Merry Christmas from Asia Pacific!!!

With the days being hot and humid and the Azan (call to prayer) ringing in our ears constantly, it is hard to feel like Christmas time has arrived. Our days have been filled with language sessions, weddings, trips to the city for paperwork, and our attempts to get our laptop fixed. I (Cherie) feel like we have been running around almost nonstop for a while now. Both Eric and I have felt very stretched during this time of “waiting”. It seems we are always waiting on something. Almost a month has gone by since we turned in the paperwork for our visas and the officials told us we would have them in “3 days”. We are still waiting for them to be finished… Eric’s laptop fried on us and so he sent it out to be repaired. They told us “5 days” but now we have been waiting for three weeks.  We bought a motorbike over 3 weeks ago and are still not able to ride it because we cannot get our licenses until our visas come through. As our stress levels rise because of this we have also begun to feel angry. Angry that we still have to walk everywhere or ride the public transportation an angry, that things aren’t going the way they should.

Just the other day, Eric and I were walking to town and I was getting upset because we left our perfectly usable motorbike sitting at home and were sweating in the heat as we lugged Joshua up the hill from our house and I complained to Eric again about the fact that we couldn’t use the motorbike. But just as I said that a thought popped into my head that maybe this was for a reason. Maybe all of this waiting was to protect us or to teach us something about ourselves and about God. I think I begin to forget the sovereignty of God; the fact that every detail is determined by him. He chose this for us for a reason and we need to learn from him and praise him in it. I can see in myself a person who wants things to go their way, who is impatient with waiting, who gets angry like a child when I can’t have what I want. But as Christmas is just around the corner, I think of the humble, servant King who stooped so low and emptied himself in order that we might have life.  Oh to be like the Son of God while we live here. That is my prayer for us here that we could learn humility and patience. Taking each twist and turn as a gift from God and a way to show the divine life inside of us. What is a visa to stay here worth if our lives are not reflecting the character of our Savior. We have nothing to offer anyone here without his life pouring out through us.

What’s new for us??

Joshua turned a year old! We are so blessed to have this little guy as part of our family and we love him more and more each day.

We had our first language evaluation a few weeks ago and we were both encouraged by the progress we had made. Our next language evaluation will be in a few more months. Please pray that we will continue to study and learn well in these next few months.

We heard that the visas have been granted but are yet to be here in hand so that is encouraging even though we have to wait a little longer.

Eric got me a little kitten and it has brought a lot of joy to us. Joshua loves him although he has yet to learn what “gentle” means 🙂

 

Both Eric and I are feeling burdened for a certain region of service here and we would just ask that you all would pray fervently for us as we bring it specifically before the Lord in the next coming weeks.  If anyone would like to know more about that we would love to write you personally or talk to you via WhatsApp (+62 0822-4272-4253) or Skype (cherie.keefe).

Thank you all so much for your prayers and support of us here. We have been blessed beyond measure to have you all supporting us in this.  We miss all of you and hope you all have a wonderful Christmas remembering the gift of our Savior.

With love,

Eric, Cherie, and Joshua.