Fire

Some of you who are friends with us on Facebook have seen the horrifying pictures of the fire that took three homes on Friday.  The fire started from a faulty generator and quickly consumed three missionary homes.  The one family, the Richards, was home and had only minutes to grab things and get out.  They lost everything.  The other two families are in the States.  Many people who came to help were able to pull things out of those homes, but the houses themselves were completely destroyed.  The Indonesian fire truck came on the scene but quickly ran out of water.  We were able to fill up one of the school water trucks and help out with the fire.  The fire trucks here are not full of water.  So when there is a fire, they have to fill up and then go.  Not very effective.  I asked someone about that.  "Why can't they just keep the truck full of water so they are always ready?"  "Oh, there is a leak in the container and the water leaks out."  Haha.  Crazy.  Anyways, click here to go to the MAF site where you can donate to the Richards family if you so choose.  

The community is amazing here and everyone has come alongside this family and their two kids finding them clothes and underwear, cooking them meals etc.  But their needs list right now is huge.

Today as you clean your house, or sit at your table or walk out your front door, be thankful.  You have a house.  What a blessing!  We take so much for granted.  Look around you and see all that you have and think about what it would be like to lose it all.  And as you think about that, pray for these families-The Richards, Maxeys, and Adams.  Thanks.

Love you

Rachel

Birthdays and Waterfalls

Yeah!  We have internet!  I have so much I want to tell you about, and now I can.  To start with-Wyatt turned 16!  Amazing!  We had such a great time celebrating him.  We went to a Persipura game (Indonesian soccer), hiked Mt. Cyclops and swam in the waterfalls, splurged on some cream cheese and strawberries to make stuffed french toast, homemade danishes and cinnamon rolls-Yummo!  He is a wonderful young man and we are so very proud of him.  He is eager to get his motorcycle license and have more freedom.  I am posting pictures of one of the food vendors at the Persipura game.  Not what you see in America-cigarettes, tea, water, papaya sticks...

School got out May 29th.  The dorm kids have all gone home.  We didn't get a break since we had a load of responsibilities right away.   Garth preached the next Sunday.  Wyatt's birthday was on Thursday.  And we were helping out with a conference for New Tribes all this week.  Garth was in charge of the Youth and I did the cooking.  I have never bit off quite so much-cooking for 150 was a little out of my comfort zone.  But we did it.  One funny story about that-I had planned on serving two kinds of soup and sub sandwiches for the second day.  I took great care to cook the chicken in the broth and really simmer the stock so it would be full of flavors.  I measured out the cups of soup so that I would be sure to have enough.  I put it in the fridge overnight so that the fat would come to the top and could be skimmed off.  Well, it was sitting on the counter waiting for me to finish when one of my pembantus (househelpers) came in to work.  I was cooking stuff at the stove and wasn't paying much attention to her.  About 20 minutes later I turned to see what she was up to and I see my soup pot clean and upside down on a towel.  I said, "Where's my soup?  Where's my soup?"  and she points to the drain, and says "I thought it was trash."  AHHHHHHHHHHHH!  This was around 2:00 and dinner was supposed to be at 5:30.  Can you believe it?  So I had to start over-quickly.  Haha.  I can laugh at it now. At the time, however, it wasn't very funny.

On a different note, we had a snake in the house.  Garth grabbed it with a towel and it wrapped its' body all up his arm.  Wyatt had to unwrap it before Garth could let go of it.  Then Wyatt chopped it up with his parang (big knife). It wasn't that thick, but it was long.

I have a bunch more stories but I want to try and post pictures to this while we have internet.

Love you all-Rachel