Selamat Jalan Papi

Kehilangan seseorang yang kita cintai memang tidak enak. Kami baru kehilangan Ayah kami tercinta, pada tanggal 8 Januari 2008. Semangat dan ajarannya selalu mengiang di telinga kami. "... Jangan mau dikendalikan oleh uang ya, kitalah yang harus mengontrol uang", "... pendidikan dan iman adalah harga yang berharga dari pada harta warisan", "... Jangan sombong kalo sudah menjadi besar", ...

Langkah-langkah yang diambilnya kadang-kadang membingungkan dan kontroversi, namun baru kami mengerti setelah melihat hasilnya.

Selamat Jalan papi.... Selamat bertemu Bapa di Sorga...

Lebenslauf photo

After being busy with Seno's thesis, finally I can a bit relax today. Finish? Not yet, the submit-deadline is Wednesday, 27.7. He has to edit them with the last corrections from John and print.

Puihh, it is not an easy task, to keep an eye on every single word in a hundred pages. Well, hopefully everything goes well with binding and others stuffs by Wednesday. Still a lot to do but we are keep praying and trusting that God always help him, as he is doing his best for it.

Thanks to his nice and helpful colleagues in JPA2 group and John from the Church of Christ in KL, for their corrections.

Other thing is he has to give a lebenslauf or CV with photo, along with the thesis. So, last Saturday he managed to make it in the City and here is one of those picture. Hmmm...hope his new-hair-cut will not make him look "culun", he...he...he...
I did my best for that last Thursday evening, after a long journey with 4 Indonesian who are staying here in Kaiserslautern for 1 month.

From Klose to ...

UEFA Champions League is always interesting. Though there will be no Klose anymore, 'coz the poor Werder Bremen was kicked out so early. Anyhow, there are no German's team now in the semifinals. Is the appearance of 3-English club show how good is the FA league? No idea, at least 3 out of 4 team from the league in the Champions semifinals tells something.

So many players, but Klose still Seno's favorite. Don't know why, maybe because he looks like a kind of down to earth-person . Although he has not performed so good in the Champions League, yet he still deserve to be a favorite player. Far away from arrogant, cool and he has a new hair style, ha..ha... this has nothing to do with his performance. I guess Werder Bremen will win the UEFA this year, besides their opposites are not as strong as other teams in Champions.

Now, our favorite team is AC Milan. It is the one and only non-English Club. This club sent the last German Club, Bayern München out, and made them cry in front of their own public. Schadeee... But will AC Milan have chance to go to the final, or even win the Champions? Let's wait and see...

It won't be impossible that Ricardo Izecson dos Santos Leite, who was born in April 22, 1982 will lead his team to got the Champions crown. Yeah...yesterday Manchester United won a pulsating UEFA Champions League semi-final first leg by the last-minute goal from Wayne Rooney. But he made it too, in the same match he scored 2, and now he is the candidate for the top scores with 9 goals.

I think now he is one the best option to be a favorite player, beside Klose of course :-). He deserved it. No wonder there are a lot of article about him. Today I found a lot of video of his goals in yesterday, in you tube. Try this one, and you will agree with us. He is amazing and down to earth too. Who is he?? He is KAKA'.

Btw, "wiki" said a lot of things about him, like :
- His favourite music is gospel music, and his favorite book is the Bible.
- Every time he scores he points his fingers to the sky as a sign of thanks to God.
- Pelé once described him as having Brazilian technique combined with European strength.
- He is proud that he was a virgin when he married....:-)

What a good man... I guess

Glück ist...

What is luck or Glück for you? Some friends said Glück ist wenn man gute Freunde oder viel Geld hat, Gesund, bla..bla..bla.. (lucky if we have good friends, much money, healthy, etc).

For us, glück ist wenn man zufrieden mit seine Leben ist. We are lucky when we are still grateful for our life. Either it is in a nice or even in a difficult moment, if we are satisfy and thankful for whatever we have in our life, we still (feel) lucky.

Though sometimes we still have the feeling of being so far away from relatives and good friends, not having so much money, still we are lucky. Hey, .. nobody will said he has much money, right?

So, instead of having boring or tiring days, here in (this boring city, :-) Kaiserslautern, we had another journey to Trier on Saturday April 7th, a day before easter.

Again, we were lucky since we went in groups of more than 30 people. We stayed together as a group of 5 person for 1 day train and bus ticket. Plus, there was a complete explanation by a Tourist Guide for some important places in Trier, although he explained all in German :P. Nevertheless, we had fun and enjoyed it very much. Again, we were lucky and thanked to International Student for Graduate Studies (ISGS) in TU-Kaiserslautern for the gratis tour.

Still in the Easter Monday, we decided to make a hiking tour to Humbergturm, with Wendy and Desy. Although it was a bit tiring and Seno need a one-day-rest in the next day, still it was okeeeehhh.

No more

Our heartfelt symphathies and condolences for those whose lives were directly affected by all the disasters and transportation accidents in our beloved country, Indonesia. We pray that God will give you strength in facing this hard condition.

Last week we were just a bit annoyed by a CNN news reader, after reading news about Flores, she said 'Nowadays most disasters news are coming from Indonesia'. It might be just a bitter-joke and although never expected, this week ...other nightmares came true. Another plane accident on Wednesday in Jogyakarta, after an earthquake just destroyed and killed so many people on Tuesday in West Sumatera, they were no more joke. Sad but true, catastrophes seem would never leave our beloved country.

Yesterday morning, in a small conversation with a friend :
Friend : Hey, there is a plane accident in your country.
Me : Yes, last Months (with a bitter-smile, thinking about Adam air)
Friend : Last months? No, this morning.
Me : Whatt?? I did not see any news this morning yet (I just arrived, and it was 9 a.m.)
Friend : Ya, this morning in Indonesia, from a big airline company in Indonesia, some foreigners, Australian bla...bla..bla
Me : OMG, again ?? Do you remember which airline ? (before started to blamed some airlines again...he..he...).
Friend : No. There are so many accidents and disasters in your country. Why?
Me : Why??..hmm ..no idea... (speechles)

And...guess what.....a Garuda Indonesia Boeing 737-400 jetliner, which served Jakarta- Yogyakarta route, was burned Wednesday at 7:14 a.m. after making a hard landing in adi Sucipto Airport, Yogyakarta...Hey, it was Garuda Airlines. The only domestic airlines I thought that can be trusted after all.

Still hard to forget an accident with one of the Mandala airlines in Medan, 2005, just few minutes after take-off. About hundred people, passengers, all crews and people who are unluckily were in the surrounding that accident, were killed and totally burnt. Many people in North Sumatera (and also from others) province lost their relatives during that accident, including their governor and ex-governor who were also the passengers.

What about the missing-Adam air since last new year? And many other transportation accidents? Cases just dismissed...no discussion, no doubt. The black blox are still black, whether it was found or just gone missing.

Most of us maybe know nothing of what really caused those accidents. Nevertheless, we still need the transportations, whether for our job or in the name of family relationship. As we are, you will know the meaning of Familie-treffen (family meeting), if your parents and relatives spread out in some islands in a country like Indonesia.

So, please....no more transportation accidents. For those whoever have authorities and powers to make this condition better, please DO SOMETHING !!. ...And please minimize disasters too. I hope this is the last Cathastrophe for our country. Let's hope and pray for a better Indonesia.

Move the mountain ......

A familiar slogan about prayer is, "Prayer changes things." But prayer doesn't do this—God does. Some people think that prayer itself is the source of power, so they "try prayer," hoping "it will work" for them. Jesus disclosed one of the secrets behind all true prayer in Markus 11: "Have faith in God." Not faith in faith, not faith in prayer, but "faith in God".

Jesus told His disciples they could command a mountain to be cast into the sea, and if they believed it would happen, it would. Jesus then gave them His meaning behind that astonishing promise. He said, "Whatever things you ask when you pray, believe that you receive them, and you will". Jesus was speaking about answered prayer. We can ask and receive answers only if our asking is directed to God in faith and according to His will (1 John 5:14).

I've often wished that I could move mountains by faith. But God has done something much more important: He has removed mountains of worry, fear, and resentment from my heart and cast them into oblivion through my faith in Him. He is still in the mountain-moving business! Have faith in God and pray!

prayer

Talking about prayer, I just found a beautiful prayer from a website and wanna share it in our blog. This has nothing to do with valentine's day, ehmmm...guess we are still in January. It sounds sweet and "strong" for us, as an-unexperienced-couple, to keep pray for each other. Hope it will be worthy to be shared..be blessed.

our Lord... grant that I and my spouse 

may have a true and understanding love for each other.

Grant that we may both be filled with faith and trust.

Give us the grace to live with each other in peace and harmony.

May we always bear with one another's weaknesses,

and grow from each other's strengths,

help us to forgive one another's failings

and grant us patience, kindness, cheerfulness

and the spirit of placing the well-being

of one another ahead of self.

May the love that brought us together

grow and mature with each passing year.

Bring us both ever closer to You

through our love for each other.

Let our love grow to perfection.

Amen

Don't know why, but now I discover that praying constantly need a big effort especially when everything seems going wrong. Anyway, let's try keep praying as it is the biggest power on earth.



Our picture above is not a wonderful shot indeed. But we love it simply because it was taken from the top of Saint Vitus Cathedral, Prague Castle, during our jorney September '06. The cathedral is one of the building in the Prague castle. We had to suffered in ascending about 200 steps, besides 101 steps of the Old Castle Stairs to reach the Castle itself.

Wondering how people will come to this very challenging place (I mean the Cathedral, not its tower) just to pray.