Workin in The Hot Hot Sun

Soooo We started our work this week and we really gave it our all so far! I have never sweat so much in my life! It's a very humid climate and although we are gradually getting used to it a bit, it's still a sweat factory of sorts haha One of the locals today asked me how I was liking the city. I said I loved it but that the heat was pretty rough. She laughed and said that even the locals have a hard time because o the heat! I was glad that I'm not the only one besides my team mates. But there are people who walk around in zip ups and long pants!! Gila! (sorry, that's Indonesian for CRAZY!-----Of course I would know that word, I have already been called that by the local kids haha) But all in all, we are having a great time. We have been going into the slums each day and continuing to build relationship. We are working in a water slum and another large slum that has a canal of very unclean water running through it. The people at the water slum asked us to come and teach English to the children so on Friday that's what we did. Another team had gone before us so the kids already knew some vocab which was neat. Then, at our other slum, we met with a woman who runs a kindergarten. She runs it at a cost to her and charges very little per month per child because the only other school close by is too expensive for any of her neighbors to afford. She charges one dollar per child per month!! And there are only about a hundred kids! Can you imagine running a school on $100 a month??! She is very sweet and we asked if we could paint a mural for them on the wall across form the school. She accepted and we prayed for ideas for the mural. Our entire group got the idea from God to paint clean water. So we plastered the wall and painted a waterfall, flowing into a golden jar that overflowed into a river. I will add pictures as soon as we finish it, but so far it looks really good- for beginners at least ;0) After seeing it, she asked us to repaint the murals on the school! We were excited and said we would love to. SO it looks like we have our work cut out for us for a week or more! Also, on one of the days we visited a house and told stories and made friends. There were about 35 people crowded in the see the Boolehs (white people- haha) They asked us if we would do Indian dances for them! My dutch friend Kim and I were thinking "Indian dances? We're not Indian! What do we say??" Then a very conservative looking Musli.m girl said she knew and would teach us. I whispered to Kim "Whatever you do, just watch your hips, we don't want to offend anyone..." The the Musli.m girl, who had changed into pants, put on the music and started using more hip than Shakira!!! We were following along and people were videotaping our humiliating excuse for dancing! haha The girl was really good and it was so funny to see her shake it like that! haha We couldn't stop laughing, or sweating---Holy Cow Indonesia is hot!! (Especially in a small house with 35+people!! haha It was definitely a very interesting day. Then on Saturday night we ran a youth group and I was able to help lead wor.ship and we gave test.imonies and shared a message of God's father heart for his children. It was very moving and we had a good time of fello.wship with the youth. Today we went to a church for an english service and happened to get there an hour early. We had been told that the pastor wanted us to share a few testimonies but when we got there he said, "so are you ready for your two hour time slot?" We thought, what in the world is he talking about! So long story short, we had an hour to pull together wor.ship and an hour and a half message! haha Even though worsh.ip was a bit shaky because of technical difficulties ( quite funny) we made it through and we were able to pray for people who had been thinking about going into miss.ion work! Puji Tuhan! (Praise God!)
After dinner, one of our team member's parents took us out and blessed us sooooo much with a buffet at the Grand Hyatt! Oh my-lanta the food was incredible!!!! We have been eating so much rice and noodles that we couldn't believe it when we got duck, steak, sushi, pasta, potatoes, and tons of dessert!! We were in heaven!!! It was awesome. Then we went to a movie theater that for $10 gave us a each our own recliner and blanket! It is definitely the nicest theater I have ever been to. Tomorrow for our day off we are going to a friends house that has a pool! Amen!! A pool! Can you believe it!! I get to enjoy the hot weather for a moment by swimming!! I am soooooo excited! And then we are visiting one of the only Mexican restaurants around! and this is huge because by the way, AUSTRALIA DOES NOT HAVE MEXICAN FOOD!! Can you believe it?? I cant! I miss my burritos! I never realized how much we ate Mexican back home until I have gone without it for four looooong months haha SO to close, I miss you all, I'm super busy, God is moving, Blessings are happening and I love you all!!