So this week was an 8 day-er. Yea that's right....no day off....8 days. I'm so glad that it was my day off today! I can finally write everyone! I have had a good but challenging week. Full of work to do and pushing through barriers. I have been struggling with homesickness and feeling overwhelmed by the intensity of the city. It can get to a point where you really just want to go unnoticed. Because westerners are such a minority here, we are stared at constantly. There is really no let up. So sometimes it's hard to be watched all the time. I know how you feel Brangelina..and I'm sorry. haha The last 2 weeks have flown by though! I thought my birthday was two days ago! I'm definitely gearing up to come home but at the same time, I'm so sad when I think about leaving my new friends here. They are incredible. I'm so afraid I will not be able to see some of them again....I pray I will though. We have so much fun together. I got some new slum photos as well. We celebrated my Oma's birthday on the 16th and that was incredible! A couple other girls and I brought her a birthday cake and sang to her. She took the cake, blew out the candle, cried and thanked God right then and there. It was so special. We spent time with her just laughing and enjoying her amazing company. Before we left we prayed blessings over her and then she made sure she walked with us to get a taxi. She held my hand the whole time and is totally a surrogate Grandma for me!! So cute! I had bug bites and she was putting this special cream on them and fussing over me, it was so precious. :0) We also went to "The Call Indonesia" which was a 15 hour day of prayer in a stadium with 7,000 Indonesian Youth. We worshiped and prayed for the nation. It was truly special. They had a time of repentance in which people asked God for forgiveness, wrote down their sins, placed it in a bag and then the bags were burned in the middle of the stadium. I believe the heavens were celebrating with much joy that day. It's incredible the things that can happen when a nation repents and turns towards holiness. Just look at Nineva in the book of Jonah. I feel like I witnessed a monumental event in history that day. Unfortunately I didn't have my camera there to capture it, but it was spectacular.
Earlier this week we had a nice dinner over at a good friends new house. She just moved from Perth to J-city and she made us Satay and mixed veggies and rice...yum. And she had an indoor pool so we swam a few laps.. :0) Then we went to Bene's house a few nights later(she's our coordinator for the north) and that dinner was amazing too! Yum. On Wednesday I dyed two older women's hair for them in the slum. Ibu Tini is the headmaster of the school we painted the mural on and then I had enough for her friend's hair also. It was special to honor them in that way. Ibu Tini's husband told her she looked beautiful and young and she blushed. It was so cute. Earlier this week on Sunday, we were invited to a church service. Afterwards the people there offered us hot drinks. It was not just any normal drink you may think of like coffee or tea. Oh no. It was hot, puree of green beans in a bag with a straw. It was interesting. I guess it's some sort of dessert here but in America, beans are not generally dessert haha. It was a funny experience.
And on our day off today, we went with Petrina to meet her Dad. We had not expected having lunch with them but he invited us and we ate at the Grand Hyatt again! Oh my Gosh it's so fancy and the food was amazing! What a huge blessing! Asparagus, prawns, tenderloin, sauteed mushrooms, hot bread, Jasmine ice tea, crab stuffed dumplings, and real mango pudding. I was stuffed to say the least. It was such a beautiful atmosphere there also. Wow, what a treat.
Afterwards we went to La Piazza and met up with some of our friends from ministry. We had some fun taking pictures so I thought I would include my faves ;0)
Here are some photos from this last week....
Nice sunset over the swamp slum.......
Yes he's carrying that on a motorcycle.....and this IS normal here! hahaha
Aren't they precious??! I love giving hugs....they love affection, so it's a lot of fun.
Oh my goodness he's so cute
My New Favorite photo
This is green sludge pouring into the canal that runs through the slum....isn't that nice. I love the irony of the children standing on the bridge. We are trying to get this changed but it's a bit of an uphill battle.....
The mural we did on the school .....
That's garbage behind that rose......beauty in unlikely places
That's all for now...Thanks for following along guys. I miss you all! Please keep praying for us here! God Bless!
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