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Thursday, July 24, 2008

A Working Title

Hey Everyone!

We are alive and healthy. We've been learning so much about the culture of Indonesia during these last few weeks. We've had the opportunity to visit the largest Mosque in SE Asia. It was beautiful! It was designed by a Christian. On Friday afternoons, 10,000 people will pray. The days following Rhamadan 200,000 people will go to pray at that Mosque.





We had the opportunity to visit the Indonesian Bible Society. This is an incredible place that prints almost all the Bibles that are in Indonesia! They use two machines that are 30 years old to print the black and white pages. When we arrived we saw copies of the Gideon Bible being completed.



This past weekend we stayed with an Indonesian family. The youth of Indonesia spend their time at the malls, so we enjoyed a day at two malls searching for tickets to see the new Batman movie. We saw our first movie here on Saturday night. Sunday, after going to church at 6 AM (yes, I really was up at 6 AM), we went to a party to celebrate the anniversary of the church's men's vocal group. There was a time of singing, eating, singing, visiting, and dancing. They had karaoke... with a live band. The owner of the home requested that we sing two songs. Us, sing? I know. We jammed to the Beatles- Yesterday and Hey Jude. Everyone sang along to Hey Jude. Who would have thought that the Beatles could unite people that don't speak the same language?



Today is our last day in Jakarta. Tomorrow we'll be moving to Bandung, a city about 2 hours from Jakarta. We're going house hunting. The weather is cooler there because it's at a higher elevation. The change in scenery will be nice, and hopefully the macet (Indonesian for "traffic" pronounced ma-chet) will be lighter. After settling down into our own place, we'll begin to learn Bahasa Indonesia (the language of Indonesia). During this time, we hope that we make close friends.

We're excited about the adventures that lie ahead. I'm so thankful that we have ways of keeping in touch with you. It doesn't seem that we're really on the other side of the world! Keep in touch with us, because we miss you all and need your encouragement.

Tuesday, July 8, 2008

Getting Around Jakarta



Today we learned how to get around Jakarta. We were given two hours to take as many forms of public transportation that the city of Jakarta had to offer. This proved to be a fun and challenging experience.

We started off on the back of scooters which is how many people who live here in the city choose to get around. The traffic here is unlike anything I have ever seen. Crazy doesn't begin to describe it. If you ride a motorcycle in the United States and you feel restricted by all the traffic laws, you need to take your next vacation in Jakarta.

After the motorcycles we took a variety of buses, taxis, covered flat bed pickups, trains, and a little three wheeled covered motorcycle called a bajai. For those who are used to using public transportation in a foreign country, you already know that personal space is defined a little different than what it might be in the U.S. The smells, the pickpocketing, the backfiring bajais can not be fully expressed in words. In actuality, we had a lot of fun. This might be attributed to the fact that it was only a game today and it hasn't become daily life yet. We have a little adjusting to do and today we got to have a little fun in the process.

Monday, July 7, 2008

We Made It


After some long flights and no sleep, we made it to SE Asia on Tuesday afternoon. We forced ourselves to stay awake to help lessen the jet-lag. We had some "get-a-ways" to the local immigration office a couple times to check in. It was quite the adventure, but it exposed us to some of the culture in our new home. It's a very diverse place with some of the most wonderful people.

We've started our orientation class this week. So far, we've gotten our handphones (cell phones for those of you in the States), went to a pharmacy where we decide how much and which medications to take, and we've been to many malls. We took a ride in a taxi, a van, a bus, and a small truck that has the bed of it covered with benches in it to get places (we always had someone with us that could speak the language). There are lots of restaurants that are seen in the States: KFC, McDonalds, Pizza Hut, A&W, Wendys, Dunkin' Donuts, and even a Chili's. So, even though we're miles away from "home" there are aspects of our new home that make us very comfy.

Here's a couple of experiences we've had:
- While registering with immigration, I had a killer headache. I needed some caffine or some kind of kick to pick me up. We went a street vendor and ordered a nice, cold, coke in a bottle. The vendor takes our coke and pours it in a plastic bag and sticks a straw in it! They reuse all their glass bottles, so we got our cokes "to-go".

- We went to a huge expo celebrating the diversity of our new home. Several vendors were selling hand-made crafts from their home region. We were waiting at an ATM for our friends to withdraw money, and I sat next to a small boy that had two red balloons. I pushed on his balloons. His dad, who was also standing in line, grabbed his son's hand and placed it on my arm. He kept saying "He just wants to touch you, He just wants to touch you." and then began apologizing. Our new friends believe that if their children touch a Westerner that they will be blessed with happiness, wealth, and prosperiety.

We look forward to sharing more with you, and thanks for showing an interest in what our Father is doing around this area.
 
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