Bye-bye 2013

Hi guys!  Happy New Year to you!  We have 4 hours left of 2013.  There have been massive amounts of fireworks going off the last few weeks at all hours of day and night in celebration of the new year.  They have also been shooting off bamboo cannons that are amazingly loud.  Along with that you have various pondok Natals, ( Christmas huts that blast music) and I can hear someone somewhere giving a sermon over loud speakers.  Wish you could hear what I am hearing.

We had a great day with some friends at the beach.  Except for a few kids, we were the only ones there.  We have had day after day of downpour rainstorms, but today was beautiful!  Thank you, Jesus.  It was so peaceful and exactly what we needed.  After getting cleaned up we had time for some soccer, tacos, Track Mania, homemade soft pretzels, and games-we found out during one game that Emma's version of Santa's reindeer has Vomit, and Collin.  Haha.  I don't remember those in the Christmas poem.

We are going to watch Parent Trap or Shakiest Gun in the West and then go out to our hill and watch the fireworks.  Many of the community will come up here to the hill and we all watch together.  Great fun!  The fireworks aren't quite as good as Grand Geneva's but we still enjoying them.

I hope you have a very blessed New Year.  We will try to cool off and you try to stay warm.  The last time we looked at the temperature in Wisconsin we noticed that there was a 100 degree difference between you and us!  I am sending warm wishes your way.

Love you

Our Christmas Day

Merry Christmas!  You are all celebrating right now, and we are already into tomorrow.  Are you having fun being together?  I sure hope so.  We miss family a lot but especially during the Holidays.  So, we tried to be as creative as we could to have a Merry Christmas in the green tropics of Indo. 

Here is what our Christmas looked like:

It started with a brunch ( just like we always do in Wisconsin).

Games, such as snowball toss and snowball stack (all snowballs were really rolls of toilet paper, that's as close as we get to white balls of anything).  We had Ripstick races, Christmas Carol Hot Potato, behind the back paper ripping contest, one armed gift wrapping, "Twas the Night Before Christmas steal the chair game and more.

We read through the Jesus story in Luke 2, and opened some presents.  The kids helped me bake some yummy goodies, we played some family soccer and basketball, made some hamburgers, took a walk, flew our kite and watched fireworks after the sun went down.  It was a beautiful end to Jesus' birthday.  We sat outside and enjoyed His beauty.  We feel so blessed by all the ways He keeps showing us His love.

Merry Christmas to you all!

Merry Christmas!

Silent Night

So, Christmas in Indonesia...VERY different from Christmas in Wisconsin.  For one thing there is a 90+ temperature difference.  We have a thermometer in our bedroom and it is registering 90 degrees right now-you can imagine what it is outside in the sun.  CRAZY!  Also, many of you will remember me talking in the past about pondok Natals.  The papuans build these elaborate huts and fill them with speakers and BLAST (no exaggeration) music from them at any hour of the day or night.  Also going on at all hours are fireworks-loud ones, and bamboo cannons.  Mix in there the Muslim call to prayer five times a day, and the airplanes that fly right over our head, and you don't get much of a "Silent Night."

However, on the flip side you get bright blue gorgeous skies everyday, vibrant greens all around you, palm trees and flowering bushes and trees, happy sunshine greeting you every morning, amazing waterfalls coming off the mountain, sandy beaches, seashells, starfish, and bushels of fresh fruit!

Pick one...haha.  Which would you pick if you could?  I hate being away from family, especially at the Holidays.  But I do love that we can run outside barefoot anytime we want.  And that we can jump in the car and head to the beach.  Oh, I SOOOOO missed the ocean when we were in Wisc.

The Middle Schoolers did a fantastic job at their band concert last night.  They rocked those Christmas songs.  The boys and girls soccer games were forfeited because the teams didn't show up.  That was frustrating.  Right now I have two dorm girls sick, and Garth.  I know!  Garth never gets sick!  Hopefully it is nothing that will last.  The kids are so antsy to get done and get home. Next week at this time it will be break.

Earlier I was talking about the noise of Christmas here.  It can get crazy loud, but I make sure I find time almost everyday for quiet.  I read a book once called "Give Me A Little Piece of Quiet."  That is what we need.  Every day to find those moments when we can listen, reflect, be thankful, refocus...If you look for them you will find that those moments are there.  Enjoy them.

Here are some pictures from the band concert, and a picture of a pondok Natal.

Freedom

Today when I went to get a broom from under the sink in the gym, I noticed that there was a rat in the cabinet.  I am not fond of rats, but I could tell that he had been trapped in that cabinet with no way out but the door.  As I opened the door, I gave him a chance for freedom.  However, he did not understand that and in his fear he retreated under the dustpan.  The very thing he wanted most, he missed out on because of his fear.

There are a lot of things that we need freedom from-a bad habit, lying, busyness, pride etc.  Sometimes we are fearful that if we change, others won't like us the same.  Or we are fearful of letting something go because we don't know what will happen if we relinquish that control.  Yet, fear is what is holding us back from the freedom God wants us to have.  It sounds silly but freedom is so freeing.  A bird can't fly with a brick strapped to its' back.  Getting rid of those things, letting them go is the only way we can experience that freedom.

UPDATE:

We had the first day of tournaments yesterday.  Both of our teams won.  The girls were supposed to play at 3:30.  At 4:30 we were still waiting for the team to show up. Imagine that in America?  Haha.  Here it is so common.  They are not dictated by a clock.  Finally they showed up and it was so much fun to watch.  Girls won 3-1.  The boys game was really close for awhile but our boys won 10-5.  More games tonight.  And we have a middle school band concert tonight as well.  We have 7 middle schoolers in the dorm and they all play a different instrument.  Last night was very musical as they all practiced their songs.

Here are some pictures of the tournaments:

A good case of the crazies!

I have come to realize that much of the mechanics of effectively running this hostel has to do with having a great memory and staying organized.  Thank you Lord for gifting me with the ability to do both well.  It would be disastrous otherwise.  Especially on the weekends.  So, if I were to give you a little peak into my brain this is what you would see this weekend:  Fri. there is a lady coming over to show me how to fix Gloria's dress then I have 30 minutes to get ready to sub for grade 6.  After school we have 6 soccer games to watch and cheer for. Then Sophie has a sleepover at Maya's and Emma has three friends spending the night.  Natasha needs help getting her dress to fit cuz now the zipper won't go up.  Sleep...turn off the brain...up making waffles for everyone.  Wyatt and Creston are leaving for the beach at 8 and need lunches, middle schoolers all have to be at the pool at 10. Remind Victoria to take her last malaria treatment. Garth needs to show the boys how to tie their ties, help girls with their nails, brunch, three kids are leaving for Jayapura at 12:30 and need lunches, Wyatt needs to be picked up at 4, High schoolers need to be ready for the High school Black-N-White Party by 7, last minute help with dresses, take pictures, and they are off...Sunday, church and figure out something to make for 17 for lunch...nap...coach Sunday night soccer for the little kids and get ready for Monday.

Haha.  CRAZY!!!!  Some days I feel like you can hear the inside of my head screaming.  

This is one of those crazy weekends where there is just a lot going on.  I have to laugh!  In between all the busyness, are moments of fun.  Don't get me wrong.  I am sure this sounds like complaining but I meant it so you could understand the "life of a dorm parent."  There was one missionary man that came over a few weeks ago and sat down with Garth and said, "This job must be so easy."  

Yeah, well.  Some days are easier than others.  But, we know that this is where we are supposed to be.  I certainly don't want a life with no moments of stretching, because during the stretching I remember to lean on Him for strength.

I know you are all praying for us.  Keep doing it.  Pray that we would find joy in the everyday routine, and find ways to bless the kids who are under our care.  We have been nice and healthy- YEAH!  Keep praying about that as well.

okay.  Here are some pictures of our beautiful kids:

Christmas in Papua

Out with Thanksgiving-in with Christmas!!  We feel so blessed.  The dorm did not have a Christmas tree, and very small fake trees were around 1.9 juta - that is around $150 or more, much more for anything above my waist.  We did not have it in the budget to get a tree and I was a bit bummed that maybe we wouldn't have a tree.  A family here in the area offered to give us theirs for free!!!  Yipee!!  It is wonderful and I am so very thankful.  So, we had a decorating party with the kids and now the Hostel looks so warm and cozy, and full of the Christmas spirit.  LOVE IT!!  We decorated Christmas cookies, put up the nativity, played Christmas carols on the piano and sang along.  We had a small earthquake yesterday and watched the tree sway back and forth, but no ornaments fell off.

Today starts the soccer tournaments at HIS.  It will be everyday this week and our boys and girls teams are in it.  Saturday is the Middle School Christmas Banquet.  I get to be a part of that.  I think I am just as excited as the girls!  Natasha is back from Jakarta where she had a CT scan and an MRI of her head.  They did find a problem with her eyes and are working toward getting that taken care of.  Gloria found out she does not have diabetes-YEAH!  Next week starts finals for the High School. And next Thursday is the last day of school before Christmas break. 

Here are a few pictures of our Christmas activities:

Yes, those are drinking cups on the tree.

Song

This week has not been easy.  For one thing, our cook has been out sick.  It is amazing how much that disrupts things for me.  Emma has been home sick.  Today Cale wasn't feeling well.  We have a dorm kid that I am taking to the clinic today to get tested for diabetes.  We have two that are really homesick. One of our dorm kids left yesterday to fly to Jakarta with her parents to get a CT scan of her head at a hospital there.   Our new washer is broken...And we are having trouble with Wyatt and his attitude.  I am feeling worn down.  UGH!

Deep breath...C.S.Lewis said "Heaven is the music that we are all born remembering."  I think on days or weeks like this I am longing to hear some of that music.  When I fret and worry and get all worked up it is me choosing to stand in the whirlwind.  What I need to do, is step out of it and let God fill me with His peace.  Get away from the noise of these troubles rattling around inside my head, and turn my ear toward the songs of Heaven.  James 1 was my reading for today.  Such good stuff. Trials, joy, perseverance...This world, these problems-none of this will last. 

I need those reminders.  And another deep breath...Ahhhh.  Thanks for praying.  Thanks for listening.  

Love you

Thanksgiving Pictures

Here are a few pictures from our Thanksgiving celebration:

It was so hot, the ladies decided to lie on the cool tile floor. 

The Difference

So much to be thankful for!   Tomorrow, Thanksgiving will come to the Hostel!  We are having 40+ people over for the celebration.  I am probably the last one to celebrate Thanksgiving (Dec.1st!!!!) but it was the only time it would fit into our schedule.  I am so excited!  I love to get together with everyone around a good meal.  We are having all the kids from Hostel One and some friends come over for the feast.  Everyone pitched in today and helped with the meal, decorations, and moving around tables and chairs.  The feast will be Sunday at 1:00.  I wanted to have it all set up today so there is less to do tomorrow.  This is what the Hostel looked like at 6:30 p.m. right before I left to go up to school to sell concessions for the drama performance:

And this is what it looked like when I came back at 9 after the boys decided to use the space for a BB gun war:

Haha.  Yes, they did help clean it all up and put everything back the way it was!  Well, almost like it was before.  I kept finding BB's in the strangest places...

I always find it interesting to see what is the same and what is different about being on the other side of the world.  We will celebrate Thanksgiving here very much like you did.  Someone brought us in a turkey (WOW) and we will have stuffing, potatoes, pumpkin pies etc. so our feast will look very familiar.  However, there was one thing in particular that proved to me that I am not in Williams Bay anymore.  Today while I was in the kitchen working on the food, I saw a rat run across the doorway and go behind the washer.  I quickly closed the connecting door so it could not get to me.  Then I called our dorm boys to go and get rid of it.  They tried for awhile and were about to give up, when I said, "A whole bottle of Coke goes to the winner.  Get rid of the rat and it is yours."  Suddenly there was a crowd in there trying to take care of the problem.  And as a team, they succeeded.  So, we celebrated in the kitchen with two bottles of Coke for everyone.  Haha.  And then I went back to mashing my potatoes.  What fun, huh?

Okay, enough drama for the day.  I am off to bed.  I will send you Thanksgiving pictures tomorrow.

Love you all-

Rachel

Words

Let me give you a few words that describe my weekend and you see if any match your weekend, o.k.?  Sunshine, boat ride, coconuts fresh from the tree, palm trees, sand castles,  nap in the hammock, shell collecting, body surfing...and two birthday parties.  Nice, huh?  What a great way to spend a weekend.  There was no school on Monday and it was Cale's 8th birthday.  We decided to celebrate with a trip to Tanah Merah, one of the beaches around here.  It was just beautiful!  We came home and had chicken curry (per Cale's request) and cake and homemade ice cream.  I can't believe he is 8.  When we first got here he was 1 1/2.  Amazing!  It was so good to spend a day in the salt water.  Wyatt has had some boils and some badly infected cuts.  We have been treating them several times a day.  Now, thanks to the "magic" of the salt water, they are all looking better than they have for weeks!  Yahoo!!

I started a prayer time with just the girls.  It is a time once a week that we can see how each other is really doing and show we care for each other through prayer.  Lately I have been thinking about how wonderfully God created us.  As women we are truly unique.  I see that as a good thing.  I was reading lately in Luke 24 right at the beginning where the women go to the tomb where Jesus was buried.  When they get there they realize that the stone had been rolled away.  I am sure they were quite shocked.  Even more so when they saw "two men in clothes that gleamed like lightning."  Not sure if they have ever had something like that happen to them before, and yet it says, "In their fright, they bowed down their faces to the ground."  So, even though they were frightened they still kept the right state of mind and knew how to act.  As they were talking the angels reminded them of Jesus' words, and told them that He was risen!

Verse 9 says that "When they came back from the tomb, they told all these things to the Eleven and to all the others."  Now, I really like this.  Look at verses 22 and 24.  The disciples said "Some of our women amazed us...then some of our companions went to the tomb and found it just as the women had said."  How cool is that?  In their excitement and fright the women still told the story exactly as it had happened.  They did not exaggerate the details, making the story bigger or different from what it really was.  So when the disciples went to see for themselves, they found it just as the women had said.

I have been thinking a lot about that lately.  I want my words to be that truthful all the time.  So, if what I had said had to be proven, it would come out that I was telling the truth.  No exaggerations.

Well, it is about time for the kids to come home from school.  Garth is at school today as well.  He is substituting for the PE teacher who sprained her ankle.

Here are a few pictures from Cale's party and the beach.

  I heard that you have had snow and tornado sirens.  What's up with that?

Buzz

This is a busy time for birthdays.  We have five birthdays in five weeks.  So far, we have celebrated 2 of them and have three more to go.  One of those is Cale. Tomorrow I am having a party with his class so there will be around 15 or 16 kids coming over after school.  His real birthday is Monday, and he is THRILLED that there is no school that day (not sure why).  I think we will go to the beach.  The trouble is that we don't have one vehicle large enough to take the whole dorm.  We have one van that fits about 11 or 12.  But there are 17 of us, so it gets a bit tricky.  We used to be able to go on dorm outings whenever we wanted and take extra kids.  But, while we were in America that big bus was sold.  So...now we have a van that doesn't fit everyone.

I can't believe Cale is going to be 8!  I have been reading back through some of the emails I wrote when we first came to Indo in 2007.  Cale was only 1 1/2.  All that beautiful curly hair that the Indonesians just loved to touch.  And those cheeks they loved to pinch.  Now, he is in 2nd grade, playing soccer on his own team Sunday nights and spiking his hair for school picture day (today).  He has such a love for God, enjoys doing his devos in the mornings, and is always looking for ways to be a gentleman.  We are so thankful for him.

Here is a synopsis of life in the dorm the last few days:  there was a big project on Hereditary traits due, a few Math tests, eye appointments, stomach flu, filling out college applications, taking SATs, a trip to Kali Biru, getting ready for the Fall concert, preparing lines for the drama production, losing water, getting water, rainstorms, soccer games, haircuts, internet, no internet, and one that I was totally not expecting, "Aunt Rachel grab a pair of scissors and come down to the playground.  Blah, blah, blah (I won't use her name to save her from embarrassment) got her hair wrapped all around the rope swing and can't get it out."  Luckily, we didn't have to cut too much to get her unstuck.

There is never a dull moment here at the dorm.  It is always a buzz of activity.

Love ya, 

Rachel