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.