Long ago in Bethlehem . . .

As Brienzi, Aidan, Delaney have been going to Indonesian school, they've also been doing home school and a home school co-op. For the co-op, the kids got the idea to write a script for the story of the birth of Jesus and then put on a performance for the parents. They borrowed the clothes from the international school.

Ethan and his friend Elijah trying to squeeze in on the action as the angels visit the shepherds.

And again, Ethan trying to figure out what's going on, or what mischief to get into, while Elijah was trying to feed Jesus.

And when it was done, and all the cast members were backstage, we overheard one of the little guys saying, "I don't want to do this play." To which Brienzi responded,  "You have to. You already did!"

Joy to the World . . . the Lord has come!

Each year we're in Indonesia, we celebrate Christmas Eve with a group of friends that live in our city. It has become a very special evening for us and includes some of our family traditions. One of which is the playing of the hand bells. The kids love doing bells and this year, Kim led them in "Joy to the World."

And another tradition we started doing when Brienzi was around 3 or 4 was taking a picture with the light of the candle after the service (although, this year, we weren't coordinated enough and we got the light of the entire room in the picture too. But it still counts as a tradition).

Patience at Christmas

After trudging around town, motorcycles swerving all over the place creating backed up traffic, tromping up and down broken escalators, searching high and low for the simple-ist of Christmas gifts, only to meet up with defeat at every turn . . . I needed to hear this word:

Dave Dorr:

So what is patience? Patience is understanding the settled reality that we are not in control. We are at peace with the fact that life is run by someone else. When we are patient we are paddling downstream, letting the force of life guide us along, knowing we can steer, but not turn upstream. Impatience is turning the boat, rowing hard against the current; we still move downstream, but with incredible exhaustion.

Impatient people are tired people.

We want more control than we have. But God wants patience to permeate our inner being. Why? Not just because life and its trials will require patience, but we need to reconcile our souls to our lack of control, trusting that God is good. If God is good and he is in control, then we can trust the satisfaction or obstruction of our will is the good design of a loving and gracious Father.

And that is worth the wait.

Read the rest. 

December Directions for Dad's

Mark Driscoll gives 10 questions Dad's can ask themselves to prepare their families for Christmas:

1. Dad needs a plan for the holidays to ensure his family is loved and memories are made. Dad, what’s your plan?
2. Dad needs to ensure his family is giving generously during the holidays. Dad, who in need is your family going to adopt, bless, and serve?
3. Dad needs to carve out time for sacred events and experiences to build family traditions that are fun and point to Jesus. Dad, is you calendar ready for December?

Read the rest.  

HT: Zach Nielsen

One of the highest and noblest functions of man’s mind is to listen to God’s Word, and so to read his mind and think his thoughts after him. —John Stott

HT - Tim Challies

What does the gospel do?

"God never intended that we relate to Him directly. Our own performance is never good enough to be acceptable to Him. The only way we can relate to God is through the blood and righteousness of Jesus Christ . . . The gospel, applied to our hearts every day, frees us to be brutally honest with ourselves and with God. The assurance of His total forgiveness of our sins through the blood of Christ means we don't have to play defensive games anymore."


- Jerry Bridges, The Discipline of Grace

Padang Food - Spicy and Delicious

When Kim's brother Rick was in town, he wanted us to get him the spiciest food we have in Indonesia. So we picked up some Masakan Padang (food from the city of Padang in West Sumatra, near where the tsunami recently hit). Padang food is known throughout Indonesia has being extremely spicy, and really, really delicious.

We did take out and had fish, jackfruit, soybeans and sardines, hot peppers swimming in oil, and tough as nails beef.

 If we were to eat at the restaurant, all the food would be sitting in the window like this.

Then the server balances all the different foods and brings them to your table. You pick what you want to eat and they take the rest back to sit in the window to await the next customer! Even if you've already taken a little from the bowl.

Double Trouble in Indonesia

Indonesia is reeling this week from an earthquake triggered tsunami off the coast of Sumatra and a volcanic eruption near Yogyakarta, Central Java. The tsunami hit the Mentawi Islands the hardest, where they've reported 300 dead and 400 missing. The volcano is Mount Merapi (which means "Mountain of Fire") where 30 people have died.

Here are some revealing pictures. Pray for Indonesia!

Uncle Rick comes to town

Last week, Kim's brother, Rick, was able to make a brief stop into Indonesia while on business in Asia. We had a blast getting to show him around in the span of about 36 hours.

The kids got to show him around their school, and we took him down to the learning center to see the neighborhood and meet the staff.

 Aidan challenged Uncle Rick to a duel on the high seas. Uncle Rick prevailed due to some trickery.

But Uncle Rick got his just desserts when we went to Taman Safari on the way to the airport. This guy got a little too close for comfort. But what do you expect when you've got carrots inside the car!

We also spotted Indonesia's own tree hugger.

Who's on first?!?!

With the World Series just getting started, this definitely fits the season. A couple of weeks ago, Aidan and his friend Connor performed Abbot and Costello's "Who's on first?"at the international school talent show. We couldn't believe that they were able to memorize the whole routine. They did a fantastic job. I wish I could upload the video, but it's 750MB and there's no way our connection in Indonesia would be able to manage that. You'll just have to take my word for it.

Ahh . . . the night sounds of Indonesia

One of our favorite things about Indonesia is the sound of food sellers walking the street at night. The "nasi goreng" (fried rice) guy walks the street knocking a piece of wood against a bamboo bell. The chicken satay guy yells out in a high pitched voice, "Taaay . . . taAAy!" And then there's the putu cake guy. He has the whistle of steam coming out of his cooking box and yells out in an equally high pitched whistle "putu!"

What is putu? It's a steamed rice flour with brown sugar and grated coconut.

 The "putu" seller carries a box of ingredients and his steamer over his shoulder. 

 He scoops the rice flour into a bamboo cup and adds a bit of brown suger.

 Then places each cup on the steamer for a few minutes.

Then pops it out and sprinkles it with grated coconut. It's good stuff! And if you're ever coming by our city for a visit, we'll treat you to a few putu cakes.

Petronas towers

Last month I was in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia and stayed right down the street from Petronas Towers. I must say, that during the day, they didn't seem that imposing. At night, however, with the lights on, they were brilliant and looked like a giant sparkling diamond.

"Tujuh Belas Augustus" or 17th of August

That's the Indonesian Independence Day. This year it came smack dab in the middle of Ramadan, the Muslim fasting month, so celebrations were a bit muted. Nonetheless, the kids school got in a day of fun and games. They got up early to go on a school "health walk" around the neighborhood. Then they participated in a school wide tug-o-war competition.

First Day of School!

Well, we decided to enroll Brienzi, Aidan, and Delaney into Charis National Academy, a local Indonesia plus school. Their first day was 19 July - so they've already been in school for TWO WEEKS! Not much of a summer break. There have been some rocky moments, but God has been good as we have seen all three of them grow in the gospel each day as they face their fears and other obstacles and apply gospel truth to each situation.

Standing at the front of the school, just before entering their classrooms on day 1.

Delaney gets dropped off first. She's in class 1A. Patrick teaches English to two of her classmates at Sunrise Language Center.

  Aidan is in class 3B. He's probably adapted the quickest. In the back, he's getting lots of help from the boys on either side and the teacher's assistant.

Brienzi is in class 5B. Her adjustment has been the most difficult, but she's been amazing at pressing through a very challenging time. She's enjoyed being able to help her classmates learn English, though (just hope the Indonesian wears off on her too).

And of course, everyone's favorite class . . . PE!

Picturing Forgiveness

This morning I was working through the lesson on forgiveness in The Gospel Centered Life. Jesus uses a word picture in Matthew 18:21-35 to help Peter understand forgiveness. It's the parable of the unforgiving servant.

Debtor #1 owed 10,000 talents and was released from it all by his master.
Debtor #2 owed 100 denarii but was not released by debtor #1.

Here's a picture for the word picture:

1 talent = 6,000 denarii (if we're talking about silver talents. Gold talents were 30x more).

Debtor 1 owed 10,000 talents or 60,000,000 denarii.
Debtor 2 owed just 100 denarii.

Or to put it another way:
1 denarii was about 1 day's wage for a laborer.
So 1 talent was about 20 years wages.
And 10,000 talents was about 200,000 years wages.

Debtor 1 was released from 200,000 years worth of wages, but wouldn't release Debtor 2 from 4 months worth of wages.

Put this way, our forgiveness of others must come from a deep knowledge and understanding of our being forgiven by God. The debt that anyone else could ever owe me pales in comparison to the debt that God released me from.

Forgiveness is costly

“Forgiveness is costly. It means canceling a debt when we feel we have every right to demand payment. It means absorbing the pain, hurt, shame, and grief of someone’s sin against us. It means longing for repentance and restoration. But this is exactly how God has acted toward us in Jesus Christ. And through the gospel, the Holy Spirit empowers us to do the same toward others.”    -   Gospel Centered Life

-    

World Cup Mania

Yes, soccer is becoming more and more a popular sport in America, but Indonesia, like the rest of the world, is soccer crazy. And we love it! So much so that we were up in the middle of the night several times to watch the games (they were on at 10:00pm and 1:30am most nights).

Just a few weeks ago, we drove across East Java in the middle of the night. It happened to be on a night when Spain was playing Germany in the semifinal. Along the way, as we passed through several villages at 2:00am, people were gathered on their front porches and in store fronts, watching the game. In several villages, they had huge screens set up with LCD projectors showing the game for the village, and us passers by, to see.

Aidan and Ethan are sporting shirts from one of their favorite players, Ricardo Izecson dos Santos of Brazil - otherwise known as Kaka - one of the best players in the world. Aside from being a great soccer player, he knows that "God is faithful" and that "He belongs to Jesus."

Delaney turns 6

Last month, on June 23, Delaney had her 6th birthday.

She had a few of her friends over to celebrate and hang out at the indoor playground at the mall.

And "Hello Kitty" cake to top it off.

Homeschool on the floor

Just about all the houses in Indonesia have tile floors. We've found them to be quite handy with kids . . . easy to sweep up floors and clean up spills (not so good for little ones learning to walk, though).

Just a couple weeks ago, I came out of the room to find that Kim and the kids found another use for the tile floors.

Aidan was working out how to find area and perimeter, so they were drawing huge rectangles, measuring them, then doing the math. 

Piano Recital

Last month the kids had their first ever piano recital. I remember those days. Uggh! Nerve racking, and it's just as nerve racking as a parent. But they did a fantastic job.

 There are several piano teachers in town, and they all got together and combined their classes for one big recital.

Brienzi played "Swans in the Sunset" by Melody Bober.

And Aidan played "The Trumpet Song" by someone, but I don't have the music in front of me.

Dengue's done . . . for now

Praise the Lord for his mercy on our family. We're all recovered from our bout with dengue fever last month. We feel like we're back to full strength. Kim's skin just finished peeling from the rash. (And if you want to read about dengue now encroaching upon US soil, just click over to this CNN article).

Kim was raced through the crowded streets of Surabaya to the airport, and then loaded into the medevac plane for her flight to Singapore.

Yup, it was a VERY small plane. I had about two feet of space at the back. But at least we had Kim in the hands of great medical personnel, with the doctor and nurse here from Singapore. The doc kept on commenting on how he couldn't believe we would choose to live in Indonesia.

Uno in any language

Last month, Farida and Ester lived with us for six weeks. They were doing their internship in our town, which consisted in part in teaching our kids Indonesian. They did a great job, and they may be coming back to do another internship at the language school. (Incidentally, the night I took this picture, I could barely hold up the camera as I was coming down with dengue, the start of a very long month, though didn't know it at the time. Can't look at these pictures without feeling a little feverish).

 

Ethan trying to make himself the center of attention again.

Knocked out by dengue fever

Most of you already know that we were hit pretty hard with dengue fever this past month. It's a fairly common illness in the tropics, though we've managed to avoid it (so we think) for the past 12 years. However, just as the dengue season was supposed to be ending, it struck our family. First I got it, then Brienzi, then Kim, and finally Delaney. It was so bad, that we had to have friends take care of the kids at various times. And then, Kim's platelets dropped so low, and she couldn't keep food or liquids down she was so nauseated, that we had to evacuate her to Singapore.

So now we're on the mend and trying to catch up from being out of the office for just about a month. Brienzi, Delaney, and I are back to normal. Kim's still a little weak and some foods nauseate her. That's to be expected. Fortunately, June and July are slower months for us, so it gives us some time to rest.

I'll be back on in the next week or so to post some pics of Kim's flight to Singapore, Delaney's birthday, and a few other events that took place throughout June.

Thanks for all your prayers, love, and concern.

Life in Indonesia: Out Bound with Madurese kids

Over the weekend, my friend Curtis and I spent some time with with 100 junior high kids from the island of Madura. They came to experience what they call an "out-bound" which consists of team related activities in a remote setting. A local university was hosting it, and invited us to do a little English lesson.

The out bound was held at a camp about 30 minutes up the mountain from our town. The road narrows the higher up you go, and turns into more of a village setting.

Eventually, we had to park the car and walk a couple kilometers down a cobble stone path.

 . . . that turned into a mud path . . . 

Until the path opened up to reveal a valley filled with orange groves, pine trees, and a cool mountain stream running through it. All the kids were gathered along the side involved in various activities.

We recruited a couple of the staff who could speak in English to help us tell the English story. We were doing a drama of the Fall of Man, so we ran through it a couple of times.

Then they gathered all the students around . . .

We introduced ourselves using the megaphones (it was amazing how loud the little stream was).

Taught them "Lean On Me."

The kids love getting their picture taken with  "Native Speaker." They crowd around practically on top of each other, all getting their cell phones out to get a picture with the guest speakers.

This guy put his camera up to take a picture of me, so I playfully put mine up to take a picture of him. Embarrassed, he started to run away. They have brilliant smiles and are so much fun to be with.