Fresh Perspective

We are well into our second week in Papua.  Darron is already busy preaching and laying out plans for the year ahead.  The territory is vast.  The mission president met with him last week and told him the 6 cities that are to be his focus for 2012.  Already two pastor’s have met with Darron who work in the interior.  They are discouraged, for the work is isolated and difficult.  In Darron’s free time he is still supervising the building of our house.  His latest project is building a model (out of old x-ray films) of a septic system, because the local builders could not understand the drawings or our crazy American ways.  Please pray that he will have much wisdom and energy for the job’s at hand.  Darron has started a blog:  pastordarronboyd.blogspot.com   We have been meeting in the hanger for church.  Bob has two planes. The boys continue to be happy here, despite having absolutely none of their toys.  These guys h...

  Our Bandung Friends that kept everything running smoothly.  It was hard to say good-bye. ((Nathaniel and Jacob are standing on a rock, just so the Grandparents don’t think they have grown that much! : )).   To say that we have just zipped through our first Christmas overseas…..my heart is filled with gratitude to the love and welcome we have received during our first week here in Papua.  Upon flying into the airport we disembarked onto the pavement, Jan Roberts and the Stump family were there to greet us.  Jan took the boys and I to our “new” home while Darron stayed at the airport with other friends to gather up the luggage (I loved that).   Our home is great.  It has huge windows everywhere (gives new meaning to “air” conditioned). A large kitchen complete with a new stove.  4 bedrooms.  2 Indonesian style bathrooms.  So we are getting experienced at squat potties and dip bathing (with cool water).  Actually the water is...

Darron and I were so relieved to be finished with our exam.  The teachers asked us many questions.  I’ll give you a sample of the questions I was asked:  How did you come to move to Indonesia?  (This question took me by surprise and I started crying while trying to explain how we felt God had asked us to come and that Darron was ready right away, but that it took me quite a few months to come to peace about it.)  Share a story about when you worked in the hospital.  If you had a patient that had a fever what would you do?  If my child had a fever what dosage of medicine would you give him/her?  If a patient was sick with “XXXXXXXXXXX” (I wasn’t sure what the disease was but took a guess that it was Dengue Fever) for many days, when would you advice him/her to go to the doctor?  Trying to answer these questions in bahasa Indonesia proved to be challenging.  But I did it!  And so did Darron with questions referring to his work, etc. ...

We are 12 hours away from taking our third and final (language) test.  Only Darron and I will take this exam as one has to talk for 45 minutes in Bahasa Indonesia.  Aubrey and Andrew said that they have trouble enough talking in English for 45 minutes.  No mind a foreign language.  So we decided to let them off the hook.  No complaints have been uttered! We all learn so different.  For me: I write words on signs and post them around the house.  Often I am so busy working that the words have to be easy for me to read on the fly.  They also get written on the back of my hand so that I can drill all day long.  Darron will drill for hours on his computer.  He needs silence.  I need music and people to talk with.  So different! : )  We have a great foundation now.  And we are having fun.....getting around the market and bargaining, asking directions, making conversation, etc.  The picture of the wall of words also s...

This is Hesley.  When I first met her, she agreed to come to our house most days of the week to clean and help with language.  Little did she or I know how many different adventures and responsibilities that her job would involve.  Hesley is in her last semester for becoming an accountant.  So in between classes and writing a thesis research paper she has been a phenomenal help to me and our family.  From helping us learn how to call America for a penny a minute to figuring out a complicated wi-fi.  To cleaning and going shopping with me to the huge market downtown Bandung.  Hesley is always ready to help us with home work or listen to me try to babble along in Bahasa Indonesia.  Always encouraging me.  The huge task that Hesley helped us with was to negotiate with a large shipping company to take our car and “stuff” to Papua.  We could not have done this on our level of language skill and cultural knowledge.  We will miss those t...

We are counting down the days to departure from Bandung.  Only 2 weeks left.  So today the 10 boxes that carried our 4 months of survival gear were reassembled and the repacking has begun.  The boxes have holes in them and are feeling a bit soggy from all the moisture in the air.  This packing business all seems so familiar as it consumed my summer.  We are calling this the “year of transitions”.   The transitions have been mostly positive.   I’ll try to share just a few…           The boys are much closer to each other and to us through these transitions.  Jacob and Nathaniel forever looking up to their big brothers and keeping up with them in humor.  Aubrey and Andrew have found great satisfaction in their exercise class.  Gaining great strength and skill.  Also, I have been so proud of them as they have had to adapt to so many uncomfortable situations.  Again and again they h...