Kids, Trips, and Celebrations

Hi All -
Allow me to share with you some highlights from the past few months.

Anna celebrates her 10th birthday on July 15th!
It is hard to believe that my oldest is double digits!  She decided on a sleepover with her two gal pals, Deborah and Anya. The girls baked Anna Banana Bread for their dress up tea party, made crafts, had a pizza party for dinner, ate cupcakes and pie for dessert, and ended the night with a movie including all the fixings (popcorn, Twizzlers, Cracker Jacks and Good & Plenty.)  I was very surprised that they actually got to sleep!  Anna is growing into a lovely young lady who is always ready to read a book, make a craft for someone, bake a treat for the family, wash the dishes, or help with Della.  What a blessing!

Jim heads back to Kalimantan (Borneo!)

The last week of August  saw Jim heading out to the jungles of West Kalimantan to share the Good News with school children in the villages.  He traveled with a small group from church and they covered many miles and met many warm and inviting people.  The schools were poor, but rich in spirit.  Jim's simple game of marbles was all it took to elicit smiles and bring two worlds together.

Jim celebrates his 50th birthday in Jakarta!
Of course, I couldn't let this big one slip by unnoticed!  Not one for much of a fuss, we surprised Jim with some cake and cookies after church and enjoyed a lunch out with friends.  The next few days were spent relaxing on a tiny island with beautiful beaches and best of all...no cars.  It was quiet and it was wonderful to be outdoors!  I sent Jim for his first ever dive and he also enjoyed some time snorkeling.  Here's to fantastic family time!

George joins rugby!
We were introduced to the Komodos Rugby Team of Jakarta.  They have a youth league that plays on Saturday mornings in the south of Jakarta.  It is just outside the city and provides all of us (except Jim, who has meetings) with a breath of fresh air.  None of us has actually figured out how rugby is  played yet exactly, but we are having fun watching George learn.  Having this new found connection with ex-pats, is already serving us well.  We were alerted to a fiddling group that would be playing in the Irish pub downtown.  We met some friends there and had a fun evening filled with good food, good fellowship and good fiddling.  The highlight of the evening was watching George "Riverdance."  He is a self taught stepper, thanks to watching the movie "Happy Feet" when he was two.  Hope we have a chance to do it again!

Mary and Della's Days!
Mary is progressing in her reading and loves to do math.  She enjoys her time in ballet class and longs for the day that she is old enough to join the choir and take piano lessons.  (They start both here at the age of six. )  She has shown great aptitude in tennis, wielding a superior swing...for a five year old!  Of course, she sports a pink tennis racket, pink sneakers and a pink water bottle.  She is quite a sight on the court!

Della builds with blocks (using my math manipulatives) for hours on end.  She builds hotels for her little Polly Pockets to stay in and continues to enjoy dressing up and playing with her dolls.  We are proud of her ability to memorize the books of the Bible and chuckle each time she says "Deuteronomy - icus"(...think Leviticus.)  As she was taking a bath one evening, I came in on her scrubbing herself.  With each swipe of the soap, she sang another book of the Bible.  Totally funny and precious and... possibly inappropriate as she was cleaning her derriere! 

God provides again!
Jim suspected that he may have a hernia, and sure enough, he did.  We started contemplating surgery.  Within hours, God coordinated a surgeon, a hospital and a date for surgery.  That was Thursday, October 10th and Jim flew to Singapore for surgery on the 14th.  A member of our congregation, who lives part time in Singapore, accompanied him the entire time and provided housing, transportation and medical support (he himself is a doctor.)  We prayed over our insurance, as they did not have a relationship with the hospital...meaning we would have to pay $10,000 up front!   Well, God knows we couldn't and we just trusted and went forward as scheduled.  Thankfully, all the paperwork went through and all the right people connected for a direct payment between the hospital and the insurance company. The surgery was a complete success, although, not without a few laughs along the way (we thought Jim only passed out because of needles!)

In other medical news, we are thankful for the recovery of Jim's grandmother, known to all as "GG."  She had a bad spell for about a week and, at 99 years of age, no one thought she would pull through.  Instead, God saw fit to keep her around to continue on as our prayer warrior.

We are gladdened to see and read about the progress of a precious little boy named Timmy, who just had surgery to reconstruct his skull.  His family is very dear to us and we are so thankful for God's Goodness.


So here we are, celebrating Autumn the best we can.  We hope that you are enjoying the scenes and scents of the season in your neck of the woods.  We may be many, many miles away...with time zones that frustrate communication...but we think about and pray for everyone just the same.

Anna writes about Bunaken Island

In my previous post, I indicated that Anna would post about our trip to Bunaken.  Here is her take on the day:

The second day we were in Manado, we went to Bunaken Island on a boat. The boat had a hole in it with a box that had a glass bottom. When we went over the coral reef, they lowered the box down into the water.We could see the coral and fish. It was cool.When we got there, there were a lot of huts with people selling things. After we walked around a little we went to the beach. The beach was a little strip of sand with a lot of garbage. We played in the water for a while and then we found some hermit crabs.When it was time to go back to the picnic tables we were soaking wet.When we got there, there were a lot of people who wanted to take pictures with us and to touch Mary and Della. We finally got back on the boat  and they gave us lunch, yellow rice and some other things in a leaf. The only one who ate it was daddy. He found a chunk of dirt in it.    

                                                      Going to Bunaken was fun!

A Month Since Manado!

Yes, it is true.  A month has passed and I am just now sitting down to relate some of our experiences in Manado, Sulawesi.  I have a photo album on Face Book with lots of great pictures from the trip, but haven't written down, yet, the many stories behind them.  Here's a start:
Our eight day adventure, of course, started and ended en route.  The kids have become quite the seasoned fliers!  This is a photo of the prayer pamphlet found in your seat back on Lion Air.  You can find a prayer for safe travels, categorized by religion.

 When we landed in Manado, I suggested a trip to the bathroom before heading by bus another 2 hours to the city of Bitung for the first gospel rally of the trip.  I took the girls - and Jim and George headed for the men's room.  The girls and I got along just fine, but the boys were not so lucky.  Most restrooms don't stock TP and the boys were caught without.  George was in desperate need, so Jim made the ultimate sacrifice...his white linen hankie.  Then, in an act of equal kindness, George  helped  Daddy keep his stall door closed by "fixing" the lock for him.  Well, there was no way now to get it back open.  If you can imagine, Jim had accidentally pressed the "call for help" button upon entering the bathroom...so he thought maybe someone would come for them.  No, not here.  So, in true MacGyver style, Jim was able to pick the lock with a pen he happened to have in his shirt pocket. Thankfully, for you all, I do not have a picture of that!

As I mentioned, we were headed for our first rally.  We were tired, but excited, and enjoyed the scenery on the way.  We traveled up through the mountains and arrived at a field fitted with thousands of seats and a stage.  We made it!  And then it started to rain.  Ugh.  The kids thought that was great, but mommy did not think sitting for four hours in a downpour was such a great idea.

 Thankfully, we were invited to a covered sitting area and were able to stay dry.  How spoiled were we?  Thousands who attended braved the weather and never flinched!  It is really so hard to describe the feeling of worshiping together in a different language and culture.  After  testimony and preaching, many came forward to repent and come into relationship with the Lord.  This happened night after night, thousands in total and all because The Word is powerful and life changing!

I made friends that first night with a little boy named Frankie.  He had the most engaging smile and so desperately wanted attention from us.  After doing my best to speak a couple of sentences of Bahasa with him, I gave him a package of Ritz crackers.  He lit up and held the gift close to his heart.  He didn't tear into them, but brought them to show his mother and the rest of his family.  It was a sweet and tender moment.
The rest of our days were filled with seminars, meals at various seafood restaurants (with spectacular views), touring the mountainous regions of the island, being "mobbed" for photos and every night a rally in a different town.  A few nights, I stayed in with the kids and rested while watching TV and feasting on McDonald's.  We had a wonderful team that helped to take care of us... busing us around and finding food for us (we never had to eat dog.)  We got to know many people from Jakarta that we didn't know before.  What a blessing!

Jim's "God appointed moment" came when we were visiting a restaurant on Lake Tondano.  We actually spent a few hours there, waiting out the rain. We spotted a rainbow and then were dazzled by the sunset.

 Jim struck up a conversation (limited only by the language barrier) with the young workers and asked if they had thought about going to Dr. Tong's Gospel Rally that night.  They were working and didn't have a ride.  Well, the amazing young ladies that led our group (seen on either end of the line-up below) arranged for them to get the night off  and sent our bus back for them and the friends they invited.  Let's pray for Merlyn, Epi, Ghiska, Irsan, Ria, Novri, Jacky, and Rhike.

A family highlight was our boat ride to Bunaken Island, a world class snorkeling and dive site.  Our view of the underwater was from the window on the bottom of our boat.  Anna captured lots of pictures on her camera and she will post on that experience and include some of her images.

Am I forgetting anything?  Oh yes! Our bus broke down at 11:00pm in one of the mountain towns on our way back to the hotel in Manado.  Not to fear...the Governor of the town sent cars for all of us to get back.  We were well taken care of!

I think that is a good place to end this post        ..........We were well taken care of  in..................   "The Land of Smilling (sic) People!"

Sad news

I just got off the phone with my sister who shared the news that my Grandfather, Paul Purvis, passed away last night.  He was 93 and had been struggling with his health recently.  It has been a few years since I last saw him, but the memories are very fresh.  Jim does a great impersonation of Grandpa, which I will have to ask him to do again for me.  One of the things I noticed about Jim when we were dating, is that he holds his coffee mug the same way as Grandpa - the thumb resting on the cup handle and then moving back and forth.  A weird little thing.  I was his "fancy Nancy" and I will miss him so much!  What a great reunion we will have in heaven :-)  As Grandpa always said, "and that's the way it twas."  My love to all the family as you mourn and remember and celebrate the man that was Dad, Grandpa and Great-Grandpa.

Happy Father's Day?

Interesting...this is supposed to be the dry season, but we have had rain almost every day.  Right now we are enjoying another thunderstorm and I love seeing the lightning from our big window.
Well, we celebrated Father's Day today!  I woke up and remembered that I didn't have the kids make any cards for Daddy.  I quickly assembled the "team" in the home school room and we worked some magic.  I posted a sweet picture of the kids with Jim and come to find out - it is not Father's Day!!  I really need to download an American calendar to keep current on special dates.  Oh well, we'll call it Father's Day in Indonesia!

From the looks of it, Della must have known we were making a big mistake!!

It was confirmed yesterday that our family (kids included) will be attending the next Gospel Rally in  Manado, Indonesia.  For those of you planning on looking this city up on a map, it is on the island of Sulawesi.  The six day trip at the end of June will consist of many chances to engage with the people and to witness the Gospel Message going forth to thousands of people each night. We are so thankful and will be so blessed to be in attendance.   Manado is known for incredible diving and snorkeling.  We  hope to see some water, maybe volcanoes and definitely some beautiful landscapes.  Jim said that I should bring school work for the kids.  I said this adventure is the schooling!  The learning is in the seeing and experiencing new places and cultures.
Speaking of new cultures...each island of Indonesia has it's own tribal group/culture.  The native people of  Sulawesi are the Minahasa.  What I know so far of this group, is that they eat anything and everything.  Our friend was over yesterday and her father is Minahasa.  She told me stories of eating very crazy food, including the aged family dog!  So, I quote from Wikipedia..."protein options include cats, forest rats, fruit bats, and dogs, the last of which is the obligatory centerpiece of any wedding ceremony or Christmas feast."  I hope no one is going to feel obligated to pull out all the stops for us, if you know what I mean.
For the next couple of weeks, we will be able to sit under the teaching and preaching of two  Westminster professors.  This is so encouraging for Jim and we both enjoy getting to know everyone as they visit Jakarta to share their gifts.
Time to clean up the kitchen, so I will write again soon!  Please continue to pray for us and we will do the same for you.  :-)

A Grand Wedding

Congratulations to Roberto and Fransisca!  This also marks Jim's first time officiating at an Indonesian wedding.  It was a long day, but Mary and Della rocked it!  It was so interesting to see this wedding from start to finish and how they incorporated Chinese, Indonesian and Western traditions. 
 The wedding ceremony was held at the church at 10:00 in the morning.  There were about 100 people in attendance.  Of course, it was a Friday, so many people had to work.  The Bride, Fransisca, wore a gorgeous custom gown and veiled her face until Roberto was told by Jim that he could "now kiss his bride!"  The flower girls had not practiced with petals the night before, but were given some for the ceremony.  Mary and Della, while being escorted by five year old David, started scattering their petals.  Quite concerned by this deviation from the plan, David yelled out, "What are you doing??"  It was sooo cute!
After the ceremony, the girls and I were whisked away to a hotel downtown, where for the next few hours all the members of the bridal party and the women of the bride's family were treated to makeovers.  In the end, I was forced into a chair and got my first pair of false eyelashes!  I do prefer the more natural me, but Jim liked the look. :)

Now it was time for the formal portraits.  All the ladies changed into beautiful evening gowns as the real celebration was just starting.
 

 They continued with the traditional Chinese Tea Ceremony.  Couples came up and sat in front of the bride and groom, and were served tea.  After the couple took a sip they gave the cup back and then stood and presented the bride and groom with a red envelope (money inside.)  This scene repeated itself until all the friends and relatives had "paid" their respects.

The reception started at 7:00 in the evening and the Bridal Party made their entrance down a very long walkway and up onto the stage.  The newlyweds and their parents stayed there as the guests filed by  to greet them.  Food stations were set up all around the ballroom and a band played, although there was no dancing.  I estimate that about 2,000 guests came for the party, which is a far cry from the amount that attended the actually ceremony.

Everything was so beautiful!  The highlight for me, was watching a movie starring Roberto and Fransisca.  It was just like a big screen movie and the footage was edited from the morning's ceremony.  I just couldn't believe how it was done in time for the reception and what a great job they did editing.  First time I ever saw anything like it and thought it was pretty special.

I promised you wedding pictures and I hope you enjoyed them!  :-)

Back in Jakarta again...

We made it!  Two 25 hour flights around the world in 30 days.  Sounds like the makings of a movie to me!  :-)  The kids were great and everything went very smoothly.  It is just this terrible jet lag.  Everyone finally had a full night's sleep last night, except Jim.  So he has been sleeping since for 4pm this afternoon.  I am trying to keep awake so that I can use this quiet time to write to you.  A glass of Pepsi and some "do-si-dos", curtesy of the Girl Scouts, (yes, I stocked up while I was home) are helping to do the trick!

Trying to get back in the swing of things and I had almost forgotten how the simplest tasks are just more complicated here.  Our friend, Tim, calls this the "Land of Almost Right."  Bought a MagicJack and can't seem to get that to work.  There is always some mix up with the dry cleaning and I can't speak the language well enough to right it on my own.  A ten minute ride home from the grocery store today took two hours!  I could go on, but I will stop and look at the brighter side of things...

Anna and I had two hours together in the car because of the traffic.  Anna reviewed the 50 United States in alphabetical order and was quizzed on the times tables.   She then talked incessantly about the possibility of going to summer camp with her cousin next summer.  Oh, the questions she asked! "Mom, will I be able to chew gum?"; "Do I have to wear my hair up?"; "What happens if the lights are still on after 'lights out'?"; "Where will we go to church?" On and on and on and on and on for two hours!!!!  She worked herself up into a frenzy and hopefully it will work out for her to go.  This is why I normally choose not to tell the kids our plans ahead of time.

Mary and Della will be flower girls tomorrow and are in for a very full day.  They arrive for ceremony at 9:30am, drive to hotel downtown for hair and make-up to be picture ready for the portrait session at 3pm, go to rehearsal for the reception (I think it must be to practice for the entrance?) and finally the reception at 7pm!  These two sweeties are going to be tuckered out...not to mention the poor pride, who rumor has it, is getting up at 2:30am to start her big day.  God Bless!

Will post pics soon and give you the inside scoop on "A Day in the Life of a Grand Indonesian Wedding!"

Blessed in Borneo

Ok, properly speaking, it is now called Kalimantan.  But me thinks Borneo sounds better!
The kids and I were invited to spend Chinese New Year with a very lovely family from church that lives part of the year in Samarinda, Kalimantan.  We flew out of Jakarta on February 8 - Della's third birthday - and then boarded a twelve passenger plane from Balikpapan to Samarinda.  While a bit nerve-wracking, it was a great way to see the beautiful landscape of Borneo. 

The weekend was packed with celebrating Della's birthday and Chinese New Year!  Highlights of our visit included a trip to the local wet market, where the meat is butchered right in front of you. (As if that wasn't gross enough, a bird pooped on my head!)  We enjoyed the trip up the Mahakam River and the interesting scenery, especially the grand and ornate mosques.  We stopped at a coal mine, a fish hatchery, a museum displaying a deceased crocodile that had eaten someone, and a royal palace!
I think our favorite "touristy" thing was seeing the native people, the Dayaks, performing their tribal dances for us in a traditional long house.  Yes, of course, Della and Mary were also main attractions that day, but we are getting used to it.  The Dayaks charge money to get your picture taken with them and I think I might have to start doing the same.  I could be a millionaire already!

Let me try and share a really cool story with you about the Dayaks and The Christian and Missionary Alliance Church (CMA.)  The CMA was the first mission group into Borneo and during WWII, many of the missionaries and Dayak people died at the hand of the enemy.  But during this time, there are many stories of  sacrifice and heroism.  Read "The Airmen and The Headhunters" for an amazing account of one such story.
Jim, his mother, and his grandmother have all grown up in the CMA church and are familiar with many missionaries that have served in Borneo with the Dayak tribes.  Because of this heritage, Jim felt a curious connection to the people of Borneo when he visited last Easter.  When the kids and I visited the Dayak Pampang (village), of course souvenirs were purchased.  The Dayaks are known for their bead work and Anna was attracted to a beautiful Bible cover, hand beaded with a pitcher, a cross, and a chalice on the front and the word "Alkitab" (Bible in Indonesian) on the side.  When we were home in Jakarta and Jim saw the Bible cover he asked who had made it.  He was amazed to see that the cover had the symbol of the CMA on it (unbeknownst to me) and that the connection between the two groups was still alive and strong.  We can't wait to bring it to the states to show Jim's mom and grandmother.  Forgive me, this just really touched our hearts!
I look forward to sharing a lot more stories and photos with many of you when we are back visiting in a couple of months!