Fried Bananas, Fish heads, Chicken feet…..YUMMY!!

Yes it is true we have been served these delicacies! The fried bananas are really not that out of the ordinary and they taste great. The other 2….not so much. I’m not really all about eating something while it’s still looking at me (fish). Okay so that might be a bit of an exaggeration, but it’s not too far off…I mean we were served the whole fish….Josh ate it with great gusto (as he eats all food), holding it up for me to see and waving around the bones of the fish (all still in one piece) when he was finished. The heads of the fish were lying on his plate looking as if they were missing a part of them.
Chicken feet were in a soup served to us for lunch at the teacher training. I chose not to take that part of the soup! The food has really not been bad just a few surprises here and there. They always warn us if something is going to be hot (spicy) so we don’t take too much of it 
The teacher training is going well. The teachers are responding well to all that my mother is presenting them. She is doing a lot of group work and various activities that they are not used to; however, you wouldn’t be able to tell from watching them. They have participated with great enthusiasm and thoughtfulness. They also seem to enjoy the math activities that I am showing them. They are used to solving math problems the way the teacher shows them and in some schools if a student gets the right answer but gets it a different way the teacher tells them they are wrong. In my workshops I am explaining to them that it is important to let students share how they got an answer and encourage them to explore different ways as it helps to build great problem solvers and higher level thinking. I am also trying to show them that math can be exciting!!! The first day I asked who liked math and none of the 24 teachers raised their hands. Hopefully that is changing as the week goes on.
Josh has had an opportunity to speak to pastors about church growth in the seminar that my dad is doing and it went well (he will have to write more about that later).
We are all still getting adjusted to the different time zone. I wake up in the middle of the night and stay awake for about 2 hours before I can fall back asleep. Josh has been getting up around 4 am and working on stuff for his classes before our actual day begins. We are 11 hours ahead of EST and 12 hours ahead of CST.
We have been spoiled here in Indonesia. Although it is extremely hot and humid outside we are able to sleep in an air conditioned room!!!!!! Thanks for all your prayers. Things have gone very well as far as ministering to the people, please pray that will continue and we will remain in good health.

Sunday in Indonesia

Josh preached this morning at a 6:00am church service and Steve preached at a different church at 9:00am. Thank you for your prayers. We were unable to take the hospital tour yesterday so we took the tour today and learned the history of Baptist missions in Indonesia. What an incredible ministry!!
The highlights:
Southern Baptist missionaries started ministry in Indonesia 60 years ago.
There are now 500 Baptist churches throughout the Indonesian islands.
There are 4 seminaries and 3 hospitals.
We are staying on the island of Sumatra which is Indonesia's poorest island.
It has 140 churches and 1 hospital.
The average size of the church is 50-100, the largest church is 300.
The churches are altogether under one denomination called the Union Baptist Church denomination.
They are now fully independent of American Missions.
Even the hospital that was started by a Southern Baptist missionary in the 80's is now completely run by the Indonesian nationals.
It is a self-supporting hospital that generates income and financial support to all the area churches as well as the Christian schools that the Baptist churches have started.

What amazing things God is doing in this country! It is a privilege to work alongside these people for God's kingdom. And there are still many needs! Our ministry here is establishing a network of partners with American churches to provide help in any way we can. Our main mission is not to break-ground but to provide support.

Indonesia is the fifth most populated country in the world and still 90% Muslim.
- The Churches have a great desire to grow and start new churches (as you can see there are over 500), but they want to do much more! (Steve and Josh will be involved with the Sumatra Missions Conference starting on Tuesday through Friday)
- The teachers at the Seminary lack extensive theology knowledge and the churches could use better theology training.
- The one Christian school in this area next to the hospital started 4 years ago and has 400 students in grades K-3. Becky and Jodie will be working with these teachers for the next 5 days doing education training. The teachers here are eager to learn.

Please pray this week for God's work in Indonesia.

spell check

Bandar Lampung - I still had it wrong last post :)

Indonesia for the next 10 days

After a day and a half in London, we traveled for the next 36 hours on three plane trips through Singapore and Jakarta on our way to Bandar Lampur (I spelled it right this time). In those 36 hours, Steve, Josh and Jodie only slept for about 3 hours and thankfully Becky was able to sleep much longer, but we were all exhausted. We only had one hiccup at the airport in Jakarta. Our luggage did not arrive with our flight because the layover in Singapore was 1 hour and the bags were not able to get to the next plane fast enough. However, they were on the next plane to Singapore and we got them before we left Jakarta to fly to Bandar Lampur. We also had a little trouble getting our boarding passes at the Jakarta airport because of the language barrier but it all worked out and we are here. Last night we got caught up on some much needed rest. Currently we are 12 hours ahead of you all in the states. It is Saturday morning and Becky and Jodie are printing their education workshops notes for the education conference that starts on Monday (Jodie will be teaching every day). And Josh and Steve will be preaching this Sunday at two different churches. In a couple hours we will all head over the Christian hospital for a tour (we are staying at the house of the director of the hospital). Please pray for education conference this next week. And the guys who will be preaching that we will effectively work with translators and the God’s Word will be an encouragement to the churches here.

In the Airport

We are sitting in the airport waiting for our plane to board! It has been an amazing week of getting things ready. We arrived at Dulles with 12 bags to check :) and all of my class notes ready :) Thank you for all your prayers, for I know the Lord provided us with God-speed in finalizing all of our preparations. Please pray as we travel through the airports along the way that we keep our luggage intact. The extra luggage is for supplies and gifts for our partners in India. The next few days we will find ourselves in London, Jakarta, and Barlombam(I spelled that wrong)before we end up in Indonesia for a week and a half. Josh will be doing is final class prep while attending an Indonesian Mission's Conference. At this conference Jodie and her mom will be leading education seminars. We are excited and our plane is boarding :)

Preparation Continues

Josh and I left Texas on Friday and drove to Indianapolis where we were able to spend the evening with my sister and her family. We then continued on to PA and stopped in Ohio along the way to see Josh's family. (Yes this was longer then driving straight to PA); however, it enabled us to see other members of our family and as we all know...traveling more hours not so much fun, but time spent with family "priceless". We arrived at my parents house on Saturday night and quickly began preparing for Sunday morning worship which my parents and I were leading!

Josh has spent the past couple of days working diligently on finishing up his notes for the classes he will be teaching. I have also worked on what I will be doing in the math workshops. I was also able to drive to New Jersey on Tuesday to see some friends and pick up some more supplies for our trip. It was great to be able to see some friends I have not visited with for a while.

Thursday we are headed to Maryland to spend some time with my brother and his family and then Monday the 2oth in the evening we leave the country.

Praises - We have had safe travels!!!
My mother has been working on getting a science kit to take over which has many hands on activities and will really help to increase their science instruction. She just found out yesterday that the company is going to give her this rather expensive kit for free!!!

Please continue praying as we have more to get ready i.e.finishing packing suitcases...which is quite a challenge with the weight limit and all the supplies we are taking over! although we just found out we are allowed 3 suitcases per person! This means 12 suitcases for us. We can take more supplies that we originally thought would be left behind. Also pray as we continue to prepare for what we will be teaching and make copies of the materials we will need. And then of course as we leave please pray for safe travels and sane travelers :)

Thanks for all your prayers already! Things are really coming together great and we are so excited for the opportunity that awaits us :)