I’m Engaged
Saturday May 17th Yoksan and I got engaged! The traditional Indonesian engagement involves a formal ceremony with both families coming together, accepting the other person and exchanging rings. Yoksan and I opted to not do the formal ceremony but instead to do a small dinner with his family where we exchanged rings. It was very different from the American get down on one knee and propose but it was nice. Here are some pictures ….
A day in the mountains
Yoksan, Keren and I went to the mountains outside of Jakarta to cool off. Jakarta is a lot hotter than Semarang, partially due to all the pollution and smog inside the city.
The “Hutan” or Jungle
One cool thing we did while in Pekanbaru was do a Good Friday service in the “hutan” or jungle with a community of Nias people. These people are incredibly poor and the kids do not go to school. Once the kids are old enough, around 8 to 10 years old, they start working to help provide for the family by cutting grass. These kids were a huge blessing, they were so happy and full of life and they worshiped! We start service with worship and the Spirit was on them and they were worshipping! It was an incredible day and time. God is so good and in control. Once Jehovah Jireh goes into phase two of taking more kids some of these kids will probably come and live in the house where they can be better fed and taken care of as well as go to school.
Jehovah Jireh
Over Easter weekend I was able to make my second trip to Pekanbaru on the island of Sumatra. This trip was to check out the house that the Lord has provided to make a home to local orphane children. During this trip Keren, Yoksan and I spent 4 days checking out the situation and ministering to some of the local communities. The Lord is amazing, He is the great Provider. The name of the orphanage is Jehovah Jireh’s House because He has provided everything. He has provided the vision, the finances, the people to run it, the children and the local community. He has already and is continuing to spread the vision to people both in Indonesia and in the states. The Lord has provided everything and everyone involved in the project is waiting eagerly to see what the Lord’s going to do next.
Check out these pictures of the house and some of the kids who will stay in the house. We had an Easter service the weekend we were there with some of the families of the kids. God is incredible!
Time at Home
The Lord blessed me with a great 2 months at home over Christmas and all of January. God really used this time home to refresh me and to allow me to reconnect with so many people. I enjoyed time in San Diego and Orange County with my family as well as 2 weeks in Colorado Springs with Rachel and her family. I am so thankful I got to see everyone and share with so many of you what God is doing. God also used this time to speak to me about several different things in my life and what He is doing. 2008 is the year of releasing His vision in my life! It’s already 4 months into the year and it’s happening, God’s words are true! Enjoy the pictures from home.
Traditional Javanese Engagement
Last week I had the opportunity to go to an engagement ceremony of one of my close friends here. Her fiance’s family is very traditional Javanese so the ceremony was very traditoinal. I thought I would share it with you because it’s so different from our American romantic private engagements.
Here the whole families come together and watch as a pastor or religious leader performs a ceremony of commitment ending with rings being exchanged. In Indonesia the wedding finger is the ring finger on your right hand so the engagement ring goes on the left hand and at the wedding will be switched to the right hand. Both the man and the woman get a ring at engagement. The ceremony is ended with the man’s family giving gifts to the bride which they present to the bride’s family. A line is made with one side the man’s family and one side the woman’s family and each person from the man’s side gives one member from the woman’s side a gift. The gifts all go to the bride as “preparation” gifts. I don’t know all the meanings and specifics of the gifts but it started with food and fruit and went to cosmetics to dress shoes and sandals to a pursue to clothes. Each gift has a specific meaning and order they are presented in.
Indonesian ceremonies like this are very formal and straight faced. When pictures are taken nobody smiles even know they are happy – it’s just culture! After the ceremony I did catch a few smiles but not many.
One last interesting note – the parents talk and discuss when their kids will marry! Some parents may decide they must wait many years – 5, 10 or 15 – but luckily for Lince and Gideon they do not have to wait very long, they will get married next year, as early as April.
Enjoy the pictures.
Competitions
Competitions here are VERY popular. In school curriculum you not only have to teach reading, writing and arithmitic, you also have to teach kids how to win competitions. Everything in me as an American teacher says no you teach team work and working together but here in Indonesia they value competitions from babies crawling the fastest to adults competiting in a variety of activities. There’s a lot of pressure to WIN!
At school we just tried to make these competitions fun and low stress. No pressure, just have fun. Enjoy the pictures.
(In case you look at the pictures and wonder what a grupuk is – it’s an Indonesian cracker more or less and they come in a varity of flavors from ayam (chicken) to udang (shrimp) to sapi (beef) and they are extremely popular here.)
Independence Day
August 17th is Indonesia’s Independence Day! It’s a fun day full of Indonesian pride and spirit. In true Indonesian fashion we celebrated with all 85 of our students and their parents with a fun celebration. It included a formal Indonesian ceremony with flags, saluting, a speech and songs. We also ate together and had some fun friendly competitions. It was our first special event of the new school year; it turned out to be really fun! During the ceremony we were challenged by the principal to live lives of bravery and holiness, which is what the red (bravery) and white (holiness) in the flag stand for.
As an American celebrating Indonesia’s Independence Day I couldn’t help but think about my own country. I love my country but I also love this place. God has placed a love in my heart for this country but it cannot replace my own. Today say a prayer for both places which so desperately need Jesus. And take a minute to appreciate the things we take for granted everyday, one of them being, the freedom you have to worship anywhere you want without persecution.
Enjoy the pictures!
