Half Done

Not so many exciting things this week - just the usual stuff. We did the usual therapy sessions, met with a couple parents, and finished up some evals, which meant report-writing for me. We have a couple more evals this week, and we'll probably meet with some parents for the evals we did last week. We're adding some kids to our caseload as a results of the evals, so we'll stay busy. Last week was the Reading Challenge for the elementary school. The teachers challenged the students to read 60,000 pages (of grade-level material) in 1 week, and if they did it, the Service Corps would get to dump buckets of water on the teachers. The kids read 75,000+ pages, so Friday during lunch recess, all the teachers got soaked. We each picked a card that had a number on it from 1-3 - the number of buckets of water that would get dumped on us. I got 3. ;) Several of the teachers had fun with it and wore life jackets or umbrellas or tried to hide....the kids loved it! A couple of the teachers even grabbed a bucket and threw it on the Service Corps kids. It was a very fun event!


Tim is playin' it cool. Note the horizontal stream of water on the left.

On Wednesday Ibu Elsye gave me an Indonesian test. I knew about 2/3 of the answers, but certainly not all of them. She was gracious, though, and gave me a 95. ;) She said she'll have another one for me this week, so that means "Saya harus belajar" (I have to study). My lessons are paying off - I was able to have a very short conversation with the janitor who cleans our room. I think he appreciated that I tried, even though I didn't know much. I enjoyed chicken pot pie for supper at the Hovings that evening, and 3 desserts because I couldn't decide which one I wanted. We had Bible study that night, too, and we went through a good portion of the book of John as a review of what they'd studied last semester. No parts falling off the car this week. I had my first real supper guests this week - Joyce on Tuesday for Spanish rice and brownies, and Justine on Saturday night for spaghetti (the jar of Prego was $6!). I watched Arsenic and Old Lace with Justine on Saturday night, and Prince Caspian this afternoon as I wrote letters. I haven't watched movies in a long time!

The speaker at church this morning focused on God's grace and how we have spiritual blessings “for the praise of his glorious grace” – it said that 3 times in Ephesians 1. He also talked about how God uses our weaknesses. Shortly after he started language school, he got sick with malaria. He was already frustrated with learning the language, so that didn’t help. A few months later, he was sick again with severe mononucleosis. He was sick off and on again for the next 9 years – they suspect he acquired Hepatitis C from a contaminated needle when they were treating him for malaria. He said he was frustrated during that time because he wasn’t being effective in his ministry, but he was reminded that God’s power is perfected in our weaknesses, and he resigned his body to Christ’s service. He wanted Christ to be most glorified, no matter what that meant for him (health, sickness, etc.).

Joel and I are no longer 17 hours apart! He was in San Diego visiting his brother and his family, which meant that I had to get up at 5 am a couple days to be able to talk with him. I also had some good talks with Eve this week about how she and Mike ended up in Sentani and the work the Lord has done in their life. I was able to talk with Lexi, my good friend Amanda, and my dad this weekend, too. The parents conferences were really good, too, in that I got to hear about some of the challenges that missionaries face and the different factors involved in making decisions for their ministry and their family. I also did fun things like clean my bathroom and wash my floor (it took forever!). I should've had a pembantu (housekeeper) while I was here.

Keep praying for the 4th grade teacher's visa. It's making it's way through the hoops, but it's not done yet. Also be praying for Mission Emphasis Week (March 23-27) - I'm helping Melanie with some of the planning, and we've got a good start I think. Continue to pray for my health - it's been fine, so we can pray that it stays that way. ;) Thanks for reading my ramblings and for praying....it means so much to me! Have a great week!

More Pictures from the Reading Challenge Reward Event