The Links of an Unbreakable Chain

One of the struggles that I, Karen, have living here in Indonesia is the role I play as an individual. God has a way of keeping us humble and in doing so Satan can make my daily tasks feel mundane and purposeless as a wife/mom. As I am home with my children, changing diapers and cleaning up after lunch when it looks like a rice bomb went off in my kitchen, I am reminded that even though I want the glory of a 'job well done', all of the the glory goes to God. So as I go through the routine of my daily tasks and give to my children, husband and others around me, God taps me on the shoulder and says...."here my child, this is what you are part of, this is My purpose for your life". I look at the smiles on my kids faces, sit down to check email, and I see this note from a pilot that lives just a couple of doors down from us. This note brought joy to my heart and in turn should bring joy to yours. When there are missionaries living in the jungle, they cannot get there without the help of MAF. The pilots flying the planes cannot do their jobs and the missionaries in the jungle cannot do their jobs unless someone is teaching their children. Their children are not taught unless there is teachers living here in Indonesia, and the teachers could not be living here unless, you, our supporters, were not praying and donating to this ministry. We are all links in a chain, and by following God's purpose for our lives and by working together to further His kingdom we are blessed with joy by seeing victories such as this.
May God bless you all as we are all on His team and part of His everlasting chain.
Samuel was starving and unable to get proper nutrition from his mother who was lacking a basic diet to produce milk for her baby. Missionaries living in the village of Tumdungbon, where there is no airstrip, asked MAF to drop a box of formula to try and help this baby. Just a few weeks after the successful airdrop, Samuel's health had improved drastically and he has put on lot of weight. In the following pictures you can barely recognize him. Praise be to God!

The "Be" attitudes

I, Paul, would like to share with you a little of what I have been learning over the last few months here in Papua.

A good friend of mine challenged me to read some of the top 50 influential evangelical books. This is quite a daunting list of books and they all look quite interesting. We decided that we were interested in books that would help us become better practical Christians. We decided to read Dietrich Bonhoeffer's book, "The Cost of Discipleship". I have not yet finished this book, but it is very convicting. The section that I am slowly working through right now is on Jesus' sermon on the mount - in particular, the section on the Be-attitudes. It was explained to me that these be-attitudes are attitudes that are to help us be, or exist in the world.

"Blessed are the poor in spirit ..."

This is one of those attitudes that we are supposed to "be". I have always understood this to mean depressed or sullen, but Bonhoeffer suggests that it isn't about depression at all but about a person's realization of their sin. Once a person realizes and acknowledges the fact that they are sinners and can't attain salvation alone, they realize that they are not spiritually rich, but spiritually broke. On their own spiritual income they can afford nothing. It is when we realize that we are in this state of spiritual poorness that Jesus calls us blessed because at that moment we are open to receiving all that God has to offer us in the kingdom of Heaven.

With the start of school at HIS also comes an annual high school trip to the beach for 3 nights. During this retreat, our guest speaker also spoke on the beattitudes and shared his thoughts on the exact same topic that I had been reading over the past month. I guess God is trying to teach me about the attitudes that are required if I truly want to "be" like Christ. I am listening, Jesus!

I have a good teaching load this year and I must admit that it feels great to be back in the classroom. I am teaching Grade 8 science, Grade 9, Biology, Chemistry, and Anatomy & Physiology. It has been a few years since there has been a career science teacher at HIS and as a result lab equipment, supplies, purchasing, and forward planning don't get taken care of with the same intensity as that of a career teacher. So, on top of the classroom work, I am also trying to sort, inventory, and purchase equipment to ensure a well equipped and functional science lab. This may take a few years as shipments come once a year.

I am also assistant coaching volleyball this year for the junior and senior boys. Busy, busy, busy!

We are going through a phase of missing home. With the closing of summer and the ensuing harvest, we miss the family get-together's and the changing of the seasons. Please continue to pray for us as we are adjusting to life here in Papua. As on now, the plan is to return for a brief 2 month furlough over the summer holidays. We are looking forward to that!

Serving together in Christ,

Paul

Main Center MB Church in Action

Main Center MB Church is home for us. It is a small rural church located in south west Saskatchewan Canada. As it turns out, they have recently sent two missionary families to serve in Indonesia as teachers with Mission Aviation Fellowship. The church is very missions minded and support MAF and these families prayerfully and financially. They are such a great support for our family. In this past year, Main Center decided to become involved in what our family was doing in a different capacity and that is the purpose for this post. While we were living in Salatiga, Central Java, Indonesia, the church raised money to build a play structure in the back yard of the mission house. Play structures are rare in Indonesia and there is no such thing as a public play ground. There are small playgrounds at schools but they are gated and locked up outside of school hours. After the play structure was complete, we invited the entire neighborhood (400 people) to our house, fed them, shared our beliefs and purpose for this play structure. We told all the families that if our gate was open anyone could come and play. It was a great opportunity for our children, and us, to get to know the kids in the area. We know this will also be a blessing for the families that will be living in this house in the future.


Sometimes I would bring out juice boxes and oreo cookies for the kids to snack on.

The kids were so excited they showed up to help put the grass down.


The next project our church decided to do was to donate some money to help buy groceries for some of the poorer families in our area. Each bag cost $5.00 and included, cooking oil, noodles, rice, sugar and flour. Our pastor and his wife, Ken and Mary Epp, made a special trip to visit us and handed out these food bags in the community. Some people greated Mary with tears and she told them that we were doing this to share our blessings that God has given us.



While Ken and Mary were in Salatiga, we went to see a new church up the mountain in a local village. The young pastor whom is still in school travels there for the long weekend and then back to the city to continue schooling. Because the village is so remote he cannot get a motorcycle taxi on the way home and has to walk an hour before he can find one that will then take him to the city about another 20 minute drive away. Main Center again raised money to buy a used motorbike for Ferrinan. Needless to say, he was shocked and very excited to get his new wheels. This transportation will give him less stress and more time for his important ministry.

Main Center also got involved with a couple of Papuan's and bought a desk and computer, that is kept at a missionaries house, for them to use as they continue their college education. They are able to find information on the computer, type essays, and become familiar with technology that is so important in this day and age.

A huge thank you to Main Center MB Church for the blessing you are to our families and many Indonesians. May God Bless your generosity!

In Loving Memory of Ridwan

We were very saddened today to receive a phone call from our good friends back in Salatiga. Pak Jono and Ibu Kasum just lost their brother, Ridwan. My friend, Ibu Kasum, is now the last remaining member of her family at the age of 38 years. We had the opportunity to introduce her to Paul's extended family through Skype. After she had met everyone she told me that the whole family must be very happy. When I asked why she thought that she responded, "They are all alive, healthy and together. Most of my family has already passed away. They just must be so happy to still have each other!". When we moved away from Salatiga she cried saying to me... "Please don't leave me, my parents are gone, my sisters are all gone and now you are leaving. Who do I have to talk to? Please don't go". As you can imagine it was hard to leave her at that moment. Today when she called me I could hardly understand her above the hard crying but she said to me, "My brother is dead, I am the only one left, only me, there is only me and you are so far away". This was heart renching for me. She asked me to pray, even though her and her family are devout Muslims. Our hearts are crying with them as we remember Ridwan, his wife Ismiah and their 2 children. Ridwan was helping a neighbor pick coconuts and fell from the tree. He was only 42 years old. Please pray for them during this difficult time.

It was cheaper to ship our car to Papua from Java, rather than sell it and buy another one. However, we cannot say that it was less stressful. After a very long day, 12 hours to be specific, we finally had our car and barang (stuff) tightly packed into this container on on the way to a port in Surabaya. It was quite the experience.

The morning after ...

I, Paul, write this the morning after we sent all of our belongings from the island of Java to the island of Papua. In case you were wondering if it all went smoothly ... please read on!

We ordered a container to arrive at our house around 10 am with the plan to load the car and then all of our household items. The problem was that the container couldn't be taken down off the truck and so it was still 1.6 meters (around 5 feet) off the ground! So, we began to build a ramp. My friend Tripp Flythe is an engineer and so he was there to help make sure that the ramp was strong enough to support our vehicle filled with stuff. The first time we built the ramp (that's right - first time), our Indonesian brothers we so excited to start building that they wouldn't heed our advice, which resulted in a very unstable and weak ramp. In addition to this, the place they chose to build the ramp was poor because of the hill we were on. Anyways, we couldn't get the car up the ramp, which was a good thing because in hind sight it wouldn't have been strong enough. Total time spent waiting (for prayer, smoking, and coffee drinking): 2 hours. Total time spent trying to explain - only to be ignored: 2 hours. Total time wasted: 4 hours. Keep in mind that the container was only supposed to wait for 6 hours before leaving. Total stress: I would have pulled out hair if there was any.

The second time we built the ramp, we got a little ornery and made sure that the spot was appropriate and that the ramp was built to our specifications. The end result was a loaded car! And it only took around an hour! So, 4 hours building a useless ramp plus 1 hour building the same ramp in a different place equals 5 hours to load one car and 1 hour to load everything else in our house!

By 10 pm, the container was fully loaded and on its way to the port city of Surabaya, located on the north coast of the island of Java. Yes, the truck waited!

As we loaded all of our things I was feeling convicted of our cultures constant striving to accumulate stuff. Compared to our Indonesian neighbours we have an insulting amount of stuff in our houses. We spend an insulting amount of money on seemingly needless stuff.

Eugene Petersons's "The Message" uses very convicting words,

"Don't hoard treasure down here where it gets eaten by moths and corroded by rust or - worse! - stolen by burglars. Stockpile treasure in heaven, were it's safe from moth and rust and burglars. It's obvious isn't it? The place where your treasure is, is the place you will most want to be, and end up being."
- Matthew 6: 19, 20

I am not sure if anything else needs to be explained. Maybe this doesn't speak to you right now as strongly as it does to me, but it is a good reminder that our tasks here on earth are not to make money to buy stuff, but to build relationships with our neighbours, wherever that may be, so that they feel comfortable asking about the joy that we have in hearts, which points to Christ. For that is the reason we are here.

I am also reasurred by reading about some of the old testament characters that were told to move. Take Abraham, for instance. In Genesis 13, we read that Abram left Egypt and traveled north with his wife and all that he owned. We also read that Abram was very rich in livestock, silver, and gold and that the land could not support Abram and his nephew Lot. I don't know what you think about that, but that must have been a lot of stuff. I also think that Abram was a righteous man so I guess the conclusion is that righteous people can have lots of stuff and be rich. Now, don't go reading into anything. I am not claiming to be righteous or rich. I am just saying that there are two sides to the story. There! Enough said!

We are planning on spending a few nights in Jakarta, the capital of Indonesia, visiting a friend and taking a short vacation before departing for Papua. Thank you for your continued prayer support - the Lord did some good work helping keep us safe as we loaded the car and all of our stuff. Darryl finished grade 1 with flying colors and looks forward to starting grade 2 already. Stephan has been told that he can start grade 1 in the fall and so he gets to follow Darryl to school, which just leaves Elleah and Grayson at home with Karen. Karen has also been invited to join the volunteer staff at the local clinic at the school to work as a nurse, once she is ready. I, on the other hand, will begin preparing my classroom and getting my act together for the up coming school year - of course this will happen after we unload the container from Canada and the container from Java and set up our new home!

Please continue to pray. We need it.

Done at Last!

We are pleased to announce that Karen and I are both IMLAC graduates and are considered "fluent" in the Indonesian language. This is kind of funny to us because the they word fluent could also be translated as fluidity and so if you can talk fast, you sound fluent. I don't think I will ever be fluent in any language if speed is the guage - Karen on the other hand ...

We are still very motivated to continue learning this language - it is like most other things, once you start learning, you realize how much more there is to learn about that subject. We have plans to continue reading books to increase our vocabulary, but chatting with the neighbors is the best way to increase our "fluency".

Thank you for praying for us during this time! We could tell that we were being lifted and watched over. We ask that you continue to pray for us as we organize the details of moving once again and also for the children who, although adapt quite quickly, are very sensitive to change. The plan is to ship our household items around the 15th of May and give them a head start before we depart on the 18th of May. We have to go through Jakarta and plan on staying in the city for a few nights visiting with friends and enjoying the city. We plan on arriving in Papua around the 22nd of May. Hopefully our stuff from Canada and our stuff from here will all get to Papua safely.

I would like to close with an encouragement from John 20:30, 31

"Jesus did many other miraculous signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not recorded in this book. But these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name."

This passage comes right after Thomas declares that he will not believe that Jesus rose from the dead until he puts his fingers in Jesus' hands and side. Many times we require proof of the power of God before we will choose to believe in the power of God, but Jesus said in verse 29,

"blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed."

Verse 31 says that Scripture were given to us as proof of God's plan of salvation so that we may believe. Although we may not have seen miraculous signs like the actual holes in Jesus' hands and side, like the disciples, we have scripture, which is a miracle in itself, and we are told that its account is accurate. May you continue to read the scriptures and may the Holy Spirit unveil truths to the greatness and glory of God. If you haven't started reading, or it has been a while since you last opened your bible, don't let that stop you. Open it up, it will change your life. May His name, the name of our risen Lord, Jesus, be praised for ever and ever, Amen!

Almost Done!

Hey there, everyone!

We are almost done our language learning here in the wonderful little city of Salatiga, Indonesia. It has been a hard few months, with our brains being stretched in ways we never thought possible. I have a new appreciation for those learning a new language or those who are already multi-lingual, it is just down right hard to learn a new language.


We have also celebrated Good Friday here and it is important to remember that we are now living in a Muslim world where this day is not fully understood. Our helper asked us what it Easter actually meant if Jesus literally rose from the dead. Wow! What a terrific opportunity to share the good news - unfortunately, we could not answer with the enthusiasm or the precision that we once could for we are still learning this language. I must admit that I was/am embarrassed about my inability to communicate effectively and I was reminded of this scripture passage:

"Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have" - 1 Peter 3:15

Consider me sufficiently motivated to continue learning! I encourage everyone else to continue learning as well so that you may be able to answer any questions that come your way!

This is us and classmates at IMLAC. It nice and relaxed.

Darryl had a fun day at his school and that meant all of our kids could have fun as well. They had face painting, which our kids took advantage of as well as water games. Nothing but fun!

Darryl was on the camoflauge team - nothing but cool!

Stephan's performance

Stephan's class performed a frog song. He was very proud!

Boys will be Boys

Stephan manages to entertain himself fairly easily and this is what Paul and I found him doing when we came home from school the other day. Enjoy!

Over the holidays we toured the city of Yogyakarta (Jogja). We rode on traditional baychuks, toured the Sultans palace, the bird market, silver making factory, and batik making factory. It was all very interesting and even the kids had a good time.

We had the chance to head to the beach while my parents were here. Although you may not see it in the pictures we were very disappointed to see so much garbage in the water. Apparently it is always like that during the rainy season including Bali! The resort was very nice and we still had a chance to do lots of swimming with the kids.

Hard to believe our baby Grayson is one already! On January 2nd he turned 1 and the kids, myself and grandma made cupcakes to look like a balloon. Again we invited our neighbors and Grayson had fun opening gifts and licking the icing off the cupcake.

On Christmas day we invited our closest neighbors and families of our helpers. Together we enjoyed traditional Indonesian food in Indonesian style. We were also invited to another Indonesian friends house for lunch so we definitely had our fill of good food. When the meal was over at our house we had tons of left overs so we packed it up and went and delivered to food the some of the poorer people in our neighborhood. It was the best part of Christmas!

We were very blessed to have my parents here for Christmas in Indonesia. Paul read the story of Jesus's birth from the Bible for the family and after a little prayer time we dove into opening gifts. Much fun was had by all!

We have such a good time with our kids and they all have their moments. Grayson is sure a laugher and he proves it in this video.