First Few Weeks Back

We arrived back in Sentani a few weeks ago. With the help of our househelper, we unpacked our whole house in just a few days. This was great, because once the house was in order, I had to get my classroom in order. The first week of school felt like I was just keeping my head above the water! It's difficult teaching new classes and having a short time to get ready for them. This second week of school seems to going much more smooth.

Here's some photos of our first few weeks here.

This is our first meal that we cooked at home. There's stir-fried veggies, chicken crispers, and (of course) rice. :)







We took a trip to the local mall where the pizza place is. They had a stage set up in the middle of the mall and crowds of people were surrounding the stage. People were lined up around the second floor so they could look down on to the stage. It was a highschool dance team that was doing a pop-and-lock dance (I think that's what it's called).



I watched them dance, and this little one was watching me.


After we got our pizza to take home, the place was empty because two guys started singing karaoke. :)



This first week we did some airport pickups. Some other friends were coming back from America and needed rides from the airport to their house. We picked up two families, but I only took photos of one. I'm sure you'll see some more photos of our friends. :)


One of our favorite things to do is to watch American Idol each week with some friends. We watch it with a couple and then a single gal who works with me at the school. Our group is a bit different than last season, because the couple moved to a different part of Papua, Indonesia. So on our first time together, our friends brought over an Idol cookie cake. :) It was so good. We don't LOVE American Idol, but we like the chance to hang out with people on a steady basis.



While we were away, YAJASI, the Indonesian organization that Josh works for, got a makeover. The process had begun before we left but made a lot of progress while we were away. The man overseeing the project has done an absolutely fantastic job! He has been patient, even when supplies didn't show up. It looks great!





A more recent adventure we had was filling up the car with gas. We have two gas stations in town. One was out of diesel, so we headed to the other one. The line was about six trucks long. We had a bet going about how long it would take. We only waited for about 10 minutes before the attendant allowed us to go into an extra place to bypass the long line.



Hope to share with you more faithfully about live on the other side of the BIG pond :)

-Amber

The Long Road Home

Right now we're in Bali, Indonesia. Our plan was to have a couple days here to recover from jetlag as much as possible before returning to life as "normal" in Papua. So here's some photos from the journey to where we are now. :)

Here's our luggage, just a few things that we'll need for the next couple of years. After carefully weighing all bags, we were sure we would be under the limit for each bag. We ended up checking all the blue bags in Dallas, but were requested in Houston to check one black bag.



Entertainment Centers are a must when crossing the globe!


Our second stop was in Moscow at a chilly 2 degrees Celsius (35 fahrenheit) with snow on the ground and ice on the windows. It was cold outside, but it was quite nice inside. The duty free stores must have sprayed purfume in my face because that's all I remember about Moscow. :) I also remember meeting some friendly people from Texas who were also en route to Indonesia.

Here we are when we land in Moscow:


Here's Moscow when we land:




We stopped in Singapore, but I don't remember much because this is what I did the entire time there.


We arrived in sunny Bali, Indonesia a few hours later.



We breezed through immigration and customs. While we were waiting at baggage claim, there was a man who had a sign with our name on it. I remember mentioning to Josh this trip that I've never had a person at the airport with my name on a sign! Well, that's all changed now! :) Unfortunately, his sign was to tell us that our black bag which was gate check in Houston was not on the airplane and would come later tonight. No big deal, right? Well, Josh waited for the rest of our bags to arrive, but only one was there. We reported it to the right people and were told they didn't know where our bags were. So, we're tired and we're trying NOT to freak out. We go to the hotel, shower, sleep and wake up to receive the black bag. We got word the next day that all of our bags were here and they would reimburse us for the delay. Sweeeeeeet!

Note to self and other travellers: January is the rainy season in Bali! Papua has a "rainy" season, but it's unpredictable when it will happen. In Bali and other parts of Indonesia, it WILL rain. It will rain ALOT. just a heads up. :)




We were soaked after our outting today.



Bali has been a relaxing time for us. We know we'll hit the ground running when we arrive, but we're looking forward to being in our space.

Thanks for reading this. Try to leave a comment either here or on our facebook page to let us know who reads this! :)

December Update

Our time in America is quickly coming to an end. We begin the long journey to our second home on Wednesday. Here's the route: Dallas-Houston-Moscow (I know, right?)-Singapore-Bali-Jayapura. It looks pretty crazy when I write it down, and I can't figure out the path in my head. I trust that the pilots of Singapore Airlines will get us to our destination safely though.

I haven't updated much this month, because we have been really busy. The month of December began with a quick trip to Oklahoma City. Josh participated in a high altitude training course. They put a group of people in a chamber, bring you to 25,000 feet and have you take off your oxygen mask for five minutes while you log your symptoms every minute. This helps the participant recognize what their symptoms of hypoxia look like. They recorded the simulation, and it's pretty funny what the body will do with a lack of oxygen before you pass out. It was a wee bit cold while we there! This is the bucket with the thing to wash the windshield off.


Josh spent a week in Wichita, Kansas at a maintenance training course. He stayed with a really sweet family who took great care of him during his time there. While he was gone, I focused on studying for a state test which would allow me to teach grades 4-8 math in Texas.

We also had a chance to go to a real, live rodeo! It was Josh's first time to see one. Those cowboys have a lot of guts to ride around on a really mad bull or bronco!









A couple weeks later we got to see the Dallas Mavericks win their first game of the season. They're off to a rough start and are in a time of transition, but hopefully they'll be able to defend their championship again this year.


We got to see "A Christmas Carol" by Charles Dickens at the Dallas Theatre. The play is truly meant to be a ghost story, but when it's read to children it's not very scary. The movies aren't scary either, because of the audience it's made for. Well, the Dallas Theatre held NOTHING back! It was a great rendition of a holiday classic. There were a couple times where we jumped and even yelped!

The best part of the entire month was visiting family. It's strange to meet kids who are two or three years old that you've never seen before. We were worn out by the end of Christmas day, because of all the excitment of visiting. Just a few days later we hung out with some good friends to celebrate the New Year. We played a dance game on the Xbox Kinect, and it was a riot! There are some people in the world who can keep a beat and have "moves"- the Harringtons (and friends) are not those people! :) We still had a great time.


I also took the math test for the state of Texas. The morning started off with the whole family sharpening pencils on the front porch. Don't buy cheap pencils! One perk of the day was eating lunch at In-N-Out Burger. :) We haven't heard the results yet, but hope for a passing grade!


We also got to eat at Josh's favorite BBQ place. (We BOTH were stuffed for atleast two days, because of all the meat we ate!)



These next couple of days will be full of packing, saying good-byes/see ya laters, hugs, tears, food, and who knows what else...

Advent Thoughts

Advent:
1. The coming or arrival, especially of something extremely important
2. The period beginning four Sundays before Christmas and observed by some Christians as a season of prayer and fasting

Advent is from the Latin and it means "coming".

Let's start at the very beginning, a very good place to start.

God created the Heavens and the Earth. Everything was good. He made man, who was lonely, so he gave him a companion. They lived in complete perfection with access to everything, except for one tree. The two disobeyed, and ate the fruit of the forbidden tree. As a result of their wrong doing, they were kicked out of the garden with no way of re-entry.

Years later, God made a promise to a man. He promised that He would bless him and make his offspring as many as the stars in the sky. The man and his wife were old and had no children. God stayed true to His promise and gave them a baby boy.

His chosen people, the offspring He had promised, had a history of disobeying God, apologizing, following the Lord, disobeying, apologizing, following, disobeying, apologizing, and following... It was their pattern (Mine too, might I add). God eventually let them do what they wanted to do, so much to a point that

He
was
silent.

He was silent for about 400 years. This is the time period between the Old and New Testaments. No communication, no audible voice, no prophets, no angels, nothing but silence. I'm sure they prayed but no answers.

God was silent.
Had he abandoned them?
Where was He?

Then an angel appears to a young girl, her husband-to-be, and their relatives all at different times with a message from the Lord. It's been such a long time since anyone has heard a message from God, so they must have been terrified. The angel says to them all," Do not be afraid." God is doing something and is using those who were anticipating the arrival of the One who would rescue them from the oppression they were facing. God spoke!

I put myself in Mary's sandals for a moment. In my head it's something like this: I'm a young girl, and an angel comes and tells me I'm going to have a baby. (Woah! What, Angel??) Then I say wait a minute, Angel! I haven't been with a man, so how can this be??? For real? "Not just ANY baby, but GOD'S baby... Mary, don't be afraid!" (Yeah, right, Angel!) But that's how it happened.

Now Mary, an expectant young mother, anticipates the arrival of her first born.

What are things that we're expectant of?

(Synonyms of expectant: anxious, anticipating, awaiting, eager, hopeful, looking for, ready, vigilant, watchful)

-Paydays ($$ not the candybar, although maybe someone is eager for candybars)
-Vacation
-Birthdays
-Christmas Morning
-First Day of School (I guess we're expectant of good things and not so good things)
-Birth of babies
-Returning home after a long absence
-Getting a drivers license
-Learning to Read
-Owning a home
-Living on our own for the first time
-First Jobs
-Marriage
-First dates
-Engagements
Those are a few things I think MOST people are expectant of.

The Christchild's coming into the world changed EVERYTHING. Nothing has or ever will be the same. After years of silence, God sent His son, Jesus, to the world. So NOT only is He speaking, BUT He is in the body of a man. For 33 years, Jesus walked on the earth-
God speaking,
God doing,
God loving,
God understanding man.

After His death and resurrection, He sent the Holy Spirit. The advent of the promised Comforter ensures that God will never again be silent.

Anticpate more than just the gifts your family and friends give you. Your Heavenly Father's gifts are way more precious.

"Isn't there anyone who knows what Christmas is all about?!!!!"

Forgive me for a delayed blog posting, but sometimes I have to sit and ruminate about things. The month of December (so far) has been one of those times of pondering, digesting thoughts, and considering.

Last night while flipping through tv channels, I came across "A Charlie Brown Christmas". A Christmas classic from my childhood. I can remember receiving the book one year as a child. On IMDB's (International Movie Data Base)website the film is described like this:
"Repelled by the commercialism he sees around him, Charlie Brown tries to find the true meaning of Christmas."

Maybe this has been part of my pondering...

The transition from Indonesia to America hasn't been THAT difficult for us. There are a few things where we think," Woah, that's different." For the most part when we go to the grocery store we're grateful for the selection! In Indonesia if you want a bottle of BBQ sauce, you get one choice of flavor or brand and you pay whatever the asking price is. You do have endless varieties of instant noodles though. One thing that has been slapping me in the face is this compulsion to BUY. BUY. BUY.

When we returned for a seven month furlough in June, I wanted to BUY. I wanted to go shopping to the stores that I hadn't been to in three years. I wanted to buy clothes! I just wanted. I asked the Lord to release me from this compulsion to buy, and He did.

Maybe this has been part of my pondering...

Charlie Brown brings in his Christmas tree for the cast of the play to see. They laugh at how it looks. Then they turn their laughter to Charlie himself. I can just imagine how he must have felt. Even your closest friend pointing and laughing at you. He finally just yells out "Isn't there anyone who knows what Christmas is all about?!!!!" I have found myself asking the same thing.

Here's how the TV/Society tells me what Christmas is all about:
- Buy a Lexus with a red bow around it
- Buy gifts from under $100 (I guess $99.99 is still under that $100 mark)
- Don't miss the door buster deals starting at 10PM on Thanksgiving Day
- Do whatever it takes to get that great deal! (Use pepper spray if you must!)
- Buy diamonds
- It isn't Christmas without Starbucks Christmas flavors! (Has the Christmas Season started if you haven't tried a Peppermint Mocha?)
- It seems that Christmas is a time to ignore the basic rules of the English language and allows us to use "merry" as a verb and spell "season" as "ceason" to fit the initials of our network.
- Don't forget the "epic" battle between Mom and Santa.
- Christmas is about being on your best behavior because a little Elf who sits on a shelf will give a final report to Santa regarding your nice-ness or naughty-ness.

I could go on and on but I'm asking myself:
"Isn't there anyone who knows what Christmas is all about?!!!!"

November Happenings

It's been a whirlwind of a month! It's pretty crazy to think we only have about a month or so left of our furlough. We have SO enjoyed being in America. It's so diverse and beautiful. We saw our first fall in almost four years. The colors were incredible!




We left Texas to go to the JAARS Center (http://www.jaars.org/)in Waxhaw, North Carolina for a recurrency training for Josh. I think it's a refresher course of how to fly in America or something... While he was busy with that I was studying for a math test. I hope to take a test that will allow me to add the certification for math grades 4-8 to my teaching certificate.















Here's the apartment we were in. All these shots were taken from standing in one spot by the front door.








We went to an airshow with some new friends. I rode in a helicopter! I'm also grateful that my friend had an extra PINK down vest :) I would have frozen without it! I tried the minature feature on our camera for a fun effect. :)









We went to church with some friends that we knew in Indonesia and played in the leaves with some girls we didn't know :)




We had to extend our stay in North Carolina by a week. So we left from NC and headed straight to Arizona. We arrived after a short delay around 11:30 PM. It was a long three weeks. We've had a chance to visit family and friends.






Even some friends from Indonesia happened to be in Arizona. Her son had these goofy glasses! :)