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