Plane tickets!

Hello again! As many of you already know, I now have my plane tickets to come home for a visit this summer! I will be home from June 16th until July 14th. God has been so good in working out all the details for me. I have a friend from church here who contacted her travel agent to help me book the flights. And on the day that it came to transfer the money, God provided a teacher friend to take me to the bank. He also provided the approval of all my supervisors to take the extended time off. So I am looking forward to experiencing a little bit of home this summer: visiting NYC, eating soft pretzels and bagels with cream cheese, and most importantly, spending time with my family! Praise God that I have this chance to go home and get refreshed and renewed for my second year. :)
This past week I enjoyed having a week off of teaching because our school had a spiritual growth seminar with a team from Hong Kong. It was very intense, but God used it to bring healing and change in my life. He has been showing me recently His love and acceptance of me. I encourage all of you to read Psalms 34, especially verses 4 and 5. God wants to deliver us from shame and fear, and make us radiant because of His love for us!
Then on Friday the students came back to school and we went on a field trip to a city park. The above picture is of me, the Mandarin teacher, and a staff member at the park. It was nice to spend some time outside! :)
Well, here comes another week! God bless all of you!

Marching forward

Haha, the title is so cheesy. But I really can't believe it's March already and I've been here 9 months. That's the longest I've ever been overseas :) and away from my family. :(
The past week went quickly and uneventfully. This past weekend was fun. Sara and I met my friend Angie and some other girls at the mall for lunch and gelatto! It was a lot of fun. I was encouraged by listening to the others share what God has been teaching them.
On Sunday I helped Sara with Sunday school and then we went to see a movie.
That pretty much sums up what's been going on here. Looking forward to June when I will visit home for a month! I will let all of you know when I get the exact dates!

End of February

Hello again! Somebody informed me that I should update my blog more often, so here I am, giving you another update. :) (This is for you, becky.) Actually, I would like to update more, it's just been so busy.
I just uploaded some pictures on facebook, so you can check them out, but I included two here so you can have a little taste if you don't have a chance to look there. :) I included two pictures. One is of a trip to Madura (another island close by) with a church group. We ate bebek goreng (fried duck) at a famous restaurant here. The other picture is of English club, singing a song with the students.
I just returned from a retreat with my church for Sunday school teachers. It was just overnight, but it was really refreshing. We were able to worship God together and learn about creativity in teaching and letting God use us in loving our students. It was a good reminder not just for S.S., but also for teaching during the week. Please pray for me that God's love would lead me and fill me so that anything I say and do would be an overflow of what He has already given me. Thanks so much for your prayers and support!

Answer to prayer

As I said last time, I have started teaching the middle school class at the English club. I taught it first on February 5 and was a little discouraged because the students had trouble paying attention. On February 12 I had my second time to teach. The day before I came home from school with a fever. When I woke up on Saturday, I didn't have a fever, but I still felt weak and tired. I almost didn't go to Oasis because of the way I was feeling. But I prayed and asked God to give me the strength to go. I also know a lot of you were praying for me in planning and teaching the class. God answered these prayers more than I even imagined. I felt so much better as soon as I got there. And when the classes were finished, I felt energized instead of tired like usual. The class itself went well too. The kids seemed to have fun and listen beter. So, thank you for all your prayers.
I just wanted to share these verses in closing. Recently, God has been encouraging me about His love and grace that are undeserved. Romans 5:1-2 says, "Therefore, since we have been made right in God's sight by faith, we have peace with God because of what Jesus Christ our Lord has done for us. Because of our faith, Christ has brought us into this place of undeserved privilege where we now stand, and we confidently and joyfully look forward to sharing in God's glory."
I pray that each of you will be encouraged by God's love for you and look forward to sharing in His glory someday with confidence and joy!

New year...again

Wow! Last time I wrote it was new year's eve and today it is Chinese New Year so we have a day off. I didn't realize it had been so long since I last wrote! January went very quickly, especially the past week. Here's a brief recap:
School started again on the 4th. I'm trying to remember what else happened... :)
The English club started again on the 15th. I will be helping with the oldest class now as well as the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd grade class. This coming Saturday I will be teaching the older class by myself because the other teachers will be gone.
On the 22nd, I went out of town with some other teachers to attend a wedding of one of our co-workers. It was definitely different from the weddings that I've been to before. We had to go to an early church service for the ceremony itself (7 a.m.) Actually, it was just a church service, with the couple signing their vows in the middle of it. A few hours later the reception started, but it was very fast. We just went to the place, where the bride and groom were seated on a stage, dressed in traditional Javanese clothes. We greeted their family members and then them. After that, we helped ourselves to the buffet style food, and then we could leave. The first picture above is of us with the bride.
On the 27th and 28th, our school had it's open house for this semester. I had my first experience of being one of the "PICs" (person in charge). So it was a little tiring, but it went well. Our theme was "Save the earth - Reduce, reuse, and recycle". The second picture is of one of my students with a craft made out of recycled materials.
Last weekend was busy with a birthday party for a friend, English club all day on Saturday, and then church followed by a Sunday school meeting on Sunday.
This week has gone quickly so far at school. Now our division is preparing for our Valentine's day program on the 14th. The children will perform Cinderella for the parents, so I am on the decorations committee to make the scenery for the play.
Last night, a family from school invited some of us over for dinner in honor of Chinese New Year. We had a great time eating and then singing together. (They have a whole room dedicated to music with a piano, drums, and microphones for singing.)
Well, hopefully it won't be so long until I write again! :) God bless you!

Selamat Tahun Baru!

As I write this post, I am sittiing in my room with the air conditioner on and trying to imagine feeling cold like all of you in the U.S. must be feeling right now. I've heard there has been a lot of snow recently! It's hard for me to imagine. Part of me misses snow, but part of me is happy not to be freezing every time I walk outside. The above picture is of me and Ayu when we stopped at the beach on the way home from our Christmas trip to Bandung.
The title of this post is "Happy New Year!" I can't believe that 2010 is already at its end! Tonight I am planning on just celebrating here with my housemates. We bought ingredients to make tacos and s'mores!
I hope that all of you had a wonderful Christmas! I spent mine taking a trip to bandung (another city on Java) with some of the Indonesian teachers from West. It was a lot of fun, although we spent 18+ hours in the car each way! Traffic here is crazy! Along the way, I learned that almost every city in Indonesia is famous for a certain type of food. One city is even famous for growing red onions! In Bandung we tried Batagor (bakso tahu goreng). It is made of meat and tofu fried together. Actually, it was pretty good, at least using the spicy sauce that came along with it.
(Yes, I am learning to eat more spicy foods here!)
Some of the other trip highlights were visiting a volcano, eating a Christmas dinner made by an American chef (including stuffing and mashed potatos!), shopping at the outlets, and singing happy birthday to my mom on skype with my friends in Bahasa Indonesia. When we visited the volcano/forrest, we had to pay an entry fee. The lady selling the tickets looked at me and said in Bahasa "Dari mana ini?" - basically, where is this from? So since I am from America I had to pay 5 dollars instead of 1.70 like everyone else. Oh well!
Oh, one more thing. Because I spent so much time with other Indonesians, I was able to learn more about their language. I asked them about the words to one of my favorite songs. I was trying to literally translate it and it meant "You throw water into my eyes." I was so confused until they told me that that phrase is an expression that means, "You made me cry." haha Who would have guessed?!

Immanuel - God with us

I just finished watching "The 12 Words of Christmas" talk by Louie Giglio (an early Christmas present from my sister) and thinking about God's great gift in coming to us. God is reminding me of the wonder of Jesus coming to earth. This Christmas, as I am without my family and most of the traditions that I usually associate with the holiday, I know that God is showing Himself to be Immanuel - God with us; God with me!
"The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth." (John 1:14
Jesus came to this empty world ready to fill us with His grace and truth. And that truth is for everyone in every situation. (paraphrased from Louie Giglio)
I pray that God will make this good news real to every one of you this Christmas!
"God is in us, God is for us, God is with us - Immanuel." ("God is with us" sung by Casting Crowns.)