Mail

I'm thinking this might be a little bit in the game, but I finally figured out the mailing system. Well, sort of. The Fosdahls have always told me that mailing wasn't that good if people wanted to send me stuff. However, I was talking to a lady here from a different organization, and she told me that they have somewhat of a post office in their house. She said that everybody who lives here has always received what was sent to them, and I can feel free to hand out their address. SO. :) If you ever had that dying desire to send me a package, now you can! :D Here is the address.

Attn: Lisa Tannehill
c/o The Weeks
Jl Bangao #18 Rt. 02/RW14
Cabean (Di depan Puskesmas)
Salatiga, Ja-Teng 50721
Indonesia

She said that things normally arrive within 2-3 weeks. Also, If you would like to call me sometime which I would absolutely love considering I don't have anyone's phone numbers out here to call, I am on Skype everyday from 10 p.m.-1.a.m. Sunday-Thursday nights American Time.

January and February 2008 in Salatiga

Aaah! Ok, so I am going to be better at this whole updating thing…well, if not, then at least I’ll make a really good 2007-2008 school year update letter in June…J I have been back in Indonesia for 8 weeks now and it has flown by so fast. These last two months have been really amazing. I’m pretty sure I have gotten over the whole culture shock phase, or at least for the most part. I didn’t realize how much it had affected me last year just from what I’ve heard of what others have perceived of me. However, they said it is very normal. I finally feel like I have a better grip of how things are run over here, not completely, but a lot better than last year. I have so many great relationships which seem to have come from nowhere, but I know that it is the evidence of God being here with me. I have a better understanding on what the girls are like such as what they like to do or what they struggle with. Understanding the girls is actually a lot more complicated then I foresaw when I was first coming out here in August considering they are “TCK’s”(a.k.a Third Culture kids). I’m able to organize things a lot better such as small groups, Sunday services, retreats, outings, and such because I’m not as reclusive and feeling overwhelmed from the culture shock. I also have bought a new desk for myself at the office which inspires me to write to people and stay organized. J Mind you that I said inspire not necessarily make me actually do it…J

I arrived back in Salatiga on January 10th along with my brother. It was really great to have him here with me because we were able to do a little sightseeing together, but primarily because I’ll have somebody back at home that can really understand what I had went through. He went back after a month and is now helping with some missionary work in Tijuana, Mexico.

Ministry:
Nathan and I started small groups back up for this quarter. I am leading two small groups. One is with 10th-12th grade girls and we are reading through the book of Romans. My other small group is with two 8th grade girls and we use the time to pray for each other and keep each other accountable. I also attend another small group which one of the senior girls is leading. It’s on the book captivating. I like to go to hers because I can spend time with the girls without feeling pressured to lead it.
I am currently working with the dorm parents trying to start up a Sunday service for the youth. We have already had some services. However, it’s somewhat dragging because we don’t have a set direction. I'm hoping to see it be a place to give opportunities for the students to lead, so some prayers for that would be great. I’m really excited about it because after Nathan and I leave there will be the dorm parents to keep it up. The other reason for it dragging is because the school had given us a youth building to fix up back in January which we were planning to have the service in. However, it’s taking a long time to paint and get it ready, so currently we are just meeting in the boy’s dorm.

I am really enjoying getting to know the girls out here. I’ve learned so much about what other people around the world go through. I’m pretty sure that God has been teaching me a lot more than I have actually been used by God to teach others. There are two coffee shops in town which just opened at the end of last summer right before I had arrived. Wasn’t that the perfect timing? That has been a blessing from God for my ministry here because I have had my small groups there and I also just take the girls there after church on Sundays or whenever to get to know them better and listen to whatever is going in their life. A couple of weeks ago, I and two senior girls began to start working out every Monday through Saturday morning from 5:30 until about 6:30. Some other ways that I have been getting to know the girls is by eating lunch with them at their school every day and helping with homework in the evening. In addition, this one is quite interesting, I have been asked to help coach the JV girls’ basketball team considering the coach is a guy and wanted to have some adult female presence around. I told him that I have never played basketball nor understand anything about it. In fact, I just learned where the 3-pointer line was and why it was called that a couple of weeks ago. I ended up agreeing, and it turned out to be something I had really enjoyed doing. I was in charge of conditioning the girls which was tiring because I had to do the exercises with them or else they would have given me attitude, but they would ignore the fact that I had to do it twice with both sets of girls. However, it ended up being a great time to connect with the girls as they feel a lot more comfortable with me now. The basketball season just ended last week, so I through a slumber party for them over the weekend in which I realized that I don’t exactly have as much energy to stay up all night anymore as I did when I was in Jr. High. Aah! I’m getting old! J This week, some of the girls and I decided to join a Kung Fu class held at the school. I’m so excited!!!

Other Aspects of Living in Indonesia
After my brother had went back, I started language learning back up at the language school, IMLACK. I didn’t realize how much I had forgotten after going home for only a month. I will take my evaluation to pass Unit 1 tomorrow, so wish me luck! In February, Karen had another group of five girls from an Islamic college stay at the house for an English program. This is the second time that I had been in the house when she had done this English program for the Muslim students. I really liked the first group who was here last year in November. I got to know them well, and we all cried when they had to leave. When this new group of girls came, I was somewhat pulled back only because I was so focused on my ministry with the girls at the school and partly that I didn’t want to get close again and have to say goodbye. However, these past group of girls really liked me for some reason and always wanted to talk to me. I felt really convicted after a week because here God has placed these girls into my life who were obviously lost and yet I didn’t “feel” like getting to know them. Subsequently, I started to spend time with them during the daytime whether going out to lunch or watching Oprah on TV. J They even invited me to spend the night with them in their rooms, but one of the more strict Muslim girls to me that I “can” go into my own room now meaning she wanted me to leave. I think it was because a non-Muslim is not allowed to see them without their head coverings, but I’m not sure. However, one of the girls did ask me why I decided to come out here to ID and I told her that I felt God was leading me here. Another time I had woken up at 4:00 a.m. to study the Bible for my small group and later they told Karren that I was very diligent. However, what they didn’t know was that I HAD to do that considering I had procrastinated to the very last day in which my small group started at 6:15 a.m….oh well. J They left last week and I told them that we would get together sometime this week for lunch and still hang out. Please pray for me that God would use me to show the love of Christ in their lives. I would feel so overjoyed if one of them learned the truth of who God is; even if that was the only thing I ended up doing out here this year.

Coming Up
For the future, I will be going on one of the school-led mission trips to Madura this weekend. I’m really hoping that this would be a great time to go to know the girls better as it will be a 3 day trip with a 15 hour drive one-way. Yup! It will be a really great time for conversations…maybe even a little too much time. J During spring break, which is in only about 10 days, I’m probably going to be going to Jakarta with two of the girls at the school and be staying with their families for a week. After that, there will only be 8 more weeks left. aah! It’ll fly by so fast. I’m surprisingly not looking forward to having to leave. The girls have already been talking about me leaving, and asking if I can stay another year or saying how weird it’ll be when I leave. I’m like “I’m not gone yet!” but I can already see that it’s going to be hard.

Prayer Requests:

• God’s guidance in my life for the future after this year
  
  


• I would have wisdom and love for the girls here so that God may continue to use me here
  
  


• Wisdom and Energy to finish strong the last quarter here as well as help guide on what the youth need for next year




• My own personal relationship with the Lord will become stronger and I would be more attentive to what His will is for everyday to long term circumstances.




• For opportunities to be a witness and share the love of Christ to the Muslims around me. In particular, in the lives of some of the girls who have went through Karren's homestay program: Okta, Atik, Kipti, Endah, Arni, and Ila