Research and Development

The prototype bags are rolling off the sewing machines. We've now got two ladies working on sewing with the potential of another lady adding bead and ribbon embellishments.


Kim has been out at the market nearly everyday this week buying fabric examples, then cutting them up and mixing and matching them to find the right combination. She has also been coming up with other possible projects, such as wall hangings and little coin purses to go in the bags. The first batch of bags will be done by the end of this week.

A Father's Joy

Man it makes my heart melt to see my children look up at me with a big smile.

The past week at P-town

It's not often that I get my own picture into these posts. I'm usually the one taking the pictures, but the other day, I turned to one of the teachers as I was teaching and had her snap a few shots. I'm in the middle of the "Hokey-Pokey" here.

After I teach, the Indonesian teachers take over. Grades 4-6 here playing a racing game with flash cards. These guys have moved beyond just basic English vocabulary and are now adding simple sentences. As they land on a card, they have to make up a sentence using the word from the card.

First grade is playing the same game, but they only have to say the word in the picture.


Third grade started adding action words, including "High five." In Indonesian that call that a "Toss."

The Christian Lover

Imagine getting a letter from the man asking for your daughter's hand in marriage and it sounds like this . . .

. . . I have now to ask whether you can consent to part with your daughter early next spring, to see her no more in this world? Whether you can consent to see her departure to a heathen land, and her subjection to the hardships and sufferings of a missionary life? Whether you can consent to her exposure to the dangers of the ocean; to the fatal influence of the southern climate of India; to every kind of want and distress; to degradation, insult, persecution, and perhaps a violent death? Can you consent to all this, for the sake of perishing immortal souls; for the sake of Zion and the glory of God? Can you consent to all this, in hope of soon meeting your daughter in the world of glory, with a crown of righteousness brightened by the acclamations of praise which shall redound to her Saviour from heathens saved, through her means, from eternal woe and despair?

This was a letter from Adoniram Judson to John Hasseltine asking for his daughter Ann's hand in marriage before heading to Burma. John did consent.

This quote comes from a book called The Christian Lover, which looks at expressions of love from the past as a means of strengthening marriage today. Tim Challies reviews the book here.

He also has a humorous look at how life in the digital age may affect the collection of love letters in the future.

Advice for husbands

Posted on titus2talk - 6 Ways to Meets Your Wife's Need for Affection is a short, helpful article from Crosswalk - one for our guy readers and one to pass on to our husbands.

1. Touch her arm or knee when you talk with her. Your gentle touch communicates, “I’m here. You’re not alone. I enjoy you. I’ll take care of you.”

2. Make an effort to spend time alone together – go out for dinner, for a walk, or out for coffee. Show her (and others) that you enjoy the intimacy of being alone with her.

3. Grab her hand and hold it when you’re out in public.

4. Give her a kiss and a hug when you leave and return home.

5. Don’t see every complaint as an attack. Women think as long as they feel the marriage is working, they can talk about it. On the other hand, most men feel the relationship isn’t working if they have to talk about it. Allow her to express what’s on her mind.

6. Recognize her strong emotions as exclamation marks. When she is upset, angry, or frustrated, realize that these emotions are her way of letting you know how much the issue at hand matters to her.

HT: Zach Nielsen

Valentines Day picnic

For Valentines Day, Kim made corn dogs and we found a little spot for a picnic on the side of the hill overlooking our city. It's not often that we're able to find a quiet area on this crowded island. So this was quite a fun find.

Ash covered Mt. Semeru in the distance and the city of Malang down below.

Pretty in pink.

Ethan getting his first try on Aidan's bike.

Keeping up with our blog (and others)

If you read blogs, then getting onto a Feed Reader (like Google Reader) is a great way to keep up. Using a feed reader means that you don't have to keep checking blogs everyday to see if there is new content (like ours, which has been fairly lean recently). All you have to do is go to your Reader, subscribe to the blogs you want, and it automatically shows you who is updating and when. It's very easy to use.

The Resurgence gives five reasons you should get onto a feed reader (with a nifty little video for a how to).

Abraham Piper has a write up on how to get started.

Or you can go to Google Reader (one of several feed readers), sign up for an account, and figure out how to do it on your own.

I've been using it for about two months. It has made a huge difference in time, plus, I can organize all the articles I read for future reference.

I think you can also sign up to receive an email when a post has been made (though, this could be annoying when a lot of posts are made). I've never used this feature, and I can't figure out where it might be on our blog . . . so it might be a feature we don't have.

Handicrafts at the learning center

For the last two weeks, Kim and Ibu Wenny have been making trips down to the market on Fridays in order to buy fabric. If you like going to fabric stores, then you would love shopping around the different stalls and stores that make up the tapestry of an Indonesian market. However, if you don't like fabric type stores; you know, if you get a headache the minute you set foot into a Michaels or some equivalent, then you might want to have smelling salts on hand. Let's just say that I'm very happy to have Kim involved in this aspect of the learning center.

The fabric they are buying will be used to make pillow covers and ethnic bags. So far, we've been able to sell quite a few pillow cases, just in Indonesia. Now, Ibu Wenny wants to branch out into these bags. The two that were made as examples have already been purchased.

We're trying to make a bunch to be exported (that is, hand carried by friends to the US and Australia, and sold to their network of friends) over the next couple of months. We'll be bringing as many as we can stuff into our suitcases when we return to the US in June.

Grinding teeth

I caught Ethan sharpening his teeth the other day. You can just barely here him.

Meeting night

Every Wednesday night we get together with co-workers for fellowship, prayer, and planning. It's also a great night to get some help with Ethan. Curtis is getting his first ever lesson in how to feed a baby. He did a great job of making airplane sounds!

Recruiting day

A picture just doesn't capture it, but we live in a beautiful country. This morning I got up early for a recruiting trip up in the mountains. Ibu Tri, one of our best English teachers at the learning center, will be stepping down in April when she has her baby. So we need to hire another English teacher. Along the way to the school where I was going to meet a handful of university students and potential candidates, we passed Mt Arjuna and Mt Welirang. And the campus is located right on the slopes of Mt. Welirang. A beautiful place to study, eh!

Brienzi's first piano lesson

Brienzi's been begging to get started on the piano. So last Friday, she finally got her wish . . . lessons with Sharon every Friday afternoon (Sharon works for an Indonesian Christian school). Brienzi runs down the hill from the international school, just after PE with her friends, for her lesson at Sharon's house.