Adventures to Come

Every now and then I remember that I'm moving to Indonesia, and I start to wonder what it will be like. You would think that it would be on my mind a lot, but I don't really turn the page for new things in my life until I actually do them. You can ascribe that to whatever; I'm sticking with "content and present."

Anyhow, when I do start thinking about Indonesia, I usually read some MAF blogs about daily life there. A couple weeks ago I stumbled on one by Sarah, an MAF missionary in Borneo, Indonesia. She kind of reminds me of... well... me, just a couple years ahead. When I read her post about finding a rat in her toilet, I decided that I am not going to go to Indonesia, and that's just all there is to it. Then I read her response (tears, threats to leave the country immediately, and so on), and I thought, "If she is also the kind of person who cries over rodents, and if she is still living there, then maybe I can do it too."

Here's the excerpt from the story on her blog, 12,000 Miles from Familiar.

After a night of minimal sleep due to sinus pressure, a thunderstorm, and frequent trips to the bathroom I got up wearily to shower, get breakfast ready-all the normal morning stuff. While in the shower I heard some strange sounds coming from the toilet, like swishing and glugging water. I didn’t think too much of it because changes in water pressure often cause the toilet to make strange sounds. Chris and I went on with our morning as usual. Chris was in the bathroom brushing his teeth when I suddenly needed to go to the bathroom. He hustled out and I raised toilet seat, but quickly jumped back and screamed.

Sitting in the bowl was a large, wet rat.

The phrase “drowned rat” will forever have new meaning to me.

Chris jumped up, and I screamed “There’s a huge rat in the toilet!” and began crying.

Chris told me to wait on the porch while he went in the bathroom, and a few seconds later I hear,

“There’s no rat in here.”

“There was one, I saw it, it was right there, it has to be there”

“Well, it’s not there now”

I’m thinking, “Okay, so I know it’s been a rough couple of weeks, but am I seriously starting to have hallucinations of rats in toilets?! I mean are you kidding me? And if I’m going to start having hallucinations couldn’t they be of something fun like I don’t know, kittens or bowls of candy or family members I haven’t seen in awhile? “

After about five minutes of Chris sitting next to me on the porch attempting to comfort me and me freaking out, crying and proclaiming that I plan to leave the country today, we went back inside and Chris opened the lid of the toilet again. He let out a yell and I knew our wet, matted rat friend had returned.

I didn’t imagine it. Thank the Lord. I was starting to really worry for a second.

So what do you do with a live rat in your toilet? Neither Chris nor I were interested in trying to grab it or club it to death. In fact, I had fled back to the safety of the porch and Chris was standing with one foot on the closed toilet lid to keep the nasty rodent from getting loose. After making a few phone calls, one of the MAF kids who was excited to catch the rat for his snake came over. Sadly, after multiple attempts and several blows to the head, the rat went back down the toilet and so far has not returned. I am praying said rat went to his watery grave somewhere, or if not, that he went back the way he came and is too traumatized to come back and he will tell all of his friends to stay away too.

In reality I am probably the only one who is traumatized in this situation. I feel like I will never be able to open the toilet again without being petrified that there will be a furry beast inside. That’s not even to speak of actually using the toilet, especially at night.

Really I don’t understand why these things are allowed to happen sometimes.

I’m sure many of you are rolling with laughter, and I don’t blame you, I probably would be too, but beware, when Chris and I later googled “rats in the toilet” stories popped up from all over the world, including many from states all over the U.S. So check your toilets before you sit-you just may have an unwelcome potty partner.

Thin.

Do you ever get to the end of your day, and just feel thin? Not the kind of thin where your pants fit better--but the kind of thin where your head feels wavy and your emotions are a little too close to the surface? I've been feeling thin lately. Part of the problem is that I'm sick. Part of it is that my baby is sick. Part of it is that we have both been sick for most of the winter.

Part of it is that it IS winter.

Part of it, though, is that there's just so much to do. Right now my list includes scheduling immunizations, meeting with a lawyer to put together our paperwork, applying for our residency visa in Indonesia, making a packing list of everything we'll need for four years, buying everything that we'll need for four years in Indonesia, and staying on top of schoolwork. The least stressful thing in our lives right now is actually the main thing we are supposed to be doing: meeting with people and asking them to partner with us. That's easy and exciting. It's all the other stuff that's getting a little wearing. Maybe you feel the same way... that the peripheral things in your life are distracting from the main thing, and it's making you feel a little thin.

As always, God's word is there to give me sustenance and some much needed spiritual calories.

"Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest." Matthew 11:28

"Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, present your requests to God. And the peace of God that transcends all understanding will guard your hearts and minds in Christ." Philippians 4:6-7

"Be still and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations; I will be exalted in all the earth." Psalm 46:10.

We are a part of a much bigger story than today. Yet God cares about this day and our lives, and he offers us rest and peace in the midst of all of it.

{Joy}

World's Worst Missionary Blogger!

During our ministry partnership training at Mission Aviation Fellowship, we had a session on how to effectively blog to keep people connected to our ministry. I thought, "Here's one session I can snooze through... I've been blogging for years." And look at me! It's been months without a post--I'm the world's worst missionary blogger! (Well, actually, Pete would be the worst. I don't think he's ever written a blog post in his life. He was really excited to start a video blog about our MAF experience, but after recording himself for three minutes he realized that he had set up the camera in such a way that cut off the top half of his head. And apparently that was the end of that.)

If I had to pinpoint one reason why we haven't been documenting our exciting journey to Indonesia, it's probably because that journey has been very, very busy. Up until last month, Pete and I were both in school full time while meeting with as many people as we could to invite them to partner with us. Any moment that we have to reflect on the experience has gone into our prayer letters.

I don't think we accounted for how much work school, ministry partnership and parenting was going to be over the past few months. We thought, "We don't have to go anywhere for work, so how busy could we be?" Turns out busier than we've ever been in our lives, with hardly a spare moment to rest. We each were putting in about 20 hours of ministry partnership per week (phone calls, emails, meetings, paperwork...), plus 35 hours of schoolwork, while simultaneously trying to keep Anders alive... which proved very challenging during the "this open safety pin I found on the floor looks really tasty!" phase around nine months.

While sometimes I get the sense that people are bragging about their productivity when they talk about being busy, we do not pride ourselves on being really busy. To me, "really busy" is an embarrassing symptom of not being able to order my life in a balanced manner. And Pete doesn't have any illusions about the amount of downtime that he needs in order to be productive in work. He needs a lot, and he didn't get it. But God carried us through our embarrassing predicament. We often reflected that our life consisted of several buckets, and we felt like we were only dropping teeny tiny drops into each bucket every day. But by the grace of God, all of our buckets were and are brimming. We each got good grades in our classes. Our funding is on track. Our marriage is healthy. Our baby didn't actually swallow any of the curious amounts of open safety pins that he found on our floors. It always seems impossible until it's done, right?

We're far from "done" but it doesn't feel impossible anymore. We're about 40% of the way toward being fully funded, which means that we're on track but still have a lot ahead. We also have one more semester of school before we walk the graduation stage together in May. But our schedules are not nearly as busy as they were, and we can feel ourselves starting to breathe. I only have one class this semester (a far cry from the five I was juggling last). I'm two weeks in and hardly feel like I'm in school at all! This means that I can support Pete as he plows full steam ahead in school and ministry, just like he supported me during my difficult load last semester.

Now that I have time to be still, to snuggle with my baby instead of simply warding off choking hazards, and to spend time with the Lord without having to put "pray" on my overloaded to-do list, a few things have started to settle in. Like, we're moving to Indonesia in early November. That's, umm, huge. In all the busyness getting there, sometimes I forget that we're actually going there. It really is an incredible journey, and I'm thankful that I have the time to reflect on it more.

{Joy}

Home Sweet Homes

I love Grand Rapids. I really do. Chicago is swell and all (and by swell I mean "the best city on earth"), but Grand Rapids is just so manageable. Also it is home to so many great friends and the memories of our entire married life minus a couple vacations and the last two months.We're here for four days on the Ministry Partnership trail and had such an encouraging first day. This morning we visited some friends who (while we were living here) I always wished we had gotten to know better. They just seem like the kind of people you'd like to have in your life, you know? I remembered that they have such outward-focused hearts and a desire to be involved in missions, so I asked if we could share about MAF and where we're going to be serving. It's so uplifting to be around people with such a passion for God and a desire to serve Him, and I'm happy that God saw it fit to join them with us in ministry.

Tonight Pete had another great meeting while I dined outdoors with a couple dear friends. One of those friends then took Anders for the evening and sent Pete and I out on a late date. Here's what a mean about Grand Rapids being so manageable: we drove from a suburb to the center of G.R., got a plate of fries at Hopcat and drove back--all in the same hour. You just can't do that if you live outside of Chicago, which is still the best city on earth even though we sat on 90 for two hours yesterday. (Cubs game + Katy Perry Concert + Accident = I-Hope-You-Like-Staring-At-That-Beautiful-Skyline-from-the-Highway.)

I hope this evening finds you safe, healthy and happy in whatever city or town you call home.

{Joy}

Wrap-Up of Training in Nampa, and Looking Ahead

If you're ever planning to visit Idaho, there are three things you should know. First, people always seem to go missing. If you turn on the local news, chances are they will be reporting on someone who went hiking and hasn't shown up to work in a week. Which brings me to the second thing you should know, which is that it doesn't seem like a good place to hike. The third thing you should know is that it's important to mute the commercials, because there is this one really annoying commercial promoting the Idaho State lottery, and you will not be able to get the tune out of your head. You will not.

We have now spent a total of seven weeks in Nampa, Idaho (two weeks in April and five this past July and August). Judging by my familiarity with the local programming, you may have guessed that we didn't get out very much. Our apartment was across the parking lot from the MAF headquarters, and our next door neighbors were a bunch of super cool families who are doing exactly the same thing we're doing. If living two feet away from your new best friends is your kind of thing, and a two minute stroll to work is your kind of commute, you should become a pilot and join MAF! (Of course, moving to the other side of the world has to be up your alley, too.)

Here's a little look at our life in Nampa:

(HQ from the apartment complex)

(At one of our weekly bbqs)

(Some of the gang, waiting to hear our regional assignments)

(Anders with his new pal)

(After a chapel session where we each practiced presenting MAF)

It wasn't fun saying goodbye to these new friends, but it was exciting to know that our paths would cross again for future training. And who knows if some may become our neighbors in Indonesia!

Now that we're back in Crystal Lake we're in the full swing of our Ministry Partnership season, which will entail some travel and a lot of phone calls, as well as our favorite thing: spending time with people. Before I understood Ministry Partnership I was dreading it. But now that I have a better understanding of it, I'm pumped. I'm excited to get to Indonesia, but by no means would I wish this season away to get there faster. Partnerships is where it's all happenin'.

Big picture: here's what our timeline might look like over the next couple of years:

September 2011 - July 2012 Ministry Partnership, including a November trip to Texas and a February trip to Denver

July 2012 - August 2012 Safety standardization and cultural orientation in Nampa

Late fall 2012 Depart for language school in Indonesia. Language school is ten months long, after which we--at last!--go to our assigned region within Indonesia.

May God bless YOU in whatever task and mission he has set before you at this time. And remember, don't go hiking in Idaho!

{Joy}

Indonesia or Bust!

This is the fourth time in the last two weeks that I've tried to compose a blog post about our assignment to Indonesia. After several scrapped entries, I've decided that while we would love to explain the story to you in person... maybe a blog isn't always the best outlet for processing certain things. {I hear you saying, "Yeah, we wish you would have come to that realization before you blogged about your son's blowout diaper."}

Since you may have caught drift of the situation from our Facebook updates and may be wondering how Indonesia fits into the picture, here's the scoop in brief: Indonesia was not the country we were originally assigned. While we signed the paperwork to become official MAFers, we took a week to consider the assignment we were given. After a week of conversations, meetings and prayer, we were then asked to serve in Indonesia. And we are thrilled.

I hate generalities and indirect stories as much as you do, but suffice it to say that the whole process was incredibly beneficial to us, endeared us all the more to our leadership, and made us all the more confident that we're exactly where we're supposed to be. It also uncovered this incredible passion for Indonesia that we hadn't quite realized was there. Over the years we've felt a gentle guidance toward Indonesia but held it with a very loose grip, knowing it was only one of the options. Now we can not WAIT to get there. INDONESIA OR BUST!

Here's a couple things about Indonesia to inspire you to start saving your money to come visit us! Or to join our support team! Or both! But remember you can't visit us unless we get there! What was I saying? Oh, right. Facts.

- Indonesia is made up of about 13,000 islands or about 16,000 islands, depending on who's counting, and depending on what the volcanoes did that month.

- Indonesia is the fourth most populous nation in the world.

- 4% of Indonesians profess faith in Christ.

And here are some of the exciting things that MAF is doing in Indonesia:

- In Papua, MAF reaches more than 250 ethnic groups by supporting church and mission efforts, providing medical assistance, community development, education, crisis relief and training and leadership development of Papuans.

- In Kalimantan, MAF provides vital aviation and radio communication services to Indonesian churches, Christian mission, and non-governmental organizations, and provides a great deal of medical transportation.

{It'll be a while before we find out whether we'll be in Papua or Kalimantan.}

Oh, and if you still weren't sure whether you'd want to visit, let me just leave you with this.

Future Frequent Flier

Anders first flight was... okay. He wasn't the superstar I was hoping he would be, but he wasn't a nightmare. The flight was completely full, so there wasn't any extra space, and the seatbelt signal was on for three out of the four hours so we couldn't stand with him. But all in all, it could have been worse. Our connection from Las Vegas to Boise though was only one hour, half full, and Anders slept the entire time. It was a much appreciated respite.

{Don't tell Pete I mentioned this, but he bonked Anders' head on the ceiling, and everyone in the rows behind us said a collective, "Ohhh...."}

We used to think we wanted four kids, but with the amount of flying we'll be doing over the next decade, I just don't see how that's feasible.