Update on Jackson

Thank you to those of you who have been praying for Jackson. He has been improving a little bit each day. After he had another echo cardiogram, we received this from Kim's mom earlier today:

Results were good....heart function improved even more. All other indicators are also encouraging. This doctor doesn't think Jax had Kawasaki since that disease has distinct characteristics and Jax's illness has had too many other complications. But they aren't sure what it is. They are decreasing meds, decreasing the amount of air/oxygen going into the ventilator so he is breathing more on his own [but still sedated]. Signs are all looking good but, because he is still in ICU, he is still considered a very sick little boy.

Praise the Lord for this improvement. Please keep remembering Jackson as well as Rick and Sarah, and his older brother Max (5).

Yup! Ethan's keepin' us busy

He's on all fours and starting to scoot around. Uh oh . . . we're in trouble.

Getting the kids involved in Thanksgiving

Here are a few pictures of the kids with friends on Thanksgiving Day.

Brienzi with Katie R.

Aidan and Delaney with Josiah R.

After the big meal, the kids and I headed outside to rehearse a short drama about the pilgrims journey to America. Then our traveling troupe performed for the crowd.

Of course, we improvised with a number of modern day weapons.

Afterwards, we each read a verse from Psalm 136 which repeatedly sights the works of God followed by "and His faithful love endures forever." And then we followed that with our own testimonies of what God has been doing over the past year, every now and then stopping to say, "and His faithful love endures forever."

Our Thanksgiving crew

Thanksgiving quiz

Fresh off of Thanksgiving Day turkey and all the fixings? Take this Thanksgiving quiz from Christianity Today to see if you know more about it than just turkey.

Pray for Kim's nephew, Jackson

Kim's nephew Jackson was admitted into Children's Hospital in Minneapolis on Wednesday with a very high fever along with a number of other symptoms. The doctors think he may have Kawasaki disease or a very strong virus, but they can't be sure about either of those yet. He had a very rough night with his heart expanding 4 inches and his heart pumping capacity dropped from 70% to 38% in 24 hours. They did manage to stablize him, but he is still not out of the woods.

Pray for God's healing hand on Jackson. Pray for the grace of God to comfort his parents, Rick (Kim's brother) and Sarah, and that they will see Him in new ways.

Squanto, the sovereignty of God, and Thanksgiving

Chuck Colson tells how the providence of God guided the life of an Indian named Squanto to help the Pilgrims during their first years.

According to the diary of Pilgrim Governor William Bradford, Squanto “became a special instrument sent of God for [our] good . . . He showed [us] how to plant [our] corn, where to take fish and to procure other commodities . . . and was also [our] pilot to bring [us] to unknown places for [our] profit, and never left [us] till he died.”

Then Colson writes

Who but God could so miraculously convert a lonely Indian and then use him to save a struggling band of Englishmen? It is reminiscent of the biblical story of Joseph, who was also sold into slavery—and whom God, likewise, used as a special instrument for good.

This happened even though Squanto had been kidnapped, enslaved, and lost his entire tribe to small pox.

Read the rest of the article. It's awe inspiring to follow Squanto's life and to acknowledge that the God who guided Squanto also guides our lives. No matter what befalls us, His plan is good.

HT: JT

Happy Thanksgiving!

This afternoon, we're getting ready to celebrate Thanksgiving tomorrow, on Friday. We're going to have about 25 people over to our place.

We managed to get a turkey from an import store in Surabaya, the city two hours north of us. Kim ordered it last week and the company delivered it to our doorstep. How about that for service? We can't complain. Our friends in Sumatra called last night and said they were able to get a turkey too. A LIVE one that she had to kill, de-feather, and gut on her own (though I think she had some help with the slaughter). Yeah! We lucked out on that one.

All the gang coming over is pitching in to bring the usual mashed potatoes, party potatoes, sweet potatoes, stuffing, home made bread, green bean casserole, corn, apple pie, pecan pie, lemon meringue pie, pumpkin pie, sugar cookies. Woohooo! We are very thankful that we can whip up most of this even though we're thousands of miles away from home.

Some English funnies!

Some funny Engrish. Careful. Don't drink coffee while reading these!

















Here more the Engrish funny that stuff. (Beware. Some are a bit colorful.)

IndoGadget

This morning I stumbled across this AfriGadget web site/blog. It reminded me of something I took a picture of at a hotel we stayed at in Bali last July.

Who needs Home Depot when you can drink a bottle of water, poke a few holes in it, slap it onto the end of a hose, and voila - you've got yourself a sprinkler.

Final two weeks of classes

These are the last two weeks of classes at the learning center for the year. After that, we'll be preparing for a festival where the kids will be able to show off their work from this semester.

While the kids have been focused on the history of transportation, character and skill development, I've been working with the teachers in helping them teach English. It's been a semester long experiment, as last year I did all the English teaching. Tomorrow morning, the teachers and I will be planning how to assess the students' (and teachers') progress this semester compared to last semester. Then next week, we'll assess the kids. I'll let you know how it goes and what we come up with. I'm very encouraged, though, by the progress.

It's a football weekend

Aidan and I joined some friends to watch an AREMA soccer game today - our first one in all our time here in Malang. Arema is the local soccer club and they have some of the most fanatic fans (they've been banned by the league from wearing the team colors or carrying team flags to the games for two years because of a riot they caused at another city's stadium last year). While there were thankfully no riots today, it was plenty raucous.

You can barely make out what's going on in the above video clip. If you look closely, you will see a slight pulsating, which they were somehow doing just with the palms of their hands.

Father and son self portrait.

Stephen and Josiah R with Aidan.

Growing up in Indonesia means . . .

FOOTBALL! (and not the American kind)

Aidan and his buds who are all part of the Malang Football Club (MFC) U-9 team. MFC is run by a German guy who was born and grew up in Indonesia as an MK. He now teaches at the international school and started MFC as a way of serving Indonesian children.

After practice, the U-9 team got to watch the Africa Stars (a group of professional soccer players from Africa who are playing in the Indonesian soccer league) play the Under-19 MFC team. We all watched from the new stadium bleachers that the international school just recently finished building.

We're 2!

Two years ago today, the P-town learning center opened its doors. By the grace of God, we're still here and making progress in helping these children and their families.

What do you serve at a birthday party in Indonesia? Chicken soup! or Soto Ayam in Indonesian. A very popular dish of rice, noodles, chicken broth, green onions, egg, lemon, various spices, shrimp crackers, and the spicy sambal sauce. It's really good!

Delaney and Abigail got in on the birthday celebration too.

Not your typical Pizza Hut experience

Last night Joshua K watched our kids - all four of them plus his daughter - so Kim and I had our first date alone since Ethan was born. We went to Pizza Hut, which for the most part is the same as in the US . . . well, not completely. Here are some of the pizza choices:


Beeforn pizza - hamburger with corn
Creamayo - criss-crossed with mayonnaise and chilli sauce over chicken, tuna, and tomato.
Idaho - potato chunks laced with mayonnaise
Spicy tuna - the name says it all
Island - pineapple and thousand island dressing
Pepspag - pepperoni and spaghetti



And on the salad? Of course, it's loaded with mayonnaise and thousand island dressing - LOADED!


But we are very thankful for pizza from Pizza Hut.

Tuesday is skill development day

Every Tuesday at the learning center, the staff have been teaching the kids new skills.

The girls have been learning to do stitching.

The boys are creating their own ideas for transportation of the future using scraps and leftover odds and ends.

Expanding the vision

One of the goals of the learning center and the language school is to help others start the same thing in other parts of Indonesia. Joshua K and his daughter Abigail (here to play with Delaney) are in town this week from another island. We helped them launch a language school in July. Now Joshua is in town recruiting an Indonesian English teacher and getting some time to observe our schools in action.


Ibu Wenny has been writing curriculum from all that we've been doing at the learning center (we're two years old on November 20!!). Now she's able to pass it along to Joshua who might be able to use it in his school.

World History and a bit of geography

It is always amazing to watch Kim and the kids in action, trying to get home school done for the day. Both Brienzi and Aidan also go to the international school in the afternoon for pull out classes. Today was PE for Aidan and Art for Brienzi.

And yes that's dirt on Aidan's foot, and not because he hasn't had a bath in a week. I don't know how that ended up being framed so well into the picture. With volcanoes all around us, we are showered with ash 24/7, so keeping dirt free is nearly impossible.

Could this be Ethan's wife?

We went out for lunch today with friends, Mike and Stephanie O'Quin. We were celebrating Stephanie's birthday at a local restaurant called Taman Indie; Nice place sitting alongside a river with open air pavilions nestled along the bank.

Mike and Stephanie also just added baby number 4 to their family three weeks ago. Little Naomi Joy was born 10lbs 1oz (tryin' to keep up with Ethan "the Hulk").

Which is more important in preaching . . . the intellect or the affections?

Have you ever listened to a sermon, thought it was really helpful, only to completely forget the content over the next week. Over at Tim Challies' blog he asks "the question of whether sermons should primarily enlighten the mind or whether they should primarily stir the affections."

Jonathan Edwards answers, "The main benefit that is obtained by preaching is by impression made upon the mind in the time of it, and not by the effect that arises afterwards by a remembrance of what was delivered."

And Challies concludes, "God uses books, Bible studies, conferences and sermons not just to fill my mind, but also (and perhaps even primarily) to stir my affections, even if a frustrating amount of the benefit seems to fade away far too quickly."

Stirring thoughts!

Back to normal

All the kids are in bed and sleeping soundly . . . and back to full health. Ethan never got the dreaded bug. I'm still recovering from the all nighter. I guess at 39 my recovery time isn't as quick as it used to me.

Monday and Wednesday English classes for learning center staff

Last year I was doing most of the English teaching at the learning center. This year, we took a big step and the Indonesian staff are teaching English. They are doing a great job despite just being a step ahead of the kids.

On Monday mornings, I teach the staff the lesson for the following week. This gives us all the time to prepare games and materials in advance.


Then on Wednesdays, we work through different methods for teaching. Right now we're working through Teaching English for Children in Asia. It has great ideas for developing internal motivation, mainly through playing games.

A sign that has no meaning

Not too far away from our house is a huge billboard wishing everyone a Happy Halloween and Thanksgiving.

I tried to snap a quick picture as we went by, but it didn't come out clearly. You get the idea. Most people passing by have no clue what it means. Talk about out of context (It sure makes us feel at home). I tried to explain to my Indo friend the pilgrim's hat, fall leaves, the trick or treating! We chuckled at the thought of all the Indonesians passing by never even giving a thought because they have no connection. Effective advertising, eh!

Parenting can mean long nights . . . but lots can be done

So, about an hour after I posted last night, Delany's little voice called out to us. Yup. She was also losing her dinner. It was a long night. At one point, I gave up trying to sleep and just stayed up to work in between clean up jobs. I was able to catch up on family finances, get my quarterly report in, and finish up my English lesson and staff devotional for Monday. Of course, I was a zombie the rest of the day.

The kids all seem to be better tonight. Looks like just a less than 24 hour bug.

The agony of parenting mixed in with joy

Tonight on the way home from our worship service, Brienzi began feeling sick, like she was gonna throw up. Shortly after we got home, Aidan started to complain that he was gonna "blow." (He also told Kim he felt like he had a burp so big it would fill the whole house).

Not sure what to expect, we readied bed sides for anything. Kim and I tag teamed to get everyone into bed. (All this in the midst of a wiring problem in our house that's causing the electricity to go out in half of the house).

As I'm running an extension cord to get the fridge plugged in, Aidan wails "Daadddyyy." I get there just in time to center the bucket. Oh how gut wrenching to watch your kids suffer.

Then, Brienzi . . . at almost the same exact minute!

Later, Kim told me that as Brienzi was throwing up, she blurted out, "Oh mommy. Think of those homeless children who have to go through this every day. No medicine. Nobody who cares for them. They're just throwing up on the street."

And there you have it - the agony and joy of parenting mixed together.

Learning art

This past week, we had a guest at the learning center from the US. Jeff Dambek is an art teacher at an elementary school in Maryland. He was part of a team that came to work on several projects.

Jeff taught the kids about Wycinanki (vee-chee-non-kee) which is a type of papercutting that originated with sheepherders in Poland.

Having guests like Jeff come in enables them to meet more people from other cultures and learn different forms of art.