It is finished! So to speak!

It is now after 1 pm and all our belongings have been taken away!  The truck arrived at 9:30 and with it came 10 Indonesian men.  Several of our western friends here also came to help and so there were plenty of people to load our things into the truck.  All went well right up to the end!  There were three items at the last that didn’t seem to want to fit but like a big jigsaw puzzle, the men were able to figure it out and everything fit like the truck was built just for us!  God went before in every way and hopefully within a month, our things will arrive in Papua to await our arrival later this year.  At lunch today Joel prayed and thanked God for all he had done to get us this far!  Joel was able to finish off his language study well, everything was packed in time, we all have stayed healthy, and God has sustained us!  He also prayed something that sounded a little strange at first but is a real prayer none the less.  He prayed that the ship wouldn’t sink!  Talk about traveling mishaps. It’s one thing if your moving truck breaks down, but to have everything sink, well that would be sad!!!  So a silly request of ours now is to pray the ship doesn’t sink!

 

Thanks to all who sent me e-cards yesterday and for the well wishes on my birthday.  We will celebrate it tonight with a nice dinner out.

 

Well, that’s all for now and maybe till we arrive on the other side of the world.  Thanks for praying us through this!  Our longest flight is almost 12 hours and so that would be our next prayer request.  That’s a long time for an almost 2 year old to sit still and for his 6+months pregnant mommy to do the same! 

 

Till Missouri!

 

Bethany for us all!

All packed up!

It is with a great big smile on my face that I write this!!  We are all packed and ready for the shipping company to arrive in the morning!  Not exactly what I would have chosen by way of celebrating my birthday but well, such is our life!  We have many friends coming tomorrow to help us load the items into the truck and many items are very very heavy, so please pray for safety for all involved.  After the truck leaves we will have 2 ½ days till we depart from our home here and head to the airport an hour and a half away.  With each passing day, I think more and more about what awaits us at home.  Your prayers for us at this time are so appreciated.  I’m not sure we can completely prepare for what awaits us there but we know that God already has gone before us and has already provided all the grace and strength we need for each day. 

 

As of a day ago, my mom was still without power at her house after the ice storm that hit 2 weeks ago.  Two of our pastoral families at church have graciously taken her in until her power is restored but I know she is more than ready to be in her own home and I’m sure they are ready to have theirs back to normal.  We are hopeful it will be restored soon as we are to move in there when we get to Springfield!

 

We’ll keep you posted as we can over the next few days so keep an eye here for more updates! 

 

In His Care!

 

Joel, Bethany, Jack and soon Owen!

Update

Quick update here… we have flights home now and it looks like we'll be leaving Indonesia the 29th and arriving to Springfield the 30th. We have 4 layovers (one of which is overnight) so please pray for us as we get on and off airplanes and especially on the long flight over the pacific. I'm not sure the actual length of that flight but it's sure to be in the teens of hours.

We also have news on a place to stay while we are home. It has worked out that we will be staying with my mom. We are very happy about this as we will be able to help her get things done at the house that she cannot do alone. Also, it will be much more affordable for us to stay there and obviously being close to her means a lot to us right now. Thanks for your prayers for us in all this. God did provide as we knew he would. Dad continues to adjust to life in a different location than what he's known for so long. it looks like the doctors are beginning to think we may be entering into Alzheimers and that is even more difficult to hear. My Mom's mom and Dad's dad both had it before they died and Mom's brother was diagnosed with it several years ago at the age of 60. We could really use your prayers for continued peace that God alone can give.

Joel began classes last Monday and will finish them next Thursday. I have been packing and am thankful to say it is all but done. These are busy days for us so please pray for us in the following ways.

· Jack is noticing that things are changing. As I will be spending more time with him now that I am not in school, please pray that I can provide the stability he needs while we transition.
· We have chosen a shipping company and will load our things in their truck to be sent to Papua next Friday. Please pray there are no snafoos and that everything arrives there safely.
· Joel is cramming 4 weeks of class into 3. Please pray that he can focus on his studies and get in the language time he needs outside of class.
· I have finally gained a bit more weight with the baby so that is an encouraging thing, but I seem to have leveled off once again and am still experiencing stomach troubles. Please pray that my body would be able to do what it needs to so that the baby will continue getting the nutrients it needs.
· Mom is home making tons of decisions about finances regarding dad. Please pray for her to have wisdom in it all.

We are so thankful you all are standing with us and that God has provided such great friends and family. Thank you for your prayers!

What Will a Day Bring

Every morning with my coffee, I ponder that question. This morning that line of questioning started early (7am) due to the sound of my neighbor chopping up the large tree that fell on the neighborhoods only phone line due to a wind storm yesterday morning. Needless to say the phone cable was less than able to handle such weight and we were once again in the dark as far as communication went. Later that same morning, our front and side yards were bombed with coconuts and and palm fronds falling from high above. Some other neighbors chose 7:15am to harvest the coconuts that they had knocked down into our yard and that means that I had to open the gate at the somewhat early hour and then I proceded to fall foolishly to the groud after slipping on the wet grass. Good thing I didn’t fall to the ground due to the falling coconuts…

 

What do your days start with?

 

Right now, I snicker when I think of the things that take place here. I have to honestly say that we’re ready for some time in a familiar area. Although, it’s amazing how quickly what looks and sounds like the bizarre become the normal. We can speak authoritatively on that. When the mosque sounds it’s 5-times-daily call to prayer, it’s barely noticed by us anymore. The fact that the majority of traffic in major cities is made up of small 100cc motorbikes is no longer out of the ordinary to us. The smell of the much beloved Durien fruit is starting to fade into the rest of the odd smells here and that’s quite remarkable for anyone who has ever had the chance to smell a durien fruit.

 

And while I’m in the process of learning that all things that seems odd, unfamiliar, and sometimes frustrating can often lead to feeling side-lined spiritually, I’m to put my mind on the things above not the things here on earth, not even the familiar comfortable things here or in Springfield MO, where we call home. A focus on anything but my position in Christ above is not going to be able to sustain me.

 

Not that what is comfortable and familiar is bad, but it shouldn’t be sought after. Only by looking towards our sustainer, Jesus Christ, can we cope with the unfamiliar, the uncomfortable, and sometimes even the offensive smells that exist.

 

Joel

Gourmande...

A ‘Gourmande’ is a person who has a steep inclination towards gourmet food and can speak with eloquence and savvy concerning fine food and its accoutraments, in other foods a food snob or a foodie.

 

Christmas very usually brings that side out in me. For those who know me more than casually, it’s known that I love food, more than just eating it but I really like food! One in a line of varied career desires before settling on missionary was a professional chef. I did come somewhat close to entering a culinary arts school…

 

It’s still a hobby of mine and Christmas usually brings an abundance of opportunities to try new things. This year was no exception, and carrying on a Potter family tradition of an Italian colored Christmas Eve meal, I made something very simple, baked Ziti, but the catch of making that here is the cheese. While you can get part skim mozzerella, ricotta is another difficultly answered question. So this year, not willing to let tradition pass by, I tried out a recipe for homemade ricotta.

 

32oz of whole milk

½ cup heavy or whipping cream

pinch of salt

2 tbps fresh lemon juice or 3tbps lemon juice from concentrate

 

Basically, you bring the dairy ingr. and the salt to a rolling boil (being careful to not scald it) and then at the boiling point add the juice and turn down the heat to a simmer, stirring until the mixture curdles to a fine curd.

 

Pour the mixture into a collander lined with a piece of cotton t-shirt over a pot so that liquid drains off and you have left a nice perfect flavored ricotta.

 

Nice huh?!

 

You do have to be persistant in stirring it and if you’re really a gourmande you’ll have a large sieve and fine cheese-cloth instead of a colander and ripped t-shirt but one must make do.

 

So, with that, I sip my french pressed coffee (thanks to my wife) and eat some lovely white Lindt choclate…

 

How was your Christmas culinarally?

This is my Mom and Dad taken last Christmas 

Update on Bethany's Family

We have more news to keep you all praying. 

 

My Mom had to make some tough decisions this week that we thought we would be there to help with, but things have changed quickly for her and my Dad and so we won’t be able to be there for a bit longer.  Dad has been moved into a Skilled Care unit at a nursing home and will stay there till further notice.  We are hopeful that after a time he will be able to come home but as of right now, that’s not in the near future.  It has been a very hard time for Joel and I.  Being away from my mom, who by the way is doing incredibly well thanks to our faithful God, has been hard on me especially right now.  We are trying to work it out so that we can get home as soon as possible but there are many details to work out before we can go.  I won’t bore you with the details but please suffice it to say, we are overwhelmed by them and yet confident that God knows what is to happen. We are trusting Him to guide us and show us when and how to go home.  Again, this will only be for a short time and we are planning on returning here in August or July.  Please pray for our leadership here too as they help us make some of these decisions. They have been nothing but supportive! We even have friends here who said, “if you have to leave tomorrow, we’ll pack up your house.  Don’t worry about that, it will get taken care of!!”  What great friends God has given us here. A family really! 

 

We will keep you all posted as we finalize our plans.  For now, keep praying and we’ll keep trusting!

 

Bethany

Open House and other news

Well, it was a hit!  We had at least 200 people (with that many who can really count?) In our home in the space of 2 hours!  It was a rainy night but well, so is half the year here so I guess a little rain never stops the Javanese!  We served many goodies, coffee and tea and thanks to our partners in ministry here, who also happen to be our neighbors, Tim and Kathy Whatley, we had a successful open house.  Thanks for all who prayed for us this night.  The biggest event of the season is now behind us and we can relax and enjoy the smaller events to come.  Just on a side note, Jack was the perfect host tonight.  Here you greet everyone with a handshake, including children, but as of yet, Jack has not caught on.  Tonight though, after about the 20^th person, he reached out his hand and shook the next person’s hand.  From then on he went around the room shaking everyone’s hand!  We were so proud J!!

 

Keep praying for Bethany’s family.  Her dad was just moved into a skilled care center and so there are lots of changes happening in his life and her mom’s too.  We will be home to help them soon so pray for us too to have wisdom in the changes to come.

 

One more note, just a moment ago, we received word that a dear friend and supporter passed away after a hard fight with cancer.  Please pray for Julie as she mourns Terry’s death that the Lord will be her comfort.

 

Joel and Bethany

This kid loves to laugh and smile! 

Our little ham bone! 

Merry Christmas from the Potters in Indonesia! 

Christmas time in Indonesia

Today I want to fill you all in on what Christmas will look like for us this year in Indonesia.

Thankfully we live in an area where Christianity is not discriminated against and as a matter of fact several of our Indoneisan neighbors are also Christians! We have already put a tree up so it can be seen from our front window and there are small touches around the house to make it look like Christmas. We even turn the air conditioner up at night in our family room to similate what it feels like back home!! I had socks on last night for the first time here!

This past weekend I had the joy of planning a ladies retreat for Christmas. It was a nice time for all of us here who are either in language study or helping us newbies settle in and adjust to life in Indonesia.

We have three more days of class before we finish Unit 6 of language and then the real activities begin! Friday night we are hosting an open house at our home for all of our neighbors. They have all been asking if we will be having something like this around Christmas so they can see our traditions! Our Canadian friends, the Whatley’s who live down the street will join in making the goodies and help us greet all 200 guests as they come to our home! Thursday and Friday will be busy days for us as we bake lots of goodies for our neighbors to try! It’s been interesting to figure out what to serve as they don’t like food that is too sweet! Being that we eat almost all sweet foods at parties at Christmas, we have had to be creative. We want them to be able to try what we eat but don’t want to grose them out either! Pray for opportunities to share with them about the true meaning of Christmas.

Sunday, Christmas Eve we have tried our best to continue our Christmas traditions from back home. Joel will be creating a special dinner for our family and then we will be doing a Christmas Eve service of sorts for all our NTM family here. It will be at someone elses house but we are organizing it as part of the worship team here. We’ll sing Christmas songs, read the Christmas story and then have a time of fellowship together with Christmas goodies. Then we’ll all go to our own homes and have time as individual families to carry out our own Christmas Eve traditions. For us that means exchanging one gift! We always get one another pajamas to exchange on Christmas Eve so that we have nice pj’s on in our Christmas morning pictures. This year, I had a hard time finding any for Joel as the concept of pajama bottoms for men seems to be a foreign concept. I may have to have some made from what he already has – thankfully that’s very cheap to do here!

Christmas morning we’ll let Jack be our alarm clock and then eat a nice breakfast together and open gifts. This will be the year Jack begins to really enjoy Christmas. It will be fun to watch him open gifts and we will begin to share with him about the One Gift that really matters! He has a Little People nativity set and already carries around the baby Jesus saying his name over and over!!

I have found fun things to fill in decorating around the house. Much of our Christmas deco is still in the states but we are feeling very much like it’s Christmas! We’ll make many phone calls on Christmas evening as our families back home will be just waking up to Christmas morning. This is our first time away from our family for Christmas and my first time out of the US for Christmas. I expect there to be a bit of tears as we will be missing our families and friends much. Enjoy your family this year more than before. They are also a special gift from God!

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Dad Stroud

This is a hard thing for me to write tonight, but we wanted to let you all know that my (Bethany’s) Dad was hospitalized this past week due to the mental health issues he has been dealing with for the past few years.  The doctors have tried various medicines and have come to no solutions and so they wanted to stop his current medications and change to some new ones.  In order to do this, Dad had to be admitted to the hospital so that they could monitor him.  When stopping the kinds of medicines he was on cold turkey, there is a chance that the patient could suffer seizures as a result.  To make sure that didn’t happen, Dad was admitted.  Another factor was also that they felt they could better see how he was doing on a daily basis if he were in the hospital for awhile.  We think he will be there for a week to ten days and then after being released from there he will likely have to go to a care facility for a few weeks until they are sure that the medicines are stabilizing him enough that he can return home.  This is our hope. 

Dad is pretty confused at this point as to why he is in the hospital but trusts my mom and her explanations to him.  Mom is doing well despite the circumstances due to our amazing God who sustains her every day.  We all feel that this was a necessary next step and so are somewhat relieved that the doctors agreed.  It is still very difficult though to realize that Dad is that sick.  Please pray for my Mom to continue to have strength each day to rest in God and his sovereignty in all this.   Also, we appreciate your prayers for my brother who is there living with my mom.  We also covet your prayers for us here in Indonesia.  There are days I feel like I just can’t stay here while this is all going on at home but then the Lord gives me strength and I remember that in just 2 months we’ll be home with my family for awhile.  We have one week left of Unit 6 in our language study and then a two week break for Christmas.  After that we’ll have just four more weeks of language study here at the school and then two weeks to pack up our house and get it ready to ship to Papua before leaving Indonesia February 16.  We so appreciate all of you at home who have called, visited, sent cards and prayed for my family, especially Mom.  It is so encouraging to know she has “family” there!

Keep praying!

Bethany

What does your Thanksgiving Look Like?

Good Evening,

 

            While, we’re a day ahead of most of you, it’s officially the evening of Thursday the 23^rd here, and in a few hours most of you will be waking up to Thanksgiving Day, a day filled with big fat newspapers loaded with the first big sales of the seaon, the smells of turkey and the all the inevitable side dishes, long afternoon naps, and great times with your family and friends. The weather, for most of you, is cool and fall-like and quite a few of you will spend the next day decorating your house for Christmas (though if your name is Jonny J. your house has been decorated since Labor day J)

             Ok, so it doesn’t sound like we miss all that does it? …Maybe a little bit, maybe a lot, but we’re confident that the Lord has brought us here to Indonesia and that means that we get to create new traditions and things that remind us of our traditions at home. So, in that spirit we’ll be celebrating Thanksgiving with a turkey dinner with a group of mostly Canadian friends and co-workers here. Like I said, we have to make new traditions here…

            We’ve got plenty of Christmas music, pictures of snowy landscapes, and even a decent Christmas tree. We’ll be fine, but when you are celebrating later on today maybe pray that we would continue to trust the Lord in an environment that still feels pretty foreign at times and at a time when we make some of the best memories back home.

             We’re 1 day into starting our 6^th unit of language study, which means that we have only 2 more units to go, including this one. Boy do we need your prayers, we have only 8 weeks of formal language study left and we want to make the most of it. We’re excited though at the progress that we’ve made. Last weekend we hosted the neighborhood men’s meeting, which was a a good gesture for us to make at learning the culture of our host country, but it was only possible because of the progress that God has enabled us to make in this language.

             So language is going well, how about the rest of our lives?

             Jack is sleeping on a toddler bed which is a big graduation for him. His little vocabulary is developing and in his mind it’s much broader than we can possbily understand J. We love to listen to him chatter. He’s growing quickly and we very much do not have a baby on our hands anymore. He needs much shepherding from us though and is learning, often times the hard way, that he needs to obey Daddy and Mama. Which means that Daddy and Mama need much patience and enablement to be consistent in both hands on love and discipline. It’s easy to lose patience with him, but I’m confident that the Lord has provided the Holy Spirit to produce that patience in us when we live trusting Him to do that.

             Bethany is doing well. We still don’t know the gender of the baby and are hoping for a nice Christmas gift to ourselves by finding out next month. In the mean time, Bethany is growing but slower than the first time, to her happiness. She’s in the process of organizing a ladies retreat later in December which is keeping her event-planner side happily occupied! She’s doing well with langauge and has significantly improved due to working with a tutor two days a week.

             I (Joel) am also doing well, though I’m in the midst of a cold/flu, must be the chilly fall weather here…  I’m doing well and for the most part, I’ve been enjoying language study and the gradual process of becoming bi-lingual. I’m looking forward to creating new holiday traditions here in Indonesia and am happy to say that I’ve procured a nice little bag of my favorite coffee roaster’s Christmas Blend! You still have to be civilized you know…

             Our plans are continually coming together for the plan of next year to come home for a short time. We just got quotes for airfare and we’re continuing to look into the rest of the plans that we need to see finished. Please be praying with us for the details of this trip to come together in a way that grows us and glorifies the Lord. We’re often reminded of the neccessity for us to come home for this time period as we continue to hear of Bethany’s father’s health. We’re really trusting the Lord to provide us with good time with her Dad and Mom at a time when they could really use our encouragement.

             We know that the timing of this trip is odd and seemingly inconvenient but we’re convinced that it’s the Lords will for that time period. And in the end, after 6 months home, we’ll actually be able to arrive in Papua quicker than we had originally thought and that means that we’ll be able to start helping our overloaded team-mates there with all the work that needs to be done.

             Well, I should sign off. We hope your Thanksgiving Day is awesome! Enjoy all that you have, be thankful for it, and remember that God has blessed us with so much both physical and more so Spiritually, in Christ our life!

 

            Joel for the Potter 3

 

"Memutar otaknya" - to spin the brain!

I know it wasn’t that long ago, we sent out an update and here we are again! We have some more new news for you though and wanted to fill you in.

As we wrote last time, we will be going home for a 6 month medical furlough to have the baby and be with my family for awhile. We are planning to leave Indonesia somewhere around the 1st of March and will need to be back in Indonesia by the 1st of September. Joel will be returning to Indonesia for two weeks April 5-19 to renew his visa but Jack and I will be staying put, awaiting the arrival of baby number two (which we hope to know the gender of in 3 weeks!). The new part of the news is this. Because we will be away from language study for a time, our target arrival date for getting to the region of Papua, where we’ll be serving would be pushed back to January of 2008. The leadership in Papua talked about that and how it would affect the situation there and thus sent the following email to our leadership here in Central Java…

“We would like to request the Potters come directly to Papua upon their return to Indonesia. If they were to arrive in Papua in Spetember 2007, this would give them overlap time with the Voskamps (the family running the guest house) in Sentani before they (the Voskamps) must move to Wamena (another town more interior). This would also then allow overlap time with the Voskamps and Miles (the family currently serving there to help the missionaries in the tribes) in Wamena before the Miles go on furlough. We see that these overlap times are necessary for things to continue to run effectively. If the Potters did not come in September, this would leave the Olvers (the other family working in Sentani to do bookkeeping, supply buying, regional leadership things, and a pleathera of other ministries) in Sentani by themselves to do everything (including the guest house) and this is not possible. There are possibilities we could look into for further language study for the Potters as well (after the arrive in Papua).” (parenthesis added for clarification by the Potters)

Ok so that may be a bit confusing for you all, so let me summarize it for you. A family interior needs to go on furlough and thus needs someone to take over their ministry while they are gone. The family currently running the guest house in Sentani will be doing that, as they are the only ones available. Since we, the Potters, are going to take over the guesthouse ministry permanently in Sentani, they need us to go there in September instead of waiting till January the following year. Otherwise all the support ministries, including the guesthouse (which is a full time ministry all by itself) to help our missionaries serving in the tribal areas, will be left to one family, who are already overloaded! Clear as mud???

Ok so that is where things stand as of today. What does that mean for the Potters now? It means several things:

1. We will need to start researching how to ship our things to Papua before we leave in March, just four months from now.
2. We need to start packing up our things to ship them to Papua in January, while also packing to come home for 6 months.
3. We need to be looking into plane tickets for our trip home and back and Joel’s trip here alone to renew his visa in April.
4. We are setting up the details to deliver the baby in Missouri and finding out from my doctor what he needs to know from my appointments here, which are all in Indonesian.
5. We are still praying that God will provide direction for us as far as our housing while on furlough.
6. We have a few leads on vehicles but nothing decided yet.
7. We have 2 ½ more units of langauge study time before we leave for furlough. And now more than ever, we need motivation and the ability to be able to give our best to language study as we have many other things that can take our concentration away from language study at this time.

So you may be thinking, “wow that’s a lot of needs!” We find ourselves thinking the same thing at times! It could be very overwhelming to us too. God’s Word reassures us though in several passages:

“Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all comprehension, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus…And my God will supply all your needs according to His riches in glory in Christ Jesus.” Philippians 4:6-7 & 19

For us, as we read this passage, we see this…

nothing, means just that, worry about NOTHING! As God’s children, Joel and I can trust all the details into God’s hands. Whether we see resources He can use to provide or not, He needs no resources! Remember, He created the WHOLE world out of nothing!
with thanksgiving, how can we thank Him at the same time we make the request, before we know His answer? Because we have His promise that He will provide our needs.
Needs, first of all we have to remember that what we see as needs, God sees too and knows truly what our needs really are. If we really need it, He will provide it!
His riches in glory in Christ Jesus, second, we cannot ever fathom just how much God has in His riches. But we can know that because Joel and I are His children, we have all that He placed in His Son, which is everything, available to us because we also have our life in The Son.

What an incredible thing we have in our relationship with Christ! It is like no other! He will never let us down and He loves us more than we can fully comprehend!

So we leave you with that! With lots of changes, comes lots of peace and we pray you are all experiencing that same peace!

All our love,

Joel and Bethany

These are two very special women. They are women who have sacrificed much in their lives. They are women who love Christ more than anything else in this world and because of that have willingly sent their children out into the world, knowing God would take good care of them. We couldn't be here without these two women and we just wanted to share with all of you how special they are to us. Do us a favor, if you live nearby your mom, hug her today. And as a favor to us, if you see one of these two ladies in the near future, hug them for us too! We surely miss them! 

A very special place for us is my parent's house in Missouri. This time of year, things are growing colder, leaves are falling and the house will be decorated for fall. This is our home away from home (wherever that is) and we just want those who live there to know WE LOVE YOU! 

This was also taken on the same trip and gives you a good idea of what the farming landscape looks like here. Please don't aske me what they are growing. I haven't a clue! 

Joel recently took a motorbike ride with several guys up a nearby mountain. This is a shot from the road! What a view we have! 

I am sure we'll get some interesting comments on this one. I debated whether to show it or not but to be true to life here I thought you all might be interested to see how we get around here. This is Jack and I on my bike, heading home from church. He is strapped snuggly to me and holds on to the consol! He feels very big and loves riding the bike! It's very different than transportation at home but it is very normal here!