The Kevolution

This past week we have been in Papua island which is a lot less crowded than Java/Jakarta. I have stayed at a guest house provided by Jim and Judy Olson during most of my time here, and they have been great. I’ve gotten to have dinner with them a couple of nights and meet some great people who have also been staying here.

Last weekend I took a trip to Oryaland to help pass out books and see what it is really like living in the tribes. We left Saturday around 10 am and got to our final destination about 4 pm. Along the road we stopped at various tribes and passed out books. Many people we talked with had read the blue book (John, Romans, and 1 Peter) so we gave them a copy of the red book (Acts with English and Indonesian side-by-side).

Driving out and back was pretty crazy at times. For a large part of the trip the road was in great or decent shape, but there were about 10 spots that were really muddy and/or bumpy. I could feel the truck fish tail a couple of times, and we almost got stuck, but Isaak’s son Rapul’ did a great job driving.

I borrowed some sun block (50 spf) and put it on probably 3 or 4 times, but still managed to get a little burned on my arms and neck from sitting in the back of the truck for about 5 hours.

When we got to Suma there were kids everywhere who were really excited to see us. There were two in particular that I got to bond pretty well with during our stay there. We played a good bit of hacky-sack and I gave ‘em some good entertainment with a laser pointer (videos of that later). There were also kids that were scared of me: one infant would cry every time her mom held her so she could see me, and of course they got a great laugh and did it many times. It gives me all kinds of warm feelings inside to know that even on the other side of the world I still manage to make small children cry.

Saturday night we showed a film using a projector and sheet that gave a history of the Bible from Genesis through Acts as far as I could tell. It was in Indonesian and had taken some old movies about Jesus or the Old Testament and edited them and overdubbed them. From what I could understand and see it was a very solid film, except for the blonde-haired blue-eyed Jesus, who seems to be everywhere and not going anywhere.

The coolest part to me about that night was how the people responded when it started raining. They decided to move it to the meeting room, and it was great when all the people worked together to move it quickly and effectively.

After the film we sat around the house a little and ate some food. The mom and grandmother of the house were amazing at cooking and preparing meals. It was also neat to see how they would invite the other village children in to eat with us. We went to bed on their concrete floor, and I was fortunate to have a thermarest pad that Phil let me borrow. The idea that these people are fortunate if they have a concrete floor and foor walls blows my mind.

Shortly after waking up Sunday, Isaak (pronuounced Eesak*), my tour guide translator friend, told me that there was a crocodile in the back of the house, but I never managed to see it

Sunday morning we went to the church service which was very interesting. There is a tradition in this culture that after a meeting, especially a church service, the people walk up and shake all the leaders hands. I got to take part in that, and found it very special, though for them it seemed to be a little routine.

After service we took a truck load (literally about 30 kids) to the beach and played soccer, more hacky-sack, and ate cocunut. It was a great time, and I got some really nice sand for my mom.

We drove back to Sentani from about 3-6 pm, arriving safely with little damage other than a couple of sunburned spots on my arms and neck.

All in all I felt like it was a really good trip and was very happy I got to go. Honestly I felt like some of it has been overhyped because everyone I talk with is shocked that this is my first time off the North American continent and I went to a tribal village. I’m not sure if it’s my experience camping or living in Austin, but it didn’t seem all that primitive or weird to me. I’ve lived in far worse conditions in the mountains of Philmont, New Mexico, and I’ve seen far weirder things on 6th street in Austin.

Yesterday I met with a man named Barry Jordan, who is an extremely Godly man and had some great things to say about his testimony and living as a missionary, but more on that later. Tomorrow we head back to Jakarta, and then Saturday I fly to Houston.

Last few prayer requests for my trip:

- That my final days would be fruitful and my time would be spent wisely. Especially as I say goodbye to the friends I’ve made along the way.

- That Phil would be able to get good work done with his team and then networking and other good meetings would happen in Jakarta.

- My friend Isaak: he is trying to build a house for his family and has some financial need. I’m not sure yet to what extent.

Answers to prayer:

- Other than the first couple of days in Jakarta, I’ve experienced no health problems. Chalk it up to a strong immune system after teaching middle school or simply the hand of God.

- A friend we met a couple of nights ago is looking for financial support to attend a discipleship training program. About 10 minutes after posting it on facebook, someone responded about wanting to help.

- God has given some answers to me during this trip. He has also given me a lot more questions, but I have a good head start on where I want to go long-term.

- Despite not coming to Indonesia with a plan or idea of what I was going to do, God has used me and managed to fill up pretty much every hour of every day with good things that needed to be done. Honestly, the amount of time “wasted” has been very little.

- Culture stress/shock has been relatively easy to deal with, I think. That is totally a prayer thing, because it can be very overwhelming.

- Safe travel around some of the notoriously worst parts of the country in terms of road conditions.

- Many, many people are excited and receptive of the translation that we are passing out. People keep saying how easy it is to read, even for people who know very little Indonesian.

I could go on and on, but maybe later.

*Their pronunciation actually makes a lot more sense than English. “A” is “AH” “E” is “Eh” “I” is “I”, etc. So one of my favorites is “Kafin,” which is what you’ll find in soda and coffee.