Somewhere Between Then and Now
I know that many of you just long to know what is happening in our lives and the day to day stuff. When life starts to seem “normal” it becomes increasingly challenging to fill you in on what seems so routine. Let’s see how I do at giving a go, at “normal happenings”.
One of the nicest “improvements” in our day-to-day life is the road. Can a road condition really make that much difference in your life? YES. The main road that we travel on to get to our local town (Sentani) has gone from fairly narrow (2 lanes), to fairly wide (4 lanes). We have gone from major potholes and crazy palm bridges to smooth black top road and solid bridge. Our commute has gone anywhere from to 20-40 minutes to 10-15 minutes. There are still things about the road that make us shake our heads in COMPLETE disbelief. Such as: the telegraph pole in the middle of the road not yet moved and AS SOON as the new road was paved, mounds of rocks and sand were dumped on it to build the ditches. It is so easy to displace our own culture on this culture and say, “Well in America, they wouldn’t do it this way.” We need to just get over that, because there are too many things that are not like the USA.
The Advent Aviation campus is still standing strong, despite our terrible loss of Bob. The airstrip stays maintained and the workers press on, though some days they don’t quite know what to do. It is too quiet without the buzz of the airplane landing and taking off. On a few days here and there, Eric (Bob’s eldest son), has been working with Hartley (our Indonesian pilot) to get him checked off to fly again. There is both joy and stress as we hear the plane take off. Many people stop what they are doing. More people watch. And I dare say, more of us pray. Hopefully within the next month or two Gary (Bob’s youngest son) and family will arrive to lead the aviation program. We are eager for his leadership and gifting and believing that God will bring something to good from all of this. They will live in Jan and Bob’s former home. Jan has moved back to the States to help care for her elderly parents. She has left a huge part of her heart here and hopes to return some day. She is missed in many ways. I know that the Robert family would still covet your prayers as they press on through this tragedy.
Darron’s heart is much lighter these days as at last plans, dreams and visions can move forward. This week he left for Waropen. I felt his departure deeply as we have been together non-stop since June. So I have grown use to having him around and decided that I quite liked it. However, the grass widow skirt is back on and we are making the best of it. He is gone on a 12 day stent, will be home about 2 weeks and then off again. I am glad that my husband has a passion for sharing God’s word with the Papuan people and that he LOVES what he is doing. I don’t think I have ever seen him so fulfilled or well suited for a job and that says a tremendous lot.
We really thought arriving back to Sentani that we would have a baby parrot to take care of, as one had just hatched right before our departure to the States. However, upon our return, Andrew was able to shine a video camera into the nesting box and reveal only a little baby skeleton. The Mommy parrot is quite aggressive, so one could never just look. She has been spending more and more time in the nesting box so last week Andrew sent the camera in again. As Mommy parrot was trying to peck at the camera, it revealed an egg. This has been a dream of Andrews to raise a baby parrot since he was probably 7 or 8 years old.
A death adder snake was killed in our yard last week. Another snake was curled up in the doorway. A friend gave me a home made potion for ants and it is really helping to keep them at bay. Our yard worker is making a big garden for him and his family in the back of our yard. Last year we started all these beautiful tropical flowering bushes and they are taking off. This year my yard will be a mass of yellow and purple flowers, year round. The younger boys and I are playing around with different seeds, hoping to get some basil and cilantro growing. I have figured out how to make a mock jalapeño….which is nice to add just a tad into salsa and other things that we are wanting to zest up. I am also beginning to play around with making home made cheese (because I have nothing else to do, ‘excuse the sarcasm’, and cheese makes us happy).
I still find great joy in doing a few hours here and there at the clinic. This last week I was privy to draining blood off a patients knee and doing a punch biopsy and stitching it afterward. I appreciate that our doctor gives us these freedoms and learning opportunities and for the patients that endure them!
Aubrey has joined the afterschool band and decided that playing the French Horn was not enough, so plunked the Tuba into the back of the car this week (certainly couldn’t carry it on the motorbike). This weekend, he and Andrew are at a spiritual emphasis time at the high school. I must say that I am just slightly jealous at the worships they will attend and the speaking/activities they will hear. I sat in on Friday morning high school chapel and was so blessed to hear Aubrey up front helping to lead the worship team and then to hear the speaker. Such nuggets of wisdom and truth. Andrew has switched from Indonesian to French, is pulling all A’s and says he finds high school under challenging. Amazing!!!!
Jacob and Nathaniel are both doing great in school. And I am trying hard to keep them both challenged. We are expanding our schooling to include games and cooking and gardening and building airplanes (a huge challenge for me who played with dolls and house and store). Not that we aren’t doing all the other important stuff, but we need MORE of this other REAL learning stuff. For example, there is a big difference between 1/2 a teaspoon of salt and 1/2 a cup of salt. Oh yeah, glad I was standing by! They are both very proud of their cooking and love to put “secret ingredients” in their food. Hmmmm……you never know what a Boyd Boy is cooking up.
Darron and I are working hard at trying to “date” more. Something that does not come easily here. As there are not really any nice restaurants, or “easy” dates. In America (there I go again) the opportunities are endless. At any rate, they really are here too. It’s just all about PERSPECTIVE. Take for example a few weeks ago, we decided to go to Abe spontaneously. To go grocery shopping (now there is a hot date). Usually it is about a 45 minute journey. Well wouldn’t you know, we were stuck in traffic and it took 2 hours. LOTS of talking and discussing happened. AND I found cereal that is normally $8-9 a box, marked down to less then $2 a box (a super big treat). So on the way home, we had our romantic dinner of cold cereal fresh out of the box and a cold drink. Yep…..that is one of our recent dates in Indonesia.
Our internet speed and connection has been not even remotely close to what you experience in America. I’m not even going to apologize for the comparison. It has been horrid and sometimes it would be better to not know what it could be. We try to take care of business and important communication with snatches of connection here and there and many hours spent WASTED. This is the worst our internet has been since arriving to Papua. In some ways it is a blessing as I don’t have to worry about monitoring boys on internet or too much computer time. Did I mention, PERSPECTIVE?
That’s all I can think of for now. We appreciate your prayers and words of encouragement. Don’t be shy to write, we would love to hear from you. May you be encouraged in all that the Lord brings for you to do. So somewhere between then (our departure from America) until now…...you are all up to date!
One of the nicest “improvements” in our day-to-day life is the road. Can a road condition really make that much difference in your life? YES. The main road that we travel on to get to our local town (Sentani) has gone from fairly narrow (2 lanes), to fairly wide (4 lanes). We have gone from major potholes and crazy palm bridges to smooth black top road and solid bridge. Our commute has gone anywhere from to 20-40 minutes to 10-15 minutes. There are still things about the road that make us shake our heads in COMPLETE disbelief. Such as: the telegraph pole in the middle of the road not yet moved and AS SOON as the new road was paved, mounds of rocks and sand were dumped on it to build the ditches. It is so easy to displace our own culture on this culture and say, “Well in America, they wouldn’t do it this way.” We need to just get over that, because there are too many things that are not like the USA.
The Advent Aviation campus is still standing strong, despite our terrible loss of Bob. The airstrip stays maintained and the workers press on, though some days they don’t quite know what to do. It is too quiet without the buzz of the airplane landing and taking off. On a few days here and there, Eric (Bob’s eldest son), has been working with Hartley (our Indonesian pilot) to get him checked off to fly again. There is both joy and stress as we hear the plane take off. Many people stop what they are doing. More people watch. And I dare say, more of us pray. Hopefully within the next month or two Gary (Bob’s youngest son) and family will arrive to lead the aviation program. We are eager for his leadership and gifting and believing that God will bring something to good from all of this. They will live in Jan and Bob’s former home. Jan has moved back to the States to help care for her elderly parents. She has left a huge part of her heart here and hopes to return some day. She is missed in many ways. I know that the Robert family would still covet your prayers as they press on through this tragedy.
Darron’s heart is much lighter these days as at last plans, dreams and visions can move forward. This week he left for Waropen. I felt his departure deeply as we have been together non-stop since June. So I have grown use to having him around and decided that I quite liked it. However, the grass widow skirt is back on and we are making the best of it. He is gone on a 12 day stent, will be home about 2 weeks and then off again. I am glad that my husband has a passion for sharing God’s word with the Papuan people and that he LOVES what he is doing. I don’t think I have ever seen him so fulfilled or well suited for a job and that says a tremendous lot.
We really thought arriving back to Sentani that we would have a baby parrot to take care of, as one had just hatched right before our departure to the States. However, upon our return, Andrew was able to shine a video camera into the nesting box and reveal only a little baby skeleton. The Mommy parrot is quite aggressive, so one could never just look. She has been spending more and more time in the nesting box so last week Andrew sent the camera in again. As Mommy parrot was trying to peck at the camera, it revealed an egg. This has been a dream of Andrews to raise a baby parrot since he was probably 7 or 8 years old.
A death adder snake was killed in our yard last week. Another snake was curled up in the doorway. A friend gave me a home made potion for ants and it is really helping to keep them at bay. Our yard worker is making a big garden for him and his family in the back of our yard. Last year we started all these beautiful tropical flowering bushes and they are taking off. This year my yard will be a mass of yellow and purple flowers, year round. The younger boys and I are playing around with different seeds, hoping to get some basil and cilantro growing. I have figured out how to make a mock jalapeño….which is nice to add just a tad into salsa and other things that we are wanting to zest up. I am also beginning to play around with making home made cheese (because I have nothing else to do, ‘excuse the sarcasm’, and cheese makes us happy).
I still find great joy in doing a few hours here and there at the clinic. This last week I was privy to draining blood off a patients knee and doing a punch biopsy and stitching it afterward. I appreciate that our doctor gives us these freedoms and learning opportunities and for the patients that endure them!
Aubrey has joined the afterschool band and decided that playing the French Horn was not enough, so plunked the Tuba into the back of the car this week (certainly couldn’t carry it on the motorbike). This weekend, he and Andrew are at a spiritual emphasis time at the high school. I must say that I am just slightly jealous at the worships they will attend and the speaking/activities they will hear. I sat in on Friday morning high school chapel and was so blessed to hear Aubrey up front helping to lead the worship team and then to hear the speaker. Such nuggets of wisdom and truth. Andrew has switched from Indonesian to French, is pulling all A’s and says he finds high school under challenging. Amazing!!!!
Jacob and Nathaniel are both doing great in school. And I am trying hard to keep them both challenged. We are expanding our schooling to include games and cooking and gardening and building airplanes (a huge challenge for me who played with dolls and house and store). Not that we aren’t doing all the other important stuff, but we need MORE of this other REAL learning stuff. For example, there is a big difference between 1/2 a teaspoon of salt and 1/2 a cup of salt. Oh yeah, glad I was standing by! They are both very proud of their cooking and love to put “secret ingredients” in their food. Hmmmm……you never know what a Boyd Boy is cooking up.
Darron and I are working hard at trying to “date” more. Something that does not come easily here. As there are not really any nice restaurants, or “easy” dates. In America (there I go again) the opportunities are endless. At any rate, they really are here too. It’s just all about PERSPECTIVE. Take for example a few weeks ago, we decided to go to Abe spontaneously. To go grocery shopping (now there is a hot date). Usually it is about a 45 minute journey. Well wouldn’t you know, we were stuck in traffic and it took 2 hours. LOTS of talking and discussing happened. AND I found cereal that is normally $8-9 a box, marked down to less then $2 a box (a super big treat). So on the way home, we had our romantic dinner of cold cereal fresh out of the box and a cold drink. Yep…..that is one of our recent dates in Indonesia.
Our internet speed and connection has been not even remotely close to what you experience in America. I’m not even going to apologize for the comparison. It has been horrid and sometimes it would be better to not know what it could be. We try to take care of business and important communication with snatches of connection here and there and many hours spent WASTED. This is the worst our internet has been since arriving to Papua. In some ways it is a blessing as I don’t have to worry about monitoring boys on internet or too much computer time. Did I mention, PERSPECTIVE?
That’s all I can think of for now. We appreciate your prayers and words of encouragement. Don’t be shy to write, we would love to hear from you. May you be encouraged in all that the Lord brings for you to do. So somewhere between then (our departure from America) until now…...you are all up to date!
Eric is the oldest son!!!!! ;)
ReplyDeleteSorry about that Heidi (and family). Got that fixed. The record is straight. : )
Delete