Weiders Abroad

Out on the Pier in Bali

After a seafood dinner on the beach

So when we told people we were moving to Indonesia they all asked, “Are you crazy?”

As you can see by the pictures it’s not all bad here!!  Year round warm weather and beautiful beaches help a bit with the homesickness and cultural differences.

We still miss home, but there’s some real beauty here in this country that we’re only beginning to discover.  Hopefully there will be more to come!

Bali and covered statues!!

Sheralynn with a woman in traditional Balinese costume

These pictures are from our trip to Bali over the Christmas holiday.  We went for a week and we enjoyed  incredible hospitality and kid-friendly Balinese people.  We were impressed right away with how different Bali felt from Jakarta.  It still has many people, but the main religion in Bali is Hindu.  These people are faithful in putting up statues and covering them in cloths.  They type of covering lets you know what god it is that the statue represents.  In addition, the Balinese are VERY faithful about the fragrant offerings to the statues.  Every morning we watched women go out to the street and offer sweet smelling flowers and incense to the statues.  Even cars had small offerings in them.

Bali is known as an exotic get away, but I’m not sure that it completely lives up to its reputation.  There is plenty to do and the prices can’t be beat.  It is very much like the rest of Indonesia- slightly undone, somewhat broken.  The people there, however, are certainly worth meeting and if you are a surfer you will have found a little bit of heaven!!

I must apologize for the length of time since my last post.  The Christmas season is upon us and that gets busy no matter where you are. 

One thing I like about being here is that there are so many hands on ways to get involved with helping people.  In the states, as Christmas approaches, many agencies offer opportunities to give clothes, food, books, toys, etc. to a local donation site and promise to get it into the hands of those who need it.  God bless them for their efforts.

Here, however, has been easier to be part of the process.  Perhaps because the need is so much greater, perhaps less red tape . . . I don’t know, but it has been good for us to play our part in bringing gifts to those who are in need. 

We were able to take two shoeboxes and fill them with gifts for kids (ages similar to Gabe and Sheralynn) at a local orphanage.  I don’t feel bad to say this:  I was proud of my children as I watched them choose gifts that were not for themselves, but instead for kids who would not get gifts from anyone else.  We talked about it for several days before and they knew what was going on with the recipients.  They are well aware that the gifts we get in our house are from us: mom and dad.  The fact that these children had no mom and dad was understandable and so we had fun choosing gifts for them.  They didn’t even ask for something similar for themselves.

But even more special was the activity that a group of women called “The Karawaci Ladies” was able to pull off.  Money was given and bags were made full of goods for babies and kids.  Then each of us put a card in a bag that sent Christmas greetings and also told where we were from.  The village these were given to is quite close to our town and can be considered especially needy.  They live in box homes built up under bridges.  Not a one of them speaks English, but their gratitude was conveyed wonderfully.

As for our own home, we were able to give gifts to our helper, Aas and our driver, Eman.  The kids were just as excited about giving as Aas and Eman were about getting.  It was so much fun to see them hand the gifts over and yell, “Merry Christmas!”  And it was interesting that both of them said the same to us in return.  To be clear, they do understand what Christmas means.  There were many hugs and smiles and I prayed that our Christian example would be more than I could hope.  I prayed that God would work through us to plant seeds and change hearts.

To all of you, we pray that God will work in your heart during this busy season.  Thanks again to those who have supported us thus far in prayer and in financial giving.  Your support means more to us than you can imagine.

Happy Birthday, Jesus!!  Merry Christmas to all!

As of today, Bethany is a walker!!  This is good on so many levels, but perhaps the most important is that now I don’t have to worry about all the yuk and germs on her hands when she crawls on the floor or the sidewalk.  Or worse, the sand in the park down the street.  Yes, we have a little park just down the road from our house.  But don’t think U.S. parks . . . it’s not quite that.

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Because so many people have asked, “what does the hut you live in look like?”, here are some pictures of the hut.  It is quite lovely and they just recently replaced the dirt floors with tile so we were very happy!

This first picture is of the front of our house:

Not bad for a hut in the jungle eh?

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Check out our kids! We will try to keep some photos updated now and then so you can “see” what we’re up to here in Indonesia. (more…)