On the Road Again

Well, I am now at the BTGH offices for the final time as I wait to leave for the airport. It has been an amazing 5 weeks. I have so many people I want to thank. When I was a coach at SDSU, it was my practice to give out "kudos" at the end of a trip, so here are my kudos for this trip.

Kudos to Congressman Vern Ehlers' office. Without their 11th hour assistance on Keri's passport, this would have been a much sadder trip. As long as he stays in politics, Rep. Ehlers will always get my vote (not that he wasn't going to already as he is a CRC, Republican who is a former Calvin prof and originally from Edgerton. Abe Lincoln would have had to run against him in order for me not to vote for him).

Kudos to Pastor Untung and his wonderful staff at the BTGH Indonesia. Great group. They were so willing to show me around (i.e. driving me to locations - if I had to drive I probably would have killed myself on the roads), help me with the ministry practices and just being there to show me a little slice of Indonesian Christianity.

Kudos to my host family, Joseph and Theresia. They were so gracious to open their house up to Keri and me for the five weeks. Their hospitality knows no bounds. I am so grateful for how easy they made our stay in Jakarta. I am determined to come back to Indonesia again, just so I can finally beat one of them at Chinese Checkers (We must have played a dozen games. I got agonizingly close to winning several times, only to be crushed at the last minute.)

Kudos to all of you who have supported us throughout this trip. Your prayers, money, and kind words of support to us over the past several months have made this opportunity a reality. I thank God that there are folks out there that truly want to show Christ to others around the world, and support a young man who is finding his voice in the kingdom. Thank you for making this possible.

Finally, I thank God for this trip. From the beginning trials and tribulations of the trip to now, I have felt God's presence in this trip as I have never felt it before. So many moments of the trip become simply known as "God moments" where something inexplicable would happen that blessed Keri and me in some way. An Atheist would say that we were exceptionally lucky or had good fortune throughout our trip. I say we were simply blessed.

So, as I prepare to go to the airport, I thank you, loyal reader, for staying with my rambling writings over the past months. The Indonesian blog is almost complete. But I have one other purpose left for the blog. In August, please check this blog for updates on Keri's pregnancy. Okay, updates are a strong word. We'll just post the birth announcement and some pictures of the new Baby Spronk (I know, this sounds like some celebrity news site now: "Come see the WORLD-EXCLUSIVE pictures of little Suri Spronk....or the RARE PICTURES of little Apple Ka-el Spronk... or something like that. Okay, I promise not to name my child some bizarro name, though my brothers would probably give me 100 dollars to name my kid Homer or Strong Bad. And 100 dollars would probably buy a week's worth of diapers for little Chewbacca... er, Dumbledore... er, Papaya Spronk.)

Blessings,

Jonathan

P.S. If we were having twins, I think we would have gone with LaKwaya and Papaya.