Leaving on a Jet Plane

Dear Friend,

Apa kabar (how are you)?

Today was our last day of school. Wow... I have been a teacher for half a year. CRAZY! Ah, now to become a good teacher that knows what to do and how to help each individual child and their specific needs.

Today is my last full day in Indonesia. For Christmas I will go to Japan to be with my parents. It is exciting... yet I am sad. I am sad to leave Indonesia. I don't know why I have this sad feeling, I know I will come back in less than a month. But I guess a month seems like a long time. A long time to not see my wonderful students, colleagues and friends. But it will be good to be with my parents. Perhaps I have this sad feeling because normally when I leave a country or place, I don't know when I will be back, so my mind instantly connects the idea of leaving with a sad feeling. I will miss Indonesia. It has become my home! I will miss eating three different fruit every day, I will miss the food, I will miss listening to the rain and smiling at the rain, I will miss riding on motorcycles, I will miss saying "Pagi Pak" every morning to the security guards, I will miss receiving tons of hugs from my students the instant I walk through the door, I will miss playing after school basketball, and I will miss Tuesday night Bible study. Thankfully, I am not leaving for good! I know I will be back in a month, in the year of 2011!

I am excited for 2011. You know my favorite number is 11, so I have always looked forward to this year. Today in chapel I heard a very good talk. One thing that the speaker made me think of was that we are entering into a new decade. SO much will happen in one decade. Can you imagine? In one decade I will be 32 years old! Perhaps in this decade I will fall in love and be married, maybe even start a family. Perhaps my sisters will have too! My parents might retire from the mission field, or decide they never will. Perhaps, (and this will hopefully happen) I will be bilingual because I will be able to speak Bahasa Indonesia and English. I am excited for this new decade to come, especially with the assurance that God is in control of everything, He already knows all that will happen. I love knowing that. Sometimes I try to make things happen by doing something or saying something, and my plan always fails... but when I leave it up to God, those things end up naturally happening, and I am constantly reminded to just leave my life in God's hands and He will guide my path perfectly.

I want you to sop and think of this past decade, year 2000-2010. How much has happened for you?

For me, just in one year so much has happened, looking at 10 years is crazy!
I have lived in 4 different countries: Japan, America, Switzerland and Indonesia, I moved a countless number of times, I went through middle school, high school, college, and have an international teaching job, I played volleyball on the team and performed in numerous dramas and musicals, I was diagnosed with kyphoscoliosis and wore a back brace, I had braces, I went on a mission trip to Europe, and another one just to Spain, I had Christmas in Japan, Switzerland, America and Peru, I met my best friend, I had two Christmas' over skype, I played monopoly with my sister over skype and lost, my parents house started with 5 people in the year 2000 and dwindled down to 4, then 3, then just 2, I learned to drive, then I learned to drive a manual car, I named my car Fabio, I got in a car crash, I attended my first 'wedding of a close friend,' I had 6 different piano teachers, I learned to yodel, I grew closer to God, I got to know my American grandmother, I twisted my ankle and had to use crutches for weeks, I was in America for longer than a year, I had many game nights and Shakespeare read-throughs... the list goes on and on.
I want you to think, not only what you did this past year, but this past decade, it is a long time... and notice how God's hand is in it all. Sometimes we wonder why different things happen to us... and sometimes, years later when you look back, you can finally realize, "Oh, perhaps that is why God had that happened, so I would be able to do this..."
For example, I had to wear a back brace for four years to help straighten my spine. I still don't know why I had to wear it... besides that fact that it was straightening my spine... but perhaps I will be able to use that experience to connect with some child who also has to wear one and be able to share the gospel to them through that similar experience. Who knows? Only God does, but that is what is so exciting! (Perhaps the experience will not lead to anything else... and that is fine too, I believe the experience of wearing a back brace for all of my high school years has definitely effected who I am today)

Well, like I said, tomorrow I am leaving on a jet plane... but thankfully I DO know when I will be back again... so I need to finish packing.
I am sure I will write again before the new year... Oh man, I am so excited for the year two-thousand-eleven!!! I get to write down my favorite number every time I write the date, --/--/11. I know it is silly, but it will probably make me smile every day.

When does your holiday begin?
What will you be doing?
I hope you have fun! Tell me about it okay?

Your friend,
Rebekah E. S.