Wearing Many Hats

In high school I had quite the array of after school and summer jobs to help keep my bank account out of the red. For four years, I worked as a "Tax Preparation Assistant" at spending my after school hours in front of a copy machine hoping and praying that the Lord wouldn't call me to be an accountant (no offense mom:) One summer I was a server in the dining room of an assisted living home. Again, I enjoyed getting to know the residents and hearing their stories, but was pretty certain that God hadn't blessed me with the patience to serve the elderly. Another summer, I was a landscaping assistant at a hotel got in touch with my inner handyman. I remember reminding myself when the copy machine had jammed for the four hundredth time, or when I had to hold my tongue after a resident complained about their food again, that these jobs were only temporary and that one day I would be doing something that I love.

Now that I am on the other side of college just starting out my first real job, I find myself reflecting on where I thought I would be back when I was grumbling in minimum wage jobs. I never expected God to bring me here to do some of the things I am doing now, in fact I always thought I was never cut out to work overseas. Nothing compares to looking back on years past and seeing the hand of God guiding every step and being reminded that it isn’t about me, but that it is all about Him.

The past month or so has been very busy. The majority of my time has been spent at school either planning for my ESL classes, planning for projects like tree planting for Week Without Walls or the all-school work day, subbing in all kinds of classes from PE to computers, or working in the bookroom with Jennie. I have been so blessed to have worn quite the number of hats here at BAIS lately. I have been learning a lot about myself from hidden gifts to limits that seem to pop up in stressful times. I am being stretched and molded in ways I never have before. Through the challenge of these experiences God is drawing me closer to Himself reminding me that “I Need Thee Every Hour.”

After years of knowing I would never be working in an accounting office or an assisted living home or landscaping at a hotel, today I can say that I am exactly where I am supposed to be. Not anywhere close to where I thought I would be, but smack dab in the middle of my Father’s will.

A Snapshot Update...

Amazing places I have gotten to see:

• Borobudur: A few weeks ago we went to Jogjakarta and got to see the sunrise at a large Buddhist temple and one of the seven wonders of the world. Although it was painfully early, nothing beats watching God's creation wake up with the sun:)
• We took an eight hour train ride to Jogja and got to see some pretty amazing scenery that reminded me that I am kind of afraid of heights:)

Cool things I have gotten to do:

• Plant trees!: A group of fifteen students and four leaders planted about 150 trees. We planted 50 right off the toll road with a group from a local Muslim school. The next day we went a planted 85 trees out at the new campus. It was really cool to see the students step out of their comfort zones and sweat for Jesus:)
  
• This past weekend was an all school work day. The goal was to purge all classrooms and offices of things that we don't need anymore. It was challenging, but really cool to see everyone work hard with a common goal.
  

Crazy things I have eaten:

• Horse Sate: It is a specialty in Jogja, but not much of a specialty in my mouth:) I think I prefer spicy woof woof:)
• Pigeon: I know, this one was pretty interesting. We also ate this in Jogja at a Japanese restaurant. It tasted like chicken, not a whole lot of meat.
  
• Indo-mex: We went out to Mexican food this weekend, and it was surprisingly good. Growing up in Arizona, I have become a Mexican food snob, but I was pleasantly surprised by the food at Lada's.

Things to look forward to and be praying for:

• SeaTribe: We are headed to the remote islands of Indonesia in about three and a half weeks to spend time with the people there. Pray that some of His love would rub off on them through our conversations with them. We will be working hard, teaching some English, getting eaten alive by mosquitoes, and eating all kinds of fun foods.
  
• Please continue to pray for the New Campus Project: the details of the building, the transition for the teachers, the housing for next year, the moving process and the hiring of new teachers for the five positions that are currently open.

Thank you for your prayers and words of encouragement. I hope you are all doing well. Please keep me updated on your lives, so I can be lifting you up in prayer as well:)

With Your Likeness Let Me Wake

Jesus draw me ever nearer
As I labour through the storm.
You have called me to this passage,
and I'll follow, though I'm worn.

May this journey bring a blessing,
May I rise on wings of faith;
And at the end of my heart's testing,
With Your likeness let me wake.

Jesus guide me through the tempest;
Keep my spirit staid and sure.
When the midnight meets the morning,
Let me love You even more.

Let the treasures of the trial
Form within me as I go -
And at the end of this long passage,
Let me leave them at Your throne.

We sang this song in church last week, and I was reminded not only of His sovereignty and provision, but also that it is through the storms or that refining fire that something beautiful is produced. Last year, as I was anticipating my semester on the other side of the globe, fear and anxiety were constant companions. Although I knew where I was going and what I was going to do, January sat there looking like big question mark. I had no idea what I was going to do, and being the controlling type that I am, I hated having that huge unknown at the end of my calendar. Through the struggles, challenges and downright painful times, God was shaping my character and equipping me with the strength to face what this semester would hold.

This year the theme is all about trust. Everyday I have to surrender my worries about finances, my worries about my ESL lessons, my worries about projects being completed. Last Sunday I was feeling the weight of these worries and as tears streamed down my face, I soaked in the lyrics of this song, and was able to hand over all those worries in the hands of my Heavenly Father. I hope that this song brings a little hope into your day, because it certainly was a pleasant reminder for me this week.

And the to-do list gets longer...

I cannot believe it has only been three weeks since I arrived back here in Bandung. Life has been pretty busy here in the tropics, but I love having a full to-do list. Last week I told you about the Open Houses that Jennie and I were in charge of planning. Just for a recap: Bandung Alliance International School is in the process of building a new campus about 45 minutes from its current location. It is a slow process so far, but it is coming along. We have outgrown our current campus, and this new one is going to be wonderful!
The New Campus team has had a couple booths at local malls in Bandung to promote the new campus and recruit new students. They have also scheduled three open houses, two here at the school and one in Jakarta. Last week they gave those three open houses to Jennie and me to plan. We worked hard to get the staff excited to help, and to make the event look nice and professional. Wednesday was the first open house. Jennie and I joked that it was kind of like planning a wedding…you spend all this time planning it, and then it is one three hour period of time. It turned out great! The booths were awesome, the set up was really nice, and we had about 15 families show up, three of which started the registration process. Saturday’s also went well, we had about 40 families come. I have really loved planning and organizing these events.
Next thing on the list is Week Without Walls. This outreach event is school wide and will happen next week. The students will participate in various projects all over Bandung. Our project is planting 50 trees on the toll road on the way out to the new school. Jennie, Aaron and I are the leaders of this team in charge of planning. We have been working through details since December, and are pretty excited. Especially now that we have trees to plant! The government donated 200 trees (25 of which are durian trees). The president’s wife wants to plant one million trees in Indonesia to help fix the deforestation problem. There is a group of 15 students that we’ll be working with along with a group of about 15 students from a local Muslim school. The three day project will be full of building relationships and working hard for the Lord. It’s gonna be a little outside the comfort zone for a lot of us, seeing as how there isn’t going to be a bathroom or water, or really anything out there. I’ve never had to use a hole in the ground before…can’t wait for that one:)
As you keep me in your prayers please remember to pray for Week Without Walls next week, for safety, for successful planting, and that lives would be impacted through all the projects.

Congratulations, Molly, you're now an adult...

My lack of posting should give you a hint of how crazy my life has been since arriving back in Indonesia. I was able to enjoy a couple days of playing and relaxing before school started. The morning after I arrived Jennie, Aaron and I visited the orphanage we had taken presents to in December, and the culinary adventures once again commenced. The head guy was raving about this fruit that he claimed was worse that Durian. As he was telling us about it he asked one of the kids to run up the street and buy some for us to try. It wasn't nearly as bad as durian. It is called Jenkol and tastes kind of like a turnip. It leaves a terrible taste in your mouth for hours after eating it. We were warned never to eat too much because it would cause kidney stones...yikes!
Emily's birthday was on the 10th, so last weekend we celebrated by racing go carts at the Bandung Super Mall. It was so fun, and I actually didn't do so bad...turns out the Grandma Boat (my Buick LaSabre back home) was good practice for speed racing. I got third place. This mall was pretty amazing, there is a whole carnival type thing on the top floor with a roller coaster that only costs a dollar to ride. It was really fun. We then went to a Sundanese restaurant, that also turned out to be a culinary adventure. It was set up buffet style where you pointed to the foods you wanted to try. The fun part was that none of us really had any idea what we were choosing to eat. Special items included cow skin, salty fried squid and snails. The cow skin was jiggly and salty, and not very good. I didn't try the salty fried squid, but I heard it was hard and very fishy tasting. I was excited to try the snails, because I had passed up the opportunity when I went to France about 12 years ago. They weren't bad at all, in fact, they tasted fine. Not sure I would choose to eat them again, but they weren't nearly as bad as I would have thought. No worries though, we were able to cleanse the palate with some yummy cappuccino cheesecake afterwards.
This week I started my first real job. I teach two classes a day: high school ESL first period and middle school ESL seventh period. I have ten students total, nearly all of which are Korean. They are a lot of fun, and I am learning a lot...the English language has quite a bit of rules:) On Monday I was worried about having enough to do during the time that I am not teaching, but that problem was quickly solved. BAIS is moving to a new campus that is currently under construction. Right now, we are in the process of recruiting new students as well as developing a plan of attack for the big move out there. On Tuesday, Jennie (my roommate and one of the high school science teachers) and I were given the task of organizing the three open houses that will occur this week as well as that plan of attack. Our evenings and free periods have been full of developing a plan for these open houses and getting enough people to help and making sure that it all comes together on Wednesday and Saturday. This has been quite the challenge, but also really fun to be a part of something so important for the school. I have learned a lot about how to best utilize the organized/perfectionist/linear/practical side(s) of my personality. Luckily, Jennie and I work really well together. The big productions will be Wednesday evening, Saturday morning and next Wednesday afternoon. Please be praying for these open houses: that they would come together, that people would be come to them and that ultimately God would be glorified through them.
I feel like I arrived in Bandung and hit the ground running here this second semester, and God is constantly teaching me to trust him in all things. Thank you for your prayers as I continue on my teaching adventure here in the tropics!

Lessons in Trust

I am back safely in Bandung after 48 hours of travel! We left from Flagstaff at 5 in the morning in a blizzard snow storm that lasted for about thirty miles down the hill. The weather was pretty much horrendous all the way to Phoenix consisting of snow, rain and fog. God was good though and got us to the airport in plenty of time. My flight out of Phoenix was on time, and I got to sit in the emergency exit row to soak up all the leg room I could get in preparation for the lack of it I would experience on the very long flights.
When I got to L.A. I had to get my bags and book it from Terminal 1 to Terminal 4, thank goodness for those carts, otherwise it would have been impossible with the two very large suitcases I brought back. I successfully checked in with China Airlines. I took my bags to the xray machine where I was hassled by one of the security guys who was maybe attempting to flirt or give me a hard time, but was mostly a jerk and kind of put me in a bad mood which only worsened as I approached the very long line to security. It was going slow and the security people were getting frustrated with the non-English speaking passengers who couldn't figure out how to take their laptops out of their bags or make sure they shoes off. After about a 25 minute wait I was finally at my gate waiting for my flight to Taipei. I hadn't even started the longest leg of my journey and I was done with traveling. The 14 hour flight to Taipei went well, the movies were working and the seat in the middle was empty so I had a little extra room. I have to say though that Cathay Pacific has better food that China Airlines. China Airlines had the typical airplane food--plastic in taste and unidentifiable in appearance. They do know how to do coffee though--nice and strong! It wasn't until we were about to land that I checked my ticket to see how much time I would have before my flight to Jakarta. I thought that I was landing at 8:30 pm and leaving at 9:30 pm, but I had read it wrong. I would not be leaving for Jakarta until 9:30 am, which meant that I would have to stay in the airport. I did have the option of staying in a hotel, which I kind of regret not doing. Instead I headed to the departure hall in search of a nice bench to rest. The entire night the airport got more and more empty, quiet and creepy. I could hardly sleep because I was paranoid about keeping an eye on my stuff or getting in trouble for staying in the airport. It was really awful. I have never been more lonely in my life. I think I got a "solid 40 minutes" of sleep. In the morning I went searching for a ticket counter to check the time of my flight because it wasn't showing up with the other departures. On my search I ran into Alyssa, the second grade teacher at BAIS, who had also had to stay the night in the airport. We were both so relieved to see a familiar face. She was on my flight to Jakarta, which was fortunate because she had the gate on her boarding pass and I didn't. Not sure what I would have done if I hadn't run into her. The flight to Jakarta was great, although they made me check my carry-on because it was too heavy. I got to sit in the front row with extra leg room and an empty seat next to me. I had a terrible fear about all my luggage arriving in Jakarta, but after making it successfully through customs, we only waited about 15 minutes and all my luggage had come through.
Jennie had ordered a taxi to take me home to Bandung that was supposed to meet me. What I didn't know was that Donna, the preschool teacher, was arriving a little earlier than me and had taken my taxi, after calling Jennie and Donna, we had the guy turn around and come and get us. It took about three hours for us to get home, the traffic was awful.
Emily comes home tonight and Emma comes home tomorrow. I am so happy to be home, and I am doing okay with the jet lag so far. It is good to be back with my roommates, catching up on the exciting things that happened over break. Through the 48 hours of craziness I endured I was forced to trust that God was going to get me home. He provided everything I needed from extra leg room to a travel companion. At the end of the day I had to praise Him for getting me through this trip. God is good!
School starts on Monday, so I will be spending some time this weekend getting ready for my first week of being a real teacher...ahhhh!
It was so good to see you all while I was at home. Thank you for your prayers and encouragement while I am over here.

Late Night Reflections of a Weary Traveler

It is now 12:30am in Flagstaff, Arizona. Yes, I have arrived safely home after about 36 hours of travel. It’s rather chilly and I can’t sleep. What better to do in the midst of jetlag than snuggle up with a nice cup of tea and some of my mom’s amazing English toffee and update the blog?
Today, the last 36 hours, has been full of God’s provision. Now, when it comes to travel, especially travel abroad, I have the tendency to panic with worry about something…or everything going wrong. The night before departure, I sat at the kitchen table going over every “worst-case-scenario” that could possibly happen. Appropriately enough, my dad had sent me an email that morning by Max Lucado about worrying only about the problems that today holds because the strength for tomorrow’s issues will come tomorrow. How appropriate. All that worrying did nothing but increase my stress level and made it easier to forget how he has provided in the past. Emily and I left Bandung at 4:00am on Friday for Jakarta. My flight was to leave at 9:15am and hers around 11. We arrived at the airport at about 6:30am. There was no line at the ticket counter and no problem with my reservation. I made my way to the immigration counter where there was a man whose sole purpose in life is to make worry-wart bules nervous by taking two extra minutes to check her passport and visa. He let me by, and I spent about fort five minutes chillin’ in a rather empty airport until my flight for Hong Kong was to leave. The flight to Hong Kong went very smoothly. Got to spend some time reflecting on the past semester and dreaming about what God has planned for next semester. I arrived in Hong Kong, went straight to Starbucks, got a little lost, but eventually found my way to an excellent people watching spot near my gate. The stretch from Hong Kong to L.A. is the longest of my journey- 12 hours. Those 12 hours are rather torturous when the in-flight entertainment system is down. Without any movies or television to pass the time, I spent the majority of the 12 hours sleeping and reading. It was pretty rough, but praise God that I had a little more leg room because of an empty seat next to me. I made it through the long flight and in the end the crew felt so badly about the technical difficulties that we got about $50 worth of vouchers out of it. We landed in L.A. at about 1:30pm, and my flight to Phoenix, leaving from Terminal 1 on the other side of the airport, was to leave at 4:00pm. While I stood in the customs line watching the one attendant work slowly through the 30 people in front of me, I figured it was about time to tap into that strength for the issues of the day. From what I could see it was going to be a miracle if I made my flight to Phoenix. About 2:30, I had made my way through customs, had successfully collected my luggage and was on my way to the final leg of the journey. It was a rather perilous trek through parking garages and dodging some scary L.A. drivers, but I made it to the ticket counter for Southwest. Because I had a luggage cart I was able to get into a shorter line and avoid a little bit of Christmas travel craziness. God was so good, he provided the strength I needed exactly at the moment I needed it. The remainder of the trip went well until I arrived in Phoenix and couldn’t find my family. Without a cell phone or way to contact them I wandered through the arrival gate looking for them. They had gone to the wrong arrival gate and ended up running into me on their way to the pager thing. Not exactly that Hollywood arrival with hugs and tears, but that’s the Evans Family for ya.
I am so happy to be home…or at least I will be when the jetlag/unconsciousness wears off:) Tomorrow is already a full day: I have to get my visa stuff sent off asap (be praying for that when you get a chance), I am getting my hair cut, and meeting up with my roommates.
I am sure more updates are to come from the Evans Family Christmas 2007:)