Wide wide as the ocean

(or Rough rough are the roads)

Two more days have passed – another two to go here at LWV…

Yesterday I had a lie-in, as there’s no prayer meeting at 5.30am on a Sunday (and the clocks don’t change here!).

The day started with breakfast at 8.00am, a prayer meeting with a small group from 8.15am until 8.45am, and church from 9.00am until 11.15am.

The meeting was lovely again.  I must say I love the Indonesian songs more than the few English songs they sing, even though I don’t understand their language.  There’s just something about them – they’re beautiful and when you hear them being sung out of hundreds of children’s mouths, it’s very powerful.

After a few worship songs, a children’s choir sang one song and a young man sang another one. Then another young man, Tijar, gave a testimony about how in 2002 his grandmother was very ill and he had a dream that she was trapped in a mosquito net and a ball of fire appeared – he went and prayed for her and she got healed.  We had communion and a collection, the smallest children disappeared to Sunday School and Toher, one of the young leaders who is a very gifted preacher, gave a lovely sermon.  The meeting ended with another song and Bernard was asked to come forward to close with a prayer, which was lovely.

By the way, I forgot to mention that Tom is a changed man… he has shaved off his beard!

After lunch, a trip was organized to Nanga Pinoh, the town “nearby” (only 45 minutes drive, that is if you manage to drive continuously…).  I missed the “bus” last week and didn’t want to miss it this week, especially because I needed to buy a few more presents for some children, e.g. Keri who had been so helpful with our work the last 2 days.

21 children and adults climbed into a small truck and off we went, almost literally, because we almost went completely off at one point, where the road was so muddy that our truck sank wheel deep in the water and mud.  We all had to climb out, apart from Ruth and the other Ruth, who is the sister of the dentist.  I still can’t believe how Yosep, our driver, managed to get the truck through – we were taking pictures and videos whilst he did it – you have to see it to believe it!  

We all climbed back on, but a bit further there was a similar situation – this time the truck really got stuck and couldn’t go forward any further, so we had to push it back out.  You should have seen the disappointment on the children’s faces!  The Sunday trips to Nanga Pinoh are only for the older children (twelve years and up) and are something for which they save their money sometimes for weeks, in order to go shopping, so you can understand their disappointment.  They alternate between boys and girls every week, so that meant that the boys would not be able to go until the 10th April.  However, Yosep was determined to get through and when the truck next to us, which was already stuck in the mud before we arrived, finally managed to get out, Yosep pulled backwards and came in at high speed through the knee deep tracks that the other truck had left – I never thought he would make it, but he did, although the truck was swaying from left to right as if it could fall on its side any time.

We had a nice time in Nanga Pinoh, did all our shopping and bought an ice cream, which cost me 13,000 (luckily not pounds, but rupies).  

We went back on a bigger truck (there were 2 groups from LWV in town), which could seat about 40, or rather: it couldn’t but it did, because some of the children were sitting on the roof and even on top of the cabin (going through all the potholes!) – I think there is no Indonesian word for health & safety…

The way we came was a very good road, apart from the 2 really bad spots, so I became very suspicious, thinking that when we arrived 11 days ago, they had decided to give us the special rookies’ treat by sending us on a rough track.  However, coming back from Nanga Pinoh, we took the same rough “road” as 11 days ago, since that one was drier (probably no rain can stay on a road which is that hard!), so I got a déjà vu experience.

I don’t think anyone has ever had a 65th birthday trip like Ruth has had yesterday, but she enjoyed it.

She was naughty at dinner, because Tom didn’t feel like eating all the chips on his plate, but she told him he had to, which he did, only to find out afterwards that she had put her chips on his plate too!

After the morning meeting, Jan-Willem had told us that Ronny had asked if our group could do something for half an hour in the Sunday and Tuesday evening meetings, so after coming back from Nanga Pinoh, we quickly put something together.

The meeting started at 7pm with a few worship songs and then it was our turn.  After everyone had sung Happy Birthday for Ruth, we started with Wide Wide As The Ocean.  I explained to the children that this song tells us how big God’s love is for us and that nothing can take us out of His love, no matter what we do.  First all of us did the song together (accompanied by Bethany on the ukelele), with the words up on the screen in English and Indonesian, and then we told the children to stand up and join us.  For a moment it seemed like absolute chaos broke loose and I was thinking: how on earth do you teach 400 children at the same time a new song, with all the actions?  But soon everything was under control and the children (and the adults) absolutely loved the song!  Then Gisella did a short sketch with one of her many puppets - she was great and managed to capture the children’s attention very well.  By coincidence her sketch was around the same theme as our song: how can you be sure that Jesus loves you, e.g. when you’ve done bad things?  Finally Jaap preached on how we should do to others what we would like them to do to us, which was very good as well.

Today, Gisella has been helping the dentist again and Tom was fulfilling his usual electrical duties; Ingrid and Ruth stayed in, whilst Jaap & Bernard started putting up some washing lines at the new house parents’ house and I finished off the wire fence there.  Eleven year old Keri helped me again.  When we went for lunch, I’d left some material on the site, but when I came back, I had to get it out again, because some children had cleared it all up! They’re good kids and very helpful.

We had to get transport to and from the workshop this morning, to pick up some materials, and Bernard volunteered to sit on the roof of the Landrover to keep the sheets for the wire fence in place. The roads within LWV are as “special” as outside, so when Bernard got off, he said something about having found an alternative for waterboarding.  It’s not that bad actually, once you get used to it, but I must say that you won’t ever hear me complain again about a few potholes in Coxtie Green Road!...

Last week, Ronny told us how some years ago, he brought loads of material from Kuching in and on top of his car, of which the floor at some point seemed to move strangely.  When he got to LWV, someone noticed that the car had effectively broken in two – it was a miracle that he had made it home! 

Anyway, the car got welded together again and lived happily ever after… It must have been quite something, those pioneer years.  It’s still quite basic to live here, but we really can’t complain: we’ve got toilets, a bed with a mattress, a shower, drinking water, coffee, bread with spread for breakfast, nice food prepared for us three times a day, medical supplies, mosquito repellent products and malaria tablets, Internet, etc. – yes, we are on the mission field, but it’s not exactly primitive living.  I’ve got the deepest respect for what Ronny and his people have built here from the start and definitely for what the missionaries had to do in the previous centuries, laying down their lives and everything they had for the gospel…

That’s all folks at home and in Belgium!

More news in a few days…

God bless