Long Over Due Update

Wow, it's so crazy how life can totally distract from updating this thing! So much has happened these last few months. I'll try to recap it without boring you.

December:
The month flew by with language school. Our friends celebrated a holiday called "Idul Adha". This holiday has lots of different meanings, but here's the gist: an animal is sacraficed and the meat is passed out to the poor. The night before the "big day", the kids were hanging out in front of the mosque. They were so friendly, which is different than normal!

We were super busy, because there was a new group that came. Three new families moved to Bandung. They spent the month in orientation. We spent the month juggling language school, helping with orientation, helping them get set up in homes, and life in general. The highlight of the month was our Christmas day trip to the beach! It was soooo beautiful. It was only about 130 miles but in Indonesian time that means 6 hours on winding roads. We were there for almost a week. A couple of our friends came too. We also checked out a place called "Green Canyon". A beautiful cave tucked away on the island of Java. When we got home, we had a visit from a great great friend!














January:
We had a great New Years experience. We've celebrated 3 different times! The Islamic Calendar ends 11 days before January 1. We celebrated our normal new years. This past Monday we celebrated the Chinese New Year. Now we are almost finished with unit 5. We will only study through unit 6. So right now we're looking for plane tickets to leave the country for our visas!! Can you believe it?! We'll be moving to Papua in a couple of months. Wow. I can't believe it. This month has been a sad month too, because we just recently found out that my grandma has cancer. This was a surprise, because we weren't expecting news like this. God has been so faithful to us, and we know we are where we need to be. That knowledge doesn't make it any easier being on the other side of the world.





What an interesting time this has been. I believe we've grown alot. Hopefully when we meet again you can see even more clearly the light of Christ reflecting off our faces. We've met with Him, but we're not veiling our faces :)




P.S. we still have the cat. his is still naughty! Hope you're doing great. We love you and miss you all!

Thanksgiving

I’m thankful that Josh and I are here in Indonesia together. It would be really challenging to live here alone. I’m thankful that God has put us together to experience the adventures of this live with one another. Fifty years from now, we’ll be talking about that time we were in language school.

I’m thankful for my parents. It would be really hard to accept the fact that your only child has decided to pack up and move to another country that is FAR away from home. I’m so thankful that God has continually protected them from worry and that has given them ability to accept that we live here. They were really supportive of all the travelling and random summer jobs that had a point for advancing Kingdom work.

I’m thankful for Josh’s family. They are such an encouragement to us. Again I’m thankful for God and the peace that He gives to our families while we are far from home. I’m especially thankful for the cookies that you send us! They are literally a taste from home.

I’m thankful for both old and new friends. You have been there for me through some crazy times. I think God gives us friends, because He knows we need other people. As much as we can try to be independent, we are very dependent on one another. We need each other. Indonesians understand this. Our neighbors know that they need each other. We face difficult times together, we rejoice with one another. We carry each other’s burdens. Friends are a blessing from the Lord.

I have never been so thankful for health as I am this year. Moving to a new country that has tropical diseases that are passed through mosquitoes and where every tummy ache with fever can be something serious is something that can really wear you out. Praise the Lord that we have had mostly good health. We have had a few days where we had to stay in bed because of upset tummies; nothing serious though.

Even as I write this, I’m reminded of God and His faithfulness. Being so far from family during the holidays for the first time is a sad thing for me. He is my Heavenly Father and will never leave me or forsake me. He reunited us through His Son’s death on a Cross. He is good and never changes. I’m so thankful that He NEVER changes. He is my firm foundation. One day every nation will bow willingly at His feet to worship Him for who He is. He is altogether beautiful and lovely. For that I am truly thankful.


Happy Thanksgiving! We miss you!

Lately, it seems like we have been spending a lot of time learning the language. The more we learn, the more we realize how far we have to go. Now that our vocabulary is starting to expand, we have been accidentally switching words. This means that sometimes there are a few embarrassing moments like when I called Amber a cell phone the other day. After a confused look, I was able to straighten it out.

Every Monday morning at school, we have a one hour devotion called a kebaktian. The hour is filled with students and instructors giving testimonies in Indonesian and singing Indonesian worship songs. Next week I will give my testimony in Indonesian and Amber will read from the Alkitab (the Indonesian Bible). In the picture below, one of the instructors is praying for the kebaktian.



We have eight people in our class right now. Three people are native Korean speakers, two are native Japanese speakers, and three are native English speakers. This has forced us to communicate to one another in Indonesian. Since the school is based on the concept of full immersion, the language diversity isn’t a problem. This is a picture of our class (minus one other American) and one of our instructors is to the far right.





A couple weeks ago, Amber and I went on a motorcycle ride to another town that isn’t too far from where we live. We spent the night at hotel and visited a volcano nearby the next day. It was a fun getaway that gave us a chance to relax and take a break from all our studying. The volcano’s name is Tangkuban Perahu which literally means overturned boat. The name came from a legend about a love relationship that turns upside down. Wikepedia does a pretty good job of explaining the legend. The rim on one side also looks like a giant overturned boat. The crater itself was huge and was equally rank with the stench of sulfur.



Some of our friends back in the States have sent us care packages. (Thank you!!!) We couldn’t have been happier about the hadiah-hadiah (gifts) inside. The food here is a little different, so you would have thought it was Christmas when we received pancake mixes and deodorant! We picked up a stray kitten off the side of the road a couple months back so one of the packages came with toys for kittens. If you look closely in the picture, the cat is attacking the toy while Amber is holding it in her left hand. He is pretty much your typical kitten and plays until he passes out. We couldn’t find cat toys anywhere here, so it was nice to get something that keeps him occupied.

Long Time, no posting

We have lived here for three months now. Sometimes I look back and it seems like forever, but other days it seems like everything has flown by. Three months ago, we could only say “Good morning”, “Good afternoon”, or “Good evening”. Now we are carrying on conversations with people in our neighborhood. It’s still a little rough, with lots of broken sentences and filling in the blanks. We praise God that He’s helping us learn the language.

The month of September flew by. Here are some high points:

• Amber’s first birthday overseas. It was a great time! A group of girls took me to a salon for a “cream bath”. It was very interesting. While putting this gook in your hair, they massage your scalp, and tug your hair. Then they wash it out, blow dry and “style” it. I just asked for the straight look. A group of friends met us there and we had dinner at “Amigos” a Mexican food restaurant in Indonesia! Sure it wasn’t Taco Bueno, Uncle Julios, or Taco Time, but it was a little taste of Heaven. We headed back to our house and shared great conversation over ice cream cake. Some family members sent money to say “Selamat Ulang Tahun” or happy birthday. I bought a guitar. It's really pretty.








• Passing Unit One! Pujih Tuhan (Praise God!) Little did we know that the beginning of Unit Two would redefine the word “stress” for us!

• Amber’s Dad came to Malaysia for one month for work. For a birthday present, we were able to go to Kuala Lumpur for the week we had off from school. We had a great time. Visiting family, seeing photos, phone calls… they are so re-energizing and encouraging for us. We took some field trips to the Petrones Towers (the tallest Twin Towers in the world), The Batu Caves, an Aquarium with a walk trough tunnel surrounded by sharks and stingrays, and Chili’s.

A note about the Batu Caves: Do not let your guide lead you into a dark cave with only a small light on your hard hat and say,” Oh, I’ll be right back.” Our guide left us in this dark cave on our tour for about 10 minutes!











• This month of September has been a very special month for our Muslim friends. This month is known as Ramadan. During this time, all Muslims will fast during the hours of 4AM-6PM. No food, water, smoking, or anything else that brings you pleasure. This month is when they are cleansed from their sins and wrong-doings and given a clean record. We have had to be very careful about what we do in public, so as not to be a stumbling block. It’s been interesting to observe the culture during this time. Tonight (or Tuesday morning if you’re in the States) is a VERY special time for our friends. The men will spend all night in the Mosque praying for Allah to reveal Himself to them just like He did to Muhammad. The women will pray at home while cooking. Wednesday morning (Tuesday night in the States) there will be a special prayer service outside. Wednesday and Thursday will be the official breaking of the fasting month. This holiday is called Idul Fitri. This is a time when families get together and EAT as much as they want. We’ll go visit our friends and feast with their families.

• Halfway down our stairs, there is a door. This led to a house that a guy about 23 years old lived. We always saw him and he always was willing to help with our homework. He was killed in a motorcycle accident last week. The whole kompung was in mourning. The body was buried within 12 hours of the accident. It was our first experience going to an Islamic funeral. They will pray for the soul of our friend for 7 days all the way up to a year. They are praying that his soul will find his way to Heaven. The family believes that this was fate. Please pray for this family. He was very young, funny, friendly, and this neighborhood will not be the same without him. Pray for us, too. We want God to use this bad situation for good- His Glory.

• We have been going to an Indonesian Church that gathers together in a hotel’s meeting room on Sundays. There are so many new believers there. The worship time is really a time of praising the Lord for who He is. It’s exciting. People raise their hands, clap, jump, and express their love for God in whatever way they feel they need too. There really is freedom, because the Spirit of the Lord is there.

• Badminton is huge here. So, on Monday nights we play. Are we good? Umm… not yet :) On our way to the court, we spotted this little kitten on the side of the road. His eye was matted shut and was covered with fleas. A stray cat isn’t unusual in Indonesia, so we kept going. On our way home, the same kitten was on the side of the road hunched up. Full of compassion, we picked that thing up and brought him home. A mistake? Maybe… but now we have something to entertain us. Josh named him “Laki” which is short for laki-laki. In Indonesian that means “boy”. He’s crazy. The photos will probably fool you into thinking he’s cute. Be careful, because as soon as you think that he’ll scratch or bite you. Hope you "dog people" still talk to us after reading that we have a cat now.








Hope you’re doing well. We think of you often… yes, you. We miss you. Let us know how you are. We are all apart of the body of Christ and have different functions in different parts of the world. No matter where we are or where we come from, we are apart of the Global Body of Christ. It’s amazing to share these experiences with Koreans, Singaporeans, Indonesians, Dutch, Americans, Canadians, and Columbians… our God is a global God who has a plan for the Nations! What’s your role?

Photo Catch-Up

So, I'm really sorry about not updating sooner! We ran into some small problems with our internet, so it wouldn't run fast enough to allow us to update. There's so much that has gone on the past few weeks. So instead of explaining it all in words, I thought I'd take you on a photo tour.

"Rumah di Pak Josh dan Ibu Amber"

The "street" we live on.

Take a trip downstairs... watch out! They're steep!


Welcome to our living room.


Here's the central room. We repainted. Here you can access the office, our bedroom, and a guest bedroom. Yes, we have a spare bedroom... so come visit!


This is our bathroom. Here's our shower...


and here's our bathtub.


Our bedroom.


This is our "bathroom" sink. It's not located anywhere near the bathroom. It's outside. On the left side is a set of stairs that leads down to our kitchen that we don't have photos of yet.


This is our backporch that overlooks the valley.


How's the view? You might be able to spot a fisherman or two down there.


Here's a stray cat that lives on the neighbors roof. He's parallel with our faces as we come downstairs to get to our front door. I don't think he appreciated the "photo op".


Photo Tour number 2

"Indonesian Independence Day"

August 17 begins a party that lasts for one full week. Each neighborhood puts on a festival for the people that live there. They play "traditional" Indonesian games. You'll see on our tour that the "traditional" games have the same or similar games in the States.

This game we don't have, but we should! They tie water balloons to a clothesline, blindfold the participants, spin them around, and the first to bust the waterballoon wins.


This is a greased pole. The pole is stuck deep into the ground and is greased up. It's SO slick. The object is to climb to the top of the pole (as a team) to reach the prizes up at the top.


What's a festival without a good ol' sack race?


Tug-of-War


So close to the top of the greased tree!


The object of this game is to be the first to eat the rice cake off of the string.


Our new friends (aka language tutors) have made us feel so welcomed!





Story Time:

I (Amber) really wanted to play one of these games. So, I signed up for the break the waterballoon game. I was playing with a few other women. We all line up while the volunteers blindfold us....



They spin us around.



The sad thing is they only spun us around twice! I was completely lost. I had a game plan... "OK, take a few steps in front of you and bust that waterballoon." Notice where I am and what direction I'm going.



Oops! My helper guides me back.



So after everyone picks themselves up from laughing so hard, we all try again! Unfortunately, I was the only lady that didn't bust the balloon.



Final Photo Tour
"Kitchen Adventures"

We don't have an oven in our kitchen. The people living in our neighborhood have these ovens called "Kampoung Ovens". This is a very unique invention. It's a metal box that sits on top of your stove burners. The burners heat up the inside and creates the same effect as an oven. Our house helper and friend taught Amber how to make brownies using the oven. After the first try, the results are in. Everyone agrees the brownies will need some work, but they still get a thumbs up and an "A" for effort!



When making a smoothie or milkshake while living in Indonesia, always first check the blender before doing anything! We got a small surprise in ours. This is a cicak (pronounced chee-chuck). This little guy lives in our kitchen and eats unwanted mosquitoes and other critters. We have no idea how he got in here! The lid was closed. There was no access point for him!





We really hope that you enjoyed the photo tours! Again we're so sorry it's taken us so long to update. We love you all. Thanks for being interested in our life here and sharing the journey with us!

-J & A