So Long Ordinary

After a few weeks off for the holidays, we are back into the swing of things with English Club.  For our first day back, we painted ornaments of the nativity that had been sent by Centropolis Christian Church in Kansas - my Grandma's church!  Here in Indonesia, it is not unusual to celebrate Christmas through the end of January, so our late Christmas party was no problem for the kids!  The kids had a blast painting and took home their creations plus candy canes as a treat.  While there is a ton of candy available here, candy canes are a totally foreign concept, so that was fun to introduce to the kids!   Sorry about the not-so-clear cell phone pictures....these girls really made some beautiful ornaments.  I am always amazed at how careful most Indonesian kids are when doing arts and crafts.  Even the littlest girl who is around 3 years old did a great job.  The boys, however, were a lot messier! This isn't quite the whole group as s...

As you know, we took a break from English Club for about 6 weeks.  It was a nice break, and I feel very encouraged and excited about some changes we've made.  One of the main changes blessings is HELP!  With a new teammate here who is pleased to help teach and plan the classes, I'm feeling less stressed about handling the up to 60 kids that come to English Club each week.  Plus, we've found a way to divide up into groups so we can be sure to get the most out of our time with them.  For our first day back, we had a special treat for the kids.  Tacos!  I've yet to meet an Indonesian who knows about this marvelous, heavenly food and we thought it would be fun to share it with them, since they were learning the word anyway!   It was no simple task gathering all the ingredients - Amber, my friend, did a great job of gathering and preparing the treat.  If you'd like to learn more about that day and the kids' reactions...

The past week or so has been pretty hectic and emotional. Our teammates, the Pratts, are moving back to the States so this past week we have been busy helping them get ready to go and saying our good-byes. The Pratts are now en route to the U.S. We were sad to see them go and they will be missed by so many people here but we understand that God is leading them down a new path and we totally support them in that decision. Good-byes are a part of our missionary life - and that is honestly the only part of our life that I really, really, really hate!! We were pleased to host some friends from Tarakan (another MAF base) who came for the Pratts' good-bye party. It's always fun to see our friends and we were sad to see them go so soon after they got here! That's the problem with MAF - too many wonderful people and great friends and so little time to really hang out with them.... Sean has now taken over the Base Manager responsibilities and will also be the only pilot for the...

We're all doing well. Busy, busy, busy. (but not with homeschooling, which is SO nice) This week we're extra busy with company. Two different families are in town - a family with Wycliffe that visits 3 times a year and our newest MAF family visiting during their break from language school! Any increase in our Western family count is cause for great joy and celebration! ;-) Our Indonesian staff is on a retreat with other Indonesian staff from the other side of Kalimantan. Please pray for them to have a great and blessed time. We highly value these men and their families and we know they need encouragement in this ministry just like we do! Please keep praying for the English Club. It just keeps growing. There were 59 last week but half of them were new and several regulars were missing, which means we're shooting upwards of 60 if everyone comes! I am unable to do as much craft-type projects with them because it is just too much - too expensive to get all the material...