To the Crater and Back!

This month, although only half way through, has been full of many adventures. We have gone hiking, riding on ATV's, and have gone to the White Crater (Kawah Putih). These have been great adventures that have brought me closer together with my new roommate and our national partners. I have been able to meet many new friends at The Center where I work because of the many new members. Most of them are cousins. I get the chance every other day to have lunch or dinner with them. Please lift up these girls and the time that I get with them.

On some painful news I am in the process for getting a root canal done. This is a 5 week process here but it gives me the chance to spend some time with the family I am close to here. 

Please lift up a concern that our team has for volunteers during the months of May and June. (Mostly June) 

Here is a picture from our trip to the Crater hope you enjoy it!

February Updates

Hi everyone, it has definitely been a while! With J coming home for Christmas and New Years, and then heading back to her city again, things have been a little different and a little hectic for her. However, now that she is back, there were a few things she wanted to update everyone on.

First of all, her team at the English center has been a little scattered with the holidays and sickness going around.  J said there has been a few days at the center where only she and a couple other team members were actually healthy and able to work with the people. However, she did say that her team has been getting closer as a group and just really working well together lately--more so than at any point during the time she has been a part of it. In the past, the team has had issues with unity as well as other things, but J said those issues are less frequent and she's excited about how well they are able to handle the issues that do come up now. That is HUGE! Because of this, they are able to work better to help the people who come to the center. Please continue to keep them in your prayers--pray that they will continue to become a tight unit so they can do their job as best they can.

J also has a new roommate--this is her last roommate and will be the girl who takes her spot once J returns home for good this year. She said her roommate is very quiet, but they are getting along well and the new girl seems to be getting used to environment and the city without any major problems.

Aside from being very busy at the center as usual, J started a bible study in her house with some other people around the city.  For now, it is just girls meeting together, but she is thinking that it will expand and eventually be men and women attending. J is also going to start teaching at two local orphanages in the near future. For those of you that know J, you know she's excited about getting to meet the children and just spend time loving on them. She will be teaching Math and English to the older children at both orphanages, and will just spend time playing with the younger children while she is there. She is really excited about the oppurtunity to do this!

With summer coming up within the next few months, J said that the center will be very busy, so please keep her and her team in your thoughts and prayers. Thank you guys for supporting her the ways you do!

Vacation Notes

Hi everyone! Just a quick update on what J has been up to—as some of you already know, she just returned from a vacation and had a pretty exciting time! Since the Center J works at was closed for the month because of Ramadan, she and some friends took a trip to enjoy some sightseeing, snorkeling, and a lot of other fun things as well.

The place J and her group went for the vacation was quite an adjustment for her! The entire city only has electricity for twelve hours of the day, so the people there spend their day hours without electricity and then it is turned on at nighttime. J said it was very different getting dressed and going about her routine to go out for the day without being able to see what she was doing. She also said that the people there do not have showers, so bathing means basically pouring buckets of water over yourself. Even with the changes, J said she loved the city and really felt at home while she was there. She really felt drawn to the city, and so she is looking forward to possibly going back there at some point in the future.

While on vacation, J was able to do some pretty crazy things! She said her group rode almost every form of transportation during this trip, including a bus where everyone had to stand up the entire ride, a bicycle where you lay down as someone pedals and rides you around, and a boat.  During the boat ride, J ended up talking to the older man who was steering the boat.  She said that, unlike a lot of the people where she is right now, this man had a sense of humor similar to hers and people back in the states. He was very kind and smiled a lot, which led J to tell him that she really liked him and enjoyed meeting him.  With a completely straight face, the man joked that he was very sorry but that he was too young for her—which of course, made J like him even more. She said that she and her group even were able to go with him to his house and meeting his family after the boat ride.

J also got to go snorkeling during her vacation—she said there was a ton of coral, so much that they had to float on the top of the water just to avoid touching it, instead of having to swim down some to see it.  She has been snorkeling a couple of times while she has been living over there, but J said this was the best snorkeling she’s done so far.

Probably the most exciting thing J did while on her vacation was swimming with sharks.  They weren’t the big, man-eating, scary Great White sharks, but sharks just the same! She had so much fun getting to do it and said that one of the sharks got so close as to brush his fin up against her. She took a lot of pictures of the trip so she could show everyone what she did.

J said she came back from the vacation really encouraged.  Because of where she was, she had to speak a lot of the language while she on her trip, so she’s at the point now where she can carry on a pretty long conversation in her new language.  This is a really great thing now that she is back in her city.

Now that she is home from vacation, J is getting back in to the routine at the Center, which she said has just been completely renovated.  The church of a family that lives in the city paid for the entire renovation of the building and everything in it, which was so great for J and her team.  Now that Ramadan is over, classes are starting back up, so the renovation timing was perfect. 

J is also again adjusting to a new roommate.  Her old roommate just moved away to another city permanently, so she now just has the new roommate, until another girl moves in in January. J also just got another pet bunny that she named Oreo because he is black with little white patches—now she has two pet rabbits, Pancake and Oreo.  She even was able to find people who are going to adopt them once her time there is up and she comes back to the states next year!

Please keep encouraging J when you think about her—I know she really appreciates it.  She has really enjoyed receiving the things you all have been sending, and is so thankful for your support and encouragement, so please keep it up!

Summer Update

Happy weekend encouragers! I had the chance to spend some time talking with J this morning and catching up on the things going on in her life lately.  As you all have read in her past couple updates, she’s been up to a lot with her team.  The walk through the city went really well, and J and her team were able to meet and talk to several different people.  She was pretty excited about how the time went and is thankful for you all lifting her and her team up at the time she asked you to.  Our Father heard you and worked through the team as they walked through the city.

J talked a little about the volunteers that have been helping her and the team she is with throughout the summer.  She said they were, for the most part, very helpful in coming alongside J’s group and working in the areas they were needed.  Now that the summer is ending, it sounds like J will be getting back into her normal routine with the Center, that is, after Ramadan has ended.  Because of Ramadan this month, J won’t be teaching classes at the Center.  However, this is not a necessarily a negative thing!  As you read in her last blog post, this time of Ramadan in the city means there are many, many opportunities for J to get to talk with people in the city that she has gotten to know, as well as people she comes into contact with during the month.  She is really looking forward to what the month has to bring as far as opportunities to share with the people she meets.  And, now that she has her own car to drive (and not just a moped!), J will have more mobility which means more opportunities to get to know people and build relationships, and ultimately have chances to share with them.

As hard as it is to believe, J is coming up on her first year of being in her city very soon!  She finds it hard to believe she has only been there for a year because so many things that happened and she’s settled in, but at the same time she says she can’t believe it has been a whole year.  There are still so many things she is learning and she says she is still finding her place there.  Please be lifting her up in that area—that J will find where she needs to be in her city and feel confident and sure she is where she should be and doing what she is supposed to be doing.  Also, even though she has been in her city for a year, that doesn’t mean she doesn’t need as much encouragement now as she needed in the beginning when this was a new adventure for her.  Please be continuing to encourage her; in fact, try to encourage her now more than before, whether that be in the form of letters or messages or just lifting her up. She covets your encouragement!

PLEASE READ

This Friday at 9 our team, with some nationals, and our volunteers are gathering together to P-walk around our city. This is mainly in preparation for Ramadan. This is a time of fasting for those of Islamic faith. They spend about a month fasting from sunrise to sunset. During this time usually there is a great move of our Father due mainly to the fact that we humans are so week and we can find our strength through Him. So we are going to key points of the city, we will be praying verses and just pouring out our hearts for this city. We are also praying for a time to be able to share with those around us. Some of the team will be fasting preparing our hearts for the battle that is ahead. (The devil doesn’t like us messing with him).  This is where you come in we are urging our fellow believers around the world to unite in this and pray if you feel led on Thursday night (eastern time) at 10 pm if you could just start praying for two hours I know this is late but God is not placed in a time box. Please lift up this city, the people in it, pray for bonds to be broken, hearts to awaken, eyes to see, and ears to hear. Pray for dreams, visions and awakening. Finally pray that the veil will be lifted! Don’t forget 10 pm Thursday. Thank you!

Long time no see

Hey everyone sorry it has been so long since my last blog but between business of life and sickness there hasn’t been too much time.

Life here has been a great adventure for the past two months to just highlight a few things we have had a lot of volunteers, I went to my FAMS meeting, and our whole team has been sick bleh.

The volunteers have been great they have done a great job building relationships and taking care of things when we had our meeting. Sadly the summer is the only time we really have volunteers ( I hope we don’t get too spoiled).  We have had 22 two weeks volunteers through the time and 7 two months volunteers. This has been great! Lift them up as they are starting to travel back this week. Also pray that they will have perseverance for those who will be staying until the end of the month to continue the work.

FAMS (Families Abroad Made Stronger) was amazing this was a time of renewal and encouragement. I came back with a renewed vision for the city and the lost given to me by God. I also got some encouragement that was sort of lacking in my life. This came at the right time and I am thankful that there are people who are so willing to help make this happen but mostly to God who provides it for us each year.

FINALLY J our team has dealt with a lot of illness. This includes the volunteers. We have all had this cold but worst of all is the stomach bug. The violent little thing spread its way through the families, even the poor little babies, and us. Thankfully all that is left is the cold. Pray for healing and rejuvenation!

I will also put a post up about a great opportunity that we have this week to unite together around the world!

Updates from the Rainy City

Hi everyone! A quick update on J from her very rainy city! As they are heading into the “dry” season, J says that it is raining almost every day.  J has been pretty busy with teaching her class at the English Center, but she has a good update to give everyone!  Her first class has now ended, and she is beginning to teach Public Speaking to the students who come.  She seems pretty excited about the opportunity to teach the class.  As a bonus, this past month was the first full month that she hasn’t been sick at all and had to miss days at work, so that is very encouraging.  She thinks she is pretty much past the getting sick stage and has acclimated to the area and living in her city finally.  All in all, J says she thinks she has found her place there; she is at the point where she’s really comfortable and familiar with the city and her job there.  Because of that, she has been able to continue to have really great opportunities to talk with the people she has become friends with in the city and has had some very exciting conversations with some of them. She is really enjoying the friendships she is building with the people there.

J says that the team working at the English Center is all finally together now, and she has really been encouraged by how well they are working together and getting along at the center.  She’s really happy with the group of people she works with and how smoothly they have been able to work together now that they are all there and back from various vacations and trips away from the city.

Aside from working at the English Center these past few weeks, J was able to go to her friend’s college graduation, which she really enjoyed.  Her language classes are going very well, and J says her teacher told her J is doing very well and improving a lot. Her teacher is really proud of the progress J has made in learning the language.  J also said she had a great Easter, but also an eventful one! On her way to a Good Friday service nearby in the city, she was almost hit by a car! Thankfully, she is completely fine, but she said it was a near miss!

J also said this summer, different groups will be coming to the English Center to volunteer, starting in May.  While she said it will be very chaotic getting the volunteers acclimated and shown what needs to be done, she and the people she’s working with are really looking forward to the groups coming because there will be more people to teach English to the students who come.  It will hopefully give J’s team a chance to breathe and make their job a lot less tiring for the time the volunteers are there.  More to come on that from J soon, though, so keep her and her co-workers in your thoughts!