News - December 2005

Happy New Year!

May the blessings , good health and good career be with you all , always.

My family and I were enjoying the nature and the beauty of Timor Island during the wet season.
The blessings in the form rain are really changing the desert like landscape into a solid and beautifully green landscape within few weeks after the rainy season was started.
It was the famine trip that we made in July to August 2005 trip but things are so different during our recent trip ( DEC 8th to the 29th).
What it was like no living trees into a very green and abundant and promising harvest for most of the fruit trees.
From leafless trees into a healthy looking trees with fruits on its branches.

At the orphanage we were having plenty of our own veggies, fresh ripe and sweet mango right from the trees daily , bread fruit in exchange of the carbohydrate ( instead of rice) , cassava or ubi kayu etc.
Our corn has been always better than the neighbor's corn, not only very healthy but the trees are much taller and bigger.
If anyone is coming in mid or end of Feb , you may pick fresh corns from its trees.
At this stage the fruits are starting to form and the hairy parts are starting to come out.

My trip from Singapore to Jakarta, transiting Surabaya then to Timor was a blessed one indeed.
Even though it was in the peak of the rainy season for that particular geographic location, the flight was so smooth and cloudless ( it was heavy rain when I left the house in Singapore).
Abundant rain came after I have finished unpacking and ready to go to bed at the orphanage in Timor ( He takes care of my journey because of you prayers).

The next morning I am already out side , with shorts and T shirt and walking through the trees , squeezing mangos while they are still hanging at the trees. Once I found one which is rather soft , it means mango eating time for us .
We are also picking up the grasses among the corn trees ( cleaning ) so that the plants will be better as the nutrition will not be taken by other trees such as the grass.
Photo shooting is some else that we do enjoying so much.
As I have mention earlier that in July-August we were seeing things are suffering from the heat without water, nothing can grow and both human and the animals were suffering but during this trip we were seeing the opposite.
Our animals are having a lot to eat , the ducts and the chicken are finding food easy by them self within the orphanage compound ( while the human gets the most ha ha ha ).

Our breakfast were quite frequently freshly harvested mango from the trees with avocado which we bought it from the market ( 1 KG is about 1 SGD) , with a glass of Milo and plenty of water .
Fresh fish like Tuna or Mackerel either BBQed or fried are great to at any time, but the steam one will be fantastic with ginger source and it is also healthier too.
Plenty of fresh anchovies which are so rich with vitamins can be bought at the fish market ( 1 KG is about 2 SGD).

As there are no industrial activities or factories , I am allowing my son Christian to bath and to play in the rain ( actually I want to do the same but the girls won't let me , I feel that I am still a child too some times ha ha h a).
It is a pity that the soil is not able to hold the water for so long as the bottom part of it are coral , thus the water will be dripping down wards till it became so deep ( about 70 to 100 meters deep).

We were doing twice of our routine programs during this trip .It was about giving good nutrision food and vitamin to the 5 years and below (green bean soup and boiled eggs time ha ha ha). This time around only about 170 people were coming , it was because of the good rain and more people were working at their farm and doing their crops.
As things get wosrt ( June May onwards) more children will be coming again as the farming will be stopped ( no rain or irigation to their farms)

From the Dec 20th onwards we do not get enough sleep as we were so busy with our Christmas activities.
We were buying the gifts for the people (especially the older one , widows and the orphans).
They are not a watches , toys , or clothes but our gifts are some thing for them to enjoy for the Christmas .
We were packing into two plastic bags for each family and we gave away 3 KG of rice, 2 KG of flour for them to make cake, 1 kg of sugar, a pack of margarine, 5 eggs, yeast, a canned of condense milk, a can of tinned sardines ( they value it more special than a fresh fish ha ha ha ) , detergent, soap, a bottle of 1.8 L coca cola , matches, 2 kg of green bean, 7 packs of instant noodle, 1 pack of MSG, tooth paste and shampoo.

We gathered them at the orphanage foe those who were within 2 KM from us .
They were 58 families that we gave at the orphanage location, 30 families at Oefafi and Tasipa village (52 other families at Matani and Undana village were also getting it at the orphanage). It was a hard work but we were doing it while eating our fresh mango, lots of laughing session, lots of screaming and lots of packing for sure and we packing you love as well. So it was fun and enjoyable moment for us.
While giving away the packages at the orphanage , we made a lottery too.
We told them that every one will be going home with goodies but 10% of them will be getting more ( 12 of them).

It was a proven facts that God has always been arranging things appropriately , the lottery went to the people who needs most ( even though some of winner were getting their turn to take the draw at the end ).
3 elderly who must be assisted to walk getting their draw at the beggining and all of them got it , a grand father who got his turn to draw at the end also got it , a widow with two small children who came earliest but getting her draw at the middle also got it .
It is not much by your standard ( about 10 SGD ) but many of them it is money that they are able to get it in one month.

I wish that some of you were there with us and to Praising The Lord for His blessings.
Most of the elderly who got the money said they will be buying either rice or some thing for the family ( non of them were saying some thing to be bought for their own, always for their family, their children or their grand children. infact few of them wants to buy a new clothes for their grand children).
As the day was so hot , so we sent them back to a location where it wasn't to far for them to walk home ( some of the road can not be penetrated by a car. We were using 2 pickup cars , 10 to 12 person for each trip).

For Oefafi village and Tasipa village we were delivering it till 21:00 PM.
It was about 20 KM away , dark and some of the road were rather soften by the rain.
We delivered the goodies to them without their knowledge and it was so wonderful to see them seeing your love gifts .
It was so wonderful to hear them saying some thing like : God has sent us some thing which we do not even affort to dream of for this coming Christmas ( the two gift bags were really a miracle for them already).
Some were afraid to open their " door like " door as we came during the darkness ( some houses were not able to have a proper door as they were not able to buy hinges for the door and they just shift it manually the door's cover).
We were so busy at the orphanage during the day because of putting up the garage's roof extention for making sure that the rain will not penetrates the floor of the place where we are going to have the Christmas gathering on the 26th .

For the Christmas gathering we bought a huge cow ( approx 280 KG ) from Baun town ( about 40 KM) and 80 chickens from a fiend's farm which we got it about 15% cheaper as if bought them from the market.
It was a big work for many of us as non of us were butcher .
There were 12 of us doing the multi tasking jobs.
One thing that I am still good was peeling the eggs , just count till 4 or 5 at the most and the egg will be peeled.
Cleaning up the 80 chicken was made to be a fun thing to do as we were doing it together.
Cooking the meat that much of quantity was also some thing else.

Should you were there with us you can feel the Christmas spirit was really strong .
The Christmas gathering was attended by the head of the villlage, teachers , pastors and some 500 children ( primary and secondary students age ). Last year was attended by about 700 children ( it was because of the rain which fell on that evening).
The short speech was done by the village's head while the prayer was lead by the near by church elder.
The meals time for sure needing your full energy as we have to serve hundreds of them and as far as the food is concern , it is the food that they might ever eat it once or twice a year . So when we started with the food distribution , the noise of the children were rather loud and making the quietness far for its existance . The roar of the children were so interesting , here , there , me , my egg fell, can I share the spoon rather if I have to use my hand as my hands are dirty, can I have one more for my grandma at home . my sister loves the rendang, don't stepped on my skirt , the sayur is rather hot , why he is queing for the food twice , we are hungry back here , you come back again next year for us mister etc etc .
The place was so a live and but I am sure that the trees do not mind and will continue growing and bare fruits.
Things were so great as every one was having a good time , a blessed feeling and a great Christmas for sure!.

At the end , we give away the Christmas give to the children (rubber band [to tie up their plastic bag to go to school as it the rainy season now and many of them do not have school bags], chocolate, candies, books , pencils, some snacks,some jelly pudding and money 5000 rupiah or about one SGD).

A very good news just sent by God on Dec 31st 2005 morning.
The Governor of N T T ( Nusa Tenggara Timur province ) the province that our orphanage is situated in , was paying a visit to the orphanage . Together with his staffs he came without any notice ( lucky that every morning we have been asking every one to make sure that the orphanage is clean , clean environtment will enhance us to work better and healthy too).
Governor Alexander Piet Tallo was the one who officialy opened the orphanage.
He was so happy with the progress that has been done over the years . He carry one by one of all the orphanage children.
He even called me to say thank you for the has been done to the children both inside the orphanage and out side the orphanage .
I told him that it has been the work of many friends , bothers and sisters in Singapore and else where who have been so supportive and praying very hard for the activities to be done appropriately.
He brought us baby milk and some light snacks for the children.
He was asking our difficulties and Peggy gave him few of them.
He promised that he will drill a well for us FOC ( it can be around 22 000 SGD for the drilling and the piping ).
This morning Peggy and my children went to the Governor's office and he called the person in charge for this drilling matter.
The person was out of the area but when he is back , he must report to the Governor and the Governor will instruct him to do the driling it at our orphanage.
To The Lord be he Glory always.

This afternoon I was invited to have lunch with the 75 years old lady from Lion's Club ( together with 2 other Lions club members).
At the end of our lunch madam Christien Paago told me that the 500 pairs of shoes that she promised us in July 2005 has been ready at Surabaya and will be sent some time this month. She was with us during the famine trip July - August last year.
Praise The Lord.

Remember our Static and Mobile Libraries project?
The static library has been built at the orphanage location and we will be installing the roof as soon as possible . It was stopped because of 2 other projects that we are having at the moment.
We should be finished building the Static Library in March or April at the latest. Praise The Lord.
About the mobile Library,
Where and how in the world it happpened to us ?
God has listened to your prayers prayers and prayers.
One of the Indonesian minister has handed me a brand new car , fully modified for a library , great colour and the size of a minibus ( 20 seaters). Praise The Lord for being our provider indeed.
The car has been in my garage in Jakarta and Peggy will be arranging it to be sent to Timor starting on the 6th, she will be departing from Timor to jakarta tomorrow with the children and our children will continue to Singapore and Peggy will works on how to send the car to Timor.
I will send you the picture of the car later , Peggy has it in her note book.

May I say that some times we are tired too on counting His blessings ? The flow of His blessings has been so exeedingly and abundantly
Joy after Joy has been with us .
Happiness after happiness are coming , more people can be helped. Praise The Lord.

In March 2006 , there is a possibility that we will be having some 21 up to 25 NUS students coming to Timor .
I had a meeting with them yesterday and there will be another meeting on the 6th evening with the 21 students.
It might be sponsored by Singapore Gov and the Rotary E club of Singapore as well .
We will be doing some farming projects, goal setting and English teaching for 2 weeks.
Their age will be from 17 to 29 years old.
I will do my best and hoping that I can be a help to them.
I have also arrange it for a cross culture sesions and trying to tie up with the local university students as well.
A friend from Rotary club and also the leader of Asociation of Chinese businessman in Timor said that he will be ready to help on my request upon any assistance that they can possibly help out during this students visit. Praise The Lord.


All and all these great things are happening because of your help , prayers and love.


Thanks to you brothers , sisters and friends for your love , kindness and care to the liittle ones.


Shalom Alehem