Hong Kong

On our way to Europe we made a short stop into Hong Kong. This is were we celebrated Josh’s birthday with a big juicy steak at Ruth’s Chris’ steakhouse…original I know. We didn’t have a lot time and both of us were growing travel weary so most of our day was lying in bed watching cartoons trying to rest up for the 12-hour flight we had ahead of us. Before boarding our flight to France, dinner we met up to have dinner with a friend of Josh’s from the states.

Our friend Chase who lives in Hong Kong

Jakarta, Indonesia

We spent a total of 2 days in Jakarta where Josh had a few meetings and where we visited with some friends from Atlanta. I tagged along for a few of the meetings and then my curiosity got the best of me and I signed up for a reflexology appointment. It was a rather painful experience, one because I had a number of “problems” according to my reflexologist and two because the reflexologist knew very little English. For an hour we struggled through numerous topics until finally I just acted like I had fallen asleep. We also had the neat experience of visiting a local Indonesian restaurant that had lots of interesting historical artifacts. After saying our goodbyes we headed off to Hong Kong.

Here are some photos from the local restaurant we visited

Jakarta, Indonesia

We spent a total of 2 days in Jakarta where Josh had a few meetings and where we visited with some friends from Atlanta. I tagged along for a few of the meetings and then my curiosity got the best of me and I signed up for a reflexology appointment. It was a rather painful experience, one because I had a number of “problems” according to my reflexologist and two because the reflexologist knew very little English. For an hour we struggled through numerous topics until finally I just acted like I had fallen asleep. We also had the neat experience of visiting a local Indonesian restaurant that had lots of interesting historical artifacts. After saying our goodbyes we headed off to Hong Kong.

Happy Birthday Joshie!

What a wonderful day to celebrate. 32 years ago in the small town of Brisbane, Australia my husband was born. I am so grateful and blessed to have him in my life. God is so good. Happy Birthday Joshie...I love you!

Bali, Indonesia

We took a short two-day trip to Bali to visit some friends who partner with Leading the Way. We encountered various humorous moments on our trip over but I think most of them fall in the "I guess you had to be there" category...let's just say Indonesian air travel is very different and disorganized. When we reached Bali we spent most of our time with our friends at Mercy Indonesia.Mercy Indonesia is a ministry which consists of a local radio station (which airs leading the way), a church planting team, and various teams that work to set up orphanages. We spent time visiting the radio team and one of their local orphanages and Josh was able to speak about Leading the Way on their local radio program. I was particularly touched by visiting the orphanage. Most of the children were rescued from refugee camps in East Timor and have no contact with their families. I was nearly moved to tears as they came together to sing songs about the joy of the Lord. We have seen some very unusual things as we have traveled across the country and we caught a few on Josh's phone...enjoy our photos...

sweet friends from the orphanage
Josh during his interview with Paulous
part of the radio team from Mercy Indonesia
at our hotel
a view from our hotel in Bali
some cool old-school vespas
hilarious...

Last Days in Sydney

We enjoyed a very fruitful trip in Sydney and had a great time touring the city and visiting with friends. We had great weather for the last few days in Sydney and spent most of our time walking through the city and jumping on ferries to see places like Watson's Bay and Manly Beach. Today we are on our way to Bali, Indonesia to meet with some partners of the ministry and to visit a local orphanage. Above are a few highlights of our time in Australia.Hope all is well with you.

Sydney, Australia

This is Beng's wife, Lee Wan, and me at Milson's point near the Harbour Bridge
Lee Wan and her daughter Kim , part of the Leading the Way family

a view from Balmoral Beach

Me touring the cochlear building





We have been in Australia now for almost a week. I can always tell when I have been here for a while because I start slipping things like "a bit" and "quite" and "how ya goin" into my conversations. It is winter here and everywhere you look you see little kiddies with their UGG boots on. We spent the morning jogging along the Harbour path which has beautiful views of both the Opera house and the Harbour bridge. Just a quick update: I had a neat opportunity to visit the cochlear implant headquarters here in Sydney. The Vice President of Leading the Way Asia Pacific, Beng, has a son who works for the company and set up a tour inside the facilities. There is a lot of neat history about the company and its founder and I was very interested to see how the device came about. Check it out if you're interested www.cochlear.com/au .We just got back from a short trip up the coast to Maloolaba, near where Josh was born in Brisbane. Maloolaba is a little surfer town about an hour and a half plane ride north of Sydney. We had a great time meeting and sharing with friends involved with the ministry. I dont have a lot of pictures to share this time but I will catch up in the next few days.