News and Fun

Hello from the land of volcanoes, earthquakes, and rain!  

I have been busy at work planning the last few weeks of the year.  In my senior class, we have read the book, Cry, the Beloved Country, and it has been fun to get the students to think about social justice and how they are going to live their lives outside of high school.  It's such a blessing to be able to share the Gospel as the opportunity arises at work!  Erin's still doing the cooking classes, and building friendships and relationships through that venue.  The boys are involved in school- Kadin just had his Spring Concert - and it is hard to believe Jace will be five years old next week!  We have gone to the kampung where we installed the hand washing station a few times in the last few weeks, and we met some of our Indonesian staff that live there and work at BAIS.  Pray for us to be given opportunities to share, boldness to do it, and relationships to form which will allow growth.  Thanks for all your prayers and support- it is so encouraging to know you are praying for God's work, and our role in it.  

We have been busy lately, but we wanted to at least put up a few pictures of our latest adventures-

(Hopefully we can post some spring break pictures soon, and share the story of that adventure!)

Last weekend I took the boys to the kampung to play soccer- these are the kids we met at the school when we did the hand washing station.  We played soccer, and the kids also took us down to where they fish behind Jingga (our housing area).

Here's another shot down at the kampung river- can you find Kadin?

Today, we went to Bandung Treetop Adventure.  It was a blast.  The kids did one course, and Erin and I did the higher levels.... here's some various shots of the place and the kids-

It's a little blurry, but shows Jace having so much fun.  He tried to climb to the more challenging course, but the safety instructor caught him as he was climbing the ladder!

Safety first!  The kids (and all of us) had two carabiners- you always were attached to something- or were supposed to be! 

Here's a shot of me on the "red" course.  It was challenging, but not as high as the "black" course I did earlier-

Here's the family right after we harnessed up!

 

Two weeks ago, the special forces from the local airbase practice rappelling from their helicopter, and the boys and I went to watch it up close.  They were taking off and landing in the neighborhood behind our house.  It was fun to talk with the security and the soldiers!

WWW

This week we are on vacation, but last week we had Week Without Walls. It was our first time, and what a blessing! The whole purpose of WWW is to teach the kids (at BAIS) to serve. To that end, there were probably about 10 activities the students could join-everything from Habitat for Humanity to painting a mural at the army base.

I was part of a group that went out to build a hand washing station for a local school. The school has two faucets in a back room. That's the extent of the water they have available for the kids. We ran some pipe, electricity, and installed a water pump to provide 10 faucets where the kids could wash their hands and feet. It was such a blessing to work with the staff and students. The kids did an awesome job, and never complained! It was a blessing to see the faces of the local school kids as they saw running water come out of the faucets.
What's really cool though is that some of our students want to come back and play soccer with the kids throughout the rest of the year. Our group seems to have bonded with the kids at the school and they don't want to have this be a one time deal. God's working on their hearts and teaching them to serve! Mission accomplished.

Has it really been almost two months?!?  Sorry!
We have been a little busy, but we will try to do better with the updates!

We wanted to put out a quick note to let you know what is going on this coming week.  Monday-Friday, the kids go to school but have no classes.  It's called SEW and WWW.  (Spiritual Emphasis Week, and Week Without Walls)  The goal is to focus on God and then to teach the kids how to serve others.  I will be working with a small group of high school boys in the mornings after the worship and "sermon" time.  Pray that the Spirit would lead and that we would all be convicted to live more authentic lives for the Kingdom.  Then as part of WWW, I am in a group that is going to a local school (grades 1-6) to build a hand washing station.  We will teach the kids how to wash their hands and brush their teeth properly.  It's a lot like the mission trip projects I have done for years, but now I am working with local Indonesian staff and students from the school.  Not all the students are Christian.  Pray that this week they would come to know Christ personally.  Pray for servant's hearts.  There are 7 adults (all believers) and 15 students.  Jace and Kadin will be part of a group as well.  Jace will be learning service by helping wash teacher's motorbikes, and Kadin is part of a human video project.  The goal of the WWW is to teach kids to serve, so I am praying that they would see how God can use them even in small ways.

There is so much to get caught up with, but this will have to do for now.  Know that you are in our prayers, and we thank you for your prayers and support!  God bless, and we will be in touch! -mekj

Strength and Shield

"I am your strength and shield. I plan out each day and have it ready for you,long before you arise from bed. I also provide the strength you need each step of the way." excerpt from Jesus Calling.

This was my morning devotion. There could be not have been better words for me to read today. I just had to blog about them! :) I think it is so amazing how God knows exactly what we need to face each and every day! Over the past two days I have had a group of ladies over to our house to do some "western" baking. This opportunity came about because of the "small" Christmas gift we had given each of our neighbors on our block right before Christmas. My helper and I spent two weeks making pies to give as gifts. Most all of these neighbors had never had these "sweet things". We made lemon meringue pies and of course the good ole apple pie itself. I thank God everyday for our helper who fits our family so well and who knew how to make apple pie! Anyways...a few of the ladies on the block wanted to learn how to bake these pies. So we set a date and time and started to bake! It was so much fun. Although we do not speak much of the same language we had a wonderful time being together and learning from each other. Only one of the ladies who attended is a believer. Most are Muslim or don't have a religion at all. We all decided that we should get together to do this once a month! I never would have thought that almost six months after moving to Indonesia I would have the opportunity to have non -believing, and almost non- English speaking ladies coming into our home to bake- or even that I would have a helper that knows how to bake pies better than I do! Wow!

Back to what I was reading this morning-I was somewhat nervous of how things would turn out. I wasn't sure if things would go smoothly, I didn't know if I could speak in bahasa well enough to visit, etc.  All of these "worries" were thrown at the feet of God who knew that by making simple pies as gifts at Christmas time this door would be opened. God gave me the strength that I needed to make it through and not burn anything:) J/K, but seriously, everything went so smoothly. I could not have done it without His help. Please pray with me that this "activity" would grow into something other that just casual talk and fellowship. These ladies need Jesus and now I have a chance to build friendships that can, Lord willing, last for eternity. Thanks for your prayers and support. We love and miss you all, Erin

The latest pictures from our trip

Last week we went to Yogyakarta-

We visited Borobudor, a silver factory, and one of the most active volcanoes in Indonesia.  It was a busy week of traveling and site-seeing.  Here's some of the stuff we saw!  Enjoy!

 After driving for about 4 hours, we arrived in Banjar.  We stopped to eat, and we took a few pictures.  There was a nice J40 Toyota Jeep across from where we ate, so I had to take a picture!  Later we went to a village at the foot of the volcano where there were a ton of Toyota and Willys Jeeps.

Here are some shots of us at Borobudor.  It's the most visited tourist site in Indonesia.  It was hot and there were a lot of folks everywhere.  But it was fun to be there and the site was amazing!

Everyone going to the temple had to wear the garments around the waist....  The temple was several levels- square at the bottom and 3 circular levels at top....

Next, we walked near the foothills of Merapi.  The volcano erupted in 2010, and over 300 people were killed over the month-long series of eruptions....

 The volcano is somewhere behind the cloud of smoke...





The foundation of a house can be seen in this picture- the flag indicates that someone was buried by the debris when the flow came rushing down the mountain.....

Here's a shot of Merapi from a distance.  We were never terribly close to the mountain, but we did walk around old roads, and previous pyroclastic flows.  Here's a picture of a house we walked by.....

 After the volcano in the morning, we went to a silver factory- where they made everything from earrings to horse-draw carriages from silver.  It was interesting to see how they worked with the silver, since we have often watched our Navajo friends make their jewelry.  They used silver wire to make everything, and I didn't see many stamps or bigger sheets of silver like we would if we watched our friends in New Mexico make jewelry.

The airplane was pretty amazing- the cockpit opens to reveal a silver pilot too! 

 On the way back home, we detoured to a beach.  (it was a slight 5 hour detour!)

The crabs made some cool patterns on the sand!

The beach was not very crowded, but it also wasn't the most beautiful sandy beach we had ever been to....  Apparently our driver did not want to take us there because of the prison island that was located a few miles away!  We were the only Bules (white person) around.

Our friends Amu and Hani on the boat--

The boys had such fun, chasing the waves, feeling the current, and simply messing around! 

We took a brief boat ride and then played at the beach.  The waves were kind of big, and it appeared that there was a drop-off, so we let the kids play near the shore, but not swim.  Everyone had a blast!