Janna's Parents have arrived....

Mertua saya tiba ke Indonesia bulan Jan 19. My inlaws have arrived in Indonesia jan 19th and have been settling in here nicely. It was great to see them again and the kids are having a great time. Of course us getting them from the airport could not be without adventure. The Jakarta airport is not that well labeled and so we ended up waiting at the wrong gate for them for about an hour while they were waiting for us for the hour at another gate. Jalen and Kaya were so patient as they waited and waited and waited. It felt like they would never come.

Mom and dad brought us a bunch of Canadian candy which was great to see. I was pumped. They also brought gifts and other things from Canada, thankyou to all of you who sent them something to bring us. We are very grateful for great supporters and friends. Thanks!

We continue to need prayer for relationships and adjusting to a different culture. We are realizing that fitting in to a new culture is more difficult than we expected this time. We are trying to be flexible with everything but at times are struggling thank you for your prayers.

God continues to be faithful. Language school is going well, Janna is in unit 6 and I am in unit 5. Last Monday at chapel I shared a sermon in Indonesian. So we are seeing some of the progress. Janna continues to be great at the language and leaves me in the dust. However I do not need to rely on her for everything now. In Papua if we ever needed someone to speak Indonesian it was always Janna. It is now to the point where it is equal and I really like that.

Thankyou so much for all you do. We need the support team in Canada to keep praying. Thinking of you all.

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year....

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to everyone who reads this blog site!! We continue to be blessed by God's provisions. We have just moved into a new house here in Bandung and it is better suited to our family. Jalen and Kaya each have their own room and there is a room that we can use for our families who are coming in the new year.

This break we went to the south west coast of Java for the holidays. One of my friends and I rode motorcycles and Janna and the kids went in a car. We had a great week as the kids explored the ocean for the first time, learned how to dive in the pool with there goggles, and watched the fireworks that we set off. All in all a great time and there should be some pictures on our website soon. We hope that all of you also had a great time this season and we also hope that you spent some quality time with your families. We have been missing ours this break and are really looking forward to them visiting us.

God has been faithful to us in once again teaching us how to live as a family overseas. There are certain stresses that happen that Satan uses to break up what God wants in our lives. We are learning how to be better enemies of Satan. May we all be Satan's worst enemies.

Have a great holiday!!

Christmas......

Its Christmas time and the programs have begun, last night was our language school program. The kids sang "We wish you a Merry Christmas" in English and Indonesian. They were pretty cute! After that party we had our family Christmas and it was alot of fun. We are heading to the beach for Christmas in a couple of days and then we are moving.

The beach will be a great time and hopefully we will be busy enough to forget that we are not with our family over Christmas. The kids are looking forward to it and it should be fun. Hopefully I can be surfing on Christmas day.

Other things are going okay, there is still lots of culture shock for the kids as they find it difficult when people talk to them in a different language. We also are adjusting to the differences here compared to Papua. We really thought that we would not have as many problems with the culture as we have had. We continue to rely on God for everything. Praise the Lord.

December NO SNOW......

December and NO SNOW!! Incredible to be experiencing this once again. Talking to people at home and reading emails it sounds as though Canada is having quite the weather this year. Although it is hard to believe a part of us misses the snow because we miss family and the great things that the kids can do in the snow.

We are currently in the middle of rainy season here and have a huge rain everyday. It is something to get stuck in a tropical downpour on a motorbike. There have been a couple of times already that we are shopping and we have to wait for long periods of time before we get back on the motorbike. During this Christmas season we are missing home and hope that everyone back home is doing well. The holiday seasons are always the most difficult, so everyone who is interested can watch some NFL football for me over the holidays.

Jalen had his Christmas program and man was in cute. Nothing like having a child in Kindergarten and watching him perform in the Christmas play. Janna and I enjoyed it alot. Jalen sang two songs and it was neat to see him singing, getting poked in the back by his friend, fooling around way too much. Kaya also goes to school three times a week and has been adjusting to this. She is going to an Indonesian playschool and sometimes does not understand and gets frustrated. The teachers also speak english and so they will speak english to her when she does not understand.

Our Christmas plans are to go to the beach with all the other MAF families. We have rented some 4 bedroom houses right beside the beach. So hopefully that will get us not thinking about home as much. Then we get back after a week there and move all our stuff to a new house. The house here is experiencing some electrical difficulties and so we will be moving into another house. We are looking forward to it although it is going to be more work. After Christmas we are going to be busy with company and continuing school. After Christmas Janna will be in Unit 7 of 9 and I will be starting 6 of 9. We are looking forward to the holidays.

Have a great Christmas season.