Katherine's visit

We traveled out to some of the more remote parts of the area when Katherine was here. One day we took this shot from a glass bottom boat.

It rained almost every day for the past week so most of our time was spent like this.

Jody could not be detered from trying out his new Christmas presents.

One of the many sights we saw along the way.

Christmas Day

We spent Christmas even and Christmas day in a hotel with Katherine. It helped us not to miss family so much as we enjoyed the beauty around us. Jody worked on his golf game...

Katherine and Jordan enjoyed sitting by the pool catching up and playing games...

This is our view of the pool...

And this is our view of the ocean. In the distance is a hindu temple that the Boomyah consider to be one of the most sacred spots in the world. You can see in the picture the people walking to the temple to worship there today at low tide. At high tide, you cannot access the temple at all. It becomes its own island.

Christmas Gifts!

Katherine's lost suitcase arrived last night from its adventure in the Phillipines with all of our Christmas gifts! We couldn't wait to open them...or rather Katherine couldn't wait to see us open them so we had Christmas at 10pm on the 23rd! We celebrated in the bedroom as it was the only room in the house with ac and at 10 pm it was still 87 degrees in the living room! What a spread!


This is what Jody gave to Jordan...a hand carved wooden piece of art! He picked it out himself! Jordan LOVED it!

Thanks Bill and Barbara for the baking gear!

Jody got some soccer gear!

Katherine got a hand made platter!

Here Jody and I are by the tree!

Christmas Eve's Eve

Today we ate lunch with Katherine at one of our favorite little restaurants and enjoyed quesidillas.

Then we delivered Christmas gift bags to all of our neighbors and explained in their language why we celebrate this season. Here are some of the children who received gifts.

We finished the day by the pool, where we caught Jody on camera doing something suspicious...eating a booger????

Now we are going to wrap some presents before bed.

Katherine arrived!

She made it! All of her stuff made it too...unfortunately the bag with all of the Christmas presents for Jody and me went to the Phillipines! Oh well! Maybe it will come later. If not, at least I have my sister!

He bought me flowers!

Jody surprised me by buying me this beautiful orchid. They grow wild here and I am always admiring them.

Isn't it beautiful?

Happy Birthday Jordan!

For my birthday this year, Jody went all out! He started the day by cancelling language class for the day. I was able to sleep in and talk to my family on SKYPE. Then a local friend came over to make us a pancake breakfast and my favorite local dish for lunch...yellow rice with coconut milk, mixed vegetables, chicken curry, and sweet and spicy tofu. Another friend made me a banana birthday cake. In the afternoon, Jody had made an appointment for me to get my hair cut and styled, a manicure and a pedicure. He topped it all off with a birthday dinner at the best Indian food restaurant here. It was so good! Below is a picture of us at dinner. This is my hair right after having it professionally blow dried straight...stupid humidity!

Hot and Tired!

It is unbelievably hot and sticky here this weekend. I walked into the apartment this week to find Jody had fallen asleep on my yoga ball! That takes balance to new levels! It was 90 degrees in our room at the time and I am amazed he could sleep at all...much less on a ball!

Christmas in Boomyah

Christmas this year will be very different for us. December is the hottest month of they year instead of the coldest. The people here do not celebrate Christmas and it is just like any other day of the year. It has given us a great opportunity to share with people why we celebrate. Most of the things that the west associates with Christmas do not exisit here (snow, Christmas trees, presents, Santa, holly, candy canes, christmas carols, cold weather) which serves as a constant reminder to us what it is really about. Below is a picture of my Christmas decorations. Our apartment just has a bedroom and a kitchen, so we decked the halls in the kitchen this year!


In case you are wondering why most of the presents have a K on them, it is because Jordan's sister, Katherine, is coming for the Christmas holidays this year. Jody will get presents too, don't worry! It is just harder to convince him that there are things he wants for Christmas!

Jody playing the gamelon

Sunday was Jody's big performance with his gamelon orchestra in our local fellowship. The gamelon is the traditional instrument of the Boomyah people. It is very close to a xylepone, but it is usually played by men in a large group. Occasionally there will be a woman singing verses from the Vedas, the Hindu scriptures, alongside the music. Jody has been studying under a man who composes music and recently came to know the Truth. Because of that, he lost his job as a music professor in a college. Now his full time job is translating the Book into a language his people can understand, along with teaching music lessons. Most of the people in Jody's class are not followers, but on Sunday, the women sang Psalm 150 that had been translated for them to read in their language. The result was beautiful.

And here Jody is alone.

We spent part of the day yesterday with Ari and his wife, the couple who recently chose to follow after 2 years of translating the Book into the Boomyah language, and I thought you would like to see a picture. It turned out to be his liver that was not working a few weeks ago and he was put in the hospital, where he had a dream and saw our Father, with a veil over His face and He said to Ari, "It is time to follow me." Ari and his wife have chosen to do just that. On my right in the picture is my dearest friend here, Made. She is in her early 40's and has been a follower for about 3 years. She heard the story for the first time 15 years ago and said that she knew it was true the first time she heard it, but she didn't have the courage to follow until just recently. All of these three sweet friends have chosen to follow the straight and narrow path here and it will mean persecution. Please lift them up as they begin this journey. Made would love to be married and start a family, but there aren't any single men who share her faith here. Ari and his wife, also in their 40's would love to have a baby, but have suffered one miscarriage after another. Join us in asking for these things.

Guess who came to town...

I had to laugh, when on the way back from our Thanksgiving retreat, I recognized a familiar face in the airport, singing Christmas songs and shaking his booty. Nope, I am not talking about Jody....

Doing Time

We spend the best hours of our day in a class room studying language with a private tutor. I thought you would want to visit our classroom and meet our teacher, Lu. She is 34, single, a dear sister, and probably one of my closest friends here. She has been a valuable asset here in offering insight into the culture from the perspective of one who walks in the light.



Occasionally Jody and I become restless and start acting silly. Today we put basket lids on our heads and did a little dance, singing "We are siamese, if you please! We are siamese if you don't please!"


Lu found this so amusing that she joined in the fun and added her own interpretive movements! Don't you wish you were in our class?

Thanksgiving and a volcano

For Thanksgiving we got to visit another island and get together with colleagues to recount all of our blessings. We stayed at the foot of two active volcanos and when the cloud cover cleared, you could see them smoldering on the horizon. That was exciting! Here we are on Thanksgiving day with one of the volcanos in the background.

The beauty of Boomyah

One of my favorite things about living here is the natural beauty of this place. After visiting another island this week for Thanksgiving, I am even more in awe of how unique this place is. It is easy to grow complacent where we have been "planted" and take our surroundings for granted. I have been challenged to look at my surroundings through the lens of my camera and am amazed as I notice how incredibly creative the Master Artist is and the care He took in His creation. These are some pictures Jody and I took recently on a walk.

Thanksgiving

This year we had our traditional Thanksgiving meal with all the Americans we could find (21 in all) on the Sunday before the actual holiday since we will be going out of town Wednesday for a retreat. On the retreat we will have fellowship with like minded people for a few days as we reflect on all that we are thankful for, however we will only be eating local food since it is a retreat center. We wanted to have the customary turkey and gravy so we had that meal today with friends. Along with the turkey and gravy, we ate dressing, mac and cheese, sweet potato souffle, green bean casserole, pumpkin pie and carrot cake to celebrate Nathan's 3rd birthday. We missed all of you and are thankful that you are in our lives.

The Buffet table

Happy Birthday Nathan!



New Brother and Sister!!!!

Our sweet friend, Ari, is still in ICU, but last night as he was sleeping, he had a dream. There was a huge number of people dressed in white, but in the middle was one who shone of light and had his face covered. He identified himself and said to Ari, "It is time to follow me." This morning as he woke and recounted his dream to another believer, they asked him, "So, are you going to follow Him or not?" He said, "Of course I am. He came to me and invited me." He and his wife joined the family this morning! Thanks for lifting him up. The swelling in his body is gone! I cannot wait until the day you can meet him and the others here who will be there on that day as a result of his work translating the word!

Requests to lift up

I just returned from the hospital where I have been all morning with a friend. We have two men who are dilligently working on translating the Book into the local language. It will be a miracle if both of them survive and live long enough to see it completed. One was already a believer when he began the work. He was diagosed with diabetes recently which is almost always fatal here as there is no reliable way to check blood sugar on a regular basis and the doctors have little knowlege on the illness. The second, Ari, a hindu man, responded to a request to translate literature. He is a scholar and has extensive knowledge of both the existing language and the language the book needs to be translated into. A month ago, his body started swelling and his condition has continued to get worse. His wife says that he has been comatose for the past week. A local witch doctor told him that he has had a curse placed on him by someone that deals in black magic. We learned for the first time last night that he was sick and have been interceeding for him over the past 12 hours. Right now he is intensive care, but the swelling has started to go down. Please join us in asking that he would be fully healed. Ask that this would be a turning point for he and his wife as they would acknowledge the One who heals. Finally, ask that these men would be able to continue the translation work so that others may learn of the hope that we have. Thank you.

Blue Lagoon

This is a beach we visited over the weekend, appropriately named, "Blue Lagoon". It is quiet there and we were two of just a handful of people on the beach. We enjoyed a picnic lunch in the shade of a palm tree as we marveled at how blue the water was. It is one of the most beautiful beaches I have ever seen. Unfortunately most of the beaches here have been taken over by the tourism industry which has spoiled the natural beauty.

A tour of our new apartment...

It has been a busy month since I wrote last. We have moved in with a local Boomyah family. They were gracious to offer us their second story apartment so we have access to privacy when we need it! They put in a kitchen just for us, and it is probably the nicest kitchen I have ever had. The whole apartment is only about 300 square feet, with a bedroom, kitchen, bathroom and balcony, but it is perfect for us right now. We plan to be here about 5 more months before we move out to the village.

This is our kitchen...


The bedroom...


The Bathroom...


The Balcony and our view from it...


And here we are...home sweet home!