Goodbye, new visitors and prep for the week? Check.

Saturday

It's mild and sunny in the morning. I finish a 3' (1 meter) flower arrangement for the hall when we get back from our walk.

W starts to walk Anton today. We not only have to train our smart and willful creatures but the humans who interact with them. 

"Oh, he sits when I say sit!" exclaims Melvi, who plays fetch with Anton when she's outside. It's true: he's starting to obey.

I keep working my way through the book survey, on #80 of +270 responses. Reading comments from expats and global workers brings their challenges to life.

Sunday

After a walk, I change from my damp clothes - it's been hotter in the mornings, a sign that dry season may be coming. Then we're at the hall for a talk on God's care for us. The worship team snaps a photo after they serve.

Feibe is celebrated on her final Sunday. We pray for her and go out for lunch as a team. Her grad school will not permit monetary compensation or gifts so Hanny and Alice purchase a beautiful batik blazer for a thank you.

Back home, we let Anton out of his crate. For the most part, the creatures get along very well. They lie as close to me as they can when I work on the Porch.

Anton and I finish our 5 miles for the day (10-11,000 steps) and come home to play fetch and wear him out. Good boy! He is persistent: when I toss a ball, he will keep looking over the whole property until he finds it. Then he brings it right to me. If he doesn't return it, the game is over and the ball is put away.

Today starts is a new round of recruiting volunteers for an English program. Kristi started it a few years ago, and it's transforming the future for village kids and their moms. The wisdom of getting older is knowing what does and doesn't belong on your plate. I don't serve there directly but I help in other ways.

Monday

We walk and then we work. There's a tall pile backing up: syllabus, editing, prep for a seminar, etc. It is another red letter day so only one helper is here. We give her lunch money as she starts baking banana bread and head out the door. There's a new pasta restaurant at the end of our street ($10 for both of us).

It's easier to eat out than filling the kitchen with cooking and dirty dishes as baking trays go in and out of the ovens. Tomorrow the helpers will make cookies - the last batches disappeared quickly.

Back to coursework. There's SO much new information on academic writing. My job is to decide how much students need to know. Do I gather links and let them do further research if they need it? How good is their English. Updating a course in a few weeks is a full-time job but I don't have the hours. Lord have mercy.

Bryanna arrives in late afternoon and will stay a couple of nights. She's in Indonesia for 2 more months before she heads back for veterinarian school. After work, Melvi also joins us for a light supper - she and B know some of the same people so they have lots to talk about.

Tuesday

We take B for breakfast at #NaraPark. The day flies by: she'd like to duo some outlet shopping (B finds her clothes) and buy snacks. It's mandatory to bring back snacks for your team when you travel!

This bush is so jazzy! at the first outlet store.

PakG takes B a few more places after lunch, while IbuA and IbuS finish baking and cleanup for movie night tomorrow. The house smells of banana bread and cookies.

After checking that his tech is working for tomorrow's movie night, W heads into Jakarta to pick up guests. It can be confusing to land in a country with little English signage and few English speakers. He sleeps overnight in a capsule hotel at the airport. He'll meet them after they land in the morning and bring them home on the shuttle.

I continue movie night prep and edits. I'm working my way through the book chapter by chapter. My head gets foggy after a while, simplifying language and making sure of the format. This book is a compilation of academic presentations, papers, and other research so my task is to hand it back as a homogeneous work. It would be harder if the author weren't such a good writer. (It's still a lot of work.) 

There's time to chat with Bryanna in the evening. My head is full of the week ahead. 

Read more:

*As the deer pants for streams of water, so my soul pants for you, my God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When can I go and meet with God? My tears have been my food day and night, while people say to me all day long, “Where is your God?”

These things I remember as I pour out my soul: how I used to go to the house of God under the protection of the Mighty One with shouts of joy and praise among the festive throng.

Why, my soul, are you downcast? Why so disturbed within me? Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise him, my Savior and my God. Psalm 42:1-5

*Yet your people say, “The way of the Lord is not just,” when it is their own way that is not just. Ezekiel 33:17

*Is there injustice on God’s part? By no means! Romans 9:14

Moravian Prayer: O God, nurture in us the growth that comes from the study of your word and way. May we see the examples of the people of the Bible and learn from them. Increase our hunger for your presence. In your name, we pray. Amen.