Monthly Archives: July 2009

Dearest:
Indonesia came and went, simple as that! Two short months of my life (April&May) that will forever change me, and I pray continuously change the lives of every one we met. We spent around two weeks doing urban ministry in the city of Pontianak, Borneo. The other six weeks were spent in eleven different remote villages. The villages were nothing you can prepare yourself for! A typical day could include anything from teaching English in a school, eating frog legs, doing skits and dances, preaching, running from an approaching python, praying for the sick, playing volleyball with the local police, joining  a wedding reception of a couple you’ve never met – to impromptu speaking at a funeral. It was physically challenging hiking to a new village every 2-5 days, setting up mosquito nets every night (yet still having 200+ bites on your body), and eating rice everyday. But God’s strength was always revealed through our weakness (Isaiah 40 :31 was a huge verse for us). One of the biggest things the team struggled with was the spiritual warfare out there. It’s something we had been taught on but didn’t fully grasp until we entered these Animistic villages. we would wake up to hearing pigs getting sacrificed to some unknown god; the people did this in hopes of having a bountiful rice harvest. Or we would pray for the sick who had previously been taken to the witch doctor. It was intense, but God is soo much bigger than the fear satan tried to throw at us! And we definetly learned the power of worship and intercession. Personally, God was stretching me as a leader. He continuously taught me what it means to rely on Him, to walk in hunility and hand over control (which was rightfully His in the first place). I am now home working this summer and head back out to continue staffing in Honolulu in September. Until next time: “Tuhan memberkati kamu!”
God bless you!