This and that...

• Sorry for the sparse blogging lately - we don't have a whole lot going on.  We go to school - all five of us - and then when we aren't in school we try to find stuff to do.  Most days, we wind up at the International school to play on their playground.  Most evenings, Sean and I find ourselves watching a series on DVD (like Chuck).  We "invested" in a tiny TV and DVD player here - so glad we did!


• The girls are all doing great.  I'm glad that they are such resilient, adventurous kids!  They've taken all this moving around stuff in stride.  We miss "home" but we're also doing our best to "live it up" here in Salatiga!


• None of us have been sleeping very well for several different reasons. Pray for better sleep for all of us.  I miss my nice, quiet, cozy bedroom!    


• We are actually quite grateful that we're not in Palangka Raya right now.  The smoke season has hit hard there...even to the point that our MAF teammates, the Pratts, were evacuated to our other Kalimantan base in the city of Tarakan. 


•  Please pray for our friends still in Palangka Raya as the air is extremely unhealthy to breathe.  Our helper/neighbor has been suffering asthma and a fever as a result of the smoke and we know most of our Indonesian staff's kids have been ill. Sadly, they don't have anywhere to go to escape the smoke. The rivers are also lower than anybody has ever seen before, even to the point that our floating hangar/dock is now at least partially sitting on the bottom of the river. They need lots of good rain there now!  


• 7 more weeks until we are officially done with language school! We are so very, very, very, very ready to be done.  However, we are learning lots of valuable stuff and want to take advantage of the opportunity to learn more about how to share our faith in Indonesian - and how to minister to people who follow other belief systems and faiths.  It's nice to have a safe place to fumble our way through deeper discussions before attempting that "out there!"


• Probably because we're in a sort of "camp out with what fits in your meager luggage allowance" season, and I feel particularly homeless unsettled,  I'm homesick. Colorado homesick. It's hard to be so far away from family and made even harder because our internet is too slow for good skype conversations.  I'm holding on to the hope of a visit in December and a possible "vacation" back to America next year...these things keep us going in seasons of homesickness!  


• So I've admitted that I'm homesick for Colorado and homesick for Palangka Raya, but I also have to say, Central Java is gorgeous!  We're loving the cooler weather (cool enough for a jacket in the mornings!) and the views are breathtaking these days of the surrounding mountains. Sean and I think this would be our ideal in-Indonesia vacation spot....we're not much for beaches, but mountains (and non-muggy air) just make us happy. Yes, I do believe we'll be back here again someday - but I'm staying in the resort next time. ;-)