Banquet 2016

Every year, the junior class plans and hosts a formal banquet to honor the outgoing seniors. And every year for the past few years, I’ve been one of two junior class advisors who has been helping the junior class plan this banquet. That job is super easy when you have a very motivated, organized class. This year’s junior class is the opposite of that. But thankfully, they have parents who ARE motivated and organized, and those parents made a lot of things happen. I was biting my nails a bit there at the end, hoping things would come together, and they really did.

So after 6 months of venue searching, food tasting (which also included me and 6 students getting terrible food poisoning – one ended up in the hospital!), theme choosing, invitation designing, gift buying, and other general planning, it all came together. This past Saturday was our banquet, held in the grand ballroom of a nearby hotel. The theme was 007/Secret agent/Black and white/Classy. Something like that.

We came and took opening photos. Here are just a few of the lovely staff members I get to work with!

We hail from all over the world, with different cultures, different opinions, and different values. But every year, we somehow manage to work together to educate an entire school full of children! I really, truly love this community that I get to be a part of!

Before dinner began, my table quickly earned the reputation of loudest table in the room as we played our own little version of charades to entertain ourselves.

See those two juniors in the background helping the wait-staff figure out which plates go to which table? They were all over it, and I got to sit and relax with my fellow teachers.

One of our classic banquet games is a couples game, where different pairs of people are called up to stage to play a quiz game about how well they know each other. Couples usually include siblings, friends, a married couple (teachers, of course), a dating couple, and a non-dating couple who came to banquet together. One of the seniors convinced me to go with him…

This is me realizing that he correctly guessed my favorite kind of chocolate! We even beat out a married couple with four children!

I don’t know if I should be honored or concerned that my students know me so well…

As with any banquet/prom/homecoming event, there were awards. We had awards for king and queen, the cutest couple, the best bromance, the best dressed guy and girl, and the sassiest couple award. These awards are FOR the students, voted on BY the students throughout the evening. However, at the end of the night, when the votes were tallied and the awards announced, I won sassiest female!! Here I am accepting my award (a sassy pair of sunglasses) with my male counterpart.

I’m not sure how I won a student award, but I CAN vouch for this guy’s sassiness, as he sasses me just about every day in class. I’m sure you can tell just by looking at him…

After the games, dinner, dancing, and awards were all over, the stage was opened back up for more pictures. I got a shot with one of my junior boys and with two of my favorite senior girls!

 

And of course, my senior AP Calculus class (which includes two juniors this year!). This is my absolute favorite class to teach, and this is the BIGGEST this class has ever been! I would say that it is the most difficult class we offer at our school (it’s a college level calculus class), and those who choose to take it are usually few and far between. This year’s senior class is SO academic and SO driven that I had to order extra textbooks this year, just so everyone could have one! This is also the class that I have taught the longest in the history of teaching here. They are the only class I ever taught 8th grade Algebra 1 to, and I’ve taught them every single year since then! Five years in a row! They may be sick of me by now, but I’m sure gonna miss them when they graduate!

A Load off my Mind

Two disasters happened last week, but both in a miraculous way.

1. A massive old maple tree fell on my family's house. When my dad messaged me to say it "swept down the south side of the house" I was under the impression that the tree had knocked down the entire south end of the house. Imagine my relief when I discovered that the entire house was still standing, and that the tree had just grazed the south end of the house as it fell! Because not having half a house would be bad business in Indiana in the winter. I'm thankful to still have a house to come home to (in just a few short months!), and I'm also thankful for the people who gave up a Saturday afternoon to come help my family clean up the giant tree in their yard.

2. The SAME DAY the tree fell, some close friends of mine here in Indonesia were sleeping in their home when the ceiling in their four year old daughter's room collapsed!! They have no idea how or why. They also don't know how it missed crushing their child in her sleep, as the (very heavy gypsum) ceiling panels that fell were above her bed... but somehow hit the ground BESIDE her bed. Once again, I am so thankful for God's hand of protection on that situation, and for the workers who came and fixed her ceiling and checked all the other ceiling panels in their still-new house!

And two things that I was really holding my breath over finally reached a happy ending!

1. My new passport arrived! So renewing my passport will be one less thing I have to think about this summer while I'm in America. I could have technically renewed it there, but then I would have to wait until I received the new passport to begin the extremely stressful visa application process to come back to Indonesia. Now I'll be able to get the visa ball rolling as soon as my paperwork comes through!

2. As of yesterday, I HAVE A REPLACEMENT! Someone who is already here in Indonesia and who is a licensed math teacher will be covering my classes for me during the first quarter of next school year while I extend my time in America to be at my brother's wedding! I have been praying about this since the beginning of this school year, before my brother even proposed!

As we prepare to celebrate Jesus's death and resurrection this week, all these events have been a good reminder that what He did for us wasn't just 2000 years ago on the cross. He is STILL working for our good - MY good - this week, today, in this moment.

#springbreak16

If you follow my life very closely, then there are two things you probably know about me. If you don’t follow my life very closely, that’s fine. But you’re missing out. So here are the two things, in no particular order.

1. Every year since I have lived in Indonesia, I have gone to Bali for Christmas break. And more importantly, though the group of people I travel with has changed every year, there is a core group of three people who have gone every single year: Yohanes, Peco, and me. We are the only constants, year to year.

2. This most recent Christmas break, Peco wasn’t able to join us. It was our first Christmas in eight years without him.

If you follow me on any type of social media, you probably saw my many posts appealing for prayer for a girl named Eva who very nearly lost her life last summer. Eva is Peco’s wife. Her life is a story of God’s healing and provision. But that healing took time. Lots of time. In fact, her body is still healing. But just last month, her doctors in America (where their 2 month vacation ended up being a 9 month rehabilitation process) finally gave her the green light to come back to Indonesia. So Peco, Eva, and little Ayla came back to Indonesia two weeks ago. They flew straight to Bali, where they spent a few days adjusting to the weather and the time difference. Yohanes and I (among other friends) flew there at the beginning of our spring break last week to meet them.  They arrived in Bali on Thursday, we arrived on Sunday.

Brace yourself for lots of pictures. Lots of low quality phone pictures.

Four of us traveled from Java to Bali. We took motorbikes to the bus stop, a bus to Solo, a minibus to the airport, then an airport to Bali. We like to include as many forms of transportation as possible. Here’s the four of us in the angkot (minibus) with an old lady. Don’t let her turned-away face fool you. She was VERY amused by us.

From left to right, we have Melanie, me, Katie, and our ever wonderful selfie photographer, Yohanes. Oh, and here’s a shot of our airplane. I was very concerned about getting on a CRIME aircraft. But then I figured out what the rest of it said…

We ran into people we knew in the airport in Solo, then again when we landed in Bali… Because, you know, Indonesia is such a tiny place, you’re bound to run into someone you know eventually… Once we landed on Bali, we took a taxi to the hotel where Peco and Eva were staying at. Some other friends of ours happened to be in Bali at the same time, and when we got to the hotel, everyone met us hungry travelers in the hotel restaurant with pizzas for lunch. I gotta be honest, the second I saw Eva across the empty restaurant, I nearly burst into tears. Being able to finally hug this dear friend was the result of miracle after miracle, and I was just so happy and emotional to see her again! Here is our first of several “family pictures”.

See those two little girls? Yeah, so the last time I saw them, the younger one had just been born! Again, notice Yohanes’s masterful selfie taking skills. After lunch, we parted with our visiting friends, and seven of us (Peco, Eva, Ayla (who was napping during the picture above), Yohanes, Katie, Melanie, and I) headed inland towards Ubud, where we spent the rest of the week in one of our favorite homes away from home. This was the view along the coast on the way there.

Last time I got to spend time with Peco, Eva, and Ayla was Christmas 2014, when Ayla was still 6 months old! She was seriously jet-lagging when we arrived and didn’t really want anyone but mommy and daddy. By the next morning though, she was warming up to the rest of us and learning our names. She even went on a walk with me first thing in the morning! I can’t even tell you what a delight this little girl is to be around. Her brain is a little sponge, and she just loves life. I’m pretty sure she could find something to be happy about in just about any situation. And just look at that killer smile!

When we stay in Ubud (which is usually at least once a year), we stay at the T-Houses. They are open air classic style wood frame homes that can be rented pretty cheaply. I don’t want to make them sound too great though, because I really don’t want a ton of people to go stay there, because then I won’t be able to! So to deter possible customers, I just want to show you this picture of the day I was taking my sweet time on the toilet when suddenly, a lizard fell out of a tree and landed on the awning above me and started clunking around. It was startling and a little bit frightening. But it’s the price you pay for outdoor bathrooms (which PS are just about my favorite thing ever).

So now that I have deterred you from ever wanting to stay there, here are some pictures of pretty things I found around the house.

  

Oh, and our swimming pool! We can’t forget about the refreshing pool at the edge of the rice fields.

It’s very rare for us to ever meet any Americans on Bali. Most of the non-Asian tourists there are either European or Australian. This year was no exception. Our neighbors consisted of a British family on a one month holiday (their kids, Riley and Isis are playing with Ayla in the photo above), a Russian couple with their baby and their Filipino nanny, and a large extended Turkish family on vacation. Bali – and especially Ubud – has such a relaxed environment, and it’s fun to chill by the pool and get to know people from around the world. Ayla also had no shortage of friends. She is very comfortable with people – grownups and kids, friends and strangers – and she made friends pretty much everywhere we went!

On Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday, we spent most of our days eating and walking around town. People come from every corner of the world to start restaurants in Bali, and eating is one of my favorite things about vacation because the food is authentic. We had Mexican, Italian, Turkish, Balinese, Thai, vegan, and many other kinds of foods. Here are some shots from our walks and our dinner views.

 

The Wednesday of our trip was the Balinese Hindu holiday of Nyepi. It is a day of complete silence, rest, and reflection. Non-Hindus and tourists are not exempt from this. For the entire day, we had to keep quiet and we were not allowed to leave the T-Houses. We went shopping Tuesday night (and it was like the night before Armageddon in the grocery store) and bought ingredients to cook all our own meals at the house on Wednesday. We thought we would be bored out of our minds, but really, the day passed quickly, and we got to spend lots of quality time together. I’ve never been on Bali during Nyepi before, so it was a new cultural experience for me. I wanted to know more about it, so I asked a lot of questions.

One of the most bizarre traditions is the creation of what are called ogoh-ogoh. They are the stuff of nightmares. An ogoh-ogoh is essentially a giant, scary, lightweight statue. Each neighborhood makes one, which the men parade through the streets on the night before Nyepi. The ogoh-ogoh look terrifying, because they are supposed to attract evil spirits. The idea is that if the ogoh-ogoh looks evil, the evil spirits will see it, think it is one of their own, and enter it. Then, after they have walked it through the village, the ogoh-ogoh is ceremonially destroyed or burned. Nyepi corresponds to the Hindu new year, so it means they get to start the year off free of evil spirits around them. As we drove and walked around, we took lots of pictures of the various ogoh-ogoh waiting to be paraded and burned. Here are some of my personal favorites (and by “favorites”, I mean “WHO EVEN IMAGINED THAT BECAUSE THEY SHOULD PROBABLY BE IN SOME SORT OF FACILITY!”).

 

(Photo cred goes to Melanie for the first 2 pictures shot from the back of a moving motorbike. Impressive work, Mel.) Every neighborhood had an ogoh-ogoh, all different, and all with varying degrees of gruesome-ness.

On the morning of Nyepi, besides hanging out with our neighbors in the pool (quietly, of course – because there are actually local men patrolling to make sure everyone is being quiet), we also spent a large portion of the day monitoring the solar eclipse! Unfortunately, we were just a bit too far south to see the full eclipse, but we got to see a good partial eclipse! We couldn’t see anything from looking at the sun, which obviously you shouldn’t do anyways (but obviously I still did just because someone once told me I shouldn’t), because though it seemed like someone dimmed the lights down way low outdoors, the sun still looked like this even at the peak of the eclipse:

Thanks to Peco’s ingenuity, we were able to watch the eclipse with much less eye burning via the cover of a book he ripped off and poked a pinhole in.

The eclipse started with the picture on the left and the peak occurred at 8:27 AM, which is precisely when I took the picture on the right.

The day after Nyepi, we were restless and ready to get out. So we took our motorbikes and drove an hour to the coast. We stopped for breakfast on the way, and partway through our meal, a family came and sat at the table next to ours. They sounded suspiciously American, and like I said before, that is a rare thing to come across on Bali. So at one point, I just leaned right on over and flat out asked them, “Are you American?” The dad quickly said, “No. Canadian.” But he was good natured enough about it, and we started a conversation. They own a business in Canada, but they wanted their two young sons to have the experience of living overseas, so when they’re not in Canada running their business, they spend 7-8 months a year living on the coast of Bali. Their kids go to an alternative natural school (that I’ve actually been to!) there, and spend a lot of time surfing and making friends from other cultures. It was really fun to talk to them and hear about their life! They also took us to one of their favorite beaches after we all finished our breakfast. Also, they were coming off a 12 day juice fast, and this was their first real meal. You really meet the most interesting people on Bali…

The beach they took us to is a well known surf beach with very high waves and strong waters. We scored some lounge chairs pretty far from the water and had a good time chuckling at all the tourists who pulled their chairs close to the water and got doused by high waves crashing over them while they sunbathed. 

I didn’t take a whole lot of pictures at the beach, but one thing I did make sure to take pictures of was the waves crashing majestically against this rock. It wasn’t until I’d been standing there for quite awhile that I noticed the group of boys hiding in the crevices of the shore side of the rock! They would wait for a wave to crash over, then give the thumbs up! They were both amused and amusing.

We exchanged numbers with the Canadian family with the promise that if they ever traveled to Java, we’d hook them up! I have a feeling they may take us up on the offer sometime in the near future…

The very best part about this trip was the time we got to spend together. One day, all the girls went to town to get massages (except me, because I am super freaked out by strangers touching my body), so Peco, Yo, and I took that opportunity to make us some pictures (because according to Katie, that is how everyone says it).

 

We meant to take a family picture when the girls got back from their massages, but we forgot. Then it was dark. So we did it the next morning before we said our goodbyes. As you can see from the photos below, morning is not our best time.

We clearly have no business taking early morning photos… Even Ayla couldn’t manage to muster up a smile!

It was tough to say goodbye. Our week together was SO GOOD. But alas, we had a flight to catch, so goodbyes were inevitable. We all squeezed Ayla a lot, and many hugs were had. Then the four of us headed to the airport.

^^ That’s the very western edge of Java. Though it was hard to leave Bali, seeing Java always feels like coming home, which is a good feeling. And if that wasn’t enough, flying in over Jogjakarta definitely reminded me that I live in one of the most densely inhabited islands on earth…

We all learned a lot over the past year. We learned that life is unpredictable. We learned how hard it is to be far from those you love when they are facing hard times. But more importantly, we learned that God is in control. We learned how beautifully the Body of Christ can function. We learned a lot about peace and prayer and trust. And we learned all over again how God works for the good of those who love Him.

Happy

I don't know what is different about this week, but I just feel so full of happiness it is nearly making me nauseous. Is that possible? I'm on top of the world for absolutely no reason at all except that God is good.

A Collection of Short Stories

1. Student: Miss, I broke up with my girlfriend.
Me: Awww, I'm sorry! Are you OK?
Student: I'm sad.
Me: Of course. But I think you made a wise decision. And things will get better.
Student: That makes me feel a lot better. Because I know that if you say it, then it's true.

2. A friend of mine recently bought a boarding house in a nearby city. The boarding house is mostly for college students (since most universities don't have dorms on campus), and there was a lady living in a small apartment in the boarding house to manage things. She died in her room (she was quite elderly and had been sick) two weeks ago. The lady was Catholic. My friend who owns the boarding house is Muslim. So my friend asked several of us friends (all Christian) to come pray over the house because as a Muslim, she didn't know how to pray since the deceased was Catholic. She wanted us to pray that the lady's soul found rest and peace (which is what you do in the Muslim faith when someone dies). So we had the opportunity to share with her that true peace can only come from Jesus, and then we walked with her through the boarding house and prayed over the rooms. It was strange being asked to pray for a dead person (which we didn't actually do), but it was neat to get to do a prayer walk through the "home" of so many college students, to pray for peace and knowledge of Christ to fill that place, and to get to pray the Holy Spirit over my friends - because they ASKED us to! (And on a funnier note, before we started praying, my friend who asked us to pray whipped out a bottle of olive massage oil and said, "I... um... brought you some olive oil. I case you, you know... need it to pray. I don't know...")

3. Last week, I sent in my request for an absentee ballot to my home county clerk's office so that I can vote from oversees. I filled out the form, scanned it in, and sent it via e-mail attachment. Yesterday, I got a reply from the clerk's office asking me to select which ballot I want to receive - Republican or Democrat. I was in the middle of doing something when I got the e-mail, so I didn't reply to point out that I had already selected which one I wanted on the form. Then this morning, I had another e-mail from the clerk's office reading, "I am sorry I just seen you wanted a republican ballot." I had mixed feelings about this response.

    a) Whew. I don't have to figure out how to politely say I already did that OR re-send in the forms.
    b) You are a government official! Who taught you how to speak English?!
    c) Aw.... Midwest grammar. Makes me a little bit homesick.

4. Terrorists attacked Jakarta a few short weeks ago. I found out the attack was ongoing while I was sitting in our secondary school's chapel time, about 60 minutes after the attack started. I didn't hear anything the speaker was saying, because I felt such a strong push to intercede. I was praying and refreshing a live news feed on my phone every few minutes. My very first prayer was that no more lives would be lost from that moment on. It seemed like an impossible prayer when all I knew was that multiple terrorists with guns and bombs were going on a rampage in the streets. But I just kept praying those words, over and over. We got reports for a lot of that afternoon of several other bombs being detonated, of shootings happening in other locations, of the body count rising. But the police figured out that those reports were false and were coming from the terrorists themselves, posting on social media just for the sake of creating panic! Later on, when I thought back over the timeline, I realized that from the time I started praying, the only loss of life was on the side of the terrorists as the police attempted to apprehend them. By the end of the day, the body count was 2 victims and 5 terrorists. In what kind of attack is the body count of the attackers higher?! I really believe the hand of God was on Jakarta that day! And while we grieve for the loss of seven lives, as a nation, we recognize how much worse it could have been, and we rejoice that it wasn't.

5. My brother is getting married sometime in the near future!! I won't tell you the date until they make it official - but suffice it to say it will be a bit after the "normal" wedding season since he'll be deployed for a portion of this year. I was worried about being able to be there, since the wedding will take place after our school year starts. But I went and talked over my concerns with my boss, and I was reminded once again of what a great place I work at. It comes with its own stresses and difficulties, for sure. But I have bosses who care about me as a person, and who recognize that sometimes what is best for me isn't what is easiest for them, but they still push me towards what is best. When I talked with my boss, I was really wondering if it would be possible for me to miss 2-3 weeks of school to go home for the wedding. But he had an even better solution. I'm scheduled to be home this summer, so he told me to just stay. To be with my family. To take an extended vacation. Because in the 8 years I've been here, I've never been home for more than 2 months at a time - and I've only ever done that TWICE. So this year, with the recommendation and approval of my boss, I will spend more time on American soil than the last EIGHT YEARS COMBINED! I am very happy to share with you that I will be in the US from the end of May through mid-October!

6. I made one New Year's resolution this year. It was to read more in Indonesian. I tried this awhile ago, but it didn't last because I burned myself out. A few years ago, I tried reading a novel that was just beyond my language ability, and it was frustrating and slow, and for someone who loves reading, that was just not working out for me. I've also tried reading the Bible in Indonesian, but in the past when I've done it, I've always stopped to look up every word I didn't know. So again, that took a huge chunk of time, and I really wasn't getting anything out of the Word because I was spending so much time trying to understand the words. It's been a few years now though, and I'm at the point where outside school (unless I'm with Melanie), I rarely speak English. I've been dreaming in Indonesian, and I've even caught myself praying in Indonesian (if you've ever learned a second language, you'll know how significant that is!). So I decided to give reading in Indonesian another try. I'm doing a chronological one year Bible reading plan on my Bible app on my phone - but in Indonesian. And I also went back to that novel I tried to read a few years ago.

It's a murder mystery, so if you're concerned about why my reading content looks so violent, that's why. Anyways, this time around, I picked it up and read it cover to cover (376 pages) in a week. And I ENJOYED it. I think the big difference this time (besides just having more language) is that I'm not making myself stop to look up every single word I don't know. In the novel, there were actually very few words I didn't know, and those I didn't know, I was able to understand anyways, just based on context. My hope is that by doing this, I will learn even more language, and more formal language. After completing my first novel in Indonesian, I also feel like a whole new world of reading is open to me, because now I can read in TWO languages instead of one!

7. My church does communion the first Sunday of every month. They use communion wafers that have Bible verses printed on them, and our pastor, being the 21st century man that he is, always encourages people to take out their phones, photograph their verses, and share them on social media. Being the rebel that I am, I NEVER do. Until this time.

I didn't even make it past the first four lines the first few times I read it. Dahulu aku muda, sekarang telah menjadi tua... It means, "I was young before, but now I'm old." AAAH! I'm turning 30 this year! This verse was right on time in the worst way possible! Once I got over that though, I finished reading the verse, and then felt much more satisfied in my communion selection.

I was young and now I am old, yet I have never seen the righteous forsaken or their children begging bread. - Psalm 37:25

8. Thanks to El Niño, we've been having a WAY milder rainy season than normal. It also started very late. I thought our good luck would last all rainy season, but alas, it came out in full force this week. I haven't seen the sun since Monday, and it hasn't stopped raining for more than a few minutes at a time for the last 48 hours. I had a hard time going to sleep more than once this week, because my sheets and blankets all felt damp and cold. And I threw my pillow in the wash this morning because I noticed mold growing on it. A pair of leather shoes got wet last Friday, and they need to sit out in the sun to dry, but the sun hasn't come out for long enough yet, and now the shoes are covered in mold. Ugh, the perils of rainy season.

9. Aswan, one of my closest friends for the last six years moved away yesterday. I went to FIVE different goodbye parties for him this week. He's going to South Africa to do church planting training for 5 months followed by 3 months of outreach. Then he'll be moving back to Indonesia (but not Java) to put to practice what he's learned. I'm so excited for all the adventures he'll have and to see what God does through him, but I'd be lying if I said we sent him off without a few tears.

10. Just three hours after Aswan left, our friend Sally gave birth to a beautiful baby girl, Gwenn.

I told Sally she gave me a replacement for Aswan. But she jokingly said, "No. I planned it this way. I waited until Aswan left because I didn't want my baby hanging out with the wrong crowd." Yesterday was such a rollercoaster of emotions as I hugged Aswan goodbye for the last time, not knowing when we'd meet again, then holding baby Gwenn in my arms as we welcomed her to this world. I got to see her meet her big sister for the very first time, and when their dad offered to let big sister hold the baby, she eagerly said, "YES!" quickly followed by, "WAIT! Will she pee on me?"

2016 has been a good year so far. Like really, really good. It's been hectic and emotional (or maybe that's just me). But it's been GOOD. God is at work in lives here, and I'm excited to see what the rest of this year holds!