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.

Burka or Cargo Shorts?

This Tuesday Pete and I are getting our regional assignment with MAF. Exciting, right? Or let me put it this way: In less than a week, a group of people whose name tags we still have to reference are going to sit in a room and decide which continent we'll be raising our children on.

Pete and I both left the candidate committee today feeling excited and... tense. We left everything on the board room table: we told them the skills we think we'll be adding to the team, we confessed our desires {please no single-family base out in the middle of nowhere}, and we even told them exactly where we think we would be most effective in ministry. But then we told them we are open and willing, which we are, and we left it in their hands.

For the past three days we've been listening to regional directors describe their programs and the things that God is around the world. After each presentation Pete and I say to each other, "Let's go there!" I think we came expecting God to hit us over the head with a particular power point presentation, but He hasn't. We're just as open {lacking direction?} as we were when we came.

I explained how I'm feeling to the board by describing the week before our ultrasound. I knew we were having a baby and I knew we were going to love that baby. But we were dying for some kind of information about that baby we already loved--some sort of guiding clue to the experience ahead of us. I told them, "I know we're going to love whatever country and people we're sent to. But I just want to know whether to buy pink or blue. Burkas or Cargo shorts. The suspense is killing me."

For now we're just thinking and praying and listening, in case God decides to impart something that we should add to the discussion. We're also watching a lot of reality television to relieve the tension.

{Joy}