Food exchanges, monstrous leaves, and ... is it Christmas week already?

Saturday, December 18, 2021

Kasih Community School has a bazaar fundraiser. As the crow flies, it's 1.7 miles. In actual fact, it's 6.something. We have to drive round and round here.

We drop off some goodies for sale and pick up this two-piece paint-on-wood for DrH. The artist is a young teen and does beautiful work.

Sunday

It's our last onsite BIC Gathering of 2021. We had 4 Sundays together. It's Lessons & Carols, one of my favorite services of the year, where readers read the scripture story and everyone sings 11 carols between.

How we have missed each other. It's been a joy to see everyone on the four Sundays of Advent.

Afterward, Kita Designs offers beautiful batik items, handmade by local women with little other income. Many stop by to pick up last-minute gifts for others and themselves.

Monday

Today is deconstruction day. Last year we didn't meet in person. But after Christmas the year before, volunteers took everything down and tossed the lights, trees, and ornaments into a few boxes - mine and other items. It was a mess to untangle this year.

I walk into the hall mid-morning while I still have high creative energy. I take down everything I can reach, putting our items to one side. PakG brings them home in the car after lunch. The BIC items will be stored in their usual place ... until next year.

Before I take things apart, I pause to enjoy the hard work of the volunteers. They decorated the small trees that people took selfies beside ...

and placed the boxes gift-wrapped a few years ago.

Lanterns glow between garlands. Young volunteers threaded the gold lamé through the branches.

Our friend Eki put together several tangles of cones that graced the corners of the hanging garlands. It made me smile every time I walked by and thought of him.

There were a few selfie areas for families and friends, plus Christmas vignettes for our eyes to explore when our ears wearied of listening.

We took down the office furniture so when we had meetings in the office, we pulled chairs and stools from wherever we could find them. It's nice to have the rattan set back. Tanya's American quilt hangs on the back of that sofa - she left it in a box of goodies passed down to us when she left Indonesia years ago.

A few weeks ago, W and I went downtown. We brought home aquarium plants and snails to refresh the fishtanks. Apparently the striped gastropods go cruising. I've found snails outside the aquariums several times. (The striped ones are fast travelers. The dotted ones stay in the tank.)

Today two stripers have made a run for it outside the BIC office. Luckily I find them before the sun comes over the balcony: they're 2' from the office wall and 4' from the door - inside and outside. I pop them back into the tank after their 10' stroll. One moves around, while the other is in the same place after a day. I'll watch him to see he's survived. Rotting snail can be a disaster for a small tank.

It's prettiest when the fogger is on, blurring the lines between surface and underwater. Lots of plants mean fishes can thrive.

I putter in the afternoon, setting our little trees out on the porch. The paper star is a new craft for me, made of batik-patterned bags.

I learn random things while experimenting. One realization is that local school glue doesn't bond things tightly. I re-glue the star's seams with costly Elmer's Glue ($2 for a medium squeeze bottle, compared to 80c for local paste.)

 

I tuck dried dill flowers here and there until they're used up. Their fragrance is musty and soft.

The garlands and wreaths brought home from BIC find their places on the porch.

This is Christmas in the tropics. Imagine the warmth and being able to sit and look at the garden in December while the twinkle lights glow.

Tuesday

It's a morning of online meetings and crushing through a backlog of emails and blogs. Does one ever catch up? I absorb some leader podcasts at double-speed, read a book summary, and track other info. It makes a small dent in the digital pile.

What a mess on my desk. I clear away enough to sketch a handful of ideas for a friend's living room layout. New sofa and loveseat plus tree. How to fit it in? I send several options.

What did we do before dot-grid paper? It's useful for doodles that need measurements. After, I begin to clear the desk again.

Pauline and Josie arrive for lunch before noon. They're teachers with fluent English skills and our scripture readers for the coming Sunday, (You can read parts of the Christmas story below.)

These two are always a lot of fun. We look forward to their visits. They bring along local food treats and a poinsettia that we can plant it in the garden after Christmas: it grows into a tall shrub here.

They're also patient. The lunch fish and fresh vegetables aren't delivered until almost noon, so W orders roasted beef from down the street in case the rest doesn't show up. One of the helpers has baked pretzel buns that are still warm, so we start with a beef brisket sandwich.

The helper scrambles to cook once the food arrives. The rice is ready in advance, of course. And her curried fish is a hit. So are JD's Famous Brownies, freshly baked this morning.

Josie's mom is also a great cook. We pick lemons, dill, and papaya flowers from the garden for her before our friends leave.

Tuesday, everyone's working at the house, so today we give helper bonuses and pre-holiday gifts. Christians get an added month's salary at Christmas, mandated by government. Muslim employees expect an extra month's salary before Ramadan. We don't mind giving them a little Christmas blessing as well. The generosity of God in Jesus Christ overflows in many ways through his people, not just through us at this time of year.

Wednesday

We record the upcoming Sunday's talk before a morning breakfast date. About 8:00, we walk over to #PinoTerrace (#NaraPark) for noodles and dim sum. We're usually there earlier but today we're in luck: after 8:00, #Maystar, a Chinese restaurant downtown, delivers fresh dim sum. Yum.

A tall wire Christmas tree sparkles across the courtyard from our table. There's little recognition of Christmas in this country, where the majority culture is Islam. We hardly ever see ornaments or Christmas decor. It's cheering to find this tree in a public space. Again, the servers are attentive and quick - and the food is hot and delicious.

We walk to the office on the way home and spot hot-pink flowers in the GG yard.

"There's so much beauty that it's easy to overlook the details," W and I agree. This would be a show-stopper in Seattle. Here, it's casually propped on a stump behind another flowering bush. I go around to snap a photo.

The maintenance crew is hard at work, including a man who protects his eyes and face with a motorcycle helmet while weed-wacking the lawn.

It's good to have the house company-ready: people drop by for meals and tea all month.

It's a reflective as well as social season. We often pause to pray for those in the photos wedged into our tree from this and past years.

The lights glow. For me, this has been the most special Advent. I've immersed myself in memories, music, scripture, poetry, and handwork. Every one of those feeds my starving soul at the end of a difficult covid year, when so many have suffered losses and hardships.

Food is a common gift exchange with friends. Farah sends salted hardboiled eggs with various flavors. Aren't they beautiful in the box? (It's a shame to take them out to eat!)

Dr Sioe sends over their family's traditional Christmas dinner: a deboned chicken with all the fixings. It goes into the freezer for Christmas Day. I can't wait to share the feast with friends, though Sam's also smoking ribs for that meal.

DrW sends over the sweetest oranges "for added Vitamin C."

I spot a giant leaf from the lunch table. I stand on a wall 2' above the garden, pulling the thick stalk toward me. Behind the leaf is one even bigger. I'm content with clutching this monster while W takes a picture through the branches of the nearby avocado tree.

During rainy season, the living wall between us and our neighbor is lush with staghorn ferns, birdsnest ferns, creepers, and orchids. The tree to the right is a Benjamina ficus that languished in a pot until it went into the garden. The soil is fertile; sun and rain are plentiful so everything thrives. The ficus is now 20' (6.5 meters) tall.

A few weeks ago, I spotted a plant skeleton in a pots at the back of the flowerbed. I have no idea what it is; the plant is a goner. The 3-4' branches snap off easily. IbuS uses gold motorcycle spray-paint but runs out before they are completely covered. I flip them over and spray them with copper paint. (The metallic newspaper dropcloth crumples up nicely as a base for the porch Christmas tree.)

PakG pics up powdered cement and sifted mud (the sand for mortar). He mixes up a batch, smooths a thick plastic bag into the 24" planter, and dumps in the cement. We shake and poke it to get out some of the air bubbles. I know it's going to be rough: the sand had so much texture. There's no way we got all the air out! He uses the leftover cement to repair cracks in the driveway.

After the concrete settles for an hour, we poke painted branches into it. On one side, the branches are gold. On the other side, they're copper (below). 

"Shall we spray the branches with clear lacquer to keep them from rotting?" suggest PakG, who has done the bulk of the work. Good idea. We'll also peel off the plastic in a day or two, after we pry out the concrete base.

Can't wait to see what we'll use it for.

Read more: (the story of Christmas below)

*Who is the King of glory? The Lord, strong and mighty, the Lord, mighty in battle. Psalm 24:3

*In the sixth month of Elizabeth’s pregnancy, God sent the angel Gabriel to Nazareth, a town in Galilee, to a virgin pledged to be married to a man named Joseph, a descendant of David. The virgin’s name was Mary. The angel went to her and said, “Greetings, you who are highly favored! The Lord is with you.”Mary was greatly troubled at his words and wondered what kind of greeting this might be.

But the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary; you have found favor with God. You will conceive and give birth to a son, and you are to call him Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over Jacob’s descendants forever; his kingdom will never end.” Luke 1:26-33

*This is how the birth of Jesus the Messiah came about: His mother Mary was pledged to be married to Joseph, but before they came together, she was found to be pregnant through the Holy Spirit. Because Joseph her husband was faithful to the law, and yet did not want to expose her to public disgrace, he had in mind to divorce her quietly.

But after he had considered this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, “Joseph son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife, because what is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins.” Matthew 1:18-21

*When [King Herod] had called together all the people’s chief priests and teachers of the law, he asked them where the Messiah was to be born.

“In Bethlehem in Judea,” they replied, “for this is what the prophet has written: “‘But you, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah, are by no means least among the rulers of Judah; for out of you will come a ruler who will shepherd my people Israel.’” Matthew 2:4-6

*The crowds that went ahead of [Jesus] and that followed were shouting, “Hosanna to the Son of David! Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord! Hosanna in the highest heaven! Matthew 21:9

Moravian Prayer: Holy God, we await your coming with hope and anticipation. Help us prepare our hearts once again to receive you in love, delight, and faithfulness. Amen.