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Saturday, November 28th, 2009

Dear friends,

We trust you all have had a wonderful Thanksgiving taking time out to be with family thanking God for all He has done  and continues to do for us!

Thank you so much for your prayers and financial support of our ministry; we are all in this work together! Your prayers were answered in several regards. Anna and the kids all did well in my absence, keeping up with homework and life. Anna did lots of walking with friends, running the kids to and fro, and keeping the house. Katie did well her first month of driving to work and school alone. Please continue to pray for her to get more work hours and for future direction for her life.

Visa Trip to Indonesia

Praise the Lord I was able to get my 5-year visa for Indonesia. I arrived in Central Java on a Saturday, met up with several friends including my bicycling buddy to check on the status of his bicycle. Then on Sunday morning around 3 a.m. I took a taxi to the airport and flew to a different province of Indonesia for reporting in. I spent several days there in offices and visiting friends, got my visa, and then headed back to central Java. I spent the next couple of days visiting Indonesian friends and working on bicycle trip preparations with my Javanese friend. Rather than make this long flight only to get my visa and then return home, I had decided ahead of time to plan a bicycle trip from central Java to Bali. I had originally wanted to bicycle all the way across Java, but time was too short!

The Long Bicycle Trek

Enjoying "kelapa muda" of young coconut drink, a natural electrolytic drink.

Enjoying "kelapa muda" of young coconut drink, a natural electrolytic drink.

My friend and I traveled 630 km in just 3 days starting long before sunrise each day, resting in the middle of the days because of intense heat, and then bicycling into the evenings when it was cooler. My Javanese friend is of the other religion and we had some great conversations and bonded closer. We slept at gas stations along the way and one night just off the road in a teak wood forest at a ranger’s cabin. We enjoyed the ferry crossing to Bali and one day in Bali to rest up, swim, and arrange transport back to central Java. We ended up bartering for bus tickets for the bikes and us. The bus ride back was almost more fatiguing than the bike ride itself! The day after I got back to central Java, I headed home stopping one day in Singapore.

Thanks for Your Sacrifices in Giving

A local East Javanese fisherman.

A local East Javanese fisherman.

Again, we appreciate each one of you who are praying and giving financially even in these difficult economic times. We have already lost 3 churches and 5 individual supporters in the past 8 months because of economic difficulties. Coupled with this, we are also encountering more expenses now living in the U.S. Please pray with us as we seek the Lord to increase our monthly support and learn what the Lord wants us to do in this regard. These days make us appreciate all of you even more and the sacrifices you make in order to give to the ministry!

Praises of Thanksgiving:

  • For each one of you, our supporters who make sacrifices daily to give towards ministry.
  • God watching over Anna and the kids in the States in my absence.
  • A safe trip and bicycle ride for John.
  • John obtaining his five-year visa.
  • Katie driving now for over a month and doing well with that big responsibility. Grace too is learning to drive and she’s getting lots of opportunities to practice with Katie.
  • The kids making friends in the area, especially Paula and Kurt, but slowly Grace and Katie too.
  • For the house God provided for us.

Prayer Requests:

  • For us to use our time wisely during our home assignment, for reconnecting with supporters, opportunities to expand our partnership with others, and for future direction these next couple of years.
  • For our monthly support to increase even in this depressed economy and that we would be able to meet monthly expenses and pay off debt.
  • For my relationship with Anna and our relationship with our children, but especially our relationship with the Lord.
  • For our coworkers in Indonesia who labor there, especially our orientation team on Java.
  • For all the kids to continue to adjust and make good friends and to walk with the Lord.
  • For more work hours for Kaitlyn, for good friends for her, and for direction for her future.
  • Please pray for John and Grace as they too look for part-time employment.

Thanks again for all you do,

In this together,

John, Anna Marie, Kaitlyn, Grace, Paula and Kurt

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…Survived the Season of Sickness…

Monday, January 12th, 2009

Sheep near the bungalows where we stayed...

Well, we made it through the “Sick Season” which happened to coincide with Christmas and New Years! Thanks for praying for us as we jumped from Grace’s motorcycle accident and subsequent concussion, to Anna’s Dengue Fever, to John’s Strep Throat all during the busy holiday season!

We still managed to enjoy “stretches” of the Holidays including a “get-away” to Jakarta for 2 days by train (actually relaxing), a Christmas morning breakfast of eggs and strawberry waffles, Mom and the kids... enjoying a couple Christmas packages from home and the presents and pictures inside, and a trip to the beach with friends and playing board games in the evenings.

Please go to our Photo’s page on this website under "Christmas 08" to see more Christmas pics of the family.

To see pictures of our trip to the beach on New Year’s Day, please go to our Photo’s page "For New Year’s 09 to the Beach!"  Anna along with three of our kids left with our friends on New Year’s Eve afternoon and I waited to leave until New Year’s Day because Paula wanted to go to a friend’s New Year’s Eve party, but then Paula decided to stay back home with her pets and friends. Dad and Kurt along the bluff trail... Yes, it was a lonely motorbike ride there, but therapeutic as I always say.

During the Holidays, we continued to welcome and orientate our 6 new missionaries to the field. John also continued to take them on language and culture excursions such as trips to the Post Office, bus station, hospital, auto and motorbike mechanics shops, the market, a seamstress/tailor shop, how to entertain guests and be received as a guest, how to wash clothes, cooking fried rice and a trip to the rice fields. To see more pictures of our excursion to the rice fields, go to our Photo’s page to the folder "Excursion to the Rice Fields." Working the oxen across the terraces...

I am still looking forward to some of my favorite excursions to the coffee plantations and rubber tree plantations! Those are in the next couple of weeks!

Please continue to pray with us concerning our family, especially our two oldest daughters as we look at the best options for their futures. They are having a difficult time over here now and really could use your prayers. We too could use your prayers as we seek the Lord for His wisdom in this and that Anna and I would draw close and be “on the same page,” that is, in God’s will in this. We’ve made some mistakes as earthly parents and over-prioritized ministry over the well-being of our children and really need to draw back and look to the Lord for guidance.

Thanks again for your faithful support of our ministry and for your faithful prayers and interest in what’s happening over here in Indonesia. Please pray too for our safety and well-being as most of the world does not look to kindly on Americans these days, especially with the current conflict in the Middle East.

Looking for our Lord’s soon return,

In this together,

John for Anna Marie, Katie, Grace, Paula and Kurt

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Pray For Our Daughter Grace After Motorbike Accident

Sunday, November 30th, 2008

Dear Friends,

Please be praying for our second daughter Grace as she recovers from a concussion after a motorbike accident. She was driving the motorbike last night with her older sister Katie on the back. They had left the house wearing helmets, but then took them off while riding on backroads. Born to be wild...They were making a 90-degree turn and hit loose gravel on the pavement and the bike slid out from under them. Katie was not hurt, but Grace was knocked unconscious for a few minutes. Their Indonesian friends rushed them to a local hospital wear the doctors just bandaged her up. When they got home Grace was still bleeding from her head wound and had injured her shoulder and foot which was bloodied too.

Grace kept asking the same questions over and over again like, "Is all my hair gone?" and she was experiencing short-term memory loss. Our other daughter Paula was having a sleepover and Kurt was already in bed so I stayed with the younger kids while Anna drove Katie and Grace an hour away to a bigger city and bigger hospital. The roads were clear and Anna made it in a half-hour! They immediately got Grace into emergency and stitched her head wound and then did a cat-scan. They did not find blood on the brain and after spending the night at the hospital they returned this afternoon.

We celebrated Thanksgiving Day late here on Sunday with some friends and enjoyed turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, rolls, casserole, and pies the girls had made. The girls started a pie business a couple weeks ago so have been busy baking and selling pies! They made my favorites pumpkin and pecan pie yesterday before the accident in anticipation of our late Thanksgiving. We can’t get pecans here but had received them in a care package! The turkey we ordered in advance!

Please keep praying for Grace as she recovers and still experiences some nausea and short-term memory loss; it seems to be getting better though. Please pray for a full-recovery.

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