Indonesia

Sunday, December 12, 2010  11pm  (posted the next day when I got internet)

Wow.  That is all I can say about our first week in Indonesia.  Now that we are here, I’m so glad that we had no idea what we were getting into!  The difference between Canada and Slovakia is nothing compared to the differences in Indonesia.  And I’m really not very well prepared to come on a trip like this, as I’ve never been any farther south than Iowa.  At least if I had gone to Mexico, I’d have more of an idea.  But this is completely different than everything I’ve ever known.  The food, the traffic, the humidity, the smells, the scheduling, the bathrooms… all significantly different. And it made the first couple days super hard.  But it is only day four (Sunday).  The first day it was easy to attribute grumpiness and not being excited about the differences to jetlag.  But we had these funny little fruits the first night, and they pretty much put me out of commission for the entire second day.  So while I was laying in bed feeling sorry for myself, the team was off getting excited about the culture and the people we were with.  Thankfully I’m feeling like myself again (and starting to trust food again) which means I can start enjoying the country again.  But for the second and third day, every strong smell in the street would make me nauseas.   It was really a struggle, because everything smells strongly here!  So I really appreciated your prayers on those two days.  It was nice knowing people at home were praying for me, even though they didn’t know what was going on.

But I guess I should tell you more about what we have seen and done.  I’ve seen the biggest spider I’ve ever seen in the wild.  I’ve already gotten used to the gecko/lizard things on the walls.  The boys had two in their room, and both were named Jamal.  I’ve experienced the “rainy season” otherwise known as “occasional sprinklings of rain during the day, with possible torrential downpours during the afternoon”.  The first day, there was a thunderstorm as we ate lunch, and our front yard was completely flooded!  We also realized then that where we are staying in that town is right next to a river, which I think is a blessing because the noise of the river helps drown out the city noise.  And that city noise includes the Muslim call to prayer during all hours.  Last night it woke me up at 3 in the morning.  Not so cool.  Although, we have learned that Indonesians are super hard workers.  They often get up at 3 or 4 in the morning… and we definitely have seen them up past ten or eleven.  Thankfully, they supplement their sleep with an afternoon nap.  We have been very thankful for that, and I attribute it to why I am mostly over my jet lag already.  Sleeping for two or three hours in the afternoon is really nice when you are in a hot muggy climate!

So we have primarily been helping out in a children’s home for the first four days.  It was long enough to fall in love with their little kids, and really want to get to know the older ones better.  And these kids are learning English as well, which is AWESOME!  I actually was in charge of an English lesson yesterday with Alex, and we played a really fun game of Pictionary with the three kids that were with us that day.  But I think they loved getting more attention with the smaller group.  So really what happened was that I drew things on a white board and the kids would tell us its name.  And Alex helped me when I ran out of ideas, which was often. We actually ran into a few things they didn’t know the name for, which I am taking to mean that I actually got to teach them something! 

We actually are going to get to spend Christmas with those kids, which I’m so excited for.  But for the next week or so, we are going to be in a bigger town helping out some other people.  Sound vague?  Mostly because I have no idea what we are going to be doing.  It should be good though.  Bigger town means we should find internet somewhere (which will allow me to post this blog), and we drove down a street today that looks like California with palm trees on the sides and flowers in the meridian.   A bit more high class than we were used to seeing in the other town.

As for time zone differences, we have figured that I’m 14 hours ahead of Alberta.  When it is midnight here, it is only 10 am the same day in Alberta.  When I wake up at seven am, it is 5pm the day before in Alberta.  CRAZY!  We decided that we could celebrate the New Year three times.  Once on Indonesian time, six hours later on Slovakia time, and then again 8 and/or 9 hours later for Alberta and Oregon. 

There are so many other things I could say, but maybe I’ll leave some things to be explained when I get back. Although, I do have one thing that can’t really wait.  The second day we were here (while I was still out of commission) Steve and Ben went with one of our contacts here to visit some families, and in one house there was a woman who had been stung by a scorpion a couple hours earlier and was in such pain she couldn’t walk.  They prayed for her, and she was completely healed.  She even got up and started serving them food!  God is good! 

Prayer requests:

Please pray for the church here and those people who are seeking God.

Pray for the children’s home. They have 26 kids, many are from broken homes and two thirds are teenagers going through teenage stuff. 

Pray for the staff of the home, who aren’t getting paid (only room and board) to be provided for in all their needs: materially, emotionally, and spiritually. 

Pray for our team to be able to get into a rhythm of life here, with time for us to be together as a team and time for worship, prayer, and our own quiet times. 

Pray for our team to continue to have unity and openness with each other.

Pray for us to be sensitive to what God is trying to do in every situation, and for us to be willing to cooperate with him.