Field Fellowship 2017

Oh what fun it was in late January to gather with our whole team for our annual meetings! We have a growing team, which included three new arrivals - two long-term women and one short-term young man. While we serve on different islands and in different ministries it is so good to get together, share our joys and burdens, and pray together.

For those able to, we spent the first day and a half just enjoying time relaxing, shopping, and eating fun places together. Then the remaining few team members joined us and we spent three full days in meetings and wrapped up with a time sharing Communion. I didn't take a lot of pictures because I was just enjoying being with everyone but here are a few taken by other members of our team...

We spent the first evening praying for the unreached of Indonesia, each other and our ministries

We also took time to pray for our two newest long-term team members. They are settling in and tacking language and culture study. 

We also spent time with men and women meeting separately to do some more in-depth sharing where where we focused on hope. 

And I got to spend time with some of my favorite people - the young members of our team. 

Hanging out and taking selfies with Beatrice. Her big sister Annie is behind her.

Hanging out with our youngest team members. I was present at all of their births here in Indonesia. 

Please be praying for the baby I am holding in my left arm. There were concerns about his development during our time in Jakarta and further testing in Indonesia has shown what may be a major problem. He is being evacuated to Singapore in a few hours for further testing and possible surgery. His name is David and he is two and half months old. 

Christmas Celebrations with Students

 *Very late post :) *

One of my favorite parts (but also very time consuming) of the Christmas season here in Serukam is the opportunity to invite the Nursing School students to my house before they leave on Christmas vacation. This year because of the accreditation visit things had to be moved up by a week leaving me scrambling a bit to get enough food baked but in the end it was fine. So for three nights I hosted an open house at my place. Here are some of the fun pictures from those open houses... 

You can tell where the party is by finding the house with all the noise and shoes outside

A necessary requirement is a lot of food! 100s of cookies and at least one cupcake and can of soda per student required. 

And after that is all about fun, singing and eating...

I keep busy keeping food on the table and taking a lot of pictures with all the different students. By the they are ready to head home my smile is wearing a bit thin :) 

These two young ladies (Dolina in the center and Gusniati on the right) are two of my "anak PA" or students that I provide academic counseling for. In this case they are both 2nd year students. We meet regularly through the semester to make sure they are doing well physically, spiritually, emotionally, and academically. Both of these young ladies consistently get the top grades in their class. Unfortunately, my other student from this class, Nimrod, routinely receives some of the lowest grades in his class and is struggling to pass. Please pray for all of our staff and teachers as we seek to teach and mentor these young nurses-to-be.