30 Years of Bliss!

yes! greg turned old on wed! we planned out a whole day of surprises for him as he enjoyed entering into this new decade. what a guy! we love our greg! and we are grateful he remains faithful to God to take him to the next stages of life. he is almost done with language school and he can pretty much carry on any conversation he needs to! he is great at learning languages...and he is so good in this culture too...i'm so glad for him that he is here to teach art and be used with all his gifts just spurting out of him!
He relaxed around the house reading a new magazine we just got in the mail from our good friends in Canada...it was fun to sit and look at "North America"...THANK YOU PATTI!! (the kids also say thanks!) we also just had this bench made by our good friend Pak Wijaya. so it was fun to sit on it for the first time on his birthday.
then when he went to class, the kids and i and our helpers got ready for his surprise birthday party #1. and we got a little picnic for the backyard ready so that after his class he came home to a picnic on the bamboo extravaganza. it was good times. we gave him a charcoal grill and a patio cover (shade thingy) for his birthday. little did he know, we were going to use it all that night for a fun party #2! after his lunch he laid down for a nap with hazel and then he woke up to go "out for coffee" with Jan. but when they got to the resturant/resort...they really had a massage planned for him. He, Jan, and Paul Noble, another friend of ours, pampered themselves with an hour massage. Greg was in heaven!
Meanwhile, back home, we were scrambling to change the backyard into a resturant and fixing up the food. we laughed cuz here were the women trying to learn how to grill on a charcoal grill while the men were getting massages! our helpers made great food and this is what every Indonesian has at his birthday. A volcano of rice! Pretty good stuff and i hope you can see all the detail of "happy birthday" and the vegetables made to look like flowers. this culture is so artistic. it was fun to get ready and keep everything a surprise. but paul did say at the picnic, "this is party #1 and we are waiting for party #2 tonight! but i'm not telling you about it!"