Update #19

Hi guys. Just wanted you to know, we are getting ready to go to get x-rays done on Garth's chest to see if he has pneumonia, and we are also going to get some blood work done. He has been sick for quite some time. I am hoping that we can get him healthy before I leave on Monday for two weeks. Pray about it if you think of it. I will keep you posted.

Life here is full of preparations for OE. I am always in charge of finding people to help with making quick breads, granola and cookies. This year we needed 45 loaves of breads, 14 big batches of granola and 103 dozen cookies. As of yesterday we got all of that done. WOOHOO! That is always a relief for me. It is a lot of work to make something this big happen. Haha. Pray for all the leaders.  Each group of 16 kids has one male and one female leader. The male leader, Jed, that is supposed to go with me has a leg infection that won't heal and is on antibiotics, and then yesterday he cut his hand and had to have 4 stitches....ugh. So leadership is trying to decide if he should stay or go. Please pray about that as well.

One of the things we do on OE is teaching the people about hygiene and overall health. They tend to wash clothes in the river, poop in the river and get water to drink from the river. The dirty water makes them sick and they get diarrhea and then they think that water is bad and stop drinking and then get more sick or die. So we have been working on skits, and dramas to teach them to pick one location for bathroom waste and to boil water for at least 5 minutes to kill bacteria.

We are also bringing water bottles to hand out to the people so they will have a way to carry water with them when they go to the gardens.

Here is a picture of my group and my sister group-

Here is a map that shows you a little glimpse of the hikes.

They say that for Sophie's group hiking from Kosarrek to Hombuka should be about 2 1/2-3 hrs. Look at my hike. How long do you think that will take?

Haha. My group will hike from Kosarek to Minei (sounds like Meenay) and they say it will take about 7, but I am not sure. We are hiking with all of our stuff, up mountains, and valleys, and ridges and over rivers etc. Ha. We will see. Hopefully Jed will be well enough to make that hike. We hike on March 2 and come back March 4. I love the hikes. I always tell the kids to stop and look up and notice what is around them. We are hiking land that has barely been traveled before, to go to a place that most people in the world will never see. What a glorious experience! I absolutely love it! I wish you could go.

If you were going this would be your packing list.

So pack all this in a way that it is easy to carry it on your back, and it has to be 11 kilos or less. That is about 24 pounds. Can you do it? Haha. It is a challenge, but you would be surprised how easy it is to live with less. We are still working on what to pack and what to leave.This is what our table looks like right now. Usually I am helping twelve kids plus my own and me get ready. This year it is me,and Sophie and a friend of Sophie's that is staying with us while her family is in America.

Ok. Well, it is about time to take Garth in to get "fixed". Haha. That doesn't sound right. Anyways I will update you when we hear something.

Hope your day is sunny.

Love Rachel

Update #18

Hey everyone. For us it is Monday, the start of another week. One week from today we will be flying into Kosarek to start Outdoor Education! WOOHOO! I am so excited. We have been busy getting everything done so we are ready. On Wednesday Pak Gerson, a translator from Kosarek, came out to train us on how to teach the people effectively, how to teach using a translator, and to give us some songs and materials that have already been translated into the Mek language. He was using the Bible story of when Jesus told Peter to go out in his boat, throw the nets in the water, and then he caught more fish than the nets could handle. (Luke 5:1-11). Pak Gerson told some of the struggles in translating a story like this. The people have never seen a large body of water, they don't know what a boat is, and have never seen a fish. So, how could you tell this story so that they understand? Wow. Hard, huh? It was such a beneficial time with him to think through some of these things ahead of time so we are more 
effective when we are there.

Let me tell you a little bit about Kosarek. It is a village area of 7,000-10,000 people. It is about 90% illiterate. Right now there is an American missionary family in there, Mike and Amy from Michigan and their three kids, and an Indonesian couple. The Indonesian husband and wife, Adit and Putri, were both teachers at an Indonesian school and felt called to go to a place that didn't have a school. So they packed up everything they had and starting hiking through the jungle. Forty-two days later they came across the village of Kosarek and decided to stay and help the people there. Amazing, huh? 

Each OE group got a t-shirt that says on the back, "I believe in the words of Jesus. Do you?" Many of the people in the village of Kosarek are learning how to read so the T-shirts are all in the Mek language. In the smaller villages that we will hike to most can't read or haven't even held a book before. Imagine that! (We are so blessed, aren't we?) We will be helping them to get excited about the literacy programs that these missionary families have started. We will show them how to hold a book and that you read left to right. We will set up an alphabet garden for them with a path that starts at A and goes to Z and we will make an item for each letter so as they walk through they can learn the letters. Doesn't that sound like fun?

Some of the other projects are tearing down a clinic that is falling apart, saving the wood, and rebuilding it. We will take logs and plane them down so that wood can also be used in building the clinic. We'll do work on the airstrip, make a learning center, work in the school that is there, gather rocks from the river to use in building, set up clean water systems, talk to the people about hygiene, and health, do HIV/AIDS clinics, kids clubs, help in gardens, etc. We use all of our minutes when we are there to bless as many people as we can. Even our "down" time is spent loving on these kids, playing games, and just being with the people. Since we don't speak Mek and they don't speak Indonesian, we show them the most love by our actions. So we will love on them as much as we can. 

One way of showing love is by taking care of their medical needs. We always bring an American doctor with us, and we set up a clinic then everyday the people pour in with their complaints and we do our best to help. The doctor has shown all of us how to listen to their lungs, their heart, how to take a blood pressure etc. so the kids are all very involved.

This is my group. I have three people that have never gone on OE before. Starting from the left it's Gloria, Eliana, Cindy, Stefan, Jong Woo, Mordy, Seowon, Tehya and me.

I have a lot more I want to share with you guys but I will save it for the next post. Thanks for caring you guys. Thanks for praying.

Rachel

Udate #17

Hey everyone. You all have been praying for Wyatt. I am happy to say that this is the best he has felt since he has been sick. So thank you so much. Keep going with the prayers though because Garth has been sick all week. Like in bed sick, achy, bad headache etc. We have done blood work twice and it is not malaria or dengue but it looks like it is just a bad virus. He doesn't get sick much so he isn't a very happy patient.  I will keep you posted.

On a different note. we are coming upon my favorite time of year! OE is almost here. OE stands for Outdoor Education and in case you haven't been reading my emails for the past 12 years I will tell you about it. Every year the whole high school and leaders go into a village for 2 weeks to work and serve, to teach about HIV and AIDS, to set up a medical clinic and a dental clinic, to be with the people and children, to set up clean water systems, help in the schools if they have one, do kids clubs, and literacy camps etc. IT. IS. AWESOME. I love it. I think this will be my 5th (?) time going. My very first year was Emma's freshman year and we went to the same village we are going to this year! How cool is that?!? Now for my last OE and for Sophie's Senior year we get to go again.

We will leave Feb. 24th. There will be just under 100 going. We will all fly in to the village of Kosarek and then break up into groups to hike in to smaller villages. I have posted the link to the promo video Wyatt helped make for the last time we went in there. Check it out.

http://anearfulfromtheericksons.blogspot.com/search?updated-max=2015-02-05T15:25:00%2B09:00&max-results=7&reverse-paginate=true

Here are some pictures of Kosarek from when I went in 2015.

Those are my feet trying to get warm by the fire. One of the village ladies invited us into her home for dinner. While it was cooking in the pot we sat with her and chatted.

And above that is Aldofa holding up the cross she made. She was so excited to have that. Oh, and those kids you guys. Seriously! I can't get enough of the kids. I just eat them up, haha. Not really. DON'T worry. I just really love being with them. They are so loving and accepting. And the picture of the clouds - in Kosarek we are up so high and the clouds are so low it feels like you can touch them. I wish you could come...

There are so many amazing things I want to tell you about OE but I will try to split it up into several emails so they aren't so long. I just feel like I am bursting with excitement and can't wait to share it with you.

 Before I go, I want to show you some pictures of what I have been doing the past few days. Haha. I agreed to make Valentine cookies for a fundraiser at school. When I said yes I had no idea how many would be ordered, but in my head I was thinking maybe 70. Ha. Well, the order is up to 308! So, I have been making and decorating and making and decorating on repeat. Good thing it is for a good cause. So far I have about 256, so I know what I will be doing tomorrow. Haha.

Love you all

Rachel

Update #16

Hey everyone. Thank you for praying for Wyatt. He seems to be doing much better. We greatly appreciate all of you that prayed for him. Thank you so much. 

He was able to sign on today for the scholarship he was given to play soccer and attend Blue Mountain Community College. WOoHOo!! SO exciting! He is part of the Wolfpack- the Timber Wolves and will begin this new adventure in the fall. Pray that God will use his gifts and talents for His glory.

We have had a house full of guests this past weekend and continue to do our best in this new role. 

Today we are chaperoning the A Girls and A Boys Basketball teams. They have an away game about 1 hr. away. Garth is driving and I am cheering (and providing healthy snacks. Haha.) This is the only away game they have so everyone is pretty excited. It is always an interesting experience. You never know if the teams will show up, if the games will be on time, and if the power will stay on for the whole game. Haha. I will take pictures for you.

These are pictures of our mountain today as I walked up to school. So mysterious and shrouded with clouds.

I am working hard at knowing what to say yes to and what to say no to. I told the kids that I would volunteer for their events, and things for their class since I have more time than I would if we were running the dorm. So I am busy helping out with Cale's drama and food for banquets etc. I have also started going through everything in the Hostel to decide what we will keep, give away, sell, and leave. I feel like I can only do that for so long because it makes me sad. So I work on it a little bit each day.  You know, we first came to Papua in 2007 when Sophie was starting Kindergarten, and now she is about to graduate from High School. This is our life, our home. How do you pack that up? How do you sell those special things? We thought that MAF would provide a crate for us to take things back but since we are considered short termers we don't get a crate. That drastically limits what we can take. I am trying to prioritize what is really important to us and just pack those things. Pray for us. I don't really know how to do this, but I want to do it well. I want to be at a good healthy place as I deal with all these emotions so that I can help the rest of the family do it too. Keep praying!

Thanks for being a part of our lives. We sure do love you guys.

Love,

Rachel