campus pictures

Here are a few pictures I took the other day during class time - this is the heart of our training, as students are given tools to understand, teach, and translate the Bible. Our Missions 2 class is just beginning to learn principles of hearing, transcribing, and learning another language via phonetic sounds...pray for them as these concepts are vital to learning another language and speaking it well - they're a little overwhelmed right now at the technical side of it! Praise the Lord for his provision of computers for each single and family to use during this time of training.

Update on Joe

Some of you may remember me asking for prayer for a family on our field, whose son Joe was sick with a rare blood parasite...we got this update yesterday from another friend:

"BJ and Joe were in Jakarta for more tests, on Monday, the 26th. Joe’s blood has not been clotting, and Drs were beginning to think something more might be going on than just the parasite problem, as the medicines he’s been on haven’t made any improvement. BJ called me yesterday afternoon to let me know that the Drs have pretty much concluded that Joe has a rare form of leukemia. Ken was getting ready to join her and Joe in Jakarta, and the other 5 kids were going to stay at home with their Christian house-helper taking care of them. This morning (27th), Ken, BJ, and Joe were going to fly to Singapore so that Joe can undergo a bone aspiration test, to confirm if it is leukemia."

Please continue to pray for them!

local doctors come to campus

For the last few months a relationship has been growing between our training center and a church in town. This is the same church where Russ and I were able to share back about missions in the family in June. They have taken a real interest in our campus and students, and have expressed a desire to help by giving and serving in practical ways. Last week we presented a need for computers, recorders, and digital cameras for our graduates to use in their language study interior, and a group from the church came to tour the campus and learn more about our ministry here. The church runs a clinic, and Saturday a group from the clinic came to serve our students by giving free consultations and medicine. Several that need follow-up work will be going to the dentist in groups throughout the coming weeks. Here are a few pictures from Saturday!

Just a few fun pictures from yesterday - little slice of life on a good day worth remembering. :)

Our ladies have been challenged by an outside soccer team twice now, and this time I got to fill in. Orange...ahem....not my color really, but I did my best anyway. Blocked a lot of balls and Russ said I had a good game - so I can't complain.

Last night was our turn to host the staff fellowship...we wanted to do something different so after announcements and prayer requests we split up and each shared what we love to do to relax in our spare time - the men played Wii and the ladies made cards. I love how open ladies become when their hands are busy - when we were in mission training we used to have a weekly craft night where ladies - whoever wanted to - would bring whatever project we were working on and just be together. I wonder if that would work here? Hm.

Everyone loves to have extra cards to give, and everyone was happy with their creations. The important thing was being together, and just enjoying each other's company without any agenda or expectation. So these are the lovely ladies I serve with each day!

And some action from the other side.....a little boxing match...All in a day's work!

life stuff

Just a couple of pictures of some of the fruit we have been enjoying here lately. Our campus has enjoyed a bumper crop of rambutan this year, and we were fortunate to share the fruit of one of the trees with another family. (rambut=hair - see how they're hairy?) I have blisters on my hands from opening so many yesterday - we had 4 huge bags plus a big tub full, so we decided to turn one bag into popsicles, and I ended up opening all those....ow...

The other fruit here is called durian...it's often referred to by foreigners as the "stinky fruit" but I've actually (yes, I admit it) grown to like it...sort of a sweet onion-y smell (google "durian smells like" for more colorful descriptions...). Yes, those spikes (duri=spike or thorn) are really sharp!! I was told when we first came here that you have to eat it 6 times before you're allowed to say you like it or you don't - I can't remember if today was my 5th or 6th time eating it, but my tastes have gone Asian on this one - I like it...though the creamy texture of it sometimes still gets me a bit.

Still wearing my soccer clothes...as part of our campus routine and extension of teaching/discipleship, we play sports as a campus 3x a week, and Wednesday is the ladies' turn to play soccer. DH has been reffing for us and he told me I had a good game, which makes me feel good...I'm waiting for my granola to finish baking....so many blessings in one day!

One more picture - not even sure what happened to inspire this, but Evan decided today to 'style' his and his brothers' hair...a little wet comb action...anyway, their goofy grins gave me a laugh. :)

October update

I think I begin each month’s news wondering where the last month has gone…September went waaaaaay too fast for me, but in wonderful ways. Here is a quick summary of the highlights……

1. LANGUAGE EVAL
Russ spent a few days in Salatiga working with friends and coworkers to evaluate his language level. Praise the Lord he was able to see progress in his language skills, and was very encouraged by the counsel given him as to how to work forward from here, continuing to improve. He was also able to meet up with some old friends, including our pastor and house helper, and also get to know some of our new coworkers who are presently studying language there.

2. TEACHING
Twice a month, Russ has been teaching at his language helper’s church, meeting with the elders every other Sunday afternoon to discuss Biblical Counseling. They have had a variety of other questions as well, and he’s enjoyed the opportunity to challenge their thinking in a many areas. He also was able to teach at our church this month.

3. HELPERS
About a month ago, our house helper stopped coming to work due to a death in her family. For about 4 weeks I did my best to keep things running on my own, which was difficult. During the national week-long holiday for the end of the fasting month, I had a little time to look for and train a new helper. A few options came up and didn’t work out, but at the end of the week, two teenagers who we know from town decided they’d like to try working together as our helpers. We have had them coming in for about a week now. The kids love them, and they are quick learners, too, which helps me.

4. HOUSE GUEST
We converted Emma’s room into a guest room for a week to accommodate Aldi Lasso, a Christian Indonesian recording artist – one of our students is a friend of his and had arranged for some concerts and activities for him during our break. We immediately fell in love with Aldi and his wife, and were so blessed by their genuineness and passion for life and the Lord. He gave a concert at the campus, and Russ was able to attend another of his concerts in town. Russ also enjoyed snorkeling with Aldi and a few other friends at Bunaken, which he refers to as “suffering for Jesus”. *wink!* Of course we kept him well-fed…as well as several of the students who felt it necessary to keep him company while he ate. LOL

5. VEHICLE!
We were finally able to find and purchase a vehicle! Russ has gotten to know a man who is in an auto club, whose hobby is finding used cars. He was able to find us a great deal on a 1996 Toyota Kijang Super. We’ll post pictures on our blog later in the week. http://kowals.blogspot.com/

6. AWAY
Thanks to one of our students, we were able to take a night away in town without the kids. We realized as we thought about it that it had been just about a year since we were away alone (except for shopping trips) and at that time we were in the hospital. It has been just a year since Russ experienced his initial acute signs of fibromyalgia, which were at first interpreted as a stroke. Over this last week I have had so many thoughts and memories pop up from that time a year ago…just amazed at what the Lord brought us through, our adjustment to Russ’ new condition, what we have learned and how we have grown as a family and in the Lord. It’s been hard – but we have experienced God in such a new way, and seen Him work through this situation, through us, and in others because of what we have gone through and continue to face daily.

Wow – that was a lot of busy-ness – no wonder September went so quickly! During the month of October, we will be taking full responsibility for the campus health ministry – we normally share the load with another family, but our co-worker recently spent some time in the hospital with typhoid and he needs to take some time to rest and recover.

We thank you for your partnership with us – as we face busy days and challenges of ministry and life, we are keenly and desperately aware that our strength is not our own. We are so thankful to know that you are remembering us and holding us up in prayer. To God be the glory -

Dina for the Kowal family

His grace

I made this card to send out to a missionary family on our field whose 11-year-old son was just diagnosed with a rare parasite that is essentially paralyzing his white blood cells and causing all kinds of other problems in his body - here are some excerpts from their update, and I'm sure they would value your prayers.

"...Joe has been sick since late May/early June. He has had symptoms ranging from nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, lung issues, fatigue, bruises and the list could go on. We have made several trips to Jakarta in an attempt to seek treatment for Joe. As of this week, we finally have an answer. Joseph has a very rare parasite that is causing all of his symptoms. What does this mean for Joe? This means a long journey where God will guide us each step of the way. The shortest amount of time a child has struggled with this is a year and a half - the longest 3-4 years. He will need to take medicines for two weeks at a time and then retest. Eventually the parasite no longer shows up in the stool - and yet is still present in the body and unable to be seen except for the nasty damage and symptoms it causes. The biggest complications with this parasite are lung, heart, and bleeding issues. Joe has already showed lung issues but those are under control today (could change tomorrow). He will be unable to play PE, soccer, or wrestle with his brothers due to the bleeding issues. If he hits his head he could bleed internally. Ok, so those are the facts of where we are, but now I would like to share with you how God has carried our family in the last week.

When [we] got to Jakarta this last time, we were told that there were two options for diagnosis and both were fatal.... But, during the next 24 hours, I watched as God provided peace to an 11 year old. A peace that many adults have no idea how to access. One night when we were talking I asked Joe how he was doing and this was his response: "when I die you can put me in a box and bury my bones wherever you please, you can cry and wail but it ain't gonna bother me cause I'll be a long time gone to a bright happy home, celebrating and singing, worshipping round my heavenly Father's throne." For those of you who do not know, these are lines to a song by Buddy Greene that we play in our house often. I can't tell you how humbled, convicted, excited...and whatever else, by that short little section of a song. God had given Joe peace, the kind that only He could give. Over the next few days Joe would need to go to the university and see the professors there have more blood drawn... God provided three doctors in Jakarta who are in a small group of Christian doctors. Very, very caring men who would not charge us when they saw us....The Lord had prepared one of the doctors ahead of time – about a month ago he was reading up on some medical articles, and one of them “happened” to be about this rare parasite, which he had never heard of before! Because of that, he knew what tests to do to see if that’s what it was.

There have been thousands of people praying for our family; please know that God not only hears your prayers but He answers. Maybe not always the way we want but the way that is best for us. We believe it is those prayers that are carrying our family. Thank you..."

(Stamp credits: dkdesigns at Our Daily Bread designs)

Thursday

If you're interested in reading the campus "Bulletin" you can download it here:
http://www.4shared.com/file/125810452/96c00ae1/PPMMP_Bulletin_Aug_2009_-_English.html
Just an introduction to our student body, with lots of pictures. Usually falls to me to translate it into English, since I speak that language... :)

On the 17th we celebrated Indonesia's Independence with a family game time...pictures to come...

This week we saw another student's child spend time in the hospital, weakened and dehydrated by several days of diarrhea...pray for us as we try to determine what the root of the problem actually is....if it is a problem of lack of understanding regarding water and a healthy, varied diet, or if the understanding is there but just not the means? This is the 2nd child to go to the hospital, both from the same family. I was talking with the lady I work closely with on the health team yesterday, wondering if there was some way we could supplement some of the families that are struggling with this, if there were extra funds - with milk or maybe vitamins, etc. Obviously we have a responsibility to come alongside and teach them about the importance of drinking water, and the benefit of a varied, nutritious diet. Anyway, pray with us as we try to figure out logistics.

Russ' ear seems to be feeling better......I think the rest of us are finally healthy, and it's good to see the kids back to 'themselves' again, out playing with their friends.

From our field chairman:
"Once again, we have a small project of subsidizing the cost of digital voice recorders which we teach our students to use in the culture and language acquisition course. If anyone would like to contribute to this, you can send a contribution to New Tribes Mission and designate for "Indonesia training center dv recorders". The students learn how to use them and then as they move into ministry, these become a useful tool for them. The Lord has already provided for small durable computers which we also teach them to use. Praise Him."