It is hard to believe that we are rapidly approaching the one-week mark
of being back in Indonesia! Thank you
for praying for us on our journey. The
trip was long, but it was fairly smooth.
Our luggage cost us some money, but we were expecting that. We left for Seattle by car Friday evening
around 6:30pm. It took three hours to
get to the airport. After checking in
and going through a LONG security line, we made it to the waiting area. We had to wait for quite a while, but in our
experience, it is better to be early than too late! We didn’t know if the TSA would want to call
us to open our bags, so we wanted to give ourselves plenty of time. Our flight left at 2am and we flew to
Taipei, Taiwan. It took about 11
hours. All of us got a little bit of
sleep, but not great quality sleep :).
We arrived in Taipei at 5am Sunday morning (their time-which would be
Saturday evening in the States). We had
a four hour wait there. The airport is
nice, but there are not a lot of food options---particularly early in the
morning. We were all really hungry
because we didn’t have much on the plane.
We were able to get some food at a vendor and were able to “freshen up”
(brush teeth, etc.) Our flight left
Taipei for Jakarta at 9am. Our seats and
the leg room were a little wider and that was so nice! Chase took a good nap on that five hour
flight, and the rest of us should
have!
We arrived to a hot Jakarta at around 1pm and went through
immigration. Then we got some guys to
help us with our huge amount of luggage.
We paid them well and they helped us through customs and with getting
our bags on the next plane without even having to go upstairs! It was really nice. There was a flight leaving for Semarang
around 3pm, but we had booked the 5pm flight because we did not know how long
immigration and customs would take. So,
it was a long wait and then a LONG one hour flight to Semarang. Casey pointed out that although it was the
shortest flight, it felt like the longest because we were all so tired and so
ready to get done with our journey!!
We arrived and Casey went to deal with getting our bags. Some folks from the school we work at were
there to pick us up. Some good friends
who live in Semarang also came. They had
done quite a bit to get stuff into our house (that we bought from people who left). They also got some furnishings for us---some
incredible things. We were so
blessed! It was pretty miserable the
first night because we did not have any fans, but thankfully they had the AC
running in our bedroom. We have 3
bedrooms and 3 AC units, but with the electric capacity, we can only run two at
a time. So far we have all been bunking
in our room at night but hope we get a plan going so the boys can move into
their own rooms J.
So, this week has involved a lot of shopping, learning our way around
the area (which we are getting slowly!) and meeting people at school. It is very different to live in the big city
versus the “small town”/”village”. It is
also very different to live in a predominately Chinese area. It feels a lot more like where I lived as a
child, in Bangkok, Thailand. This
weekend we are going to try to visit Salatiga for two days because we have the
week off for Lebaran (breaking of the Muslim month of fasting). The traffic
is getting worse and worse with people heading home to visit their
families. We will opt to stay close to
home after our little jaunt to Salatiga and will be working on class
preparations.
Our jobs are good, but we have a lot of work to do. It is a great environment, but I know it will
take a little time for us all to get used to our schedules and responsibilities. The big boys will start their online classes
this coming week and then will all try to get started at our school after this
week long break. It may be a bit bumpy
for a while, but we are praying that they will adjust quickly.
We have some praises and prayer requests:
1.
Praise: We arrived safely!
2.
Praise: Some incredible people (Sandy and Johana,
John and Marilyn) have been taking care of us and our kids. Chase is particularly partial to Mr. John and
thinks he is pretty awesome. We are so
thankful for all of their help in this last week!
3.
Praise:
A great school community with fun-loving and beautiful students and coworkers.
4.
Praise: The school is providing us with a vehicle
this weekend---one for us to use all the time.
And, a new one at that! (WHAT,
God!?!?)
5.
Prayer: My supervisor, Erna (an amazing
and beautiful woman of God by the way), has not been feeling well. She is suffering from headaches and vertigo
and every doctor has told her something different. Please pray for complete and total
healing. He is able!
6.
Prayer: For our kids to adjust, to learn
the language, and to make new friends. Pray
that they would embrace our ministry here and allow God to teach them new
things.
7.
Prayer: Please pray that we would be a
light for Him wherever we are. Please
pray for great new opportunities to help people learn more about Him!
8.
Prayer: Please pray for safety on the
roads. I know that I will need to drive
and I’m feeling pretty overwhelmed by the traffic. Maybe it will get a little better, but the
sheer volume of vehicles is way different than Salatiga. I know my husband won’t be able to chauffeur
me around all the time, so I would appreciate prayers for courage and for
safety.
Thank you for your love, support and prayers!
We appreciate them so much,
We appreciate them so much,
Sharon, Casey & the boys
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