Family is best!

Sunday, October 26, 2025

Our favorite day of the week. Today we're talking about shepherds who lead the flock (1 Peter 5:1-4). Scripture compares us to sheep who wander. "All we like sheep have gone astray" (Rom 3:23) - and yet Jesus says he is the one Good Shepherd (John 10) of the people of God.

It's Round Table Sunday, which means discussion around the table. Today the questions are: "What is required of a good shepherd?" and "What is required of good sheep?" We enjoy the lively interaction. After, we have a board meeting before heading home. W orders in burgers for lunch so we can rest.

Titik has created another stunning bouquet, which provides fragrance for the whole house as evening approaches.

In late afternoon, Melvi says she can't find the two big dogs: Juno and Anton. There are two houses behind a gate; at the other house, there's constant coming and going of young people editing videos, playing loud music, and producing films. Once again, someone from the neighbor's place leaves the gate unlocked as they exit.

OR, did Anton just figure out how to unlock the gate? It's possible. The CCTV shows Anton on his hind legs to peer out close to the lock ... before the dogs nudge open the gate and run out = 2 hours before we discover they are missing.

Even as I whistle for them, two men holding the dogs' collars return them from blocks away. Everyone sees us walking the critters and knows who they belong to. But Muslims are mostly afraid of dogs. To have someone willing and able to bring them back to us is a miracle. Thank God! W tips the guys generously.

Monday

The sun is up before 5:30 AM. When you rise before 5AM, you can get a lot done by noon. W leads a study and clears space in the room our daughter will stay.

Walk, meetings, grading, and writing a newsletter fill my morning. Each weekday, I must plan lunch according to how many people are on site. A helper cooks but it's so different from spontaneously cooking according to appetite. Food options are becoming more limited as we clear fridge and freezer in preparation for moving the appliances.

Writing the newsletter? Easy. Formatting it into new technology? Frustrating for me, a non-intuitive user who struggles with data instructions or locating hidden-to-me tabs online. We're reluctantly paying the least expensive mailer to send newsletters. This site doubles the clicks to upload photos and text, but the last one suddenly required an annual fee of +$400. Nope. For a tech-dummy like me, a new system is exhausting until I get the hang of it.

Lew comes to stay for the week, working on his dissertation. It's too wet to go outside so I make black pepper noodles, accompanied by corn, salad, and mangos. It's mango season and they are SOOOOO sweet.

Tuesday

I take Gypsy for a walk to the project. After he lies down for a nap while I'm in meetings.

Juno has had a nice romp through the yard, fluffing up curls by wiggling on the grass. Her tail thumps as I turn toward her.

At the project, I'm measuring to know what can go where.

The contractor has fixed old library bookshelves to the walls as top cabinets. We're leaving as much as we can (see those 90s glass tiles?) and updating only what we have to.

Team meeting is online due to rain around the city. Bandung has many zones - rain can be pelting in one area while other sides of the mountains stay dry. The yardman is making good progress in moving the garden from one yard to the other.

Kirsten flies in from Korea via Hong Kong, to be met in Jakarta by her dad. They stop on the way home for Mediterranean food.

Wednesday

Meetings online first. IbuS comes to give K a post-travel massage. She works the kinks out of me after I pleat more tablecloths for curtains at the project. We head downtown for chores and a delicious lunch at Ambrogio. 

Thursday

I am rudely awakened by something crawling across my face, neck, and arm. When I bat it away, it feels like a bug. I turn on the light and sure enough: it's a roach. I sweep it off the bed after it refuses to stay trapped under a blanket and starts to run across the mattress. I can't catch it. It disappears under the bed. Ugh. We don't find it so I know it's there somewhere.

Hiking day is close to our neighborhood. We walk along the river. Flowers peek through the fencing.

No money for a truck? How about a custom 3-wheeled pickup?

Someone is burning trash and leaves. As usual, though it's close to trees, nothing but the intended heap catches fire.

It's hard to see, but across the river, the painted village is a tourist attraction.

It's a new walk for some so we detour through the riverside park at the bottom of the hill.

Then we wander on Indonesia's premier university campus. The founding president was an architect. 

We check the timber work in some buildings.

We take a tunnel under the busy road back to the sports complex, from where we walk to lunch.

Dalaros has a tasty Sundanese buffet. Mine costs $4.

We snap the obligatory pictures before beating the rain back home.

It feels good to take a shower and a nap to make up for the interrupted night. The windows rattle as lightning flashes and thunder rolls overhead.

Read more:

* Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. These commandments that I give you today are to be on your hearts. Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates. Deuteronomy 6:4-9

* Can a woman forget her nursing child or show no compassion for the child of her womb? Even these might forget, yet I will not forget you. Isaiah 49:15

* God is love. 1 John 4:8

Moravian Prayer: God of abiding love, hold us close to you as your most precious children. Nourish us; nurture us; wrap us in your care. Let us face each new day leading with love, as you have taught us. Amen.