John and Anna Weeks YOUR link to tribal missions Praise the Lord! We are safely back in Central Java after our 6-month furlough! Even our luggage all made it intact to our destinations!
Anna’s folks Ernie and Gail went above and beyond the call of duty. They lent us their Suburban for our last three months of furlough and then took the train out to California where they drove us to the airport in San Francisco to see us off and get their car back. Last Saturday we rented a Uhaul trailer for our luggage and Ernie and Gail drove us the usually 6-hour trip to SF. We encountered snow enroute and had to travel slowly so the trip ended up closer to 7 hours. We arrived at the hotel at midnight and were up the next day early to head to the airport. Since we got to the airport almost 4 hours early on Sunday there was no traffic and no line to check on all of our luggage! While Ernie took the Suburban and trailer back to the hotel before rejoining us we had everything loaded and checked on! Our Northwest Airlines flight left SF at noon on Sunday and we were in Singapore at just after midnight Tuesday because of crossing the international dateline. After my appointments in Singapore Wednesday we ate Indian food in the Little India part of Singapore and then flew Wednesday evening the one-hour flight to Jakarta on Lufthansa Airlines. My eye check-up went well and the Uveitis is “quiet.” I was able to stock up on a 6-month supply of eye drops that are about 1/6 the cost of the same eye drops in the U.S.! We arrived at Jakarta Wednesday evening at 8 p.m. and drove 13 hours to Central Java in a rented minibus.
Kurt said going home for the six-months was like leaving Java for a breath of fresh air. We certainly enjoyed our home culture, even though we, like most people, enjoy complaining about it now and then like spoiled children! We enjoyed visiting family and friends and just “letting our hair down” in our relaxing known culture!
I don’t know if Kurt’s “breath of fresh air” comment was to be taken literally or not, but it really hit us how dirty the air here on Java really is, smog and smoke from such a dense population. It does, however, provide for pretty sunsets! The weather here is sunny, but hazy and temperatures in the mid-80’s with high humidity and afternoon rain showers now in the middle of rainy season. Yes, we are all sweating more than normal as we unpack and get things out of storage as we had to pack everything up before we left. Anna asked what this means when we feel more at home in Indonesia than the U.S.! I think they call it “enculturation,” but we know it is the Lord’s hand upon our family as we get set for our next phase of life.
The kids all found their friends and enjoyed catching up last night. The girls all walked down the street with friends to go out to eat at a favorite little place. Paula’s friend took her out for coffee and lavished her with gifts. Kurt skate boarded across town to find his friends.
We will keep you posted as we start up ministry again.
Thanks so much again for your prayers and support,
In this together,
John, Anna, Katie, Grace, Paula and Kurt
