Happy almost Thanksgiving to you all. I heard a quote once, "What if you woke up tomorrow and all you had around you was what you thanked God for the day before: What would you have?" A lot? Or a little? During this season of thankfulness I want you to know that I am thankful for you. I really am. And I am thankful that God has called us here. Life is beautiful here, hard but beautiful. I am intentionally choosing everyday to make it a good day. No matter what. I am thankful today that God is using us to help a family in need.
As I am typing this I keep checking outside. We are waiting for a family that is coming to stay in our guesthouse. They are being threatened by people that believe differently than they do on some issues and are not safe in their home. The Mom and children will be staying here until it is safe. (Don't be worried for us. Our lives here have been safe. No riots or violence. Life feels back to normal.)
Sophie is on the futsal team (indoor soccer) and scored five goals on Friday. That girl is a beast. (She had Wyatt training her growing up so what do we expect?) She is also on several school committees and enjoys singing in church. Cale just had a birthday and turned 14. That is luar biasa. Extraordinary! He was just 1 1/2 yrs old when we first came here. We had so much fun celebrating him with all his friends. He has such great friends here. Most of them have been his friends that whole time. A few weeks ago the whole Middle school was able to go to a local orphanage and play with the kids and work. It was the beginning of a friendship with these kids that hopefully will continue for years. Garth is busy teaching Bible classes, and I am teaching Food Prep and helping cook for a lot of upcoming school events. We also have several guests, 9, coming this week.
There is something I need you to pray about. Sometime between Nov. 20 and Dec. 3 we will have some accreditation inspectors coming to the school. The government is requiring us to become an Indonesian school, no longer an International school, and therefore, we have had to "jump through a lot of hoops" in a short amount of time. I can tell you more about it if you want to know, just email me. Anyways, there were like 39 big things we had to agree to and one of them is that we will teach the Indonesian agama (religion). And we didn't agree to it but we did include our Bible curriculum and a description of what we do teach. We are not trying to hide anything. We are trying hard to show integrity, and be honest. Please pray that we find favor with the government, and that they understand our heart for the people of Papua. We truly love them and love being here.
Again, thank you for your love and your support. We feel blessed beyond measure. God keeps giving us great opportunities to serve.
Enjoy all of your yummy Thanksgiving fixings, and your ham, and turkey, and while you are letting it all digest tell someone how thankful you are for them.
Love you
Rachel
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