proprietary prayer

Recently, Mila's village began clearing space so they could build a house for Mila's mom. I was there the Saturday before they began building, and told Mila that I would be praying for the house and those working. I did.

Mila came to our house to work on Tuesday, and she said the walls were already in place, and twice as many people had showed up to work as expected. In the village, the whole village will participate. They were expecting twenty-five builders for twenty days. They got fifty.

I asked again on Thursday how progress was going. She told me she had phoned home the night before that the walls were almost finished, and that it was because of the prayers we had said. She said that when she heard of the progress, she began to cry (because it was unbelievable). She also said that her mother wanted to thank us, accrediting our prayers to their success.

That's one example of what God does when I least expect it. I've already explained that Erin and I have really been taking more things into prayer lately, and I am convinced that once our hardened hearts are beaten into an attitude of "Yes indeed, everything does belong to the Lord and he will expand his kingdom as he sees fit," then it becomes easier to pray. We are more eager to pray, and eager to be involved with the expansion of that kingdom.

In the past couple of weeks, God has answered some prayers I didn't know I had, and other prayers exactly the way I prayed them. There are some he refused, making my life a little complicated, but reminding me that the idea of proprietary prayer is really based on proprietary living--the idea that he owns the life I have, and everything that enters can be used for his glory if I would suck it up.

Lately I've been praying specifically for an unbelieving friend of mine who has experienced quite a bit of problems. The other day we were walking through the jungle (have I mentioned how much I love my life here?) when this song popped into my head, a testimony to her and a reminder to myself:
"Never Let Me Down" by Andy Gullahorn
I guess I learned the hard way that this world can’t give me what I need.
Even though the house I built on sand was swallowed by the sea, You never let me down. Sometimes I think I’ll only be content with things that money buys.
Its like trying to squeeze water from a stone – it will not provide.

But You never let me down.

You might let me cry.
You might let me sing.
You might let me feel a fraction of your suffering.

But you won’t let me down.

If I could just stop striving and surrender to Your holy power
I know Your loving arms will lift me up and never let me down.

to the country (yet again, last Friday)

This is Ibu Mila, her daughter Olivia, her daughter's friend, and her son Agung. Ibu Mila works part-time for us as a cook/maid, and we are so thankful for her. Last Friday I went home with her to her village and was able to see her family's farm and meet some of her family members. Her husband often works in the capital, so he is away, but she also lives with her mother, two brothers, their wives, and a little nephew (who is 2, but is about the size of a 1 year old).




This is one of Ibu Mila's friends, along with some kids from the village. I only stayed there for one night, but had a great time (despite the roosters that began crowing at 3:00 in the morning and did not stop until after 6. I had some grilled corn fresh from the small brick oven, and was able to meet quite a few people, at which time I realized that I really don't know this language at all.

an asian zoofari

Close to my city is a zoo-like place that is part zoo and part zoofari (where you drive through the animal habitats. I've been there twice (the first time because I had never been, and the second time because Erin and I wanted to take our helper and one of her children).
This is the group that went on the first trip. In the backseat with me is our friend Ardi who we go to for all things regarding movies. He's our local American gentleman, always allowing ladies to go first, opening doors, etc. Very kind and good friend.

And this is who joined us on our second trip: Ibu Mila and her son, Agung. This was right before she freaked out and dropped the carrot. The nationals here tend to be scared. A lot.
This is one of my favorite pictures. Too bad I had to shrink all these pictures, because if you could see it, the orangutan would be gazing off lackadaisically.
This is another one of my favorite pictures, mainly because we were only ten feet away from this tiger.
Another of my favorite experiences at the zoofari are the camels that aren't afraid to stick their entire heads in our windows (as long as food is involved, anyway).
This one was hanging in a tree in the zoo part of the park, more free than the other animals.
I know by now you're probably getting bored of looking at animals you could see in any zoo, but look at this itty bitty baby and his really long tail.
This hippo was pretty close to us, too. He was about ten feet away. During this part, we were driving through the water. He almost looks fake, don't you think?

There is a funny story behind this one. So here are the people involved: 1 very large and in charge rhino, and one very small Asian man. The rhino had *somehow* gotten out of his little fence (they really have a false sense of security with fences here, but that's another story), and this man was just escorting it along the way, occasionally slapping its behind.
Here are the Nasty McNastiest--the komodos. Gross. Look at that tongue. Nasty.
This guy reminded me of the Jungle Book, one of my favorite Disney movies. You know the part where Mowgli and Bagheera are preparing to sleep, and the panther falls asleep. Shortly thereafter, Kaa (voiced by the same man who voiced Winnie the Pooh in the old cartoons) comes along to eat Mowgli.
There is another funny story here. Remember when I told you nationals are afriad of a lot of things? Well, Ardi here was afraid of this 4 ft tall deer. Too afraid to feed it. You see him laughing because he is nervous (note: his hand is on the window, rolling it up). By the end of the day, he was reaching out the window. As Chucky Finster in Rugrats would say, he was, "A big brave dog."
One of the lions. Both times we drove through they were being super lazy, all asleep within close proximity of one another.
A bear eating a melon. When we went the second time they were bathing. That was really cute, but I wasn't able to get a picture.

to the country (only for a little while)

Two weeks ago we had a long holiday, so Erin, Mei, and I went to nearby countryside to hang out. It was foggy, but beautiful. We found our way near some farms, and then we got out and started to walk around, toward one of the local mountains.

Here is just one glance at the immaculately-combed farmlands. The farms were the only things we could see for miles. Gorgeous.

Here is a renown Hindu temple in the middle of the farms.
Here we are in the middle of nowhere. We used one of the farmer's motorbikes to prop our camera. The strange thing is the grade going uphill is pretty steep, yet they somehow drive their motorbikes up there. Even Mei, the national, was amazed, and he's pretty daring. So then, after walking around for a while we went back to the car only to found that it was parked in some wet grass so it didn't want to budge. Mei and I tried to push it while Erin worked the gas, and it worked only in unsticking the back passenger wheel and moving the car closer to the ravine. We were covered in mud splatter, but unfortunately it didn't show up in this picture. Sad times. Eventually, one farmer joined us to help but the car got too close to the ravine, so we had to get more farmers to push it out manually without having someone operate the gas.

to the country

Yuli, Olvi (who helps Witner), Ika, Erin, me, Witner (Mei's brother), and Jules (who helps Witner).

Last weekend my friends and I went four hours to J-town to visit a village. This is the same village that Erin and I slipped in the mud a month and a half ago, so of course. Our friend Mei's brother lives there, and he had invited us to come stay for a couple of days. So, we packed up Erin's car (oh yeah--my roommate has a car, which comes in handy here) with five people and headed for J-town. Because I had already had to travel to J-town four days before due to immigration, I laid in the far back seat and took a four hour rest. When we got there, we immediately realized the village was not as scary to walk around when it is dry.

The trip was good, and the visit was even better. The land was beautiful and the people were so kind. Some of them would ask, "Hey, do you remember when you fell that one time?" The only problem was the mosquitoes there were very strong (and plentiful), so I came home with thirty or so new bites. J-town is much hotter than here, but for the record, you know you are in this country when taking a cold bath/shower at 5:30 in the morning feels really good.



Here we are in a river taking a rest. The water was perfect, especially since it was pretty hot that day.
Here we are walking through the rice fields.

Erin and Mei acting like farmers.

Here's Erin pretending she cooked all the food Olvi prepared for us. This included: rice, friend banana, fried noodles, fried chicken, fried fish, and vegetables.

Here we are eating the way some people do around here.

Fresh coconut milk, then fresh coconut meat. (Note: it tastes nothing like the coconut we get in the States.)
Here's one of the coconut trees. Don't stand under one too long, as it could be hazardous to your health.

Dental Projects

One day a co-worker of mine was driving around when he realized that the people around the villages don't have teeth, partially because they have never brushed their teeth. So, he decided that it would be good to show young children how to brush their teeth, then equip them with toothpaste and toothbrushes so they could have clean, healthy teeth. The project is through the English center here, and the nationals who take courses at the center are the ones who lead the projects, the foreigners are only there to assist them. The projects are good because not only does it provide something good to the children, but it helps establish a relationship between the village schools and my co-workers. Anyway, here are some of my favorite pictures from the two dental projects I have attended.


This is how we teach the children how to brush their teeth. Unfortunately, our puppet's teeth has seen better days. Maybe we use this as a scare tactic? Nova (the girl) leads most of our community development projects. This day, Mei (the guy) helped Nova with our puppet.


This is Wicak, one of the teachers at Access.


This little boy was adorable. He had no front teeth, but he kept brushing away.

These kids were waiting while the older kids were brushing their teeth outside. They were listening and learning words to the song "Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes."


My friend Ibra was teaching these students how to brush their teeth and apparently he made a funny because they cracked up.


This school was called "Jungle School." We were wondering if our vehicles could make it out there, but we did! On the way we validated the name "Jungle School."

critter update

Here is a list of all the critters we have found in and around our house in prior weeks.

Cockroaches come out at night. Sometimes I take the effort to kill them. A lot of other times I don't. These are called friends.

Ants of many different forms can be found on and in our food. We don't worry about killing them because it would be futile. Did I mention they were everywhere? But anyway, not a big deal. These are called vitamins.

There are centipedes that we find every now and then. Those creep me out, but usually I just put them on a piece of paper and throw them outside.

There are sacks that hang from the ceiling, and we're not sure what critters are in them, but we've labeled them little nasties.

Then the things we thought were slugs--turns out they are leeches. They are still around, but they are only bad on some days. We kill them like no other.

One time we saw a miniature snake with legs. It was only about six inches long and we were able to kill it with a flip flop, but it was disgusting. One of my national friends saw it, and I asked him what it is called in the national language. He said he only knows it as "snake with legs." Helpful, huh? Anyway, we call it Satan, because surely that's what Satan looked like in the Garden.

There are many lizards who live here, but we like them because they eat the mosquitos. The lizards here are almost translucent--a wild looking animal, and they are pretty skittish.

The worst part is the cats. We have several that think this is their house despite our efforts to prove them wrong. When we aren't here or are inside, they are in our front yard. One time when we were watching a movie, one snuck in Erin's room (through the window which doesn't have a screen, only the bars) and puked on her bed. Another time I was asleep when I woke up to what sounded like two very frustrated cats. Then I realized the frustrated sound was actually them making babies. It was pretty loud, and I knew they were inside the house, so I got up to find them outside our kitchen going at it. They can get in because the back of the house is open to the sky. The next time I see them I will kill them without a second thought. I tried to hit them with a broom, but they ran away too quickly. The bad thing is that these ugly cats get together and the only thing they propagate is more ugly cats, so really if I kill the ugly ones, then I would be doing this country a favor. We just call these things, "Die, you stupid cats!" (Only we say it in the national language so they'll understand. ;) )