Happy Thanksgiving, everyone - esp for Americans who celebrate today. We pass on the greetings as common passport-holders.
Monday, November 20, 2023
We rest for a few hours after arriving at the hotel with Vanessa. Supper is a poolside feast under old mangrove trees (which are literally called "grapes of the sea" trees.)
The discussions are sweet.
Tuesday
We're mid-way in the island of Java, 6 hours away by train. Jogja is a thriving city of 3 million Javanese and a lot of university students and artists. Despite the size, "It feels like a small town," according to Vanessa.
We enjoy the local and international breakfast buffet by the pool.
Why are we here? W is teaching his Basic Christian Thought course. PM me if you want more info or the notes.
It's a joy to interact with the young leaders over meals and conversations.
Supper in a Middle East restaurant is delicious and fun.
Wednesday
We walk the 2-km path through the hotel grounds before breakfast. What a gorgeous setting.
Do you know now why we rarely need to take vacations? The settings around SE Asia are so gorgeous you feel like you're on holidays even when you're working! I capture a few flowers along the brick and concrete path.
After an 8:30 breakfast with a leader, W and I agree that there's so much growth and service going on that Jamie and Tasha are outstanding. Mid-morning, we chat and catch a ride to the station with Mike, Lawrencia, and Silas (whose big brother is MIA - in preschool.) Thanks, guys, for taking a bite out of your morning to meet with us.
Indonesian train infrastructure has improved since we first arrived 9+ years ago. These station officials are crisp in their uniforms.
The old stations may not yet be pulled down but the new ones boast custom teak windows and marble or stone floors with good waiting rooms.
There are only 5 stops on our 6-hr trip. Usually everyone's on the platform, drags their luggage inside, and the stationmaster's whistle sounds - within a few minutes. At the one 10-minute stop, I watch with bemusement as the stationmaster inside the building manually pulls levers to shift the tracks ahead. He knows which one's which, whew.
On the train ride back to Bandung, we catch snippets of community and farm life.
Some rice harvests are over, waiting for the fields to be burned or plowed under for the next planting.
In other paddies, the rice is almost ready for harvest. Cloths wave on sticks to ward off birds that eat the grain.
Along the tracks, someone is drying bamboo, perhaps for scaffolding, perhaps for building.
At every crossroad, motorcycles line up. During rush hour, hundreds of them wait for us to pass.
Our final landmarks include the Bandung end-station for the high-speed WOOSH train from Jakarta, which unfortunately lies far away from most of Bandung! but will probably boost development in the southeast area of town,
and this futuristic mosque.
As the sun sets, we wonder if this is employee housing: every residence is the same and built in tidy rows.
We arrive to a full train station and a safe, winding trip through traffic, thanks to PakG. What a blessing he is to us. We're home by 7:30 and don't stay up much longer.
Read more:
Psalm 8 (a song of King David and one of my favorite poems of worship):
Lord, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth! You have set your glory in the heavens. Through the praise of children and infants you have established a stronghold against your enemies, to silence the foe and the avenger.
When I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars which you have set in place, what is mankind that you are mindful of them, human beings that you care for them? You have made them a little lower than the angels and crowned them with glory and honor. You made them rulers over the works of your hands; you put everything under their feet: all flocks and herds, and the animals of the wild, the birds in the sky, and the fish in the sea, all that swim the paths of the seas.
Lord, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth!
Prayer of thanksgiving: O God of all created things, world and everything in it, today we offer our worship. Nothing in heaven or on earth compares to you. Help us never to worship created things but to reserve our adoration for you alone. Give us grateful hearts for the people, places, and resources that you so bountifully supply. We are full of thankfulness to you, our Lord and King. Amen.
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