A Very Full Week

As I sit here on our bed, laptop on my lap (hence the name???), 106.5 Praise FM on the internet and Matt reading next to me, I feel a sense of peace and joy. We have had a full week and we are all getting healthier. God has answered various prayers for us this week, including the fact that nobody in the family seems to be coughing up a lung this week. The big answer for Tris and I has been that we were praying for direction in a certain area of Tris' employment, and the Holy Spirit confirmed within each of us, separately, what he is to do. I love it when things are confirmed individually and then for us as a couple.

Big news for me this week is that the Bahasa Indonesia language course I had hoped to register for in March started this week. I am now a student of BI at the local university! This is pretty exciting because I've been studying on my own for the last 7 months, with a weekly one hour conversation and lesson with a wonderful national lady named Loana. Now I ojek to the university every Tuesday and Thursday for 2 hours each day. So far I've attended 2 classes and although they're supposed to be basic beginner classes, I have learned a bunch so far. I do well enough in reading the language, I can speak it enough to get my basic needs across, but I feel like I don't have very good listening/comprehension skills. Hope this isn't a reflection of my character.

Matthew is still playing basketball. Tomorrow the boys play a game with a Jakartan international school and then they find out if they've made the team. Matt's not too confident that he'll make it and he's given me permission to say so on here. We're just proud that he's gone to all the practices over the last 2 weeks. We'll fill you in. Abby has made the team; there are no try-outs in grade 5. Today was her first day in choir and she says it was pretty fun. It's nice to see our kids getting involved.

Tris is feeling much healthier. I'll fill you in on his week later.

More good news. Last Sunday Abby and I took a bunch of pink heart Valentine sugar cookies to the house behind us. We met the house mom, Fia, and had a good chat. Of the nine children that live there, we met 5 of the boys. I believe the other 4 are girls. All are from Papua, an island in east Indonesia. There's a movie that Fia suggested that we watch in order to get an idea of what these children have gone through; it's called "Denias." Unfortunately the copies we've found are only in Indonesian with no english sub-titles. Nobody knows if there are copies with english subtitles either, so I am either going to have to watch with a very patient native speaker who would be willing to pause every 2 minutes, or I'm going to have to work my bottom off trying to excel in language class:). The kids have been singing familiar (older) Christian songs, and these carry into our bedroom early in the morning and at night. We have been invited to join in their worship time soon. They start at 9:30 pm each night so usually we're all in bed, but we'd love to on a Friday night.

We had a potential driver lined up this week but he didn't work out, so we're still looking. This is unfortunate because Matthew's class is heading to the Bintaro slums again. That's the place that I wrote about while mom and dad were here; it's where families work together recycling other peoples' garbage. I showed a few photos of the visit. Hopefully we'll be able to find someone to drive our car and I can join the fieldtrip. I have some photos that, if our hard drive repairs work out, I would like to print off and give to some of the Bintaro locals.

I am a card-holding (well, not really, but I've paid my dues) member of Lippo Ladies...except we're not too sure what to call ourselves since the name of our village has changed...we may be called Lippo Village Ladies soon...anyways: a small group of us has banded together to try and plan a charity event where we can have fun and raise money for a good cause all at the same time. One of the places we are looking at is a school in a nearby kampung (village). I was privileged to go along and take photos. The school is about as big as our old house's footprint, and it holds over 80 students during the day. Each classroom has desks for up to 12 students, and with kindergarten to grade 6, it's a tight squeeze! I thoroughly enjoyed myself, taking photos and checking the place out. I have a feeling that the women I was with did as well.

Look how close the walls of this classroom are to each other. This is one of the teachers at her desk.

This has been a busy week for me...the rest of my lovely fam just keeps plugging along. I had a small breakthrough...I can now listen to 106.5 FM (my 'car radio station' in Canada) without feeling melancholy. Instead, I am at a point where I can listen and just enjoy. The commercials tug at my heart a little, weird, I know, but they do.

I haven't blogged regularly so now I feel like there's a well of words bubbling up inside of me, but due to space and the possibility of boring any readers we may have off of their seats, I'll end for now.

Thanks for reading.