Wow! We can't believe how quickly our first year has come to a close! Classes are finally over, and this week is field trips for the MSS students. On June 14 we will make the LONG flight back to Michigan to stay with our families for about a month. I can't say we're excited about spending 23 hours in the air, but we're really anxious to take a break and see our families.
In recent news, Eric's plays were last weekend, grade 9 during the school day, and grade 10 on Friday night. They were both western comedies, and were a big hit, especially with the PYP kids! (Pictures to come later) We're so glad Eric could take such a big step toward getting the program up and running this year, and now he can focus on just English and HEAR (health, ethics, and religion) classes next year.
On that note, our good friend from Taylor, Mandy Reusser, will be joining the teaching staff here next year, teaching the drama classes and ESL. We are so excited that she will be coming, and that we'll have a friend from home sharing our Indonesian experiences with us. Some more good news that we have is that we'll have a new house next year. Our current house has been fine, but it's a bit off the beaten path, and we don't really have any neighbors and have felt a bit isolated being far away from the other expats. Our new house will be on the main road in our neighborhood, and next to some friends from SPH. God has been providing for us even in the small things. :-)
As for me (Christine), I am getting ready to teach grade 1 next year, and I feel very blessed to have this opportunity. I will also begin either a Teacher Certificate of Master of Education program once the school year starts, so things will be very busy!
Things to pray for:
1. A safe flight home
2. A fun, relaxing visit home with our families
3. Getting all our house packed and ready to move before we leave
4. Preparing for teaching next year and Christine going back to school while teaching full-time
5. Safety for our students, who will be traveling all over the world during the holiday
Thanks to all for your continued support, encouragement, and prayers.
God bless,
Eric and Christine
Tuesday, June 3, 2008
Wednesday, April 23, 2008
4-month update of shame! :-(
Yes, it seems to have been nearly 4 months since our last update and we are sad that we have been so bad at keeping up with this thing regularly. We will try to be better, but we just have to remind ourselves often enough. So for anyone who is actually keeping up with us, we're sorry we haven't been on top of it!
Many exciting things have been happening at SPH. Since our last update, we had our 3rd quarter, and are now into the beginning of our 4th. Eric is very busy with end-of-the-year prep., as well as preparing 2 dramas for the end of the year, one in grade 9 and another in grade 10. Both are westerns, which has been great fun for the kids! Rehearsals are happening during the school day and it is a lot of work for one person to direct! Eric also has the opportunity in a couple of weeks, along with Leland, one of the other teachers here, to be the speakers at a student retreat for the SPH Karawaci campus. They have been busy preparing for this as well, and are excited to be able to speak at this 3-day retreat. Their topic is "Joyology," and Eric has been video-interviewing students from our campus to get some opinions on what the difference is between "joy" and "happiness."
Next week we will have another 4-day weekend and will return to Ocean Queen Resort in Pelabuhan Ratu, like we did for Chinese New Year. We are going with our friends Steve and Julia, and a few other friends, and it should be a great time. The 3-hour drive is beautiful and takes us on some windy but gorgeous mountain roads. It will be great for both of us to have a nice break from school and stay on the beach for a few days.
I (Christine) have been busy with my usual counseling, piano, tutoring, and working with PYP. Last week was book week for PYP, and there was a special day on Friday where everyone dressed up as a character from their favorite book. They had a parade around the school in their costumes, then each student got up on stage in the gym and talked about their character. Later in the afternoon, there was a competition between each class (preschool-grade 6), and each class performed a song or story from a piece of literature, and I was one of the judges! The group that won was grade 3 with "The REAL story of Cinderella," and they did a great job, as did all the other groups. Finally, there was a drama performance by grades 4-6, and that was very well done also. You can see photos from "Book Week" on our picasa website. Check our latest photos here:
http://picasaweb.google.com/DocTheBaptist
In recent news, we have had a HUGE answer to prayer this week. I have been offered a full-time job teaching in PYP next year!!! This is about the best news we could possibly get, since I will be much happier teaching full-time and having a class of my own, and this will help us with many of our financial struggles we've been facing. We are also hoping to do some traveling next year so this will be a blessing in many ways! Praise the Lord for providing for all our needs, and so much MORE! We are so thankful for all of His blessings this year; it has been an amazing journey.
As we deal with the craziness of drawing the school year to a close (7 more weeks!), we are becoming very excited to come home on June 14. We will be able to stay in the States for about 5 weeks before we come back to start the new school year at the end of July. We are excited to be almost through our first year and even more excited about things to come in our second year. We want to humbly thank all our friends and family who have been lifting us up in prayer these last 9 months, as we continue to seek what the Lord would have us do to best serve Him.
Prayer requests:
1. Strength for Eric to get everything done before the end of the year and success with his plays
2. Safety in traveling home in just a few short weeks :-)
3. Christine's new job as a first-time teacher which will take a lot of prep before this school year is out as well
4. Wisdom with financial decisions and finding a new house for next year
5. That the students we work with will continue to ask questions about Jesus and be drawn closer to Him because of God's work through us.
Also, if any of you has any prayer requests or would like to send us an update on what's going on where you are, please send us an email at mailthemoores@gmail.com.
I guess that's all for now, God bless you all, we appreciate your friendship and support.
~Christine~
Many exciting things have been happening at SPH. Since our last update, we had our 3rd quarter, and are now into the beginning of our 4th. Eric is very busy with end-of-the-year prep., as well as preparing 2 dramas for the end of the year, one in grade 9 and another in grade 10. Both are westerns, which has been great fun for the kids! Rehearsals are happening during the school day and it is a lot of work for one person to direct! Eric also has the opportunity in a couple of weeks, along with Leland, one of the other teachers here, to be the speakers at a student retreat for the SPH Karawaci campus. They have been busy preparing for this as well, and are excited to be able to speak at this 3-day retreat. Their topic is "Joyology," and Eric has been video-interviewing students from our campus to get some opinions on what the difference is between "joy" and "happiness."
Next week we will have another 4-day weekend and will return to Ocean Queen Resort in Pelabuhan Ratu, like we did for Chinese New Year. We are going with our friends Steve and Julia, and a few other friends, and it should be a great time. The 3-hour drive is beautiful and takes us on some windy but gorgeous mountain roads. It will be great for both of us to have a nice break from school and stay on the beach for a few days.
I (Christine) have been busy with my usual counseling, piano, tutoring, and working with PYP. Last week was book week for PYP, and there was a special day on Friday where everyone dressed up as a character from their favorite book. They had a parade around the school in their costumes, then each student got up on stage in the gym and talked about their character. Later in the afternoon, there was a competition between each class (preschool-grade 6), and each class performed a song or story from a piece of literature, and I was one of the judges! The group that won was grade 3 with "The REAL story of Cinderella," and they did a great job, as did all the other groups. Finally, there was a drama performance by grades 4-6, and that was very well done also. You can see photos from "Book Week" on our picasa website. Check our latest photos here:
http://picasaweb.google.com/DocTheBaptist
In recent news, we have had a HUGE answer to prayer this week. I have been offered a full-time job teaching in PYP next year!!! This is about the best news we could possibly get, since I will be much happier teaching full-time and having a class of my own, and this will help us with many of our financial struggles we've been facing. We are also hoping to do some traveling next year so this will be a blessing in many ways! Praise the Lord for providing for all our needs, and so much MORE! We are so thankful for all of His blessings this year; it has been an amazing journey.
As we deal with the craziness of drawing the school year to a close (7 more weeks!), we are becoming very excited to come home on June 14. We will be able to stay in the States for about 5 weeks before we come back to start the new school year at the end of July. We are excited to be almost through our first year and even more excited about things to come in our second year. We want to humbly thank all our friends and family who have been lifting us up in prayer these last 9 months, as we continue to seek what the Lord would have us do to best serve Him.
Prayer requests:
1. Strength for Eric to get everything done before the end of the year and success with his plays
2. Safety in traveling home in just a few short weeks :-)
3. Christine's new job as a first-time teacher which will take a lot of prep before this school year is out as well
4. Wisdom with financial decisions and finding a new house for next year
5. That the students we work with will continue to ask questions about Jesus and be drawn closer to Him because of God's work through us.
Also, if any of you has any prayer requests or would like to send us an update on what's going on where you are, please send us an email at mailthemoores@gmail.com.
I guess that's all for now, God bless you all, we appreciate your friendship and support.
~Christine~
Monday, December 31, 2007
Selamat Natal dan Tahun Baru!
New Pictures
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!
Let us first apologize for taking such a long time to update. Before Christmas break, things were extremely busy for us at school, and we have neglected our blog. We did, however, send an email update around Thanksgiving that we preferred not to post online since our students are able to access our website. If you have not received any emails from us and would like to, please let us know!
It's hard to cover a month of time in a short blog posting, but we will try to share the highlights! God has been doing a lot of great things at SPH and we are so glad to be a part of His work! Our students have continued to be responsive to God's words, both in the classroom and in counseling with Christine. Eric has been having some great homeroom times doing devotions with his grade 10 students, and has covered some good questions and discussion during this morning time period. Just before the holiday, Eric directed a student drama for the Christmas program, which went over extremely well with the parents and staff, and he has had many requests to do more as soon as possible! No doubt he will have a lot of help and support with the awesome parents of our kids, for the upcoming dramas for second semester.
I (Christine) have been extremely busy with countless activities with the school, including more counseling, substitute teaching for some of the lower-school grades, and seemingly unending editing projects. I have also been continuing to tutor in the dormitory after school, and teach piano lessons. It is so exciting for me to be working with such amazing kids everyday, and seeing them grow as God works in their hearts, as He works in me as well.
As for Christmas, we are in our 3rd week of rest from school, and are so thankful for some time off after all the busyness. In our first week of break, we visited Ancol in Jakarta, which is a sort of amusement park with rides, games, food, etc., and stayed in a nice hotel right on the ocean! We posted a few photos from our trip. We had a great time, and may go back again, since we didn't visit all the parks there, including a water park that looked like a lot of fun.
For Christmas Eve and Christmas day, we had parties with the other expats houses, and it was such a blessing to be able to be together and fellowship with our friends from Canada and America, who understand how we feel being away from our families at Christmas, and can share in our celebrations together. On Christmas day, we went to our friends Steve and Julia's house along with the other expats, and had a wonderful American meal complete with turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, gravy, cranberries, and pumpkin pie! We played some games and had a gift exchange, and had a great time just being together. Praise the Lord for good friends to share this time with!
Last night for New Years' Eve, We had a party at our house, and most of the expats were able to come. We made some good food (we sent Samini home for the holiday), and played games and hung out until midnight. Then, at 12, most of our neighbors had large displays of fireworks that we watched from our backyard. Some were even right over our house! A few minutes later, a huge thunderstorm began and added greatly to the noise, although, we didn't stay up much longer because we're not used to being up so late. Then this morning, I counted down again until noon, since it was midnight at home, but it wasn't very exciting.
The best thing that happened over break (in my opinion) is that Eric bought me a piano! When we first arrived here, we searched for months for an electric piano that fit everything I wanted, (full keyboard, weighted keys, pedal, etc.) but was a cheap enough price for us to afford. After giving up several months ago, Eric decided he really wanted to buy me one for Christmas, and sure enough, we found one with everything I wanted within our budget. What a wonderful husband I have!
Some things to pray for:
1. Mr. Gaylord has now officially left SPH and our new interim headmaster, Mr. Jim Rawlins, will be starting his position when school starts on the 7th. Please pray for a smooth transition for both of them.
2. Eric has a busy week ahead of him, preparing for our return to school and making lesson plans for second semester.
3. Our students, who are scattered all over the world at this point, for their safe travels on their way back here. Also for the dorm students, that they will enjoy these precious few weeks with their parents, and be able to have a smooth transition moving back into the dorm.
4. Eric's hearing aids are not working well at all, and we need to buy new ones, which cost about $4,000. This is a huge expense for us, and it may be a long time before we can save up enough money. Eric really needs these to be able to hear his students in the classroom, and it has been very difficult to have only semi-functional hearing aids for all of first semester. Pray that the Lord will provide for us, as He has always done in the past.
Thank you to everyone who has been praying for us and our ministry here. We pray that God will continue to use us for His glory and His purpose for our lives. Please continue to keep us in your prayers, as well as our students who do not know Christ, and desperately need to feel His touch on their lives. We hope you have had a wonderful Christmas and we wish you a happy New Year as well. We would really like to hear from you; how you're doing, what you did for Christmas, and how we can pray for you too! Please write to us. :o)
God bless you!
In Christ,
Eric and Christine
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!
Let us first apologize for taking such a long time to update. Before Christmas break, things were extremely busy for us at school, and we have neglected our blog. We did, however, send an email update around Thanksgiving that we preferred not to post online since our students are able to access our website. If you have not received any emails from us and would like to, please let us know!
It's hard to cover a month of time in a short blog posting, but we will try to share the highlights! God has been doing a lot of great things at SPH and we are so glad to be a part of His work! Our students have continued to be responsive to God's words, both in the classroom and in counseling with Christine. Eric has been having some great homeroom times doing devotions with his grade 10 students, and has covered some good questions and discussion during this morning time period. Just before the holiday, Eric directed a student drama for the Christmas program, which went over extremely well with the parents and staff, and he has had many requests to do more as soon as possible! No doubt he will have a lot of help and support with the awesome parents of our kids, for the upcoming dramas for second semester.
I (Christine) have been extremely busy with countless activities with the school, including more counseling, substitute teaching for some of the lower-school grades, and seemingly unending editing projects. I have also been continuing to tutor in the dormitory after school, and teach piano lessons. It is so exciting for me to be working with such amazing kids everyday, and seeing them grow as God works in their hearts, as He works in me as well.
As for Christmas, we are in our 3rd week of rest from school, and are so thankful for some time off after all the busyness. In our first week of break, we visited Ancol in Jakarta, which is a sort of amusement park with rides, games, food, etc., and stayed in a nice hotel right on the ocean! We posted a few photos from our trip. We had a great time, and may go back again, since we didn't visit all the parks there, including a water park that looked like a lot of fun.
For Christmas Eve and Christmas day, we had parties with the other expats houses, and it was such a blessing to be able to be together and fellowship with our friends from Canada and America, who understand how we feel being away from our families at Christmas, and can share in our celebrations together. On Christmas day, we went to our friends Steve and Julia's house along with the other expats, and had a wonderful American meal complete with turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, gravy, cranberries, and pumpkin pie! We played some games and had a gift exchange, and had a great time just being together. Praise the Lord for good friends to share this time with!
Last night for New Years' Eve, We had a party at our house, and most of the expats were able to come. We made some good food (we sent Samini home for the holiday), and played games and hung out until midnight. Then, at 12, most of our neighbors had large displays of fireworks that we watched from our backyard. Some were even right over our house! A few minutes later, a huge thunderstorm began and added greatly to the noise, although, we didn't stay up much longer because we're not used to being up so late. Then this morning, I counted down again until noon, since it was midnight at home, but it wasn't very exciting.
The best thing that happened over break (in my opinion) is that Eric bought me a piano! When we first arrived here, we searched for months for an electric piano that fit everything I wanted, (full keyboard, weighted keys, pedal, etc.) but was a cheap enough price for us to afford. After giving up several months ago, Eric decided he really wanted to buy me one for Christmas, and sure enough, we found one with everything I wanted within our budget. What a wonderful husband I have!
Some things to pray for:
1. Mr. Gaylord has now officially left SPH and our new interim headmaster, Mr. Jim Rawlins, will be starting his position when school starts on the 7th. Please pray for a smooth transition for both of them.
2. Eric has a busy week ahead of him, preparing for our return to school and making lesson plans for second semester.
3. Our students, who are scattered all over the world at this point, for their safe travels on their way back here. Also for the dorm students, that they will enjoy these precious few weeks with their parents, and be able to have a smooth transition moving back into the dorm.
4. Eric's hearing aids are not working well at all, and we need to buy new ones, which cost about $4,000. This is a huge expense for us, and it may be a long time before we can save up enough money. Eric really needs these to be able to hear his students in the classroom, and it has been very difficult to have only semi-functional hearing aids for all of first semester. Pray that the Lord will provide for us, as He has always done in the past.
Thank you to everyone who has been praying for us and our ministry here. We pray that God will continue to use us for His glory and His purpose for our lives. Please continue to keep us in your prayers, as well as our students who do not know Christ, and desperately need to feel His touch on their lives. We hope you have had a wonderful Christmas and we wish you a happy New Year as well. We would really like to hear from you; how you're doing, what you did for Christmas, and how we can pray for you too! Please write to us. :o)
God bless you!
In Christ,
Eric and Christine
Monday, October 15, 2007
Bali Holiday
Our most recent Indonesian adventure took us to Bali for our 2-week fall break (Muslim Idul Fitri/Lebaran), of which we still have a week left, but we arrived home on Saturday. We spent one week relaxing and touring around Bali and had a wonderful time! Please check out our latest pictures!
The first place we stayed was called Club Bali Mirage in Nusa Dua (rather popular tourist area but still away from the main area of Kuta), which was a very nice beach resort, with the pool just across the sand from the ocean! Since the hotel was all-inclusive, we had most of our meals there and spent a lot of time at the hotel, participating in water sports such as swimming, snorkeling, jet-skiing, canoing, etc. Also, somehow the hotel got the impression that we were on our honeymoon, so we had a cute little heart-shaped cake waiting for us in our fridge that said "Happy Honeymoon Mr./Mrs. Moore." Quite a nice thought. It was quite relaxing to spend a few days in the water and sun after a hectic final week of the term at SPH.
Our final day in Nusa Dua was spent with a hired driver, who drove us over the mountains to the north side of the island where we took a long, narrow, lobsterish-looking boat out into the ocean to look for dolphins. And did we ever get a good show! We saw many dolphins and followed them around in the boat to watch them for about an hour. Sometimes they were swimming right next to us! Also one time they jumped out of the water and did a few flips! Pretty awesome for wild, untrained dolphins. Definitely a new experience for me (Christine).
After the dolphins, our drive gave us a guided tour back through the mountains, and turned out to be a wealth of knowledge on Balinese culture. One of our stops included a Hindu temple, where we had to climb a series of stairways to the top of a mountain to reach the main part of the temple. Since we were the only ones there most of the way up, it was a little disconcerting, considering the statues and offerings all around us, but it was interesting to experience nonetheless. Thinking about the many statues and "gods" of the Hindu religion, we were reminded of Moses and Pharoah in the Bible, and the power God had exerted over the pagan "gods." All quite fascinating.
Once back on the southeast side of the island, our driver made a final stop at Turtle Island, where we could watch, feed, and pet some giant sea turtles! So many cool animals in one day!
Finally, after we had checked out of our hotel, our driver took us to our next destination where we would spend the last 3 nights of our trip: Kubu Bali in Candidasa. Here, in a more secluded area of Bali, still with more than a few shops and restaurants on the road but much more "in the wild," we stayed in a bungalow that was at the top of a large foothill. All the bungalows of the hotel had been built into the side of this enormous hill, and as it happened, we were the one at the VERY top. 162 steps to reach it, as a matter of fact. Not a bad climb, but rather taxing when doing it multiple times a day. We didn't mind it so much since from our vantage point at the top we had an amazing view of the ocean.
Our first excursion was scuba diving, the day after we arrived in Candidasa. We had a brief lesson and then were given equipment and taken to a rocky/beachy area where we could just walk into the water and swim out from there. I (Christine) made it out a little ways, and saw some cool tropical fish I had never seen before, but then had to come up because of ear pressure troubles. Eric completed two dives and was able to see a sunken ship, and a lot of neat underwater life! What a neat experience.
The last two days of our stay in Candidasa we spent swimming, shopping, eating a little Italian food, and also visiting a traditional village nearby and buying some handicrafts. We had a tour guide in the village, and he took us to his house to show us many fine linens woven by his mother, as well as wooden carvings he had made of the Hindu calendar, and some Hindu stories. We didn't buy any carvings, but bought some lovely woven clothes, a purse for me, a woven basket and some cute coasters.
The other thing we did with our time at Kubu Bali was to play with the monkeys who visited us everyday! We left our pineapple "welcome drinks" out on our first night, and the following day, the monkeys were at our front porch finishing them up for us! Eric then fed them a pastry so they would stick around, and we got some really cute pictures. On our last day, we made the mistake of leaving our wrapped restaurant leftovers out on the porch, and in the morning, we emerged from our bungalow, only to see the monkeys sitting on the roof, package in hand, eating our french fries one by one! Cute little devils.
All in all, we had a fabulous vacation, and surprisingly enough, our flights went quite smoothly and most things pretty much went as planned. It was hot weather, and we had to deal with a few unexpected glicks throughout the week, but we felt so excited and blessed to be able to travel to such a fun and exotic place! We were able to have a much-needed break from school, and now that we are home, still have another week of vacation before school starts up again! Praise the Lord for providing us with all we need and so much more!
Other than our recent excursion, things are going well at school. The end of the term was a little stressful, especially for Eric, with last-minute grading, and getting all the final grades logged, and having parent-teacher conferences. However, we feel very happy after our trip and contented just to spend a week at home resting for the 2nd term.
We want to again extend our thanks to so many of you who have continued praying for our ministry here; we feel so blessed to have so many friends who are supporting us in our journey here. We feel like we are having a positive impact on our students and our friends around us as well, and are excited to see what the next leg of our journey will bring.
Please send us an email to let us know how you are, what is new in your life, and how we can pray for you as well. We really appreciate hearing from you and being able to share in our blessings and trials.
In His Service,
Eric and Christine
The first place we stayed was called Club Bali Mirage in Nusa Dua (rather popular tourist area but still away from the main area of Kuta), which was a very nice beach resort, with the pool just across the sand from the ocean! Since the hotel was all-inclusive, we had most of our meals there and spent a lot of time at the hotel, participating in water sports such as swimming, snorkeling, jet-skiing, canoing, etc. Also, somehow the hotel got the impression that we were on our honeymoon, so we had a cute little heart-shaped cake waiting for us in our fridge that said "Happy Honeymoon Mr./Mrs. Moore." Quite a nice thought. It was quite relaxing to spend a few days in the water and sun after a hectic final week of the term at SPH.
Our final day in Nusa Dua was spent with a hired driver, who drove us over the mountains to the north side of the island where we took a long, narrow, lobsterish-looking boat out into the ocean to look for dolphins. And did we ever get a good show! We saw many dolphins and followed them around in the boat to watch them for about an hour. Sometimes they were swimming right next to us! Also one time they jumped out of the water and did a few flips! Pretty awesome for wild, untrained dolphins. Definitely a new experience for me (Christine).
After the dolphins, our drive gave us a guided tour back through the mountains, and turned out to be a wealth of knowledge on Balinese culture. One of our stops included a Hindu temple, where we had to climb a series of stairways to the top of a mountain to reach the main part of the temple. Since we were the only ones there most of the way up, it was a little disconcerting, considering the statues and offerings all around us, but it was interesting to experience nonetheless. Thinking about the many statues and "gods" of the Hindu religion, we were reminded of Moses and Pharoah in the Bible, and the power God had exerted over the pagan "gods." All quite fascinating.
Once back on the southeast side of the island, our driver made a final stop at Turtle Island, where we could watch, feed, and pet some giant sea turtles! So many cool animals in one day!
Finally, after we had checked out of our hotel, our driver took us to our next destination where we would spend the last 3 nights of our trip: Kubu Bali in Candidasa. Here, in a more secluded area of Bali, still with more than a few shops and restaurants on the road but much more "in the wild," we stayed in a bungalow that was at the top of a large foothill. All the bungalows of the hotel had been built into the side of this enormous hill, and as it happened, we were the one at the VERY top. 162 steps to reach it, as a matter of fact. Not a bad climb, but rather taxing when doing it multiple times a day. We didn't mind it so much since from our vantage point at the top we had an amazing view of the ocean.
Our first excursion was scuba diving, the day after we arrived in Candidasa. We had a brief lesson and then were given equipment and taken to a rocky/beachy area where we could just walk into the water and swim out from there. I (Christine) made it out a little ways, and saw some cool tropical fish I had never seen before, but then had to come up because of ear pressure troubles. Eric completed two dives and was able to see a sunken ship, and a lot of neat underwater life! What a neat experience.
The last two days of our stay in Candidasa we spent swimming, shopping, eating a little Italian food, and also visiting a traditional village nearby and buying some handicrafts. We had a tour guide in the village, and he took us to his house to show us many fine linens woven by his mother, as well as wooden carvings he had made of the Hindu calendar, and some Hindu stories. We didn't buy any carvings, but bought some lovely woven clothes, a purse for me, a woven basket and some cute coasters.
The other thing we did with our time at Kubu Bali was to play with the monkeys who visited us everyday! We left our pineapple "welcome drinks" out on our first night, and the following day, the monkeys were at our front porch finishing them up for us! Eric then fed them a pastry so they would stick around, and we got some really cute pictures. On our last day, we made the mistake of leaving our wrapped restaurant leftovers out on the porch, and in the morning, we emerged from our bungalow, only to see the monkeys sitting on the roof, package in hand, eating our french fries one by one! Cute little devils.
All in all, we had a fabulous vacation, and surprisingly enough, our flights went quite smoothly and most things pretty much went as planned. It was hot weather, and we had to deal with a few unexpected glicks throughout the week, but we felt so excited and blessed to be able to travel to such a fun and exotic place! We were able to have a much-needed break from school, and now that we are home, still have another week of vacation before school starts up again! Praise the Lord for providing us with all we need and so much more!
Other than our recent excursion, things are going well at school. The end of the term was a little stressful, especially for Eric, with last-minute grading, and getting all the final grades logged, and having parent-teacher conferences. However, we feel very happy after our trip and contented just to spend a week at home resting for the 2nd term.
We want to again extend our thanks to so many of you who have continued praying for our ministry here; we feel so blessed to have so many friends who are supporting us in our journey here. We feel like we are having a positive impact on our students and our friends around us as well, and are excited to see what the next leg of our journey will bring.
Please send us an email to let us know how you are, what is new in your life, and how we can pray for you as well. We really appreciate hearing from you and being able to share in our blessings and trials.
In His Service,
Eric and Christine
Friday, September 7, 2007
2nd Indonesia Day and a trip to the guest house
NEW PICTURES: HERE
Hello everyone!
So many fun things have been happening this month, and time has been going too fast! Last week at SPH we had an Indonesia Day celebration for the upper grades and had traditional costumes, music, performances, food, and games. We got to try some new Indonesian foods, like coconut ice cream (like gelato), and watch some traditional games, such as "put the eel in the bottle," and "slippery pole climb." Check out the new pictures we have posted to see the games and costumes.
Last weekend, we were invited to a guest house owned by one of the SPH moms, Ibu Imelda. It took us about half an hour from Sentul driving into the middle of nowhere through small villages up into the mountains to get to a secluded, beautiful piece of land owned by Imelda's family. They have built several small open buildings on the land with bedrooms, a "clubhouse" where we had our lunch; all right in the middle of the rice paddies. All the flowers were blooming and there were butterflies everywhere, and it was definitely the most beautiful place we have been to so far in our stay here. We also have a few pictures posted of our trip there.
Eric has been doing well in his classes, although planning and grading are very time consuming. Christine has been counseling every week, as well as continuing English and piano tutorials for the dorm students. We are both very happy at SPH and feel like God has brought us here for many reasons, which we can see daily in our students. We are so thankful that He has been faithful to us in our finances, our housing, our friendships with the other teachers here, the school administration, and our daily interactions with the kids. We have been very blessed to be able to work here.
Next weekend we will join several other expats for a weekend in Cerita Beach, staying at a friend's beach house. We are excited to finally be able to try some of this great seafood we've been hearing so much about! Also, coming up in the beginning of October is our 2-week fall break, in which we will be traveling to Bali for a vacation of our own. We are very excited about this and ask that you pray for our safety and health as we make this trip.
We know many of you have been continuing in your service of prayer for us and we are exceedingly grateful for your support. We will continue to post updates and pictures, and we hope that you will write to us, and update us on your news as well!
God is so good,
Eric and Christine
Hello everyone!
So many fun things have been happening this month, and time has been going too fast! Last week at SPH we had an Indonesia Day celebration for the upper grades and had traditional costumes, music, performances, food, and games. We got to try some new Indonesian foods, like coconut ice cream (like gelato), and watch some traditional games, such as "put the eel in the bottle," and "slippery pole climb." Check out the new pictures we have posted to see the games and costumes.
Last weekend, we were invited to a guest house owned by one of the SPH moms, Ibu Imelda. It took us about half an hour from Sentul driving into the middle of nowhere through small villages up into the mountains to get to a secluded, beautiful piece of land owned by Imelda's family. They have built several small open buildings on the land with bedrooms, a "clubhouse" where we had our lunch; all right in the middle of the rice paddies. All the flowers were blooming and there were butterflies everywhere, and it was definitely the most beautiful place we have been to so far in our stay here. We also have a few pictures posted of our trip there.
Eric has been doing well in his classes, although planning and grading are very time consuming. Christine has been counseling every week, as well as continuing English and piano tutorials for the dorm students. We are both very happy at SPH and feel like God has brought us here for many reasons, which we can see daily in our students. We are so thankful that He has been faithful to us in our finances, our housing, our friendships with the other teachers here, the school administration, and our daily interactions with the kids. We have been very blessed to be able to work here.
Next weekend we will join several other expats for a weekend in Cerita Beach, staying at a friend's beach house. We are excited to finally be able to try some of this great seafood we've been hearing so much about! Also, coming up in the beginning of October is our 2-week fall break, in which we will be traveling to Bali for a vacation of our own. We are very excited about this and ask that you pray for our safety and health as we make this trip.
We know many of you have been continuing in your service of prayer for us and we are exceedingly grateful for your support. We will continue to post updates and pictures, and we hope that you will write to us, and update us on your news as well!
God is so good,
Eric and Christine
Monday, August 20, 2007
Still Alive!
Hey everyone!
SEE NEW PICTURES: HERE
We are sorry that it has taken us SO very, very long to update. As you may imagine, the wheels hit the road when school started and we actually had to work! (go figure). That said, things are as good as we hoped they would be!
Where to begin?
At school, Eric has been kept busy teaching seven different classes (yikes!) but he loves his students and the work comes easy. He is teaching grades 10-12 English and 7-10 drama. To make it bearable, though, the school utilizes block scheduling, which means that he only sees his classes 1-3 times per week. On some days he is working all day, and others (like tuesday) he only works 2 hours (out of 10!). So, it balances out. The kids are so bright and hard working, it takes very little to get them going. In addition, they actually THANK him daily after each lesson. Its pretty amazing.
Christine, meanwhile, has been teaching grade one while waiting for the new expat, Jen, to arrive (she was recently hired and landed on Thursday). She has been LOVING it! The kids are SOOOOO cute (see pictures). Last Thursday, the whole primary school celebrated the Indonesian Independence Day, and dressed in traditional costumes, as well as having performances by the kids and traditional foods to try. This week she will begin counseling and maybe start teaching piano. In addition, she has been tutoring some of the boarding house kids in the evenings.
We have been very blessed with some really awesome friendships, so far. So many people have been helpful in getting us settled in, etc. Last weekend, we went out with our new friends for pizza and a movie and Eric was able to go on a hike to a waterfall in Bogor with some of them (sorry, forgot the camera...).
We are also thankful for our maid, who is such a hard worker! She is the envy of all the other expats because of her amazing cooking skills. We come home from school every day to the smell of some culinary masterpiece. Her food is often westernized for us, which is very nice. She also has an 8mo baby, Alia, who she adopted after the child was abandoned on her doorstep. This gesture seems to speak volumes about her character (and we LOVE having Alia around! -- See pics!)
All in all, we love living in such a beautiful area! Sentul is away from Jakarta, and so we have cooler weather and also a breathtaking view of the mountains. The area around our neighborhood and the school is lush and tropical, and we are making friends with many new little creatures that live in our house and garden ;o) The locals call Sentul "The Green Sanctuary" because people often seek refuge from the city here.
The Lord has been so faithful to us in our journey here and the way He is using us to minister to our kids and our coworkers. We know He will continue to work in us as we try to serve Him in every way possible and fulfill the mission that He has prepared us for. We are so blessed to be here, and though we miss our friends and families back at home, we are encouraged knowing that we are walking in God's will for our lives.
We would greatly appreciate hearing what's going on in your lives, so please feel free to post on our site or email us if you can. We appreciate your continued support in prayer!
Love and hugs,
Eric and Christine
SEE NEW PICTURES: HERE
We are sorry that it has taken us SO very, very long to update. As you may imagine, the wheels hit the road when school started and we actually had to work! (go figure). That said, things are as good as we hoped they would be!
Where to begin?
At school, Eric has been kept busy teaching seven different classes (yikes!) but he loves his students and the work comes easy. He is teaching grades 10-12 English and 7-10 drama. To make it bearable, though, the school utilizes block scheduling, which means that he only sees his classes 1-3 times per week. On some days he is working all day, and others (like tuesday) he only works 2 hours (out of 10!). So, it balances out. The kids are so bright and hard working, it takes very little to get them going. In addition, they actually THANK him daily after each lesson. Its pretty amazing.
Christine, meanwhile, has been teaching grade one while waiting for the new expat, Jen, to arrive (she was recently hired and landed on Thursday). She has been LOVING it! The kids are SOOOOO cute (see pictures). Last Thursday, the whole primary school celebrated the Indonesian Independence Day, and dressed in traditional costumes, as well as having performances by the kids and traditional foods to try. This week she will begin counseling and maybe start teaching piano. In addition, she has been tutoring some of the boarding house kids in the evenings.
We have been very blessed with some really awesome friendships, so far. So many people have been helpful in getting us settled in, etc. Last weekend, we went out with our new friends for pizza and a movie and Eric was able to go on a hike to a waterfall in Bogor with some of them (sorry, forgot the camera...).
We are also thankful for our maid, who is such a hard worker! She is the envy of all the other expats because of her amazing cooking skills. We come home from school every day to the smell of some culinary masterpiece. Her food is often westernized for us, which is very nice. She also has an 8mo baby, Alia, who she adopted after the child was abandoned on her doorstep. This gesture seems to speak volumes about her character (and we LOVE having Alia around! -- See pics!)
All in all, we love living in such a beautiful area! Sentul is away from Jakarta, and so we have cooler weather and also a breathtaking view of the mountains. The area around our neighborhood and the school is lush and tropical, and we are making friends with many new little creatures that live in our house and garden ;o) The locals call Sentul "The Green Sanctuary" because people often seek refuge from the city here.
The Lord has been so faithful to us in our journey here and the way He is using us to minister to our kids and our coworkers. We know He will continue to work in us as we try to serve Him in every way possible and fulfill the mission that He has prepared us for. We are so blessed to be here, and though we miss our friends and families back at home, we are encouraged knowing that we are walking in God's will for our lives.
We would greatly appreciate hearing what's going on in your lives, so please feel free to post on our site or email us if you can. We appreciate your continued support in prayer!
Love and hugs,
Eric and Christine
Monday, July 16, 2007
Arrival in Sentul
Hey Everyone!
Thanks for the encouragement you have already provided us with! We are safely installed into our new home in Sentul! What an adventurte we have had already! The last few days have gone by in something of a blur, but I will do my best to remember the key events ;).
So, we left on Saturday morning at 4:30 am local time to Michigan and were taken to the airport by the Challa family. Things got started without a hitch and we were en route to Chicago in no time. In Chicago we were able to meet up with another expat, Katie Bolling, who is going to be a co-English teacher with me. This was quite a blessing as the three of us were able to spend the long layover hours talking and getting to know eachother.
From Chicago, we flew into Los Angelas, arriving sometime in the early afternoon. We had heard reports of possible delays of our flight to Tokyo because of a typhoon/earthquake combo that had hit them that morning. By the time we made it to our gate, however, the situation was under control and the flight was on time. We expected the layover to be long in LA, but because of the layout of the airport, the layover was just enough to make it to our next flight. (The terminals were not connected internally, so we had to leave the airport, catch a bus to the correct terminal and go back through security to make our connection).
As it turns out, Singapore air is a fantastic airline. The service was impeccable, the seats were nice, and they gave us everything we could want from good food down to socks. I am not kidding, they gave us those kinds of socks with the no-slip grip on the bottom. They were purple. It was great. So, the flight was long, but the time was defrayed somewhat by their development of "personal monitors" on board. In front of each person, we had a 6x8 screen and a remote that let us choose from an assortment of games, movies, and music to play, watch, and listen too during the flight. In addition, it had a realtime progress map which showed exactly where the plane was at any given moment over the Earth, so we could look out the window and know what we are looking at.
Finally, we landed in Singapore. Of all the cool cities I have visited (London, Dublin, Rome, Florence...), Singapore has been by far my favorite. The city is immense, but it is clean, high tech, and diverse. The things that make cities fun to visit: international shops and food, street musicians, beautiful buildings, etc. were all prevalent in Singapore. We spend the day (after our flight) touring the city with our new friend, Katie. Pictures will be added soon.
Unfortunately, time cut us too short in Singapore, as we had to get to the airport for our final flight by 5pm. Just before we left, we united with the other new Expat, Chrissie Barham, who had flown East from Africa.
The flight to Jakarta was short, lasting only about 1.5 hrs, which went by fast in contrast to the gruling 12 hr flight to Tokyo. Once landed in Jakarta, we eased through customs and went to meet our contact outside the terminal. The catch: we couldn't find him. We looked all over, tried a few numbers, etc, but were stumped because none of us had remembered to write down his cell phone number. Two hours and four coffees later, he found us. As it turns out, he had been told that our flight was coming into another terminal, and he had been waiting there since before the time we landed. Oy!
The 1.5 hr drive back to Sentul was too dark to see much, so we missed out on the incredible views that night. We made it to our new house around ten thirty local time and were welcomed in by our new maid, Samini. The house seems big to us in contrast to the small apartments we have spent the first year of marriage in. Exhausted as we were, we stayed up only long enough to briefly meet with our maid before retiring to our rooms. There met our new "pet" Alfred the lizard. He lives on our ceiling and eats any mosquitoes that dare enter our domain. We noticed that there were no mosquitoes, which is, of course, because Alfred ate them all. Good ol' Alfred.
Today we woke up early, not quite realizing how early, and got to work inventoring what we would like to do around the house. Samini woke up around seven and was quick to making us a nice breakfast of toast and some delicious local jam. The coffee was really good, too. After that, we spent a good amount of time talking to Samini and trying to learn some Indonesian. She is a very patient and easy teacher, but I am afraid I have a long way to go!
Another teacher, Steve Church and his wife dropped off our new car a little later (pictures pending), and we took it for a spin. With the steering column on the right, the new rules of the road, a new car, and a stick shift, it was a few too many things at the same time, but we survived... barely. A few motorbikers also survived... barely. (Kidding).
So, that brings us to the now. We are over and Steve and Julianna's house, relaxing and writing this blog entry. They are going to take us on a tour of the area and then into Jakarta tonight. Should be great!
It is a good thing that we have 2 weeks before school starts, because there is so much to do!!
And so... the conclusion:
Praises: contacts with the other expats and the beginning of some great friendships with them. The house and maid are both wonderful. The safe travel. The time that we have to get settled in, etc.
Requests: That we might be able to continue to develop positive relationships with others at the school. That we might be able to effectively prepare for the coming months. That we might have the strength to put other people's needs before our own.
Thanks so much for your support of us, we miss you!
Blessings,
Eric and Christine
Thanks for the encouragement you have already provided us with! We are safely installed into our new home in Sentul! What an adventurte we have had already! The last few days have gone by in something of a blur, but I will do my best to remember the key events ;).
So, we left on Saturday morning at 4:30 am local time to Michigan and were taken to the airport by the Challa family. Things got started without a hitch and we were en route to Chicago in no time. In Chicago we were able to meet up with another expat, Katie Bolling, who is going to be a co-English teacher with me. This was quite a blessing as the three of us were able to spend the long layover hours talking and getting to know eachother.
From Chicago, we flew into Los Angelas, arriving sometime in the early afternoon. We had heard reports of possible delays of our flight to Tokyo because of a typhoon/earthquake combo that had hit them that morning. By the time we made it to our gate, however, the situation was under control and the flight was on time. We expected the layover to be long in LA, but because of the layout of the airport, the layover was just enough to make it to our next flight. (The terminals were not connected internally, so we had to leave the airport, catch a bus to the correct terminal and go back through security to make our connection).
As it turns out, Singapore air is a fantastic airline. The service was impeccable, the seats were nice, and they gave us everything we could want from good food down to socks. I am not kidding, they gave us those kinds of socks with the no-slip grip on the bottom. They were purple. It was great. So, the flight was long, but the time was defrayed somewhat by their development of "personal monitors" on board. In front of each person, we had a 6x8 screen and a remote that let us choose from an assortment of games, movies, and music to play, watch, and listen too during the flight. In addition, it had a realtime progress map which showed exactly where the plane was at any given moment over the Earth, so we could look out the window and know what we are looking at.
Finally, we landed in Singapore. Of all the cool cities I have visited (London, Dublin, Rome, Florence...), Singapore has been by far my favorite. The city is immense, but it is clean, high tech, and diverse. The things that make cities fun to visit: international shops and food, street musicians, beautiful buildings, etc. were all prevalent in Singapore. We spend the day (after our flight) touring the city with our new friend, Katie. Pictures will be added soon.
Unfortunately, time cut us too short in Singapore, as we had to get to the airport for our final flight by 5pm. Just before we left, we united with the other new Expat, Chrissie Barham, who had flown East from Africa.
The flight to Jakarta was short, lasting only about 1.5 hrs, which went by fast in contrast to the gruling 12 hr flight to Tokyo. Once landed in Jakarta, we eased through customs and went to meet our contact outside the terminal. The catch: we couldn't find him. We looked all over, tried a few numbers, etc, but were stumped because none of us had remembered to write down his cell phone number. Two hours and four coffees later, he found us. As it turns out, he had been told that our flight was coming into another terminal, and he had been waiting there since before the time we landed. Oy!
The 1.5 hr drive back to Sentul was too dark to see much, so we missed out on the incredible views that night. We made it to our new house around ten thirty local time and were welcomed in by our new maid, Samini. The house seems big to us in contrast to the small apartments we have spent the first year of marriage in. Exhausted as we were, we stayed up only long enough to briefly meet with our maid before retiring to our rooms. There met our new "pet" Alfred the lizard. He lives on our ceiling and eats any mosquitoes that dare enter our domain. We noticed that there were no mosquitoes, which is, of course, because Alfred ate them all. Good ol' Alfred.
Today we woke up early, not quite realizing how early, and got to work inventoring what we would like to do around the house. Samini woke up around seven and was quick to making us a nice breakfast of toast and some delicious local jam. The coffee was really good, too. After that, we spent a good amount of time talking to Samini and trying to learn some Indonesian. She is a very patient and easy teacher, but I am afraid I have a long way to go!
Another teacher, Steve Church and his wife dropped off our new car a little later (pictures pending), and we took it for a spin. With the steering column on the right, the new rules of the road, a new car, and a stick shift, it was a few too many things at the same time, but we survived... barely. A few motorbikers also survived... barely. (Kidding).
So, that brings us to the now. We are over and Steve and Julianna's house, relaxing and writing this blog entry. They are going to take us on a tour of the area and then into Jakarta tonight. Should be great!
It is a good thing that we have 2 weeks before school starts, because there is so much to do!!
And so... the conclusion:
Praises: contacts with the other expats and the beginning of some great friendships with them. The house and maid are both wonderful. The safe travel. The time that we have to get settled in, etc.
Requests: That we might be able to continue to develop positive relationships with others at the school. That we might be able to effectively prepare for the coming months. That we might have the strength to put other people's needs before our own.
Thanks so much for your support of us, we miss you!
Blessings,
Eric and Christine
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