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
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