Last stop: Indonesia!
My evening flight from Bangkok to Jakarta was fine. I had contacted another SAMS family who graciously offered to pick me up from the airport rather late and house me for the very short night before my morning flight to Malang. I think it took an hour to get to their home, but I was very thankful for a bed to sleep in after we chatted a bit. And then a shower and waffles the wife served me early the next morning. Now that’s hospitality especially when they had Sunday ahead of them! I had wished I could’ve joined them for their church service that morning, but my schedule didn’t allow. I would get to see the wife again, though, on my long layover the next week!
On the flight, I sat next to an Indonesian couple. The husband was next to me and shared how he’d applied to go the US a few years back to visit a good friend, but was denied a Visa because they suspected he would stay and work there. I apologized to him, but he didn’t seem bitter. They were on their way to visit their son who was in university in Malang. That was as far as the conversation went because we all slept the duration of the flight. Almost immediately upon my waking, I was taken aback to see him leaning over with his cell phone pointed at us, exclaiming “Selfie for memories!” Ha! Speaking of memories, It brought some back to my first trip to Indonesia where complete strangers would ask for photos with all of the Westerners, but at least these strangers were within our organization. :)
I had arrived early to visit my friends who live on site of the training center where the meetings would be. It was nice to have a day to adjust, do laundry before the meetings began, and spend the evening catching up with dear friends. As always, the next week would be an intense time of discussions, information, and decisions.
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Where we spent most of our time :)
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Since the Day of Prayer and Fasting fell during this time, we dedicated a portion of our day to pray for our nations, which was special. While we were having our meetings, there were two other trainings going on. This center stays busy! Please pray for our team there to be protected and continue to seize the opportunities around them.
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| Group photo in our Batik shirts the Indonesian team bought for us! |
Sunday, it was a joy to worship with Indonesian brothers and sisters especially when the atmosphere there is heavily inspired by the predominant religion of the nation. I actually had incorrectly assumed that it was an M nation because of the minarets everywhere and call to prayer throughout the day and night, not to mention the fact that it has the highest number of M’s in the world. Come to find out, the nation actually recognizes 6 religions, and it’s illegal to be an atheist! How interesting! And while there is reason to be encouraged by what the Lord is doing there, a stark reminder of the darkness there came 3 days after we left when multiple churches suffered casualties.
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| Local Church |
Just this past week, I’ve been reading Ecclesiastes which reminds us that nothing is guaranteed in this life; that there is so much we don’t truly understand; and we will all face death. What a beautiful God that we serve who Himself is our Good News: that death doesn’t get the final say, but Jesus Christ does. While we may not have guarantees on this earth, we do have promises for eternity, if we believe in God’s Way.
Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. John 14:6
