How do you make a weekly photo blog without taking a single picture all week? Such is the predicament we find ourselves in for the first time in 93 weeks. Well, we have no choice but to dip into the archives. We flew home from Medan as you may recall from last week on Monday and that night we both felt sore throats coming on. We can either blame the Jakarta smog or the masked man sitting next to us on the plane. Elder Rob especially got whammed with pain in his ears and sinuses all week long while I got off a little easier with just a few sneezes but no congestion. Neither of us had much oomph or energy to push through it and be amazing. Plus we wondered if what we had was catching and so we opted to not make any visits or appointments this week. These are the times we are grateful for technology because we were still able to teach our English classes online for our native missionaries as well as our refugee friends from the confines of our apartment. Our friendships with our fellow Iranian members are deepening quickly. We are wishing we could just pack them all up and take them home with us. The family of 4 is actually getting very close for their dream to become a reality. We hope they beat us home! After attending a culture class this week, all that remains on their checklist is to receive airline tickets and then they are literally on their way to America. How we hope and pray that nothing falls through! They have sold most of their belongings to have income and to be ready to vacate their rental home when those tickets come. So timing is of the essence and we are all praying it's very soon. Here's another example of how the Lord orchestrates blessings. We made friends with an expat family in India, who just recently were reassigned back to a city in America, the same city our Iranian friends are assigned to. When I contacted them this week, they said a friend in their ward works for an agency that helps refugee families get furniture and household items. Mere coinkidink? I think not. So we will get them in touch and they will have people helping them on both ends of this journey. Our Iranian friends here have great faith and have exhibited so much hope and patience in the Lord for their deliverance. And it's nigh! If you want to pray for them or put their names in the temple, they are the Rastgoo Family.
As for our other single brother, he has already been working with some past senior missionaries from the IJM who love him as we do. The WelcomeCorp program is a way that ordinary, like-minded people like us can band together and help refugees. It requires a minimum of 5 people and not an unreasonable amount of money to be a support team. Recently some of his support team members had to drop out for family obligations so now just at the precise time, we are able to step in and take their place and all of us will work together to get this dear brother to Utah. The timing couldn't have been better. Our dream is to get him to Utah before we go home but the refugee agency really holds all the strings. So we will continue to be his friend and bolster him while he waits here and be his advocate, along with these other wonderful returned missionaries, and keep praying for him that his time is coming too.
Since it's been a slow week here, the most exciting news I can share is about our two mission grandsons back home. Silas turns 1 year old, today in fact! Wow, has it really been a whole year? We loved getting some FaceTime with him this morning and only wish we could be there in person to celebrate his birthday, but our time is coming. Hang tight, Si! We're on the home stretch!
And for grandson #2...Luke and his parents were ALL thrilled to get the cast removed from his leg and hips. (Imagine having to sponge bath and Febreeze a baby instead of bathe him for 4 weeks?!) They celebrated by going on an Alaskan cruise, which was planned long before his accident, but what joy and perfect timing for them to be able to go unencumbered and sweet smelling! I think you all deserve this getaway!
Cap'n Luke and his lobster shack
To conclude this blog, as you can imagine, I've had oodles of time to transcribe gravestones this week. I've been working on the Netherlands Field of Honor Cemetery in Jakarta and I've found some names that just make me chuckle and maybe you will too. I have to remember these are real men and I honor them for giving their lives in war. But at the same time, we will share a moment of gladness with them, not only for the joy of recording their names for their posterity to find them, but just because they are funny without trying to be, the wryest kind of humor.
Yeah, we know you are but what am I?
Until next week....
"And we desire that everyone of you do show the same diligence to the full assurance of hope until the end. That ye be not slothful, but followers of them who through faith and patience inherit the promises. And so, after (you) had patiently endured, (you) obtained the promise.... that we might have a strong consolation, ye who have fled for refuge to lay upon the hope set before us. Which hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and steadfast."
Hebrews 6: 11-12, 15, 18-19
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