What makes a good holiday?

1. Good company:

I’m glad I married someone I can genuinely call my best friend. We love spending time together, so having a holiday with Russ is time well spent. We don’t get a lot of alone time these days, so just the two of us getting away is such a treat.

2. Good friends:

On this R&R, Russ & I had the immense privilege of visiting Julene & Chris along with their kids Tehya & Paeton. Julene & I are family, but also went through Elementary and High School together as good friends. Chris & Julene work with MAF in Palangka Raya, Kalimantan – another island in Indonesia. So it was relatively cheap and convenient for us to visit them at their house. It was so good to share “Indonesian” experiences, laughter, tears and memories. One can never overestimate the value of having history with someone. What a gift. And the kids…it was such a blessing to be able to play with some kids at a time when I’m missing my own nieces & nephews so much. They even called us Uncle Russ and Aunt Carmen. It was fun to hear that again. Julene and Chris have done such a great job making their house a home. It felt SO good to be in a home again.

3. Good Food:

Julene is a Mennonite. So am I. What is one thing all Mennonites have in common? An appetite for good food. Julene spoiled us rotten. We got whole wheat bread, pizza with whole wheat crust, whole wheat pancakes (do you think we miss whole wheat??), chicken enchiladas, BEEF STEAK (see Julene’s blog for the full story on that one), real cheese, homemade French Vanilla Yogurt, homemade granola, and Greek salad with real Feta cheese. Yeah. Julene’s doing an amazing job at being a Mennonite cook! We also enjoyed nice coffees from Starbucks and good food at other various restaurants in Palangka Raya, Bandung, Jakarta and Medan.

4. Good Shopping:

How many of you women out there are married to or dating a guy who actually enjoys shopping? Well, neither am I. BUT I discovered that if you put a guy into a very remote village setting for a long enough time, he will be able to match, if not exceed, your shopping stamina. And that’s exactly what happened with Russ. We spent 3 nights and 2 full days in Bandung, a city near Jakarta that is known for it’s factory outlet stores. We got new pants, shirts, sweaters (for when we’re back home), and other accessories for quite cheap and loved every minute of it. Then we spent a day in Jakarta and a day in Medan – both of which were spent doing some more shopping. How lucky am I??!!!! Oh yeah, I almost forgot: we each got some sweet new Converse Shoes. Check it out:

And here's us posing with some of our new buys:

5. Good Adventures:

While in Palangka Raya, Chris took us out on the river in his remodeled ski boat. Wow. It was so cool boating on a river through the jungle. Absolutely beautiful. (This is a different, much bigger river than we boated on, but you get the idea.)

Russ got to go for a flight in a MAF float plane with one of Chris’ colleagues. He loved it. Made him want to get his pilot license.

And generally getting around in Indonesia can be an adventure when your language is as limited as ours is. People are generally pretty helpful, though.

6. Good Break:

We pretty much eat, breathe and sleep work when we’re not on holiday, cause we live with our coworkers and there’s simply not much else to do. So a holiday is a time for us to disengage from our work. To relax, to dream, to talk about nothing, to talk about everything. Everything except work. Don’t get me wrong – the work we do is why we’re here in the first place – but even a job full of purpose requires regular breaks and time away.

Thank You, Jesus, for answering my prayers of refreshing my soul through our visit with Julene & Chris and for giving Russ and I such a relaxing and fun time away.