Mother Nature: 5,438; Indonesia: 0

Once again, our beloved adopted country has gotten smacked around by nature. How fun.

Reports started coming in on Sunday about entire areas of Jakarta being under flood waters. Some news agencies were saying one-third of the city, others were saying as much as 75 percent. (Turns out the bigger estimates were right, unfortunately.) We started text-messaging any students we had numbers for who lived in the city, just to check up on them.

Most cheerfully reported that they were fine and oh, Mrs. Erin, do we have school tomorrow or will there be a holiday? A few responses, though, were decidedly less happy.

"My house has water up to an adult's waist!" one of my 8th grade girls told me. Another 10th grade girl said pretty much the same thing. A few others reported having to evacuate their neighborhoods because of flooding, though thankfully their homes hadn't been affected at all.

We didn't have our rain day Monday, and most students and teachers were able to make it in. Our kids who were flooded out will be fine--their parents have insurance and that sort of thing. They've temporarily relocated to their "other houses" or to five-star hotels. The people who don't have it so well, the majority of those affected, have a lot to worry about.

Thousands of people lost everything they had, and Lord only knows how long it'll be until they have clean water and hygenic living conditions again. It's dengue fever season here, and nothing attracts nasty, diseased mosquitoes more than standing water.

A lot of people here tend to assume that, when things like this happen, God is punishing them. The belief that God smites people with cancer or other diseases and sends natural disasters to punish those who aren't being good enough is quite popular. One rather psychotic woman we work with gave a "testimonial" at chapel about how she didn't get cancer because she prayed enough and was spiritually good enough to get something out of our increasingly bizarre chapel services. Right...

Travis was scheduled to speak to the 9th and 10th graders at student chapel this morning, so--armed with research and ideasfrom the trusty official LCMS website--he spoke about how God does do everything for a reason, but instead of standing around when bad things happen and crying, "Why?! What have I done to deserve this? What is God punishing me for? How come I'm not good enough? Boo hoo, me me me, why is God picking on me?" we should say "What can we do to help? What lessons can we learn from this? What opportunities is God presenting to us with this?" Our wonderful I Can Make a Difference club is already brainstorming for ways they can help. I love our kids.

It finally stopped raining on Tuesday. The sun came out and I was so happy to see it I nearly cried. We've had a few dreary days since then, but thankfully not the deluge we had last week. I hope the rain can either hold off or continue in normal amounts so things can start getting put back together. Some areas of the city are still pretty much inaccessible, but other areas are fine. Our driver took some friends of ours to the airport tonight and it took him two hours each way--not bad at all for a Friday night. We may brave the toll roads tomorrow and go into part of the city that didn't flood to catch a movie or something.

In other news, we're starting to prepare for our move home. There's only so much we can do now since it's still only February, but we're getting some things started. Travis is checking out options for school next year and I'm looking into (surprise!) massage therapy schools in the St. Louis area. It's been in the back of my head for a while and I decided to scope out my options. We'll see, I guess, it's just an idea for now. If it were something I could do in the form of night school while working at a regular day job, that would be great. I know I'd have plenty of willing guinea pigs for all the practicum hours I'd need.

In some ways it's a little scary to be five years out of college and considering yet another huge career transition. Journalist, teacher...massage therapist? Dog-walker? Journalist again? Marketing or PR? Online tutor? Office drone? Kept woman? (Kidding!) We'll see. It's fun to think of the possibilities, though.

Once again, please keep Indonesia in your prayers. Pray for some sunshine--we need it!