Christmas Eve

Happy Merry Christmas Eve everyone. This is my morning to sleep in-however, the people of Sentani have other ideas.  Haha. This is the time of year that we all pray for a silent night.  There are so many potato cannons going off, fireworks, and my favorite- pondok natals.  Pondok natals are all over the place right now. They are little bamboo huts that people build to blast music from day and night. Sometimes it is just random music, other times it is preaching or movies, or people singing karaoke.  

Christmas is not the same here...it is very green, and steamy hot.  I do miss the quietness of the snow, and walking on our dead end road just after it snows looking for deer prints, and I love that crisp smell in the air... we miss being able to watch Christmas movies, and hear Christmas music on the radio, and driving around to see everyone's Christmas lights.  We miss going to Chicago and taking the kids to Marshall Fields, getting hot pretzels at the German fest.  But most of all we are missing our family and all of our friends.  This is a stinky time of year to be apart.  We are thinking of you and praising God for good friends like you.

Today is Christmas Eve.  I am starting my day with a few games of soccer, then a nice big breakfast for everyone, some family devos, and games, making fudge and oreo truffles, then helping set up the chairs for church. We are having a dinner together followed by a kids nativity program and a candlelight Carol service outside by the pine trees.

The dorm kids are all home with their families and we are enjoying some much needed "Erickson only" time.  The kids are having so much fun playing soccer together, playing games, and making their own videos. Last night we let them all sleep out by the tree. They are still snoozing there now. What a great time of year.

I wanted to share something with you. Cale came home from school the other day and handed me a snowflake he had made out of paper. "Mommy, I made this for you." I looked at it and saw what looked like, "Your a snot" written on the front.  "How do you like it?" he asks. "Well, I am confused. Why does it say, 'You are a snot?'" "What!  Mommy, that is not what it says. Open it up. It says "You are a beautiful snowflake!" "Oh, Sweet Cale. That is precious!  I love it.Thank you."  

That made me start thinking-how often are we walking around with negative thoughts about ourselves ----"I don't really matter. I can't do anything right. I am a snot..." Yet, when God looks at us, He doesn't see that at all. What He sees is a perfectly made, beautiful snowflake.  Remember that? You are beautiful!

Hope your Holidays are special.  Pray for all the missionaries that are far from their families right now and for all of the families so far from those they love.

Celebrations

Happy Thanksgiving to you all!  This is a GREAT time to remember that we are BLESSED not STRESSED.  Right?  Lots of celebrations here lately - We celebrated Thanksgiving early so we could be together as a dorm.  I love it when I have an opportunity to show kids a part of America that they have never experienced before.

We also celebrated Cale's 9th birthday.  That was amazing!  He keeps on surprising me at his depth of spiritual insight and care and concern for others. He has such a tender heart, such a love for people, such a desire to be who God made him to be.  Last night he wanted a few more minutes before bed so he could look up some verses.  I LOVE THAT LITTLE GUY!!!

On Saturday we will celebrate Garth's birthday...I won't tell you how many...Haha.  I will tell you it is quite a bit more than me.

We are celebrating the start of Christmas here as well.  This week there is no school since all of the teachers are at a conference in Korea (freezing!). The dorm is closed this week, so the kids are all with family or guardians.  This is the first time some of the kids have been home since school started August 13th.  It is a much needed break for us all. 
We pulled down the Christmas tree from storage and have been making decorations for the walls.  A big THANK YOU goes out to those at Cornerstone and all the rest of you that sent Holiday decorations with the Skibbas this summer.  I am so excited to have all this stuff to put up.  Remember last year when the dorm decorated the tree with cups because we didn't have many ornaments? HAHAHAHA!  I didn't mind until church asked to borrow our tree for the Christmas Eve service and the kids brought it up there, cups and all. Great memories, huh?

Anyways,

We are still having trouble with our generator, and keep losing power.  The parts needed to fix the generator came but it still doesn't work.  Not sure what that means.  We have been eating meals by candlelight and learning how to do things with flashlights.  It is so funny here - when the power finally comes on I am like, "Quick, fill up the sinks, refill the water pitchers, switch the laundry, go to the bathroom..."  But, one thing we are all enjoying about these power outages is running outside to look at the stars.  The other night most of the dorm was out gazing at God's big, amazing sky.  We saw so many shooting stars!  And it is so COOL to see a totally different section of the sky with constellations at different angles...you would love it.  It is breathtakingly beautiful.

Here are some pictures of the last few weeks:

Picture day for the dorms.

Hostel 2.  Just thirteen of us.

Cale's ninth birthday.  Sixth one celebrated in Indonesia.

We had a great Thanksgiving feast.

Some satisfied Thanksgiving customers.

The Becks and the Lees were our guests this year.

Seun, Emma, and Yohan enjoyed the feast.

Cale dressed as a Disney character for the Fall

Concert.  Do you know who he is?  Zoom on the

iPad for a clue.

Cale had a countdown in his desk on this sticky note.

The fam at the beach.

Cale is the birthday boy!

On our way to the "Inside Beach."  It was a beautiful day.

Cale is 9

I am still waiting on the blood results from Wyatt's tests....trying to be patient.  Nothing gets done quickly in this Country.  

The concert this weekend went FANTASTIC.  The power stayed on the whole time.  The few hours before the concert, it was off, but right when we needed it, it came on. Hallelujah!

Today is Cale's 9th birthday.  Unbelievable.  This is his 6th birthday here in Indo.  I had a party with his class on Friday and now we will have a dorm party.  I am so super excited for him.  We have a great surprise. His good friend Jordan has been out in his village, and he just came back to Sentani yesterday.  So, we planned for Jordan to be here at the Hostel after school to surprise Cale. Cale doesn't know that he is back in town.  I have a scavenger hunt for them to do together. 

Some things to pray about:

There are a LOT of down, feeling low, kids in the dorms right now. Pray for both sets of dorm parents to know the right words to say. 

This weekend the kids get off school for a whole week. It will be the first break since the start of school and for many kids the first time they will see Mom and Dad since school started. That is a LONG time.

There is quite a bit of sickness going around, colds and stomach bugs.

Perseverance to not just survive, but to thrive.

Thanks you guys. 

Love you all

Rachel

Crazies

Hello to you from the land of the CRAZIES!  We have been having these crazy rainstorms, deafening thunders, and lightening that shorts out circuits, send sparks through our outlets, and messes up our already touchy internet.  We have had crazy days where the power goes out, days with the internet out, extreme heat, and two earthquakes yesterday.  Along with crazy days of waiting to hear the blood test results on Wyatt...still waiting.  All I have heard is that one of the three vials of blood that we had sent to Jakarta clotted and they were not able to use it.  Bummer.  I am told that I will get the results by email so I am PRAYING that the internet and power stays on today and tomorrow.  If I am able, I will email you when I hear.

There is a sweep of Hand/Foot and Mouth disease going through the school.  It is very contagious so please pray for that to quickly move out.  We have our big, Fall concert on Saturday.  There are about 50 people performing in two performances so they all need to stay healthy.  Garth and I have a small part in the first song.

I read some really cool verses in Hebrews the other day-Chapter 9:11-15.  It is talking about how in the OT people gave sacrifices for their sins and that would make them outwardly clean.  But the sacrifice of Christ on the Cross for our sins can clean us on the inside..."Cleanse our consciences from acts that lead to death, so that we may serve the Living God!"  I am not effectively serving if I am living in sin, and in the same way I am not effectively serving if I am carrying around guilt, unable to forgive myself or others, and kicking myself for messing up again.  He promises to forgive and give me a fresh start so I can serve Him the way I was designed to serve Him.  That is AWESOME!

Visas, Water, and Power

Today is a beautiful, sunshiny Saturday as the Juniors and Seniors go up to school to take their SATs.  We wanted to get Wyatt out of it, but it just didn’t happen.  The Administrator in charge of giving the SATs is quite sick right now with dengue, so a new guy is giving them.  We will see how Wyatt does. His eyes are still not completely focused, and he is drained, and sore…probably one of the worst times to try and take such an important test. Oh well. 

Have you been asking yourself lately, “What is going on with the Erickson’s and what can I pray for?”  Well, let me tell you, I have some answers!  Haha.

One thing is that the hospital in Penang will not take Wyatt’s blood to be tested. So we are in the midst of finding a way to get it to Jakarta and having it tested there.

The generator here on our hill will not be fixed for at least two weeks.  So, when the power goes out, it will mean that the whole school and both dorms and all other houses and apartments won’t have water, won’t have toilets, or fans or air conditioning, or lights, or internet…there are times that the power company turns off power for days. So, it could be a long 2 weeks for us.

We are having water issues and are quite low on water.

We are also having internet issues and again, right now as I am typing do not have internet.

There is a BIG problem right now with the Indonesian government not issuing visas to people trying to come in.  Several of our pilot and teacher families are only being given a two month visa.  That means that every two months they have to leave the country, renew their visas and then come back.  Some of these families are large and it is very expensive.  There may be several families, many of them teachers, that will leave around Christmas and go back to their home country until the more permanent visas get issued.  That could create some huge problems in the school.

Also, Cale’s class is in need of a teacher after the Christmas break.

I know I have been quite wordy in my last few emails, but there is a lot going on and I wanted to tell you all about it.

We should hear by Tuesday or Wednesday the results of Wyatt’s blood work. That is if they agree to send me the results by email and if we have internet.  I will let you know as soon as I hear ANYTHING.

Love you all

Rachel

Thursday's Update

So, today we took Wyatt in for follow-up blood work. This is what we found out.  His kidney function is good. He does not have malaria. Not sure if it could be a weird type of dengue...He still has raised Hemocrit and Hemoglobin levels along with a few other things. Unsure of exactly what is going on, the doctor here agreed that we should send off some of his blood to a hospital.  A friend of mine is going to Penang on Monday for some medical work and she agreed to take the blood to the hospital to have it analyzed.  That means we have more waiting.

Wyatt is doing better, but far from good.  He wants to try and go to school tomorrow for a few hours.  He has had several friends come to visit him.  He is greatly missed. I love to see that depth of friendship.    He was able to do some homework today.  His dizziness is better, but his vision is not 100%. This afternoon his blood pressure was normal.  Yippee!!!!

Thanks for your prayers.  We appreciate it.  One of the dorm boys, Jacob, fell and hurt his wrist.  We will wait until Friday to see if it is any better, otherwise we will take him in for x-rays.  

Love you all

Rachel

Today

Last night Wyatt developed a raised, red rash all over his back, and still felt lousy. This morning he woke up and said he could focus his eyes a bit better, and wasn't quite as dizzy.  We had some blood work done here and I am waiting on the results.  There was +1 protein in his urine which I guess could just be because of his high blood pressure.  Today when they took his pressure it was down, which means the medicine is working. We will take it again this afternoon. He is walking better and even got up and ate some food at the table with us.  

He is so concerned about missing school, but can't really do homework unless his eyes can focus.

Today is one of our dorm boys birthdays, Yohan turns 16.  We are going to have a party for him later.

Okay. I don't really have anything to report.  The doctor was disturbed by the results of the blood work and wants to have the Indonesian clinic do it again tomorrow. So, again we will wait.  A nurse took Wyatt's blood pressure this afternoon and it was high.

Keep praying about all of this please.  it is always difficult not knowing.

Also, one of the dorm boys fell today in soccer and injured his wrist. He wants to have it checked out tomorrow. Pray that is not something severe.

The Laboratorium.

Garth, waiting for the results of the blood work.

This is the Indonesian Clinic that did the blood work.  That is Garth's motorcycle there in the front.

Wyatt

Wyatt woke up today feeling no different than he did yesterday, still quite dizzy with a headache behind his ears. His body is sore, especially his back. His eyeballs themselves are rapidly moving back and forth even when he tries to hold them still. We have an appointment with a Doctor here in an hour. I will email you the results of that appointment.

Ok. We are back from the appointment.  This is what the doctor said: She thinks that it is just something viral.  The rapid eye movement she thinks is something called nystagmus, and it will just go away in 5 or 6 days. The high blood pressure she thinks is from the stress of this viral infection, and the dizziness will just go away on its own.  The blood pressure medicine is working and his blood pressure was lower today. We will have a nurse check his blood pressure in the morning and see if it is continuing to lessen.  

It would be nice if it was all just viral and we just had to wait it out.  I guess that is our only option right now, unless any of you have any other ideas? :)

I am trying to be positive. Wyatt is discouraged that he is missing school. He can't do his homework because he can't focus his eyes on his paper. And he is missing sports.  But we are just praying and trusting. He is still very dizzy and can't do much on his own.  Keep praying and I will keep you posted.

Love

Rachel

Update on Wyatt

At the clinic the nurse took Wyatt's blood pressure while he was lying down and it was high. They took it while he was sitting up and his pressure was higher. Then while standing it was higher still. No one knows why his blood pressure is so high or if it is causing his dizziness. There is limited medical knowledge here so no one really knows what to do. Right now they gave him a blood pressure pill and they will see if it brings it down and helps with the dizziness. He went to bed feeling really bad. He tried to walk to the bathroom by himself and said it was one of the hardest things he's done . So keep praying. I am feeling down and just need to strengthen my trust.
Rachel

Frustrations

Ok. I don't usually write to you when I am frustrated. I wait until it passes and then write, but I have a few minutes now, and I know that I will feel better if I tell you all about our day.  I know that you will pray for us.

Today we decided to do something we have never done-skip church and take the dorms to the beach, AMAY.  The kids have had such crazy, busy weekends  that we haven't gone for months, since summer, I think.  Anyways, both dorms were going and it should have been great.  We woke up to an overcast, drizzly, dreary day.  We need the rain, but today I wasn't excited to see it.  We got to AMAY and at first were the only ones there.  30 minutes later, there must have been about 1000 Indonesians that showed up.  They brought a speaker system and microphones... It was crazy!

We had brought guitars and wanted to sing and have a little service on the beach, but it was so loud and busy.

Wyatt started feeling bad last night, dizzy. Well, today at the beach it got worse, a lot worse.  He couldn't even walk. So he laid down the whole time we were there.  I didn't have any cell phone reception so I couldn't talk to any of the nurses about what was going on with him. Then we lost Cale....couldn't find him, in the crowds.  Turns out he went way down the beach where there was a little bit of quiet. That got my heart rate going.

We finally just left, way earlier than planned.  It was quite a stressful day. Now Wyatt is sleeping.  There is a nurse that will check his vitals at 5 and see if we can figure out what is going on.  Please pray.  There is not a lot of medical options here and I would like to know why my giant, strong, strapping young man of a son can't even walk without help.

Thanks.

Rachel

Gratitude

Happy Fall to you all!   Hope you are greatly enjoying the change in colors and the cooler weather! I am missing it and am really missing it.  (Does that make sense?) We have had heat and no rain for so long. So much brown grass, and dry ground everywhere.  The sky will tease us with thunder and a bit of rain every once in awhile but we need some good downpours.

Last week we had a Harvest Party with our Hostel and Hostel One.  A lady from America sent the kids some candy and other goodies so we had a lot of fun with our prizes. The kids dressed up and showed off their creativity. That was Thursday. Friday was the first indoor soccer games.  Our school has three girls teams and two boys teams.  All of our dorm kids are involved in soccer except for one boy.  It is by far their favorite sport. They even get up early in the morning to play. They are good! Saturday was SKATE NIGHT!  Wyatt's class sponsored the event, so I helped them make 300 soft pretzels to sell.  They were a big hit, and the dorm smelled amazing!

This week we have finally started our Indonesian classes again.  We have a different teacher and hopefully this time it will be profitable.  It has been difficult finding someone who wants to teach us instead of just someone who wants to work on their own English.

Tomorrow is a big community-wide garage sale.  The dorm has a few booths since the kids and I have stuff to sell. We will donate most of the profits to Sophie's Papuan Soccer team.  Many of the girls on that team don't have shoes, or they have one pair that they share. It is not uncommon to see a kid with one shoe on and another kid with the other shoe on.  So our dorm wants to help their coach buy them shoes. She has already been able to buy some of them shoes and at least 5 or 6 of them have asked if she could keep the shoes at her house. They said if they bring them home someone will steal them. What a different life, huh? My friend Mandy said that her house helper came to work barefoot and said that during the night someone came and stole all of her family's shoes. They only had one pair each, but now they are gone. 

We have so much to be thankful for.  That was my prayer today. I downloaded this list of 31 Virtues to Pray for your Children and today's virtue was gratitude-to live lives overflowing with thankfulness.  That is what I want for me, and what I want for ALL of my kids.

I am continually thankful for you all.  Keep praying for us.

Love 

Rachel

The whole group.  We had a great time dressing up.

Rachel dressed in '80's fashion, Kim as a desperate housewife.

Seun was Iron Man, Sophie was Captain America.

Hannah was The Hulk.

Natasha was a clown.

Aaaand, we ate.

Wyatt's class making pretzels.

Skate night!!

Wyatt had to borrow some socks for the old time skates.

No traffic lights.  It was busy.

Some of our kids

Happy Monday to you!  Hope you have a jolly good weekend.  This weekend here was S.E.W. Which stands for spiritual emphasis weekend.  The whole high school met Friday after school through Saturday at 5 for games, team building activities, praise and worship and teaching along with capture the flag, and a great slip-n-slide. The girls stayed overnight in the drama room and the boys slept in the library.  It was an amazing time of growth and fellowship.

So for our dorm, that only left two dorm girls and Cale and Sophie.  It was nice to have that time with our middle schoolers.  We got pizza and invited the other dorm over.

I wanted to introduce you to two of our dorm girls, Atalee and Alyssa brown.  They are sisters and their parents, Rich and Karen are working in the Moi tribe.  They have been teaching through the bible and the Moi are getting really excited about what they are hearing.  The Moi wanted to have a teaching time when everyone from the neighboring villages could come and hear as well.  So, they picked a date and around 130 adults came with all their children from all directions to hear the creator's talk. There were 17 leaders in the village that broke the people up into 6 groups and taught the bible from 7 in the morning until 4 or 5 at night. Some had never heard the scriptures before.  They were so eager to hear about God's love.  The leaders of the village are really stepping up and realizing that it is their responsibility to teach others what they know.  Such exciting things are happening there.  Please pray for the Moi village and for the 20 to 30 new believers that trusted in God during this time of teaching. If you would like to read more about this family you can click here and here.

The girls have had so many transitions in the past few months. They moved out of their village, moved away from mom and dad, into the dorm and went from being homeschooled to having to keep up with the fast pace of Hillcrest.  To help with some of these difficult transitions, Rich and Karen have moved to Sentani, and the girls will be living with them for awhile.  This has been such a great time of learning and growth for all of us and we are excited to see what God has planned next for the Browns and the Ericksons.

We feel so privileged to be a part of this ministry.  Thank you for praying.

Rachel

My Spoon

It is Monday-start of a new week.  Yahoo!  It is going to be a good one, right?  I feel like if I start the week with that mindset I am more apt to look for the hidden blessings, than reasons to complain.  I want to be blessed instead of stressed!  Difficulties do not need to ruin me.  Proverbs 24 vs. 10 says, "If you falter in times of trouble, how small is your strength?"  That is me. Over and over.  Why?  Because my strength IS small.  I am trying to do it all on my own -that is like using a teaspoon to dig the foundation of a house.  Do I really think that I have the same amount of might that a backhoe has?  No way.  Yet I continually try to handle everything that comes my way with my little teaspoon, loudly proclaiming, " I can do it.  I have my spoon.  I don't need help.  Lord, if I need you, I will let you know." How foolish, right?  God's great plan for us is not that we will try until our resources are diminished and then ask Him to swoop in and help us.  No.  Instead He wants to be walking each step with us, there with His mighty arm, telling us, 'I  know exactly what you need to get through this.  I am here for you.  I will not leave you alone.  MY Strength is sufficient for you.  Trust me."  What great comfort that is.

On a different note, we had a nice relaxing weekend with the dorm.  The kids have had a few crazy busy weeks so we decided to just hang out here and let everyone sleep in and recover.  Two more weeks of volleyball and then the tournament.  After that we start futsul, indoor soccer.  

There are a few needs that you could pray for:  we still don't have a vehicle that is big enough to hold the whole dorm.  The school has funds available to purchase a vehicle for us, but they are $6,000 short.  So all we need to do it raise $6,000.  I know God can do that!

Also, we have some kids that are still quite homesick.  Please pray for comfort for their hurting souls.

There is a measles epidemic on the outskirts of Sentani.  Pray for all of the Papuans that have not been vaccinated and are now exposed to this disease.  They do not have the immunity to fight this and it can be deadly.

Also, a ministry has been started here by one of our missionaries to have a local Papuan read Oswald Chambers online in Indonesian every day.  It has had a great response.  This is a perfect opportunity for Muslims who are interested to listen and hear the Word of God.  Please pray for this to continue.

Okay. Time to go. Kids will be home from school soon. There are some random pics on the bottom.

Love,

Rachel

Look at all the bright colors of our pasar!

A local warung on the side of the road.  We were getting mei goreng (fried noodles).

Teaching Cale the song, "If I were a butterfly..."