Pre-Easter Photos

Hello everyone! Sorry it's been quite awhile. Lately the technology has been less than friendly and even today, we had hoped to put up the 1st Easter blog because a version of it was saved on the flashdrive, but because it's infected with viruses the document can't be opened. So I'm free handing this in the 15 minutes we have. Just trust me - the original was great : )

Here are some pictures from the week before Easter. The Friday before Holy Week we went at sunrise to the John Paul II center on top of one of the hills on the edge of Dili and right next to the sea. There we did the Stations of the Cross, walking up the hill and thinking about Jesus' passion and death and what He has done for us. We reached the top of the hill as the sun was rising over the ocean and all of Dili - it was gorgeous! Afterward the event climaxed with an outdoor Mass before everyone had to hurry off for work.

Here's part of the group gathered to meditate on Jesus' passion.

After the day events, we were back at school to help with the annual retreat for the seniors in high school. It was incredible! There were about 100 students there and we had Mass, dinner together brought by the parents, took lots of pictures as they love to do.

Here I am with one of the SMA teachers who volunteered to help supervise the students and lead a small group during the all-night retreat.

Later there was a reflection and group sharing. We didn't understand everything because it was in fluent Tetum and when they go full-speed it's still a little difficult to understand, but we talked with Sr. Ervinia and some of our English students later and the reflection had been on suffering and finding healing in Jesus. Many of the students were crying, some of them opening up for the first time.

Many of them have grown up pretty fast with all the violence with their country's independence and in the 2006 conflict as well as their less-than-optimal current situations. Many students have left their families in the districts and come to Dili for an education. Here they live with extended relatives or family friends that even in the best situations can't love them like their parents and immediate family. Sr. Ervinia, the principal, said the sharing was eye-opening for her too because when the students aren't on their best behavior it's easy to forget where they're coming from and how they're living. She tries to balance expecting the best from them while understanding them. She is currently trying to find a counselor who could be there for the students.

After the sharing there were snacks and a movie. They watched Maria Goretti in Italian, while one of the Sisters translated into Tetum. During the movie we stole some of the English Club students to teach them the games so they could give an example to their classmates. It worked out great - they are quick learners and interested in all thing international.

Brendan and I were in charge of the games to keep the students awake around 2 am. We played Blob tag and did 3-legged race, both of which the students had never done.


Here some of the English Clubbers practice their 3-legged racing. It was funny at the beginning, but after the first time we gave them some hints and they streamlined their racing quickly. Later they taught their classmates, but dominated the competition.


All of my big sister training has come in handy here, because the students love games! Here the guys play a round of Blob tag, where one person is 'it' and when they tag someone they become attached and continue tagging people. They split once and continue until there are two giant blobs of people who are 'it'.

After games and some more events we were able to duck out a little early around 4:30 am, to get a little sleep. Our first all-nighter since college it was a great experience and good chance to hang out with the students during retreat!


And, oh my goodness, Palm Sunday was incredible! It was probably the closest that I'll ever get to experiencing that first Palm Sunday. We decided to go to the Tetum Mass to get a feel for the really Timorese celebrations. As we approached the church two things became clear: 1.) We were late. There were at least two thousand people crowded into the church and surrounding the church on all sides. 2.) We had missed the memo to BYOP (Bring your own palm). Everyone else had large green palms cut from their yards, many woven into intricate designs.

Mass began with a huge procession and palm-waving after the palms were blessed. Little girls dressed in traditional tais feto went before the procession, laying tais cloths down on the ground around the church. They were followed by a group of children and their leader playing drums. Then there was a group of men and boys in traditional garb and with swords dancing. It kind of reminded me of King David dancing before the Lord. They were really into it! They were dancing to the beat provided by the women that followed playing local drums. And finally the readers and servers came with Fr. Peter, who was carrying a palm made into the shape of a cross. Phenomenal!

Mass was about two hours long and we were standing outside the church the whole time, but luckily they have a good sound system because this happens all the time. They did a small drama of Palm Sunday until the Passion, as a preview of the week and to give everyone time to think about it. The homily was great and talked about Jesus' suffering for us then, but also in our present world with many issues. He even told the people about the evils of abortion and mentioned something that Brendan had told him earlier about abortion in America. He's well informed and has the guts to talk about all the hard stuff.

I wish I could tell you more because there is so much more, but I must go. We'll try to fill you in on more of Holy Week sometime soon! We love you and will try to keep in frequent contact despite technical difficulties.

With all our love, in Christ,
Rachel and Brendan

Minor Setbacks

First of all, happy Easter everyone!!! Sorry that it has been awhile since we we wrote...we have good reasons.

I had two beautiful, long, descriptive blogs about the incredible Easter celebrations here in East Timor almost ready to be put up for you. That's when three things happened:

1.) I suddenly got sick. All of Wednesday I found myself exhausted and in a bad mood. I finally made it home and crashed. When Brendan got home he came over to give me a hug, but I was radiating heat! I took a quick bucket shower and tried to sleep it off.

My fever was up and down (but mostly up) the next day. It got up around 103.2 three times and I had body aches so we decided to go to the hospital. It's good that we did. They took a blood test to check for malaria (don't worry - it wasn't) and let us go home. When we went back later that night a different doctor looked at the results and diagnosed me with some kind of infection in the lower abdomen. So I got paracetamol and antibiotics and a prescription to rest it off.

Within a day I was doing better and my fever had gone down and stayed down. I'm telling you Ciprofloxin (an antibiotic) has been my new best friend over here. I've never been a pill popper because before it usually wasn't necessary, but here I'm learning to really appreciate antibiotics because they can take you from seemingly the edge of death to normal in one or two days.

While I was sick, Brendan was great and took on all my responsibilities as well as his as much as possible and made sure to check in with me while I was on bedrest. He's also made sure I'm taking it slow this week and I feel 100% now thanks to everyone's prayers and Brendan's care.

So since then everything's been going well and, as usual, sickness quickly fades from memory. Work continues and this week has been really good. It took a couple of days to catch up on cleaning and grocery shopping, but now we're almost caught up.

Problem 2.) The car broke down. We've been getting more and more skeptical about driving it. After having to push start it three times and the muffler falling off twice, we're giving it a few days to rest. It's good to walk everywhere, but it would be nice to have it in case.

3.) The computer crashed. We've had computer problems with my laptop periodically here, probably because whenever we use the flashdrive to put up blogs it gets infected with viruses, which then come back to our laptop. Even though we scan and try to clear the flashdrive, it's a constant process.

This time Brendan doesn't think that the computer will be coming back because the computer will randomly tick and it says that it can't read the hard drive because there is no hard drive. Probably not a good sign. The sad part is that those two beautiful, almost-finished Easter blogs were saved on the computer, as well as other important things (although we did back everything up a month ago).

So don't worry if the blogs are less frequent for awhile. We'll be trying to find the best way to prepare blogs and work with the pictures now that we can't do so at home. But we'll work it out : )

One lesson that we're learning from this is what to do when everything goes wrong at once - learning to practice patience and find more creative ways to do things. That's really the story of East Timor. They have faith and family, but health problems can strike you or your family when you least expect it. Cars have problems and there's no money to fix them so you walk or you drive an unsafe car or motorcycle. Technology is in the early stages here so virus infections and basic problems are bound to happen all the time. But knowing that we are still overly privileged when compared to our neighbors gives us a better attitude and understanding when we have minor setbacks like this. Maybe life doesn't have to be perfect for us.

To end on a high note, we also have had a lot of support. We received lots of letters from the Bishop family, the Davises, Grandma and Grandpa, and even a package from some great people who prefer to remain anonymous. The letters were amazing and the package came with perfect timing (there was a peg game that I played all the time when I had to stay in bed all day). God really does work all things for the good of those who love Him and whenever anything rough happens there's always support that comes in just when we need it. Thank you thank you thank you to everybody!

We love you! You're in our prayers, please keep us in yours : )

Always,

Rachel and Brendan

We've Got Mail

We just our third package while we’ve been here from our family AND a letter! It’s definitely a cause for excitement : )

It’s amazing how much they can fit into a small boxing with some good organization. Here is all the stuff laid out on our table. Letters and pictures, a lot of food, enough bugspray to keep mosquitoes away for years, more Purell, and therabands from Peggy for physical therapy exercises!!!

The letters and cards were the best part (but everything was GREAT). Brendan got two birthday cards, both hilarious. One of them is shown here. When you look at it from different angles or move it around the hamster dances. And when you open it, the hamster dance song plays. We showed it to the boys next door who loved it (although they were a little confused by it).

Thank you for everything else too! There was a Christmas card from the Warrens, Brendan’s relatives, and pictures of my family. I wish you all knew how much we miss you! And my Grandparents wrote two letters in the package and one real letter that got here in just three weeks! Real letters…everyone appreciates them, but I have never appreciated them so much as I do now. Keep them coming if you’re up for it!

Other really cool things and what we’re doing with them:

- Peggy sent three sets of therabands of different colors and we’ve already donated one set to Assert, a rehabilitation center that works with Timorese with extreme disabilities. One set will go to the school clinic where I work regularly and we’ll see what other opportunity presents itself for the third set. But in the meantime, we used one set to run a 3-legged race for the SMA third year students when we were teaching them games (we told you, you have to get creative here).

- A block of wood for carving. Brendan started doing some carving last summer and he’d like to start carving a chess set if he can find some free time. Thanks Grandpa Bill!

- We made cheesecake! My family sent a no-bake cheesecake since we can’t do any baking on gas burners.


We lasted about four days after getting the package before we made it, but even that was a struggle : ) And it was incredible!


Here’s the mess as we begin making the cheesecake. Also notice that I’m holding a beautiful ummm put-under-pots-so-they-don’t-burn-the-table thing (the name escapes me). My sister Sarah made it and it has been a great addition to our kitchen! Right before the package came we had an incident that made us realize how necessary these things are – so Sarah sending one was like an answered prayer : )

Brendan preparing the filling for the cheesecake!

And here he is, showing off the final product, garnished by some peanut butter M&Ms!


But everything is better if it’s shared, so Brendan took cheesecake to these ladies: Sister Etelvina and Georgina. Together the three of them are a team transforming the university library for the upcoming accreditation. They recently all were formally trained on using the Dewey decimal system and KOHA, a computer catalog program.

But anyway, it was Georgina’s first time ever eating cheesecake and Sister Etelvina’s second. They thought it was heavenly! Letting the Timorese experience some of our “home” food has been especially entertaining. We had the girls from the clinic over for lunch once and made spaghetti with meat sauce and they ate everything! We think next time we’re going to have people try sloppy joes and see what they think. Hopefully we’ll get pictures of that one ; )

Ok, that’s probably more details than you ever wanted, but you can see that getting a package is a big deal. It’s a physical sign that says: We know you’re far away, but we love you and we’re praying for you and thinking about you. Hopefully you can see this blog as a similar message back to you. We do love you and we pray that God blesses you always!

Much love,
Rachel and Brendan

Mini Miracles

This week we have been witnesses to the Holy Spirit’s power. We sometimes can feel the Spirit’s quiet inner stirrings, but this past week the Holy Spirit came with purpose and power!

It started with a little thing… the location of English Mass was being changed for Holy Week because of the overlap with the Tetum services. For some reason it kept coming to Brendan’s mind that someone needed to give directions and give them well or many people would miss the Holy Week masses. So he prayed, “God, if you work it out, I will give directions to the people.” So for two days he worked out the best way to explain directions and continued to pray secretly, although he told no one of these thoughts.

Sunday arrived and a series of surprising events happened: for the first time some Timorese were helping organize parking (usually it’s a bit of a madhouse and all the internationals park everywhere and it’s difficult to get in and out). So we were guided onto the grass in a different area than where we usually park and then we went in the closest door, far from the door where we normally come in.

As we crossed the middle aisle, Fr. Peter was there and he came straight up to Brendan and out of nowhere asked if he would be willing to read the announcements…including the Mass times for Holy Week and the new location. Brendan was stunned, but hid his reaction quickly and agreed to do the announcements at the end of Mass.

Everything went well and after Communion Brendan walked up to give the announcement. It was great! There were many things to say, but he didn’t look at the paper. He had everyone’s attention and explained the directions perfectly! And this is harder than it sounds - Dili is a city with few street identifications (most aren’t named or numbered) and it’s easy to miss places when you’re driving there. Only on the drive home did Brendan tell me what had been going on during the past couple of days.

This is one example of God quietly, but effectively, working for the good of those He loves. Maybe for the good of just one person he coordinated everything, using Brendan to help that person get to Mass and experience Him and His grace.

But the next miracle was on a much more important topic and has floored me. On Saturday we had a Bible study lunch at our house to say goodbye to Iwuozo, the coordinator, before he went home to Nigeria. So we had lunch first and we got to try African food for the first time. Mary made some rice balls and two types of fish with different sauces. But during lunch the conversation turned to some politics and religion and Iwuozo was saying he didn’t think abortion was a big deal. Mary, who has a daughter who lives in America, tried to explain the facts that Iwuouzo doesn’t know because Nigeria hasn’t legalized abortion yet, although there is pressure on them to do so.

The subject was dropped when we went into our Bible study, where we finished up Genesis with the story of Joseph. That Bible study was especially moving and we had some very personal sharing. At the end we all prayed over Iwuozo, for a good trip back with his unit and that God will continue to use him in Nigeria. After prayer we all promised to see him off at the airport on Tuesday.

Within the next twenty-four hours after Bible study, the Holy Spirit pulled off a lot, but we didn’t find out until Tuesday. All I knew was that Saturday I prayed about the lunch discussion and was deeply disturbed, because Iwuozo is rock solid and Biblically backed up on every other issue. On Saturday night I went to sleep sad and thoughtful. On Sunday morning I woke up earlier than usually and felt a command to write him a letter because he honestly didn’t know what goes on, like far too many people. So for an hour I poured out my heart on the paper - of the facts of the sheer number of unborn children who are killed in America each year by abortion (more than 1,200,000 – more than the entire population of East Timor), of the women that are wounded emotionally and physically, and of my experience volunteering at Birthrite, a crisis pregnancy clinic in Ames.

On Tuesday, the day he was leaving, I knew I had to give him the letter, so we went to his house. He said that he had something important to tell us. When we made it to his house, he took us aside and said that something had happened to him on Saturday night. When he made it home and went to sleep he had a dream.

In the dream he was standing beside a giant body of water, an ocean, but it was dark water and filled with bodies floating face down, covering the entire surface. There were many giant pipes that were pouring into this ocean, flushing, constantly flushing, babies into this water. And all at once a young woman was standing there with him. She said to him, “Iwuozo, you must save these babies!” He ran to the water and tried to pick up the babies and hold them in his arms, but they were all dead. And it came to him that these were the bodies of the babies that had been destroyed by abortion – enough babies to fill an ocean. He woke up horrified.

After he related his dream to us, he said that God had revealed to him the importance of the abortion issue and just how big it is. I started tearing up just from seeing evidence that the Holy Spirit still works in miraculous ways and because Iwuozo didn’t even know about my letter yet. I pulled it out and explained that on Sunday I had felt the Spirit urging me to write him a letter about this very issue. He took the letter and said that when he got back to Nigeria he was going to talk to his friend to get the story of what happened on the Nigerian radio. Please pray for this mini miracle to have a far-reaching impact and save women and babies from the pain of abortion.

But there is even more. Also after Bible study, Mary had been praying and felt that she should get together information about abortion for Iwuozo to read on the plane and pray about the issue more. We found out later that she showed up at the airport and gave him this information also. So within twenty-four hours the Holy Spirit worked in three of our lives to hopefully have a lasting positive impact not just on Iwuozo, but on many more people.

So believe that the Holy Spirit is still at work in the world! He truly is “the helper” that Jesus promised He would send to us after He was gone. Some dreams still have meanings and miracles happen everyday if we really open ourselves to God and we have our spiritual eyes open to see the results.

But this experience has really had gotten to me. Before I knew that the Holy Spirit is still around and I’ve seen some crazy cool things at charismatic meetings, but how quickly I forget the power and reality of the Holy Spirit. This was a great example for me that the Holy Spirit will keep us solid in our ideals and with God if we are open. But I think the key is that we are really open. Iwuozo has dedicated himself 100% to God. In East Timor his priority has been #1 God and supporting people in their faith, with work being a necessary 2nd that is to be done and done well. That is why I believe that he was given a dream to let him know right away the Truth in this area. I can only hope that Brendan and I will be that close and open to God that if we get off track, He would intervene immediately, even with a dream.

Praise God that He works in our lives in a real and intimate way to keep us close to Him! I pray that today we will all be open to the Holy Spirit and with eyes open to see God-caused “coincidences.”

God bless,
Rachel and Brendan

Random Updates

With lots of little things going on it’s easy to forget what has happened. Luckily pictures can help us remember. Here are some of the things that have happened recently that were caught on camera.


Here you can see Brendan judging at the university’s version of American Idol : ) It was a singing contest for the students. Five students confident in their singing abilities sang the same song, “When Earthangels Care,” and were judged by Brendan and two of the Sisters. After each singer each judge had to give feedback.

The song is about caring and helping one another and it is the theme song of an organization led by Fr. John from Australia. He is a priest and pilot and he has raised money for the people of East Timor by flying around Australia. Part of these funds are used to send over volunteers including our former housemates, Bernadette and Therese. Anyway, the song is really good and it was a good choice for the contest.

Brendan is still playing basketball often. Here’s a picture he took of the court when the first players were getting to the court to warm up. It’s a really nice court, funded by AusAID and an Irish Aid group. It’s definitely a big community gathering place. Basketball goes from dusk until late into the night almost every night and there are always players, spectators, and little kids playing on the two swings and one teeter totter : )

I cleaned the inside of the house while Brendan spent a whole afternoon chopping down a giant growth in our small front yard. When he started it was as tall as him, but he got it down to less than a foot high. Now we can see our neighbors and talk with them as they go by!


Here our neighbors Linda, Julia, and their friend show off their loja (shop) next to our house. Linda and Julia and all of their extended family all live in the house behind the shop. This is where we get all of our fresh fruits and vegetables for the week.


It doesn’t happen too often, but one night the electricity went out so we went outside to cool off for a few minutes. The night sky was beautiful, but the crazy part was that the moon was so bright it was like daylight. I’m not sure why that happens, but it’s pretty cool when it does.

There are a lot of geckos around here, which we like because they eat a lot of the bugs. Usually they stay out of sight or they sit on the top of the walls out of reach. But one day we came back from school and there was a gecko curled up in the corner. Brendan tried to get close to it and the gecko got scared and its tail popped off!!! It stayed curled up in the corner while we watched its tail twitch and flip back and forth for a few minutes (probably similar to what happens when a chicken runs around after its head is chopped off). Brendan even got a video. So here you can see the gecko with the reddened stump that used to be connected to its tail.


Here Brendan and I pose for a picture with Tomash, a Polish man, who is cycling his way around the world. We met him because while cycling through Australia he found Chris and Sali’s blog and contacted them to see if he could visit them while going through East Timor. The weekend we went to Baucau he arrived in Dili and we crossed paths while Brendan and I were headed home and he was on his way to meet Chris, Sali, and Dogmara.


He is a very friendly man and I think pretty fearless. He has cycled all over the world for the past couple of years with only the gear you see in the photo above and he stops and camps by the road at the end of the day unless he is invited to someone’s home.

After a few weeks of cycling he had finished his loop around East Timor and he returned to Dili with many exciting stories. We ran into him again last week as we were headed out the door to Mass, so he came with us and came back for dinner after. He was very grateful for dinner because on the south side of East Timor it is mostly small villages and there are no restaurants or places that sell much food besides crackers or cookies. But he took it in stride and said that East Timor is still one of the top places he has been to, along with Peru, for the beauty of the scenery and the kindness of the people. I was exhausted so I went to bed, but Brendan and Tomash stayed up late swapping stories of their travels and looking at pictures. The next day Brendan helped him find some new sandals and then he was gone – cycling off to Indonesia.

One of the weekday Masses at the church we go to near our house. It’s a good example of Timorese architecture for their larger buildings. Everything is built to help deal with the heat. Significant buildings all have high ceilings and many windows. There are also fans mounted on the walls to help with the big crowds at church on Sundays and other special days.

One thing that might be interesting to everybody at home is the “pews” and kneelers. People here don’t really have posture problems because everything is built to be functional and not for comfort. Most chairs that we’ve seen are straight-backed chairs made out of wood. The same goes for church with the seats and the boards you kneel on. When you sit you are leaning against little more than a well sanded board and unless you sit correctly it’s pretty uncomfortable. It’s funny how the situation in East Timor often forces you to do what’s good for your health (eating less and more healthy, walking a lot, having good posture, etc.). Hopefully we can develop healthy habits to keep up when we get home.


Lastly, here are the members of the English Bible study (and Brendan who was taking the picture). It really is a good time and something I look forward to every week. From left to right you have Donna, a dental assistant and PALMS volunteer from Australia who is here for two years. Next is Chinedu Iwuozo, a UN Peacekeeper from Nigeria who started the Bible study and is an amazing Catholic Christian and evangelist. Then Valery (pronounced val-air-ee), from Cameroon.

Next is Mary, an Nigerian grandmother who works for the UN also. She also has an especially beautiful and intimate walk with Jesus. I love her reflections! And then there is Maria, a wonderful and brave Timorese girl who speaks English so well that she can handle not only the discussions in English, but all the Biblical language. She is very solid in her faith and through her we hope to give more Timorese the confidence to come to the English Bible study (many of them study the Bible, but in Tetum and Indonesian).


So those are some tidbits from March. Hope you enjoyed them and we hope that everything is going well for you. We love you guys and you are always in our prayers!

Always,
Rach and Brendan