Flooding in Jakarta

We don't normally travel to Jakarta, so getting this notice from the US Embassy this morning was quite ironic:

The US Embassy in Jakarta, Indonesia, informs American citizens that the World Bank warned that a record high tide is likely to flood North Jakarta next week. The tides are expected to be at an 18-year high and World Bank experts predict that flood waters could be up to four feet deep on Tuesday, June 3, and Wednesday, June 4, 2008. A flood of this size is likely to cut off the highway to Seokarna-Hatta airport. American citizens are urged to prepare adequate stores of food and water and to expect that mobility may be significantly hampered.


Now normally, that announcement wouldn't affect us. But we just made plans to travel through Jakarta in 9 days. And, we bypassed a more expensive hotel, closer to the airport, in order to save money. Which means we're planning to go down the very highway that's likely to be cut off. Which means we may not be able to. Perhaps it will subside by then.

Minor hitch. We'll see how it turns out.

Like a Mighty Lion

Last night we joined some friends at their place for dinner and a movie. The dinner was Dominoes pizza (ah, the delicacies of the West). The movie was Narnia. Yes, it was the first time for our kids to actually watch the movie, though we had to sanitize some of it for the sake of Aidan and Delaney's vivid imaginations.

This week, in our family Bible time, we're studying how God is victorious, even though when Jesus died on the cross, it didn't look that way. Victory does not always look like we think it should . . . at least initially.

This is so vividly portrayed in the movie, with Aslan on that fateful night, in his final solitary moments, when all evil gathered around him in apparent victory. Yes, all is not as it seems. And then . . .

This morning, I'm up at 4:00am (because Ethan has been snuffly, having difficulty breathing/eating, and I need to refill the vaporizor) and turning to the morning passage to read Isaiah 31. How does God do this so consistently? Matching up Scripture with actual events in my life:

"As a lion or a young lion growls over his prey . . .

so the LORD of hosts will come down

to fight on Mount Zion and on its hill."

I like this because so often I fall into the trap of "relying on horses, trusting in chariots because they are many and in horsemen because they are very strong" rather than "looking to the Holy One of Israel or consulting the LORD" (v 1). We all want to win, and when it seems like defeat is at hand, we run to something/someone that we think will help us to victory. This world is full of hollow victories, though, because ultimately, He will roar. Let us not grow weary in defeat, as the world knows it, but look to the Lion who has triumphed and will triumph over his foes.

Visa approved!

Good news! Ethan's visa will be done by next Thursday. Much sooner than we were told. This means, that even though we were here a little longer than expected, we won't have to stay beyond June 12 - our deadline to get back into Indonesia.

I'm going into the travel agent to pay for our tickets tomorrow. We're booked on a flight out of Perth on June 9. We have to overnight in Jakarta, and then we fly to Surabaya around lunch time. I've got an Indonesian friend who runs a travel service, and he'll probably pick us up and take us the 2-4 hours to Malang.

Thanks for praying Ethan's visa through.

Picture of the Week

Return to Indo Update

Just as our departure from Indonesia two months ago kept getting stalled, so too our return. We picked up Ethan's passport on Tuesday and quickly sent all the required documents to Jakarta to apply for his visa. Now we await word from our sponsoring org. They tell us that the earliest it will be done in Jakarta is June 6. Then we'll have to get Ethan's passport stamped at the Indo Consulate here in Perth, which could take four more days after that.

The intrigue in all of this is that we need to be back in Indo by June 12 or we all lose our visas (it has to do with the type of permission we have to exit and reenter the country on our visa). The timing doesn't give us much leeway. The Indo consulate this morning recommended that w try to get permission to extend from the immigration office back in Malang. So on Monday, I'll be calling contacts in Indo to see if we can get this done.

One thing we so vividly learned back in March was that with each obstacle (in getting Kim to Perth), God had an even greater solution. Now we face somewhat similar circumstances. So we are trusting that his plan for our continued time in Perth is what is best and that he will get us back to Indo in his time.

Report from Ibu Wenny

I just got an email from Ibu Wenny about the P-town mother's day gathering. They had 27 in attendance, and the discussion theme was, of course "Mothers . . . An extraordinary responsibility." They were able to play a couple of games, which went over very well, and the mother's were presented with special gifts made by their children at the learning center.

Ibu Wenny and Lisa feel like it was a great start and that through this, God has opened a door for working with the whole family, not just the children. The are planning to make this mother's meeting a regular event, and have already scheduled the next one for June 11.

Thanks for your prayers. Please keep this initiative in mind as you pray for the learning center.

Pictures of the Week

Celebrating Aidan's 6th Birthday on the mini-golf course.

Return to Indo

Last week, we applied for Ethan's passport, and now we're waiting for it to be completed. They did say it wouldn't take three weeks, so it may be done today or tomorrow. That's the good news.

The bad news is that we will have to apply for Ethan's visa to enter Indonesia before returning. Originally, our visa sponsor in Indo said that Ethan could enter on a tourist pass, and then they would arrange the visa in country. However, we learned last week that that won't work. So, once we get Ethan's passport, we'll be sending his documents to Jakarta to apply for his visa. That could take anywhere from one to four weeks.

So we still don't have a firm date on our return. We'd like to get back sooner rather than later and appreciate your prayers toward that end.

P-Town Mother's Meeting

Just a quick update - We're still waiting to here from Ibu Weni about what happened last Thursday. As soon as we get word, I'll post something here. Thanks for lifting up the time they had with these moms.

P-Town Learning Center Update

Ibu Wenny with some of the kids at the learning center.

Tomorrow, May 15, Ibu Wenny and an American friend will be heading up an outreach to the mothers in the P-town neighborhood. This kind of a meeting has been on the back burner for over a year, but is now coming to fruition.

• Pray for the hearts of these mothers to be stirred with the love of Jesus.
• Pray that Ibu Wenny and the others involved will know how best to build and continue relationships with these ladies.
• Pray that the community will be blessed.

Leap Frog: the next generation

Who needs to jump. That's for old timers.

The real leap froggers float.

Ethan: Pictures of the Week

Ethan gets into some heavy reading

Last year I started reading the Puritans and now Ethan wants to get into it. Looks like he had the same reaction I had. Now we know what to do when he's not sleeping at night. - These books from some great giants of the faith are filled with spiritual nuggets, but you really need to read them with a good cuppa.

(Just in case you can't understand the kids, they're saying, "Presenting little boy Ethan.")

The "Roo bar"

Once Ethan was added to the family, we couldn't fit everyone into our borrowed car. Fortunately, Max and Patsy had this white van and so they swapped with us. Notice the "Roo bar" on the front for protecting against kangaroos hopping across your path. We were wondering what the US equivalent is - "Er bar"? We kind of liked "De bar" better.

Birth Certificate

Yesterday we got Ethan's birth certificate in the mail. One of the benefits of being born in Western Australia is that he gets this fancy cert. What a memory, eh! This means we're a step closer to returning to Indonesia. We have an appointment to go to the US Consulate on Monday to apply for Ethan's "Consular Report of Birth Abroad," his Social Security Number, and his passport. That's going to take about 3 weeks to process, unless I can persuade them to please get it done faster. For sure, we are enjoying our time in Perth, but we want to get home. So we're looking at a return date of around June 3.

Reunion

Last night, Max and Patsy Graig came over to our house, bringing dinner along with them. Max and I went to Dallas Theological Seminary together. He was there during my first year, cramming in a two year program into one. Because he was without his family that year, he lived in the dorm with a bunch of us single guys. We all loved him and appreciated his Aussie warmth and spiritual perspective. He would try to explain what life was like in Australia and in the city of Perth, but we had never heard of Perth before and couldn't imagine it. I always figured he worked at some little dinky bush church. After that year, Max moved back to his family and ministry in Perth, and we all lost contact with him.

Fast forward to March 2008 and our quick exit from Indo to Perth. Some unknown church to us, Subiaco Church of Christ, was busy preparing for our arrival. We knew nobody there, or so we thought. But in one of the many ways God was way ahead of us on this move, it turns out that Max is one of the associate pastors at the church . . . one of the few growing and vibrant churches in Australia. We've had a great time reminiscing about that year back in 1991 and getting caught up on what has happened in the past 15 years.