Merry Christmas!!!!

We really enjoyed our second Christmas in Asia-Pacific. Even though we missed our family and friends from back home, we had fun celebrating the birth of our Savior with good friends here.

Raquel was very excited on Christmas morning. She had been counting down the days for a couple weeks.

She got lots of fun presents

Gideon wasn't quite sure about all that went on, but still had a good time:)

Raquel's neighbor friends came over after she opened her presents to help try them out.

For lunch we went to our house helper's house and visited with her family.

Then later the Teall's came over for dinner and we feasted:)

Raquel and Kendra were matching!

It was good day:)

Now, on to the New Year!

Happy 2011 everyone:)!

Idul Adha cont...

My friend is the "mother" for about 50 girls at an orphanage nearby. They had recieved beef and goat meat and we were invited to go and eat sate (meat on a stick:) with them.

Here the girls are getting the meat ready

Some of it all ready to go.

Then they lit fires in these little grills outside and started to fan the flames

Raquel had a blast playing while the the food cooked.

When the fires were hot enough they brought the sate out to be grilled.

It takes awhile to cook sate for 50 plus people. We got there at 6 and didn't eat until almost 10. Gideon fell asleep:)

this picture makes me laugh

and then we ate! (and then we went home and went to bed- it was a long night)

Idul Adha

Idul Adha is holiday "celebrated by Muslims worldwide to commemorate the willingness of Abraham to sacrifice his son Ishmael as an act of obedience to God, before God intervened to provide him with a ram to sacrifice instead." You can read more about it here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eid_al-Adha

The mosques were singing all night, and then all over the city today, goats and cows were being slaughtered. We no longer live across the street from a mosque, but there is a school by our house that was sacrificing a cow in a field nearby.

They skinned it and chopped it up right there, and then split up the meat for all the people.

We explained to Raquel that that's where hamburgers and biltong come from:)

Gideon was almost more popular than the cow.

Merapi

You've probably heard of the volcanic eruptions that have been occuring over the last week. As the crow flies we are 15 miles from Merapi's peak, but fortunately are protected from any lava flow by Merbabu, another volcano that has been dormant for 1,000 years. Here is a picture of the location of our house, Merbabu and Merapi.

My friend who lives up the street from us took this picture of ash clouds from her house on Thursday morning.

These next two were taken on Friday morning after the volcano had erupted throughout the night.

Today (Saturday) we received some of that ash.

Here it is on some leaves.

I don't know if you'll be able to tell, but the road is dusty with ash.

Since we didn't have masks and now there is a shortage, this is how we protected ourselves as we drove around (of course I didn't cover my eyes, but this was the easiest way for Raquel:) I covered Gideon in a blanket and used a shirt stuffed into either side of my helmet to cover my nose and mouth.

Please continue to pray for the victims. Although we have had very little effects here, 15 miles south of us over 100 people have died and there are almost 100,000 people in evacuation shelters. Many of them have lost homes, livestock, livelihoods and have no idea when they will be able to return and attempt to rebuild.

Firsts

This weekend was full of firsts. Dylan preached in our church for the first time (in Asia-Pacific language!:). Unfortunately I couldn't be there because the morning before something happened to my neck when I sneezed and I still can't move it very well without pain. (that was a (unwelcome) first for me:)

After successfully delivering his sermon, Dylan returned home and we decided to go to out for brunch. Because of my aforementioned neck issue I couldn't carry Gideon in the front carrier, so, for the FIRST TIME, Dylan did.

Well... the other day I heard a little noise coming from this young man so I quickly undid his diaper and held him over the toilet. It actually worked which was wonderful because we are using cloth diapers and they're great except for about once a day when I have the 'privilege' of washing out a 'soiled' one:)

Isn't he adorable?