Sleepless and Graduating

Cebu-ary 21st, 2014

Goodmorning, little planet. 

It's 4:52am and I'm laying wide awake in my little dorm. My little dorm in the mountains of the little town of Cimarron, Colorado. Cimarron, Colorado in the United States. Across the world from my past two months. 

I can't sleep. I haven't been able to sleep through the night since I got home. But that's cool with me. Breakfast is in only... 2 hours, don't wanna miss it I guess... 

Let me update you on this last week:

On our drive to the airport from the base, I took advantage of the last time I was to see Borneo for a while. 

It was a long drive; lots of time to reflect personally and listen to sappy music that will remind me of that place forever. I think the hardest part was probably saying goodbye to our guide, PaLeo. We had had so many long talks over so many bags of peanuts, solving ninety percent of the world's problems, teaching each other words and jokes in each other's languages, he would tell us about his family and his culture and faith. He was really a very wonderful guide. 

Sony, our driver, sat in the car with his usual stone-cold straight face, but I bet inside, that guy's a big ol' softie. He just didn't want us to see him cry, I bet! 

And away we went. 

We had an 11 hour layover in Narita, Japan. So we checked out and took a transit to a sweet little town in Tokyo. There we shopped and ate and walked around in the coldest of colds we'd felt in a while. I found a really cute little French confectionery and I met the owner's wife, a lovely, petite, Japanese woman with close to perfect English. I also met her husband, who is from France and speaks very limited English but watching them speak and communicate to each other was almost enchanting. They sold the most charming little French pastries and candies and jams of the highest quality. We also walked up on a super rad little coffee shop. I ordered a shot of espresso and looked through a thick book of Shepard Feiry's grandest pieces of art. I really enjoy his work. And this shop looked like somewhere I'd work... Which reminded me... I'm looking forward to finding another job when I get home. 

I managed to sleep some on the flight back to the States. 

Crossing the threshold, David Horn, our base director was waiting for us on the other side. Hugs all around and I was so happy to see that guy again. 

Snow and ice turned our 6 hour drive into maybe 8 hours but finally, we glided up our long driveway. 

Sam, Kinsey and I made our way to the dining room to reunite with a few of the natives again. We also got to meet the winter DTS that started just last month.

It's been fun telling stories to everyone and making friends with the new round of students. John and Jordin hosted a tea party just the other day. They also taught me how to roast the coffee beans we scavenged for in one of our villages. How exciting is THAT?! It's good to be home. 

Yesterday, my team and I went to the little town of Ouray. We looked around and had lunch at a pizzeria... And I got artichoke heart pizza. Yes. 

I also met a big school of students from the University of Minnesota at the hot springs. I thought they looked Minnesotan when I saw them and their MInnesota tattoos confirmed it. We chatted. One of them lived in my city! 

But listen here, today is the day. Today is the day that the Fall DTS graduates. My mom and Brian flew in yesterday and will be driving up here later today. I've still got quite a bit to do to prepare. Last night I finished an 8 minute video presentation of our travels. I wonder if I can't post it to YouTube or something. Then you guys can watch it too. 

Alright, I'll let you guys know how it goes. 

Next time you hear from Grace Gaitan, she'll be back at home in chilly Minnesota. 

Shalom, friends

-Gracie

Love Is Making Its Way Back Home

Tuesday, February 11th 2014

Dear Reader,

As I'm writing this to you, my team and I are laying in our beds, trying to fall asleep after a fun and eventful day before our departure tomorrow. 

Yeah. That means we've finished our time of ministry in the villages of West Kalimantan. 

Pretty cool, hmm? 

On our way back from our last village, it officially hit me; wow. What a privilege it was to live and breathe here for a couple months. I've seen so much. So much healing and so much freedom and so many stunningly beautiful faces and places. And I've heard and smelled and tasted so many good things and so many terrible things. And I've felt so much. In my heart and on my skin! I have about a zillion ant bites all over my arms and legs right now... And it would sound kinda cliche to say that "it was completely worth it"... But it is. And I can't think of fancier words to use to describe it. Even them mosquitos don't freak me out any more. Sometimes these hard things escort us into the greatest adventures of out lives. They frame the biggest opportunities we've ever seen in the small numbers of years we've been alive. Opportunities to love deeply, hope for victory, and to dance in the healing rains. 

And it's worth not having a toilet. Or a bed. Or even drinkable water at some points. 

It's worth the hard conversations with your mates, the grace we decide and the compromises we make for each other. Those are chances to learn and grow and get stronger. And that's whether your in the Field or not. 

A few more things I wanted to share with you guys about these past few weeks:

We just got back from a little city named Pinyuh. The city is surrounded by forest and fields. Apparently, someone had just bought out part of the field and set fire to everything that was dead and brown, with intentions to replant with palm-oil trees. HOWEVER, because it hadn't rained over that land in over a month, and because of the scorching temperatures, the fires spread and took out a whole lot more than they were suppose to. 

Driving through that land, I had noticed so many homes sitting among those forests and I wondered how they hadn't been burnt to the ground. 

For the rest of the week, the land burned and a thick cloud of smoke spread throughout the surrounding towns and villages, contaminating the air and dimming the sun to the point where I could stare at it through the smoke, wondering what was happening. 

Haze for days, I'm tellin' ya. 

Then Pa Leó told me that the soil was burning with the roots as deep as 9 feet below the ground, creating all the smoke. 

Because of this unforgiving accident, so many of our prayer times with the local families were spent praying for healing and quick recovery for the men and women and children who's throats and lungs were sick and parched from the smoke. We also prayed for rain over every home, for spiritual and physical detox of the atmosphere. It blew me away, a plague of smoke over 3 or 4 entire districts, but we continued to pray. 

Finally, in our last full day of ministry, the sky opened up and healing rains came to clean the air and bring health back to the people. 

Here in Borneo, when it rains, the people will quit everything they're doing to find shelter for their heads and to watch the rain fall. They have a common superstition that if you get rain on your head, you'll get very sick. But this rain was cleaning the air and working with the God of the Universe to quench these bodies and these grounds and to put an end to the fires and smoke. 

Today, the air is still getting cleaned up. I see lots of those face/mouth covers. Some are actually pretty cutely decorated. 

Anyways, tomorrow we head home. 

From here we fly to Jakarta, from Jakarta to Japan, from Japan to Denver.

That is all for now. 

I have butterflies in my stomach. 

You decide how literally to take that. 

-GFly

"Grace, what are you looking forward to when you get back to the States?"

"Artichoke heart pizza."

Last Day Before Departure

Tuesday, February 11th

Hey guys! 

I only have a few minutes to write. 

Speedy quick update:

Tomorrow we leave! 

I'm drinking Kopi Luwak while writing to you... Look it up. 

I have other coffee stories for you. Yay!

I have so many photos to post here and on Facebook. So keep updated!

I'm sorry I haven't been able to keep up very well. I've been pretty busy. And today is a resting day so I'm going to take advantage of it. Phew!

Only 13 days until I come back to MN. 

See you soon, loved ones. 

-GDawg

Ps: I'll write to you maybe on the plane. Okay? Okay. (:

Febyuwarie Sevinth 2k14

Fellow do-gooders,

Hello from this side of the world. 

I haven't been able to post in quite a while but I'm still writing to you! Who knows when this will be read. Nonetheless, the adventures of Grace Gaitan shall be recorded. 

What a crazy, eventful few weeks I've had. Phew. 

Since we left for our second round of villages, life has been busy and exciting. Lots of people and faces and celebrations and food! 

The 31st of January marked the first day of the Chinese New Year. The year of the Horse, of course! After a church service in instant noodle warehouse (warehouse church!) We spent the day skipping from house to house, meeting the church congregation and eating food. Lots n' lots of food. The little city we partied in was named Pinyuh. It has a large concentration of Chinese. The city is dripping with crazy, blinking lights and huge lanterns and endless streamers of reds and yellows to escort in the new year! And the homes we visited were clean and bright and full of smiles. I ate too many mandarin oranges to count and so many new kinds of freaky fruit. 

I learned quickly that Asia is the best place to be this time of year. These holidays last for weeks!! Just last night, riding to the church, I found a band of youngsters parading through the streets banging drums and running with one of those big ol', 6 person, dragon puppets!! That was probably one of the coolest things I've ever seen. 

GONG XI FA CHAI!! Happy Chinese New Year!!

More celebrating happened this past Sunday. We were visiting the little village/suburb of Toho and the church happened to be celebrating their first year anniversary. Pastor Segit and his youth crew (not really all that young. 14-21 years I guess) were so welcoming and quickly adopted us into their world. Sunday's service under the rainforest canopy was breezy and beautiful. The congregation is lively and happy and afterward, they took up an offering for us and served us an awesome pot luck lunch. Holy buckets, the food was awesome. 

Later, Sam picked up the guitar an I, the bass and we jammed with our new friend Harmon while the church laughed and danced and chatted into the afternoon. 

House visits in this village were done by motor bike. We were totally a motorcycle gang. My friend Memet and I teamed up as moto partners. He has a super rad Honda motorcycle. It's blue. And we were pretty darn cute. 

There's really nothing like riding on the back of a motorcycle, zooming through island villages and towns, smiling at shop keepers and waving at children walking home from school, on an island in SE Asia, with the sun on your face and the world's most beautiful forests crouching over to greet you. A few times I just had to throw my hands up and laugh. 

On the last day, Memet and his team took my team and me to a waterfall pool. Not like a water park, like a pool in a stream. The ride there was crazy beautiful and as soon as we got there, I was amazed. The entrance to the pool was guarded by two massive trees made of spiraling roots and the scene behind was an isle of boulders and roots guiding the long and steady water stream. At the far end of the rocks was the pool and a large but somewhat gentle waterfall. We all swam and stood under the falls and the CO team and I climbed up the roots of these old trees and stood at the top. The others yelled "Hati-Hati! Be Careful! Don't slip!" But we're from CO, we climb! Then we got back on our bikes and rode the long ride back. 

It was another eventful day under the protection of the stunning rainforest canopies of Borneo, Indonesia. 

But, unfortunately, we eventually had to say our goodbyes and move on to our next location.

Ministry in the next village was rejuvenating. Almost every village we've visited has had morning prayer at 5am. The first time was hard, but every one after that got easier and easier. After some great prayer time, in this village, a small band of children would come in the mornings for school. We played and laughed and taught them English and told stories. 

During a particular house visit, we met a wan who's husband had recently died. He was a witch doctor and she told us that she could see him standing in the living room in the evenings. After hearing more of their story, we found out that oh, this woman is also a witch doctor. And she is is stronger than her husband was. 

I could tell that the woman, in her God-breathed, human heart, was grieving the loss of her husband, as a widow would. And that her body was tired from the ritualistic abuse she's allowed to it. We asked her if she wanted freedom and assessed that we were an able team to pray in this way. The woman accepted and we began to pray... 

That was an interesting experience.

After an eventful few moments of praying and interceding, the woman, struggling, but with her own voice, renounced the power she have her body to. Afterwards, I noticed a new kind of life in her and a new kind of light lit up her little home of sticks and palm. 

She then broke into a sob, thanking Jesus in the Bahasa language and her body seemed tired and limp but peaceful and calm.  

This woman met Jesus that day. And He released her from the obligations she made to darkness and replaced it with grace and rest. 

I'm praying that this woman and her children will also have the peace and grace to grieve. It's a long process. But Jesus shows up in ways that no one else can understand. 

Thank you, Yahweh. You are the breath of life. You love witch doctors and desire that none should perish. 

Anyway, that's enough for this post. I will try to write again. I've been so busy lately, I haven't had much time to catch up on writing. I have more to tell you in my next post! 

5 days until I go home to the states. 

18 days until I go home to Minnesota. 

Shalom, loved ones. 

-GFace

A Quick Love Bomb from This Side

Oh! Why hello there. 

Selamat pagi, orang. 

I have just returned a couple days ago to Pontianak to rest for a few days before entering into the next round of villages. We have like, 3 weeks and a couple days left before we head back to the States. Kinsey and I were talking last night about how we feel we are almost fully adapted to the flow of things here in Indo and by the time we are, it'll be time to head home! What a bummer. 

The time in the villages was great. And quite challenging. I've got plenty of stories to share; Bakso, planting rice, bathing in waterfalls, surprises on buses... 

But my favorite parts about village visits are definitely the people and trying to pick up on the language. For you smarty pants, world traveling, cultural studying folk, I've been learning Bahasa and Diak. Diak is a people group in Indonesia, most of whom we are ministering amongst. 

They are so friendly and so hospitable and the families we've been staying with have so graciously invited us into their entire lives, sharing every resource they have. 

I love listening to their stories. Or at least, what I can of their stories. I especially like learning new words and phrases and then teaching them back in English. The coolest conversations start with "Apa ini? Apa itu?" "What's this? What's that?" 

Another great way to enter into the community, I've learned, is to make friends with the children. At first, they just stand in huddles and stare at us with sad, wide, eyes. But as soon as I even just WAVE at them they grow grand smiles and bashfully giggle to each other. Ahh! The little ones I've had the honor to meet! They are some of the most beautiful children I've ever seen! And they're so easy to entertain! We play lots of hand clapping games and soccer games and chasing games and we chew lots of bubble gum! But I guess even just being a group of tall "BULAY!" white folk is freaky enough. 

"Bulay" is probably Indonesian for "these jokers with pale skin who lurk around our villages." 

I do know it comes from the invasion of the Dutch how ever many years ago. 

From the squatty potties, to the bulay parades, to the buckets of bubble gum I share with the kiddos... And everything in between, Indo will forever have her fingerprints stained on the surface of my heart. 

Anyhoo, know that I am still alive and figuring things out here. 

38 more sleeps until I'm back home. 

Much love, all. 

-G

Tea Parties All Day Long

January 1st 2014

Hey you. And you. And you. 

Happy New Year!!

Wow! Writing the year as 2014... That's going to take some time to get used to. 

Again, I have no idea when I will be able to publish this post. I wasn't able to post my Christmasy one for quite a while. But I'm still writing to you! 

I do love that these posts will be archived, ya know? I've already read through some of my earlier ones a few times and they've been heap encouraging. 

Well, this week, I know I won't get to posting this because my crew and I have traveled deeper into the rainforests of Borneo to meet a handful of pastors and to minister in their villages. This particular village has very limited electricity. Our evenings are lit by flickering lightbulbs swinging above our heads and maybe a headlamp if you remembered yours. Or have managed not to loose it. We've been sleeping just on our mats under our 'squitto nets. I think they look like princess canopy beds.

Our first visit to the first village was for 5 days. We slept on the floor at the cute little concrete church. Children, chickens, dogs and pigs ran around outside during the day. Children would poke their little faces in through the windows and doors and stare and giggle at us. Or else they'd be out front lighting firecrackers and sparklers. Christmas and New Years celebrations last more than just a couple days here. One day the staring got a bit annoying so I came out front with a soccer ball and a bag of candies and the kiddos and I ran around for hours, dancing, screaming, laughing and chasing! It was a really fun day. 

Eventually, we had to pack up and head for the next site though. Everyone waved goodbye from their homes and the kids ran along side us for a while. 

Here now, we are in village 2. It may or may not be similar to village 1. We'll see.  

Our objectives for each village: 

We probably have at least 3 church services per village so each of us students get a lot of opportunity to teach and share stories. I love this. I'm actually learning that I really love to teach. 

We also are making a lot of house visits. Sometimes 5 or 6 houses in one day. We are invited in to meet the families, pray over their homes and maybe listen to their stories. The people here are very hospitable; almost every home has a pretty array of coffee, tea, and tiny festive cookies out for us. This is fun... Until it's time for house 5 and your bladder is about to explode and your stomach is full of flour and sugar. BUT, you take another cup of overly sweet coffee and smile, as to not offend. 

Life here is simple. And breezy. And timing comes in the position of the sun and the direction of the wind. Things happen when they happen. The pastors who's villages we are visiting are lively and playful and friendly. I can tell they've been close for a long time, even with our cook, Leo, and translator, Demas. These guys are quite the team. Today they were tossing snap-its at each other between house visits!

We've been at this for like, a week. This round of outreach will take another 14. Then we'll go back to the Pontianak base for some days before going out for round two; another 20 days. After, we'll rest a bit before heading back to the states. 

Guess what. I am now entering my 5th month of this entire adventure. 

Only about 2 months left. I miss you, Minnesota. 

The hardest part right now: Having a lot of free time to think about home, and not being able to understand the language. 

The best part right now: The crazy beautiful landscape, wearing skirts in January, running through the rainforest, and success in communicating with little or no words. 

The bittersweet: Learning to trust the Spirit for peace in these uncomfortable places, direction when you're totally lost; mentally, or physically, and safety when you don't know if what you're about to do or eat will make you very sick. In such a new place... This is mandatory. But it's a muscle you have to build. 

Anyhoo, Jesus is Lord. I'm alive and well. And Indo is beautiful. 

I'm going out to watch the sun set. 

Goodnight friends. 

-GFizzle

Recent update:

Yesterday I drank kopi juju (cocoa and coffee beans roasted together and sweetened) and ate tiny little cookies with an 125 year old witch doctor. Yeah. 125 freaking years old. And he could still walk and get up and down from the hard wooden floor. He was a very friendly man. I met another younger witch doctor too. Him and his twin brother. I believe his brother is a pastor.

...It's not everyday I get to do that. 

Happy Christmas!!

12/25/13

Hey again! 

Happy Christmas!

How's it going? How's the family? Oh you just got a raise! Wonderful. Try the fruitcake! It's a perfected recipe. Oh! You got me another pair of Christmas socks. How thoughtful. 

Well we're doing well also. Sam says hello. We're driving back to the base from making Christmasy house visits. What a full day of eating and drinking and being stared at. We had maybe 5 or 6 to go to. All the homes were so beautiful! The food was fantastic too. I don't even know what all I was eating but it was great. 

This morning we woke up pretty late. We read cards from the CO base and my mom sent us 3 students special little gifts and notes. She's the coolest mom ever. 

We were also really debating on whether or not we should even go out today. We've all been really sick this week. It may have been from the water. I got an eye infection too. BUT  we are doing a lot better. We we're planning on delaying our trip into the villages a few days if we continue to get sick. In reality though, we will most likely get sick there too. We've been having some really really weird dreams due to our malaria meds too. Haha!! 

But really. Pray for out health and protection. This is gunna be a big project. 

A few of you were asking about our pet monkey! He's kind of scary. His name is Joker. 

Id show you a photo but it will take too long to upload it. 

We also have a few dogs and cats and birds. No snakes or crocodiles right now, unfortunately. 

Well... tomorrow we leave for the village. We'll be there for about 3 weeks. Then we'll come back for a few days. Then we'll go out again for round 2. I'd make a joke like "If I don't come back... For whatever reason... Know this..." But I'm not even going to play like that. 

But for real, please take care. 

The team is doing really well right now I think. I mean, other than being sick. We continue to have to duke things out between us but it's better than keeping quiet. 

Well, that's all the excitement I have for you today. Other than this, we've just been sleeping a lot. 

Happy Christmas, dear friends. Open up the new year without me. 

Shalom. 

-G