Our School

My Classroom

Our School

Sekolah Pelita Harapan (SPH) was started in 1993 by a foundation called Yeyasan which was the brainchild of primarily 2 Indonesian businessmen (I’ll talk later about the vision of this foundation). Currently SPH has around 2000 students on 4 different campuses, with the main campus in Karawaci (1200 students where I teach). The name means “School of Light and Hope.” SPH serves mostly Indonesians and follows an IB (International Baccalaureate) curriculum. Its goal is to provide English speaking education for potential future leaders of Indonesia. The goal is that these students will use their education at SPH to get into top colleges and universities in the English speaking world to become financiers, doctors, lawyers, engineers ect… and then return to Indonesia to give back to Indonesia. The school sits on a beautiful campus (see pictures below).

The goal of Yeyesan Foundation is to create the following throughout Indonesia:

10 Sekolah Pelita Harapan schools (School of Light and Hope)- English speaking schools. Light in this sense means big light, like a lighthouse.

100 Sekolah Dian Harapan schools- This also means Light and Hope but the word means lantern light. These schools are not in english and have the purpose of creating local leaders such as teachers and nurses.

1000 Sekolah Lentera Harapan schools- This also means school of Light and Hope but light here could be translated candle light. These are village schools set to provide basic education in reading, writing and math for kids in an environment where they would not normally get an education.

5 University Pelita Harapan- 5 universities throughout Indonesia. Janet will likely work at the only University Pelita Harapan (UPH or OOO PAY HAH) so far as a part time nursing instructor. The university has a nursing school, teacher education program and business programs. There are over 10,000 attending the university!

It is refreshing to see such a Christian vision for not only schooling but also for the future of a country taking hold and being implemented. God is at work!

P.S. At a later time I will blog about daily routines at school and the kids classrooms ect….

Our house

Our Harley Address

Small but nice back yard

Dining room set (beautiful inlaid chinese table)

Our House

A palace by Indonesian standards, our house is comparable in size to our house in New Mexico. It has two stories, two bathrooms, four small bedrooms, a garage, and (hopefully) a whole lotta love. Key differences:

*Tile floors instead of wood
*Air conditioning and no furnace
*Tiny back yard (20 feet by 10 feet) with a huge cement wall around it.
*Maid quarters
*No hot water in the kitchen or for the washing machine.
*No basement
*Grass in the yard
*You cannot see Rehoboth peak from the kitchen window.

Misc. thoughts and observations:
*We might not need an alarm clock. The Muslim call to prayer begins a 4:30 AM and our house is relatively near a mosque.
*Automatic Badet’s are not for the timid.
*Our landlord is a Harley Davidson fan. Our address on the front of the house is a hand painted Harley logo with our house number.
*Janet and I are still waiting for a vision on how we want to decorate our house. I think it may never come. Any ideas? Please email us.
*We are on the island of JAVA and Sumatra (next island to us) is known for some of the best coffee in the world, yet when we showed up for in service at the school, they served us instant coffee.
*Bananas are more expensive here than in the U.S. but you can get a good steak and fries dinner for $2.90 at a sit down restaurant.

Remember to email us at:

s_weeda@hotmail.com

or

janetweeda@yahoo.com

or Skype us!

Halo from Lippo Karawaci, Indonesia!

Our trip- Rehoboth to Albuquerque to Dallas to San Francisco to Hong Kong to Singapore to Jakarta to Karawaci.

Highlights of the trip:
Meeting SPH Teachers (the White Family and Steven Pointdexter) on the plane in Hong Kong and enjoying time in Singapore with them (see posted photo below).

Being enfolded by a great community at SPH. From the moment we were met at the airport at SPH through tours of the school and shopping trips, our new community here has been Christ’s love to us. (I hope to write more about the SPH community later)

Lowlights of the trip:
Length of trip (see number of stop overs above)- At one point , Janet leaned over and said “I’m going to have to tell my mother I won’t be coming back, because I never want to be on a plane this long again”
There is a bad combination for many people, especially us: tired AND hungry. Weird schedules and weirder food (by Eric and Neil’s standards) has pushed us into this combination more than usual.

Misc. occurrences and observations:
· Singapore- the most watched place on Earth (as in Surveillance). When teaching kids about government, I often say a simple way of summarizing and comparing governments is to look at how they balance two different and opposite goals: freedom (rights) and order (protection). From what I understand, about 40 years ago, Singapore chose order ($1000 fines for chewing gum, littering and spitting, ect…). While extremely clean and neat, it also has an eerie sense of big brother (starting with guards at the airport carrying fully automatic weapons). It does, however put a smiling face on its restrictions (see picture below).

· We often prayed before the trip that God would go before us and prepare this place. We really have felt that this happened.

Empty House

While this blog will chronical the calling of the Weeda's to Indonesia, the first couple of posts will deal with the transition of getting there, which we are learning is a difficult process: cleaning, packing, painting, sorting, hauling and selling have all been happening in a steady way for the past 3 months.

None the less, God has been good and we should be ready to fly out on July 13 with 10 boxes, 5 carry ons and 5 personal items as well as ourselves and passports.
We hope that you will check this blog (often in the next few weeks) and share this calling with us.

The Weedas