Before I came to Indonesia, I remember saying, "I hope kids are silly in Indonesia!" Uh... what was I thinking? Of course kids are silly here.

At the start of class yesterday, a boy looks at me, with a finger up each nostril, and asks, "Miss Jamie, can you do this??" while staring cross-eyed at what must have been a great feat for him.  

 Oh geez....

Also, I work with really silly people. The other day, during a staff luncheon with the staff from both Efex campuses, I said it was hot, and a friend started fanning me and declared that I am, "Miss Jamie, Potato Princess, from the far away land of Idaho."

Fun in Manado = Funado...?

We had a lot of fun on the mission trip to Manado. I enjoyed being silly with new friends and experiencing things that expatriates don’t normally get to experience, especially when they have only been in country for less than a month.

1. We rode in bemos quite a bit. That is the cheap transportation in Indonesia. It’s a small van. A small van with large possibilities, that is. We crammed a lot of us in there. No personal space? No problem.

 2. We drove to several lakes one day. We were disappointed in the rainy weather because, apparently, the lakes change color during the day. The locals said that the lake can change from green to blue to purple to red. Maybe there will be a next time??

3. After kids camp, we spent Thursday afternoon at a lake (just a regular, non-color changing lake this time). The boat men were going to take us out, but they ended up taking a break instead. So we just took pictures. Lots of pictures.

4. I was asked to be in so many people’s pictures this week. I felt like a celebrity. There are not many “boo-lay” who travel to the smaller villages, so when they saw Carrie and I and the pastor’s daughters, they all wanted pictures with us. They were also sooo interested in… well… boo-lay rear ends… and not just the kids who can't help their self control yet. The moms. While taking a picture with a mom and her kids, I got goosed.

I decided that the next person to ask me to take a photo with them, I would get one of them as well. These girls were more than a little surprised. haha

5. Bunaken. I’m just telling you that my pictures won’t do justice to how beautiful the snorkeling was in Bunaken (So, basically, you should google it and look at the images there). It’s a snorkeling and diving destination in Indonesia. We spent our last day out in the ocean. It was disheartening to see a lot of pollution in the water, but everyone’s response was, “That’s Indonesia for ya.” Our boat driver ended up taking us to a more secluded place to snorkel where there wasn't floating garbage. Amazing. I could look down and see 15 different types of fish swimming through the coral. I liked to just float above and look at all that was happening. It was as if I was in another world. The water was “take-your-breath-away” clear, and it seemed as if all the fish had personalities.  

I Ran!!

....into people I know, that is (I hope you know how ridiculous it would be for me to be excited about running. Now, that's just a silly idea).  I haven't run into people I know in public places for seven weeks. SEVEN WEEKS, PEOPLE.  They were two girls I know from my small group.  I might have been a little too excited when I saw them, but I didn't even care. In a city of nearly 3 million people, I ran into friends.  Maybe I'm becoming a local?

Manado Ministry

During the week, there were two main ministry foci for the team: build three churches and run part of the kids’ camp.

Before we began our main ministry for the week, our team split into 4 sub-teams to go attend a different local church. One of the pastors was a part of each group and was invited to preach the message for the morning. I was asked to give my testimony, as well as another member of the team, Wijaya, who was nice and translated for me as well. 

Side note: I always get super awkward and nervous when speaking in front of people. Oh, the joys of being an introvert! Luckily, God doesn’t seem to mind.

The men, as well as a local missionary named Tanya, worked at the building sites from about 7:30 in the morning until about 8 at night.  Their goal was to get the beams erected and the roof constructed for three churches in three days. Only one of the sites was close enough for us to watch the progress, and it was so cool! They were lifting beams and climbing up on the roof all day long.  They were working so hard for the Lord during those days, they were exhausted at night. Dirty and exhausted. Mostly dirty.

The kid’s camp is a yearly event hosted by one of the churches in Tomohon.  Children from all the villages in the northern part of the island walk to the campground fully equipped with their clothes, bowl, spoon, and Bible. It was strange to see so many young kids come such a long distance (some walked for several hours) without their parents, but that’s just the culture there. There were some children as young as 3 years old up to 12 years old.

Kelly and I were decked out to award prizes to kids who could say the memory verse.

Our team’s role was to lead the kids in worship and teaching for three sessions during their 4-day camp. It really didn’t seem like a lot of work, but it was enjoyable to work with my new friends and get to serve together.  The language barrier was very difficult for me, but everyone was SO patient! I had a speaking part with the puppets, so I had to learn my lines well enough for several hundred kids to hear and understand.  I tried so hard! If you’ve ever seen the episode of Friends when Phoebe is teaching Joey how to speak French, just imagine me speaking like Joey.  I sounded ridiculous. Absolutely ridiculous. And it took me SO long to figure out how to say my words.

I also played the part of the Master in the parable of the talents. I’ve never been called “Barbie” in my entire life, but when I walked out wearing my crown and robes, I guess one of the kids whispered under her breath, “wow…. Barbie….” Haha…. I would have lost it if I’d heard that! They are so easy to entertain!

Worshiping with the kids was my favorite part of the entire mission trip. From now on, when I read about how Jesus tells us to be like little children, I will picture these kids. They were sensitive to the Holy Spirit and were able to worship God with their entire selves. They were excellent worshipers.  I was moved to tears at the genuine praises they were giving with hands held high, eyes closed, and voices singing.  What passionate little people.  

 














All in all, I enjoyed doing ministry with my new friends. There were times when I wished I could have done a lot more, but in the midst of the down times during the week, God was challenging me to grow closer to Him.  Slowly and so patiently, He shows me areas where I need work. There is a certain camaraderie that is formed when groups are together day-in and day-out, and it was a blessing to make a lot of good and close friends this week. 

To Manado!

View of the beautiful village of Tomohon.

I went to the island of Sulawesi over Lebaran holiday. What’s Lebaran holiday? Oh, yeah, we don’t celebrate that in the U.S. We should. At least the week off of work part of it. Short explanation: It’s the last week of the Muslim fasting month. Those who fasted for the month celebrate their perseverance and their devotion. Muslims ask for forgiveness and make peace with those they’ve offended over the past year, and give gifts to friends and neighbors. It’s a week when almost all Indonesians go on religious pilgrimages, return to their families, or go on vacation.  A group from church decided to go on a mission trip.

The house at the back of the picture is where we stayed. It was an amazing house!

 We went to the village of Tomohon and stayed in the house of man who knows Pastor Jeff. The house was at the base of a volcano that had erupted earlier in the summer. It was a beautiful place to stay!! It made me long for the mountains of Idaho so badly! Each morning I would have my coffee and devotions out on the balcony that looked out at the mountains. It was the picture of serenity. 

Every balcony should have this view.

Creepy bug that flew into the house at night. It's about the length of my index finger.

Down the road, there was a pig farm. I’ve never been on a pig farm before. Reading Charlotte’s Web is about as close as I’ve gotten to one. So, one of the guys with our group went with Carrie and I down to the pig farm to check out these massive pigs.

I repeat: MASSIVE PIGS.

A lot of them were easily 600 pounds. It was just ridiculous how big they were.  big. and miserable.  We were convinced that all the pigs were named “Wilbur,” every rat we saw was named “Templeton,” the geese could talk, and the spiders were writing secret messages in their webs.

Our group of 28 people mostly consisted of young adults, and each night the common area turned into the game zone. Indonesians are experts at having a good time. Each night was a mess of sharing chairs around the tiniest game table and basically throwing cards all over the place. I’m glad the game of Nerts exists in Indonesia.

There was a little restaurant called Parakletos up the road that had a lot of traditional Indonesian foods. Their specialty, Ice Parakletos, tasted like a snickers poured over shaved ice. I also tried an iced drink that sounded so disgusting I had to have it. It was shaved ice with beans, avocado slices, chocolate, and sweet and condensed milk. I ordered it twice. :)  Fried bananas were delish. I also loved their specialty porridge, bubur Manado.

 

Ladies from the church served us meals every day. The food was very traditional with lot of fish, rice and spice.  I’ve had to get used to looking my open-mouthed fish in the eyes before digging into its scaly belly. 

Wait, nope. I’m still not used to it.  

I was actually a little disappointed that I didn’t get to try a lot of the specialty meats from the island. Supposedly, people from Sulawesi know how to cook all sorts of meats. All sorts. I was warned that I would be eating really strange meats, but we really weren’t served anything out of the ordinary. One day, at the construction site for the men, they were served up an entire lunch of strange meats. Bat. Dog. Cat. Rat. Boar. The men came back all proud of themselves that they had eaten crazy foods.  I did have a chance to try one bite of RW, though. Won’t have that again.

the little/big things that end up mattering.

Got homesick. Finally. It was recently when I was hanging out with some new friends. And it came about for a really ridiculous reason.  It left me fighting back tears over dinner at a restaurant and longing for people who know me well.  I also probably cried in the car when we left, when I knew nobody would notice.  It took almost 6 weeks for me to get homesick. I think that’s pretty good, right??  All this to say that I miss home. I miss my family. I miss my friends. I miss familiar places and foods. 

Oh. The thing that made me homesick: nobody laughed at my jokes.

How ridiculous is that??!