and a fresh water lagoon to swim in.  Beach fires, shell searching, snorkeling, napping in the hammock, carving swords and spears, sunsets on the beach, falling asleep to the moon on the water and thousands of stars up above, waking up to enormous clouds coming up over the mountains with the sun…spectacular!

Here are a few pictures:

I have so many more fantastic pictures of this trip that I would love to send you if you are interested.

Just  let me know.  As for now, I can’t wait to fall asleep in a bed that is not made of sand.

Love you

Rachel

Our Highlights

The highlight of this email is not the full rainbow that was over the Hostel, or the fact that “miracle” kitty died, (and stayed dead), or that Cale can make and flip pancakes now, or even the amazing clouds that were engulfing

The sky-the highlight of the day (of this week) is that Wyatt is home!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

He had a fantastic time with the village kids, hiking, swimming, climbing to a waterfall, sleeping in a hammock, and living like a Native.  He was cold the whole time, but he would love to go back and live there someday.  The experience was life changing.  He can hear words and names in other languages and remember them.  So he came home speaking many words and phrases in the Kosarek language.  I can’t wait to hear all of the stories. 

Thanks for all of your prayers for his safe journeys.  It turns out that he didn’t have to fly to Sentani all alone.  One of the dorm boys fell yesterday and broke his arm so he and his Dad flew with Wyatt.  What a blessing in disguise!  Pray for this boy, Dani, he is on his way to Jakarta and then maybe Singapore for surgery.

What a happy day in the Erickson house!

Love you-Rachel

A God Reunion

I was able to talk to Wyatt today!!!!!  It was on a SAT phone so his voice was scratchy and there was lots of static.  It was difficult to hear him clearly, so I don’t know how he is really doing.  He did say that they went to the river and took a hike to a waterfall.  I know that he has been playing soccer with a lot of the national kids and he loves that.  Each kid was able to ask him one quick thing.  Cale wanted to know if there were pigs running around his village and Wyatt said Yes.  Funny!  The best news of all is that we got Wyatt a flight to come back here on Monday!!!  I really miss him.  When our family is not together it feels so incomplete.  God worked all of that out perfectly. 

We all worked on fixing up Wyatt’s room this morning.  He will be so surprised.  Our resources here are quite limited but we were very creative with what we had.  When we went to Jayapura yesterday and ate at KFC, they served us our drinks in Pepsi cups with soccer players on them.  So we washed them out and hung them up.  Also Yesterday we found a cereal called Frosties that had pictures of soccer players on the box, so the girls and I made a garland chain of those and hung them up as well.  We hung up posters and pictures from the internet.  The girls made him a soccer ball out of Perler beads and a HUGE welcome home sign.  We even changed the picture on his clock to Ronaldo-(That is one of Wyatt’s favorite players).

You know, what I am going through right now with missing Wyatt is small compared to what God must go through when we drift away from Him.  I miss Wyatt so much my heart hurts.  I think about him all the time-Is he o.k.?  Is he hungry?  Hurt?  I think about what he would like and what he is missing.  I imagine how amazing it will be when we are all together again.  I can’t even begin to imagine how much God’s heart must break when I forget to spend time with Him, or I ignore His voice and listen to my own.  How would I feel if Wyatt walked off that plane and walked right by me-didn’t even miss me or want to acknowledge that I was there?  Oh, my Goodness!  That would be so awful!  God is right there, thinking about us all the time-waiting for us to jump back in His arms with tears running down our cheeks, squeezing Him and telling Him how much we missed Him.  When God isn’t a regular part of our lives, we are incomplete.  I know I only have to wait until Monday, but how long are you going to wait until your reunion with God?

Love

Rachel

Our Surprise Miracle

I don’t know why I keep being surprised by little miracles that happen around me, but I guess I still am.  I pray expecting answers and then when I get them I am stunned.  This morning, that cat that died yesterday, was sitting on the front stoop meowing for food.  Crazy, I know, but he was there.  Boy, did that make Emma smile!  How great is it that our God cares about things like this?!?  Thanks for praying for her.

We took the kids to Jayapura today to look for some soccer posters to put up in Wyatt’s room as a surprise for when he gets back.  Even though they got car sick on the way there, it turned out to be a fun time for us.  There are some stores in Jayapura that have food we can’t get here in Sentani: like cranberry juice, Pringles and good napkins.  We also took everyone to eat at Kentucky Fried Chicken.  That was a treat!

The day ended with a phone call saying that we may be able to get a flight for Wyatt next Monday!  Yahoo!!! 

All of these things have made Emma, and of course the rest of us, very happy.  A nice end to a good day.

Thanks for praying. 

Love-Rachel

My Emma

Today was such a tough day for Emma.  She woke up mourning the fact that Wyatt was still gone.  She and Sophie are missing him so much.  They have been walking around with his shirts on, and Emma has been wrapped up in his sarong.  Today she didn’t want to do anything but lay around.  I told her it would do her good to find a distraction, so I suggested she help me with something.  The other day one of our penjaga’s (security workers) brought us over three very young kittens.  We didn’t want them but he left them here anyways.  So, Emma has been helping me feed them with a syringe and today I thought she could help me bathe them.  She had picked one that she wanted to keep and named it Flower.  While she was helping me her cat had a seizure-bad-and shortly after that it died.  Can you believe it?  What horrible luck!  That just sent Emma over the edge.  That poor girl!  She has  such a sweet, sensitive heart.  Pray for her, please.  And for me that I am creative and wise in helping her deal with all of this.

Thanks.

Rachel

Kosarek

Wyatt left today to go into the village of a friend.  He will get there by airplane and we are not sure how long he will be there.  We haven’t gotten his flight back here yet.  This will be an amazing experience for him to  “live like a Native”.  It is one of the villages you would see in a National Geographic magazine: huts, gourds, sleeping in a hammock, a strange language and foods…The family he will be staying with said they would take lots of pictures for me to share with you.  I have to admit that I am a bit nervous about it.  He will be so far away and if we can’t get an earlier flight for him, he will be gone 2 weeks.  That is a LONG time.  But I am also excited for him.  How many kids have this type of an opportunity????

Wyatt was nervous as well, but times like this are perfect moments to trust in God for all that is unknown.  I reminded him about the times we are out in the ocean and it looks like a HUGE wave is coming our way, but when it gets to us we realize it wasn’t really that big.  It is often like that with our fears.  They seem overwhelming from a distance but as we get closer our perception is changed.  God is the one that can smooth these things out.

The village is called Kosarek and it happened to be one of the villages that Garth flew into when he took his Birthday flight last month.  (That is how we got this air shot of the area.)  This morning was spent weighing all of the bags to make sure that it was the perfect amount for the plane.  Two weeks’ worth of food and supplies for a family of six…  That would be tough to plan for!

Emma had a very hard time saying “Good-bye” to Wyatt.  Last night and today were full of much weeping on her behalf.  She and Wyatt are best friends and she will miss him terribly.  I told the girls that we could redo Wyatt’s room while he is gone and surprise him.  They already started working on it so that will help pass the time.

Pray for Wyatt to really feel God’s presence.  This will be the longest and farthest he has been away.  I know God is in control and can rest in the fact that he is safe in God’s hand, but my heart is still sad.  I do miss him.  We will be able to make contact with him every three days so we will give you updates as we hear.

Love

Rachel