First airplane ride ever
Four times during the last few months Domingas and her family have treated us to a dinner at their house. It was always a fancier dinner than the family usually has. For one of the dinners they even cooked one of their own chickens. To pay them back for their kindness we took them out to dinner at a restaurant. Only one of the children had ever been out to eat at a restaurant in their lives. They seem to really enjoy it. None of them drank there drinks. We thought they didn't like them. They all wanted to take them home and save them and have them later.
June 22nd was the big day. The three oldest girls traveled with us to Indonesia to go to a youth conference. It was a big event for the family. It is the first time that any of them, including the parents, has ever been on an airplane. The whole family came to the airport to see them off.
Of course it was their first time inside of an airport. They were nervous. The one on the left, Azeni let out a scream when the plane took off. The one in the middle Asiza, was sick for most of the flight and threw up twice.
Cheryl and my job was to escort them to Bali where they would meet up with other Youth and then travel on another Airline trip the next day to another Indonesian City. They will be there a total of 8 days. Because the airline tickets to and from Timor leste are so expensive it made sense for us to stay in Bali for the entire time. It is going to be a nice vacation. We are looking forward to it.
We arrived on Saturday and then on Sunday we went to the Bali Branch for church. It's hard for the church to get buildings in Indonesia and so this one is located in a shopping mall. It was difficult to find. On the way there we ran into some church members visiting from New Zealand
The church building is three stories. On the first floor is the chapel. Notice in the back of the chapel there is a baptismal font. There were about 40 people in attendance. About half were visitors. About one-half of the permanent members of the church where non Indonesian. Most were free-spirited people from America that travel around a lot and felt like living in this portion of the world. There was one family that traveled on a sailboat from America and just stayed in Indonesia when their boat broke. They've been there for six months.
Hey, I heard you are extending for 2 years......rumor???? Great to read your blog-youth conference, graduation, ... What a huge group!! So we just are so impressed with what you are accomplishing! Our hottest days here remind us of you! Steve just returned from his second trip to Africa. He's emailing you pictures. Hot there too! Keep up the amazing work! Hutchings
ReplyDeleteIt's funny you should mention extending our mission. We spoke to the couple who is replacing us and they're not coming until the middle of December which is two and a half months after we leave. So to fill the Gap they're having two senior sister missionaries who work in the mission office in Jakarta come here and teach our English classes and watch over the church. We thought they might ask us to stay longer but I guess they don't like to keep senior missionaries past two years.
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