11 years ago, we arrived in Indonesia.

Sunday, June 29, 2025

I love Sundays. It's not our "day of rest" since we lead IES Bandung, but it's time for contemplation of scripture and meeting friends old and new. Today is Round Table Sunday with a twist: there is no worship band. We sing along with 4 worship videos and discuss John 14-16 around the tables. 

Today's topic is how Jesus sends the Holy Spirit to be God-With-Us day by day. What difference does it make to have God's presence constantly with us?

The flowers are simple stems. I plan to root them since they are from a tall shrub and we'll need plants at the new place.

We go for lunch with friends and give the dogs marrow bones when we come home. Anton chases it around the Porch until he's tired. Then he lies down and chews it in lying on his side.

Monday

After a dog-free walk, it's time to hit the books - well, at least get to research. There are huge beetles on the street, having flown their last flight.

We're figuring out how to do newsletters in a new program. Takes until nightfall before we are done. Our kids are enjoying Family Camp in Montana. Today I miss our cabin and time with the fine people there. I write a thank you note to Carrie Fell, the painter of the print that pulls together the gathering room.

We drive to pick up a few items from expats who are clearing house to repatriate. Someone throws in a room fan and an "almost free" air fryer. We need two trips to move the dressers with our little SUV. In city traffic, that takes most of the afternoon. I have some evening calls before W helps with the newsletter and we head for bed. zzzz

Tuesday, July 1 - CANADA DAY

We left Canada for Indonesia 11 years ago. The journey and adventure doesn't compare to our expectations - we love it here more than we thought possible. When we arrived, Dave and Gigi offered us an apartment in Jakarta. We stayed there the first month-and-a-half while we acclimated to the weather and shopped for our Bandung household. It doesn't seem that long ago.

We start the day with a walk. After a few calls and plowing through emails, we begin preparing for movie night tomorrow. What sauces do we need? What meats and vegetables? First, what's in the cabinet - and then the new list is readied. W goes shopping downtown.

It's time to write some book reviews. For the privilege of browsing new and upcoming titles, a short review is required. It's a good deal for the publishers and for me.

When we scheduled movie night, our calendar was blank; except it's not. We get a reminder that dear friends have a farewell. OH no - it didn't transfer to the main page. We'll miss the last hugs and celebrations of who they are. Our fallible tech is showing: we don't always plan perfectly between travels and being sick.

For someone who dislikes tofu, I sure like the sesame version Ibu Apong makes for lunch. W gets his hair cut for $1.50 and I drink another mug of tea, waiting for him to show up.

The contractor goes over a few things with us. In the yard, star fruits lie under a tree. Nice to have some fruit to look forward to.

Wednesday 

I wake at 3:00 but start cooking at 5:00 AM. There are a few glitches: the ovens overload the transformer and blow out its fuse. Putting one oven on another circuit means running back and forth between the back kitchen and the main one. The smooth flow of making sauces, boiling spaghetti, and baking meats? Not today.

And where is the cord for the slow cooker?

"We always store it in the pot," I'm told. But it's not there or in the cabinets. After a long search, I find it tossed in a corner of the counter. Plugged in, the potatoes start to cook in milk, butter, and spices.

 I heap towels on the cooked food to keep it warm. (And yeah, see the little nook where the plug was hiding?)

Which timer is going off and what's cooking on which burner? We use 3 stovetops to cook for 70 people. When cooking is done, I splurge on a breakfast of Keelee's coffee cake and a tall mug of tea, before falling into bed for a nap.

W and I drop by the project to measure a small space that hasn't come into focus. It's too small for the cabinet someone is offering.

We walk down the hill for lunch at a student food court. The yakisoba noodles I remember from Bellevue Crossroads re interpreted as a spicy ramen. Nothing Japanese about them. I eat half. The 60c avocado juice is good though.

The dog groomers come to wash Anton, who strongly smells of pee due to steroids and meds. I ask them to clip him short, but they won't do it. He still has a poodle cut without short leg hairs or tail. Sigh. Clean and comfy is our priority as he recovers from an almost-fatal tick bite.

The more people we interact with, the more quiet preparation I need. I rest in the afternoon, reading, snoozing, getting ready for the friends who show up at 6:30 PM for a big dinner and the movie. W has chosen a repeat showing of Secondhand Lions.

Read more:

*The Lord brings death and makes alive; he brings down to the grave and raises up. 1 Samuel 2:6

*My heart, O God, is steadfast, my heart is steadfast; I will sing and make music. Awake, my soul! Awake, harp and lyre!

I will awaken the dawn. I will praise you, Lord, among the nations; I will sing of you among the peoples. For great is your love, reaching to the heavens; your faithfulness reaches to the skies. Be exalted, O God, above the heavens; let your glory be over all the earth. Psalm 57:8-11

*If we live, we live to the Lord, and if we die, we die to the Lord; so then, whether we live or whether we die, we are the Lord’s. Romans 14:8

Moravian Prayer: Unchanging Anchor, you are Lord over all our lives. We pray that you grant us the strength to surrender to your will. May we always be yours and proclaim you as the risen Lord! Amen.

Lent Day 25: Riding the wave

I write on my calendar, "Goodbye, everything."

We spoke together in chapel this morning. And we bought our tickets today.

We've booked the flight that will take us from what we know. From our comfort zone. To a new place across the world.

I'm reposting again today. My heart is too full to write, feeling the swell of the new wave ahead.

---- CRESTING THE WAVE----

Life seems to be experienced in waves. Entire years and decades of Jesus' life go unrecorded. Then  his ministry crests: he chooses disciples and velocity quickens to wash toward his sacrifice on the cross as the Passover lamb.

The ebb of the resurrection, where God pulls back mortality's curtain to showcase His magnificence and power even over death, creates a riptide for the disciples. Jesus spends 40 quiet days with them, expounding on God's mission. He shows them their future as Life-With-God before he withdraws to allow the Holy Spirit to descend.

The Spirit roars into the life of the apostles with godly authority and power. Life and renewal splash throughout the city of Jerusalem and ripples into the world through the pilgrims attending the Pentecostal feast.

Throughout the book of Acts, ebbs and flows in the intensity mark the spread of the gospel:

• Organization and favor.
• Persecution, outward movement, and expansion. 
• Suffering and missionary proclamation. 
• Exile and writing to preserve the record of Christ and the early Church.

Have you experienced such seasons of quiet, followed by building energy and a surge of momentum?

Where am I right now? A bucket of "aha"s have been dumped on me since last weekend. The wave is rising and I am being carried into the future. I'm not certain of the shore toward which the power of "forward" is pulling me. And that doesn't matter too much. God only requires my "being in this" completely, attentive and intentional toward the work of His Spirit.

How do we "ride the wave" in seasons of change?

1. Breathe in the time of calm and stand at ease when there's no direction.
2. Mull over (and record) lessons learned and insights acquired during the pause between what was and what is becoming.
3. Still your fears of change. God is in control. Completely. Utterly. Beautifully. He holds your future securely and will not let you go.
4. Prepare yourself. Embrace whatever comes your way. Pray. Meditate on scripture. Serve at church. Read an insightful book, listen to a speaker, or attend an event. You may unexpectedly run into an acquaintance or eavesdrop on other conversations.
5. Be willing and obedient. When work appears, when a door opens, when God clears away the clutter of the past to a clear future ... say YES.
6. Surf the wave. God's current will direct you. Enjoy the ride: fighting the water will smash you, suck you under, and make you feel like you're drowning.
7. Enjoy the view as you land on the new shore. Wherever God takes you, He has planned this in advance. What is the wonder of this next job, this new ministry, or this fresh relationship?

What's your favorite wave to date? Were you surprised where the current took you?

Read more:
*The Lord said, "I have chosen Abraham, that he may charge his children and his household after him to keep the way of the Lord by doing righteousness and justice." Genesis 18:19 NEV

*Sing for joy, O heavens! Rejoice, O earth! Burst into song, O mountains! For the Lord has comforted his people and will have compassion on them in their suffering. Isaiah 49:13 NLT

*And as Jesus was going up to Jerusalem, he took the twelve disciples aside, and on the way he said to them, “See, we are going up to Jerusalem. And the Son of Man will be delivered over to the chief priests and scribes, and they will condemn him to death and deliver him over to the Gentiles to be mocked and flogged and crucified, and he will be raised on the third day.” Matthew 20:17-19 ESV

*Faith was reckoned to Abraham as righteousness. Romans 4:9 NEV

Moravian Prayer: God, teach us to do justice by entering into relationships with persons in need. May we learn from them lessons of dignity, faith, and righteousness as we serve—that we may become wholly committed to your kingdom's work. Amen.

CS Lewis, The Screwtape Letters (Lewis wrote these to show the opposing intentions of God and the devil. In this novel, Screwtape is a young demon-in-training.) In which Screwtape reveals the Enemy’s (God's) intentions:

"Now it may surprise you to learn that in His [the Enemy’s] efforts to get permanent possession of a soul, He relies on the troughs even more than on the peaks; some of His special favourites have gone through longer and deeper troughs than anyone else. 

"The reason is this. To us a human is primarily food; our aim is the absorption of its will into ours, the increase of our own area of selfhood at its expense. But the obedience which the Enemy demands of men is quite a different thing. One must face the fact that all the talk about His love for men, and His service being perfect freedom, is not (as one would gladly believe) mere propaganda, but an appalling truth. 

"He really does want to fill the universe with a lot of loathsome little replicas of Himself—creatures whose life, on its miniature scale, will be qualitatively like His own, not because He has absorbed them but because their wills freely conform to His. We want cattle who can finally become food; He wants servants who can finally become sons. We want to suck in, He wants to give out. We are empty and would be filled; He is full and flows over. Our war aim is a world in which Our Father Below has drawn all other beings into himself: the Enemy wants a world full of beings united to Him but still distinct."