Fresh Perspective

We are all motivated to do things for different reasons.  I am part of a homeschool group on Face Book.  One of the Mom’s just posed a question:  Why do you homeschool?  And she listed off 5 reasons.  Within 12 hours she had over 40 answers.  Many of them:  very long!!!!!  It’s not just the ordinary Mom who looks at public or private education and chooses differently.  For me, I didn’t like any of her 5 reasons, completely.  So I wrote my own. Very brief.    God’s calling for this season.    Yep.  That sums it up for 10 homeschool years down.  Would I like to stop?  Sure.  YES .  And yet we are not stopping yet.  Why?  Because the calling has not yet changed.   Has it been a good year?  AMAZING !  I have learned more about how to teach reading, and about World War I, and the Indians, and early America history, and our solar system and oodles and oodles of incredi...

3 years old.  2 years old.  3 weeks old.  That was the ages of her children when this mother showed up at Darron’s office looking for work.  She had a 2 year degree for secretarial work.  Her husband worked away from home at a mine.  Taking hours on his motor cycle each weekend to travel back and forth.  Bringing home a pittance.  Any mommy who is out looking for work with a newborn at home is desperate.  Let alone three children under the age of three. Darron soon had a dilemma on his hand as he wanted to help her, but a more qualified secretary interviewed.  So we prayed.  Burdened for this needy little family.  Yet rather then just handing out goods and food to ease our conscience and temporarily fix a problem………  we prayed for a long term answer. The answer came. With hundreds of x-pat families living in Sentani.   With many of these families cooking familiar “home foods” from scratch.   With m...

Three weeks ago the aviation campus staff were still struggling significantly with post crash stress.  Also students and staff from the local Adventist school were also showing signs of trauma.   Many were not sleeping, eating, etc.  Dr. Ann Hamel, a Psychologist from America, had just arrived.  Darron had made lists of all those who needed help.  He has been in full pastoral mode since the crash.  His gifting of years in pastoral care was much appreciated as so many needed comfort.  Yet, the amount of people who needed help was overwhelming.  So many were so effected by what they saw, heard, smelt, touched and had to do.  We were not alone. Wycliffe Bible Translators have many individuals who have been trained in peer debriefing, specifically to help in traumatic situations.  They were ready to come as soon as we gave word.  It was decided that the young children who were near the crash scene would be debriefed at school, Tu...

I have learned so much this year……and the journey is far from over.  We still need to plug through to the end of school.  We are still standing with the aviation staff here…..waiting what future plans will be.  We are still praying for wisdom for Jan and the extended family.  And then there is our own families mission trip we are going to take prior to leaving on furlough.  Talk about fear and pushing me out of my comfort zone.  Sigh.  We will be roughing it for about 10 days.  I wonder if we leave for that on a Wednesday?  What does Wednesday have to do with anything?!!!? I had been musing about writing this blog prior to Bob’s crash.  Because about 3ish months ago I was inspired to ask a co-worker/friend for accountability in loosing baby fat.  For 16 years, I have trudged around an extra 10-20 pounds, that has left me dis satisfied. Nothing else has worked.  Little did I realize that this accountability would lead to my mi...

Bob and his daughter, Stephanie, flying on a different day in Papua . Jan and Bob It was another ordinary Wednesday in Papua.  The rain had come down all night.  Leaving the runway soggy.  6 a.m. I had finished reading my Bible and I hear Bob take off on first flight.  I think, “Wow, he is early this morning!”  Then the typical morning craziness starts in my house.  The cooking of a hot breakfast.  Packing school lunches.  Signing forms.  Arranging pick ups.  Off to school.  Exercise.  Home. Unfortunately, the freezer has frozen over so much that the door is on longer sealing.  It’s a forced, defrost the freezer day.  Out comes all the food.  Towels are laid everywhere.  Drip. Drip.  Jacob is on his 3rd day of not feeling well.  It has been a week of no routine.  No home school.  POP a video into the DVD player for Jacob and lucky little brother to watch.  I go into the office...

Two years ago, we were still very much newbies on this Papuan Island.  Having only lived in this part of Indonesia for about 3 or 4 months.  Home schooling is the only education my children had known.  We were quite excited when Amy Martin decided to lead in an all weekend youth group meeting, which would include home school kids.  So we jumped in (along with many others) to pull this event off.  It was through this weekend of hanging out with many of the middle school kids, that attended the International School, that helped Aubrey and Andrew decided that they would like to go to HIS (Hillcrest International School).   This decision was not made lightly.  However, it has proved to be key to Aubrey and Andrew thriving in Papua.  School is school and some days get very long, but overall they LOVE it.  Often I stand in awe at the teachers and leaders that God has called to serve at HIS, so that families like ours can serve well here....