Spinning...

We have been in Papua one year (and 3 days, to be exact). I divide the past year in my mind - first 4 months - adjusting and having our prior plans to go interior totally smashed to pieces and lots of "What know???" second 4 months - SICKNESS where I could barely walk. :( and this last 4 months - finally being settled and into our grove and good ministry...

So now that we're settled, it's time for things to fall apart again.... which they did yesterday afternoon. Really things have been in the works for a couple months... we love our job as supply buyers, but we have started to feel that we are starving ministry-wise... we live on a base our mission has for an orientation center - next to another mission's base and a whole bunch of other missionaries. We have NO Indonesian neighbors at all; I teach at the international school; we go to the international church (translated - American church for missionaries) - a habit we started while I was sick and one we haven't broken yet. Anyways... now that life has settled down some and we're in the routine with supply buying we're realizing we have no ministry to Indonesian people!

So our main ministry focus right now is assisting the tribal missionaries, and we're glad to do it, but we have been praying the past few weeks that we would have a ministry with the Indonesian people here in town. Last week our pastor from San Diego came to visit us and we spent a great deal of the week talking about our ministry and our need to get involved in peoples' lives here. We found an Indonesian church that we have started trying to get involved in and we've started to realize it might be good for us to move off our little white compound. :) Over the weekend we talked with a senior missionary here and were discussing our thoughts about the whole thing and he said "You should find a house in the Swan's neighborhood (another missionary family) They have a great location for really getting involved with the people." My thought on the matter - that's nice for them... I don't want to move into a neighborhood with another missionary family already living there and I really don't want the stress of moving...

So yesterday at our weekly town team meeting, someone let the cat out of the bag that another family is going to be moving into OUR house... next month. They were going to tell us officially today and it just kinda slipped at the meeting. Talk about a shock... the thought of finding a new house, having to buy furniture, packing everything after we are finally settled.... I don't want to even go into all my emotions...

EXCEPT that yesterday we got a post on the missionary community website from the Swan family (who lived in a great neighborhood) "We are moving to Java for a year... does anyone want to rent our house, fully furnished, starting next month?" Our heads still spinning from the news we would have to move, we called the Swans, thinking of course this is God's great plan for our life... only to find out that two other families had already called wanting to rent their house. We spent the evening a bit bewildered and wondering what to do... we are still planning on moving interior and do not want to buy a bunch of furniture (our house here is furnished by the mission as part of the orientation center) and pay a bunch of money for a house contract (similar to a lease). If we were going to just go out and find a house, we'd have to buy not just furniture but a refrigerator, washing machine, and probably pay to "Westernize" the bathroom (put in a toliet!) With our support a lot lower now than it was a year ago, we don't have that kind of money (not that we would have had it a year ago either!) :)

So lots of praying and trying to rest in God's sovereignty last night and fight the urge to call the Swans and beg them to let us have their house. :)

And this morning, the Swans called... would we like the house? The other families backed out.

I almost cried.

We immediately drove over to their house and I almost cried again... it was perfect. They have a beautiful, but moderate-sized, very Indonesian styled home - all things we were wanting, but it has a really nice modern kitchen and TWO bathrooms with toliets and even a couple rooms with AC. :) It is smack dab in the middle of a small Indonesian neighborhood right outside of town - we share a yard with an Indonesian family and all their dogs and chickens and a huge beautiful exotic bird that look like it should be in a San Diego Zoo exhibit. It's not on a main road, very quiet, with lots of people out in their yards, kids running around everywhere.

The house is much nicer than our house now - it's stone with tile floors (we're living in a wood plank house now) and they have two small little boys so the rooms are very little boy friendly. And everything is in the house - we wouldn't need to buy a thing!

And... the Indonesian church we had started going to a couple weeks ago is right across the street - how good is God to even work out that detail? (We can now walk to the church; before it was very obvious that we were the only family in the church who came to church in a car.) Several people in the neighborhood go to the same church and one of the Indonesian ladies from the church has a kids' Bible club in our neighborhood every week!

So this afternoon as the boys are napping and Brant and I have the chance to sit and process everything that has happened in the past few hours and that will be happening in the next month, we are so, so thankful for God's grace and provision. So thankful for a God Who knows our needs and is giving us this opportunity.

We are a bit nervous... we will go from living on a nice, comfortable white people's compound to living in the middle of an Indonesian community... that will be stretching for us and our boys and it will be hard to move all our stuff and more adjustments. But we are in awe of God's plan for our life and excited to see where He is leading.