One Year Reflections...and a party!

On August 2, we celebrated our one-year anniversary in Indonesia.  Wow.  What a year we've had!  I couldn't have imagined one year ago that we would ever be able to sort of  communicate in Indonesian or have such fun with Indonesians or enjoy our new home so much.

As I think about where we are and what we're doing I'm still very much in awe.  I'm struck by the fact that this is NOT the place I would have chosen for us.  I would have picked somewhere cooler, somewhere closer to home, somewhere with mountains, somewhere with a language that I already know.  I would have picked a return to Ecuador (I'll always miss it), or maybe something in Alaska - not a hot, swampy island in Southeast Asia.  

I would never have imagined Sean flying floatplanes or myself homeschooling.  And even though this is not the place I would choose, I'm finding myself liking it very much.  Not because it's easy (because it's not) or pretty (and it is) but because I know God brought us here and I see how He used all the choices and would-be mistakes of our past to bring us here to this place, for such a time as this. 

I'm very much a different missionary than I was in my first term overseas, and while I hold a great deal of regret, I also can't help but see God's hand in it all. He had a plan, even when I didn't!  I'm humbled and thankful that God would choose to use and teach me in this new place that is everything I never wanted.  God, apparently, knows more than I do and His ways are higher than mine.  I'm so glad.

Now that we're finally settled into our PalangkaRaya house, we wanted to throw a party for our friends!  As it turns out, we couldn't get the party organized until this week...our last week before heading back to Java for two more months of language school!  So...this turned into a "thank you for helping us and being our friends and we promise to come back" party. ;-) It was just by happenstance that this party actually took place on our one-year anniversary in Indonesia!

We had a great time playing volleyball - or I did anyway - while Sean grilled chicken. 

It was a great time of fellowship with our MAF teammates and other new friends here in Palangka Raya.  We can't wait to come back!

We will travel back to Salatiga for the last two units of language school this Sunday, the 7th, and hope to return for real around mid-October.