Apparently I have an accent! Unbelievable, eh? When I took the "do you have an accent?" test on Facebook, I was told that I didn't, but even other Canadians say I have a strong Canadian accent. What exactly is that? Near the end of my language class last night the guru (teacher) was telling us that the word 'bukan' (meaning 'no,' 'not so' or 'not') can be shortened to 'kan at the end of a sentence for confirmation of a statement. For example, "You are Canadian, 'kan?" (mixed translation there). It was then that I explained about the Canadian need for confirmation by using 'eh?' It was very cute when my guru, with her Javanese accent, said to another student "your name is Catarina, eh?" It's nice to know that my presence in Indonesia is improving the lives of others.

Speaking of improving, Tris went to the doctor finally last Monday and got some antibiotics to fight his stomach ailments. Five days later he seems to be just fine, and hopefully he'll gain a bit of the weight he lost over the last 2-3 weeks. Last week he went on a Spiritual Retreat with SPH grade 11s, even though he was a bit under the weather. I didn't explain much about him then because I can't see the wisdom in announcing over the net that my husband is gone and I am alone in the house with my two children. I know, I know, people are not perusing my blog just to find out these kinds of details, but I just want to use caution. The retreat went really well and he said that when he spoke (was one of the speakers on the opening night) it went well also. He doesn't use many descriptives to describe his life sometimes. That's okay, because his life is going well.

Yesterday my friend Diane and I went along with Matthew's homeroom teacher and about 40 grade 7s to Bintaro, the slums we visited while mom and dad were here. It was the same routine as last time, where we got organized and then our students interacted with the local kids. They ate together, played games and sang songs. I am glad that I went for both trips, because I could see a difference in Matthew. As much as we'd tried to expose our children to a variety of economic levels of living in Canada, it is still a stretch for Matthew (his own admission) to try and interact with these lesser-off children who don't speak his language. This particular trip I saw him attempt to make small talk with his appointed group of girls (as were his two other SPH student partners) but it was the girls who rejected him, not the other way around. He'd point to a tree that one little grade 2 (ish) girl was colouring, ask her in Indonesian what colour that was, and she kind of glared at him. Earlier he had tried to tell her "nama saya Matthew" (my name is Matthew) and she looked at him like "drop dead." Needless to say, I was proud of him for trying. I must mention that all three boys tried throughout the whole session to connect with these 4 little girls and although they weren't that successful, they get a gold sticker for trying.

While on the subject of Matthew, he didn't make the basketball team, but I don't think that there was ever a time that he thought he would. Again, I give him a gold star for sticking it out, even when he really, really didn't want to.

Around 10 this morning I had a group of women come over to watch the movie Denias that I wrote about earlier. It is about a Papuan boy who lives in a village away from any cities. He is introduced to a basic education and is told that he is very intelligent. The movie is based on a true story about how he goes about getting the education he dreamed of. When searching for this movie I was told by four different people that I could not get it in English, so I had my friend Ibu Loana come to translate for us. We were thrilled to find out the edition that we had had english subtitles. If you ever have a chance to watch, it's a good story, especially knowing it is true, and the cinematography is absolutely beautiful. For those unfamiliar with Papua, it is in east Indonesia.

I've received numerous emails about the prophecy given at Klesis regarding Northgate Foursquare being a sending station. It seems there's an excitement that has grown from this word...I am very excited to see where the Lord takes the church family. Keep me posted!

Thanks for reading.