Thursday June 11th

When I posted the last pictures I had written a lengthy letter as well but it is now in never never land somewhere in outer space.

Lela has been ill and thank God I had some antibiotic pills my doctor gave me. I gave her two as prescribed and have two, one dose, left. But if I need more there is a clinic here on campus that is suppose to give me a prescription so I can refill them.

It has been a very busy and yet great week with a few bumps in the road. I have learned over the years you cannot expect anything less when serving our Great God and King. I was reminded of this truth in chapel reviewing he life of Moses, Nehemiah and Peter. One was meek but angry, one was wise and compassionate and of course Peter who was confident but not in the Lord in himself yet God humbled them all and used them mightily.

I met with the High School counselors Monday and Tuesday. Great bunch of gals but was amazed at their approach to counselling which is more Rogerian. This approach may be fine for some in a counseling practice, if you have years to work with a person but with kids, I think not. Besides that the Bible was not used because of the various beliefs of their students, I gave them some worksheets that could be fun working with kids as well as be able to get information from them. They aware eager to find out how they might use His Words. One can look to biblical principles and apply them to the particular situation but I challenged them that in order to do this that need to be reading the bible more than on Sunday. Sarah is ex-patriot here as those of us from the states are. She will be here for about two more years and graduated from Concordia in the mid-west. She has a heart for biblical counseling. So, we had some good discussions and Q & A time. Please pray with me that our time together was beneficial for them as they have no support system or really a supervisor to go too. Great weakness in the system here. Teachers are not thought highly of and that is seen in the attitudes of the student. This is where being Rich, at least in my eyes, is a detriment to the kids. They have everything except motivation to learn or grow for everything is handed to them. One student got a new better laptop and gave the old one to the teacher. The kids have drivers, nanny's and not held accountable for doing school work for after all they are going to inherit dad's business so I don't need this education. The parents expect the teachers to train them to be successful adults without their baking for the students do not face any consequences for their actions.

The system here is very different than what I am use to. I came in Monday morning with a letter on my desk saying I needed to have my mid-terms ready by Thursday and they were to be 90 minute tests. PTL for everyone and my daughters prayers because as busy week as it has been I did get them done. The system here borders on structured chaos. But in the end everyone is so stinken nice you just go with the flow.

My trip to Mini Indonesia and the Gardens was wonderful and tiring. Traffic here as you could probably tell is frantic and again organized chaos, especially the bikes which fly by you and can have whole families on them Child in front of the driver, another child between mom and dad while mom holds anther infant. I shudder, one bad bump an sianarda (sp.).

We found a Wendy's and McD. The baked potato and burger hit the spot. Not exactly what we get at home but close enough. If you buy American food you pay much more like coffee and Ice Cream or Burgers. One can get tired of chicken drenched in peanut sauce and rice. Sunday I grocery shopped and bought potatoes and frozen vegetables to eat, what a treat! There pastry is a slightly sweet bread like with a hint of flavoring or a few (5-6) raisins in a roll. Hagen Doss Ice Cream is $4 for a small half-pint. I get milk which is imported from Australia.

We no longer eat salads as that might be what caused Lela's illness but still not sure. Their water is not to be trusted so we drink bottled water and occasional coke but again you pay for it big time.

The dichotomy is that I can buy a shirt for 7 dollars and our groceries run about $40.00 and we get two to three small plastic bags. Paper is a premium here no napkins or paper towels and TP sections are the napkins. The strange thing is we have marble bathrooms and floors, hard to understand.

The weather is pretty typical of humid heat thunder storms and lightning. i got so startled I yelp like a banshee Indian and almost jumped in Sarah's arms. It looked and sounded like it directly upon us.

Well I am going to close for now. My love and prayers are with you all. Hey would someone say a loud Amen or Hallelujah out loud in church I don't Pastor Justin or Pastor Carl to think its too quite.

See you the end of July. I am only partially homesick for my family, doggy, friends and church family. You are all sorely missed. Ellen