Indonesian Program Assignment (Papua)

Friday morning I got to wake Julie up with exciting news.  The Indonesian program management have chosen our assignment for our family after we have completed language study in Indonesia.  We will have the privilege of joining the MAF team on the island of Papua. We are excited for the chance to serve in an area that has little or no infrastructure outside the cites.

Papua is the island to the far right or east side of Indonesia on the map below.  The island is shared with the country of Papua New Guinea which is the east half of the island which is not shown here on the map, just the Indonesian side of the island.

Ah the reason we are going to Indonesia, for the beautiful sunsets on the beach.  Ah, not however I'm sure we will be able to find time now and again to enjoy the beautiful of the beach as well.

This is the reason we are going to Indonesia to reach out to those that live in these jungle covered mountains with no access to the outside world.

To reach the village nestled into the mountains living in darkness and spiritual oppression, with Christ's Love.

Bringing people a second chance through medical flights.

Bringing in supplies, food ie; pigs, medical, personal belongings, building supplies, to name a few of the physical things we have the privilege of bringing to and from these isolated parts of Indonesia.

Meeting the physical and spiritual needs of many remote villages throughout the Indonesia and for us we will have the great honor of doing just that on the island of Papua.

Beautiful country in many ways.  A huge THANK YOU!!! to all of you that have partnered with us in this ministry with MAF.  We could not do it without you standing with us.

Blessings
The Dole Clan

And The Country Is???

What an exciting week and a half our family is having at candidacy!  Our first week was full of a detailed account of every possible country that we could be sent to along with talking to the directors of those regions.  Talk about information overload!  Also, during those first few days we were able to get to know the other ten families and hear about where they felt God calling them.  Our children have loved getting to know all the new children and think that it is very cool to have a babysitter everyday while mom and dad have to go to class.

All of last week lead up to the big event that happened today with all the families finally receiving their regional assignments.  So as you can imagine most of us did not get much sleep last night and then we were all up early eagerly waiting for the news of where we would be going.  

Greg and I are proud to say that our family is heading officially to the country of Indonesia where we will be starting language school hopefully sometime this summer.  Our language school is on the island of Java in the city of Salatiga.  Which is a little south of the city of Semarang in the middle of the island.  If you click on the bottom map it should zoom in to were you can read the city names.   

Indonesia in relationship to the rest of the globe.

Indonesia's main islands.

Island of Java.

Thanks for all your prayers and support as we feel very blessed to be able to serve the Lord in the country of Indonesia!

Christmas in AB

We had the wonder time celebrating Christ's birth with my family.  We discovered that it had been 5 years since the last time we where able to spend Christmas with my family, a little over due.  However something that will probably be a common thing as we look forward to moving abroad this coming summer.  As indicated in the pictures we spend a number of days (the warmer ones) on the toboggan hill.  The kids had a blast, only one injury that required a trip to emerg for some crazy glue to patch up Franklin's forehead.  During our stay we also were able to share at our supporting Churches in the area.  It was a privilege to share an update and catch up with our friends and family in the area.  When we left last Thursday the 3rd a chin-nook was blowing in and our truck said it was 40F (4C) which quickly dropped as we headed South.  Reaching Nampa we discovered that they do get snow here and it was surprisingly cold 5F (-15C).  To keep things in perspective the 40F (4C) only last a couple days at best and it was a nice -15F (-26C) when we first arrived in AB three weeks prior, Idaho is still warmer at only 5F (-15C).  And if my memory serves me correctly our former residence in MB was much colder but we have been living in the US these past couple winters making us soft :).  

Enough about the weather.  Today we started Candidacy here in the US.  So far very similar to the one we attended for Canada a couple years ago.  However the exciting part is that next Tuesday we get our assignment that we have been eagerly waiting to find out.  The current possibilities are:

Indonesia

Lesotho

Mozambique

Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC)

Haiti

2 restricted access countries

Look forward to an update from us next week regarding which of these countries we will have the privilege and honor to serve in.

Family All Together For Christmas

The Faster I Climb The Hill The More Runs I Get!!!

Nice Fresh Snow On A Big Hill

Franklin Trying Out A Snow Board

Common Crash Site At The Bottom Of The Hill

Even This Old Guy Took A Couple Runs Down The Hill

Good Thing Sleds Don't Come With Weight Restriction

Sledding Made Easy

Speedy Spider-man Isaac