Greetings again from the tropics. Below are a series of pictures that we have taken since our last post. Things have been very "sibuk" busy. As a family we have been to an 88th birthday party for a lady that attends our church. This was an exciting opportunity to learn a little culture (the kid's weren't too thrilled) but I felt it a pretty big honor to be invited. However, I think that it was also an honor to the family that we came, not to sure about that yet?
Along with the invitation to the birthday party I had the privilege of going with our neighbor to a daily prayer gathering. I won't get into to much detail however it made me think of what the early church in Acts might have looked like. The gathering started around 7:30 a.m.with prayer and the occasional song thrown in. This lasted for about 1.5 hr and in the middle of this snacks and teh (tea) were served, it's starting to happen that I throw out and Indonesian word or two now without even thinking about it. That might be a good sign that the language is starting to take root. After that we shared communion, then read a large portion of scripture, everyone shared a pengalaman "experience" from what we read from or another experience they may have had recently about God. I hope you don't mind me mixing my Bahasa's, it feels a little strange right now as some words are coming easier in Indonesian then the English right now. Any way back to the prayer meeting, so as I'm watching and listening to the ladies on the other side of the room one by one give a pengalaman I'm thinking oh boy if this keeps going the way it's going my turn is coming. Not to mention that one of the ladies right across from me that I had met at our neighbors house a few weeks back was trying to communicate something to me which I wasn't quite tracking with except that it probably had to do with they were going to want me to share too. Earlier they made sure I got a turn to pray as well which I did my best mixing my languages together doing as much in Indonesian as I could then switching to English when I got stuck switching back and forth. Thankfully they didn't expect me to give a three point sermon on what we had read earlier as they allowed me to just introduce myself and talk a little about my family. Which fortunately we had covered in unit one of school. After all the sharing we ate lunch together and then went home. Because of my long windiness a couple things to point out in summary from this experience. We sat in old Mennonite fashion ladies one one side and the men on the other. The gathering started at 7:30 a.m. and yes we ate lunch together which means we finished around 12:30. And the part that shocked me the most is they do this 6 days a week. Wow!! Amazing to see the commitment and passion they have for corporate worship and communion. Sorry got way more detailed than I was going to get but hey it was a great experience I look forward to when I can join them again for a morning or two during our next break from school.
The next high light involves the same neighbors, in fact most the pictures involve them in some way or another if not directly. Sunday afternoon before I started my most recently language unit. Our neighbors guided us up to Kopeng a small town about 20-30 min. scooter ride up the hill from Salatiga. The ducks and green pumpkins were Jaclynn's high lights from the trip I think oh ya and the ride on the horse, not sure how we forgot to take of picture of that but we did. The horses are a little smaller here. We joked in class Monday morning that if I had taken a ride the horse would have become a 6 legged horse :). The family had a green house for flowers I'm thinking my mom would have enjoyed this trip seeing all the flowers.
The boys missed out on a great trip. Still not sure where to fit the 5th person on the back of Buzz yet?
The extended family of our neighbors living in Kopeng.
Last Saturday the neighbors came over again and they helped harvest some coconuts. Brave young man!!! I will say thou that my taste buds are corrupt. I still enjoyed the fresh coconut but I will be honest and say that I prefer the old ones that fall from the tree. Maybe over time I'll readjust my taste buds.
Not really sure how tall the tree is but its up there.
Franklin Playing soccer with some local kids. It was nice to watch him enjoy playing with others. He has gone back a few times now on his own. Hopefully, through this he will find some friends and maybe start learning some language.
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