Russell and Eileen's Church Missions: IT'S ALL A MATTER OF PERSPECTIVE

We have found that sometimes in life that perhaps your viewpoint is skewed depending on the perspective from which you look at your circumstances. Our mission has definitely shown us how true this can be. We have been very pleased with our apartment, the security which we have here, and the amenities which we have available. Yesterday a local came to visit us and I (Eileen) said to her, "Don't we have a beautiful view?" Russell and I think we have a beautiful view of the Jakarta skyline. She looked back at me in astonishment and said "You are looking at the graveyard." I just started to laugh and said "yes, but it is green". I wonder if they give the foreigners the view of the graveyard thinking they won't mind if they look that direction. I love looking down at the graveyard, seeing the people visiting their ancestor's graves, watching the students walking the path through the graveyard on their way to school, and even occasionally seeing a horse and buggy driving through the small pathways of the graveyard.

During the frequent heavy rainstorms we see the streets sometimes flood. If the storm is extremely bad you can see people hovering under any kind of shelter trying to stay dry. Saturday afternoon we sat on our balcony, dry under the overhang, and watched the beauty of a very heavy rainstorm hit Jakarta. I am sure our neighbors in the three other apartment building towers thought we were crazy to just sit and watch it rain.

Sometimes the congested traffic can be extremely frustrating. You must give yourself significant extra time to get anywhere, because you never know how bad the traffic or road construction will be to get to your destination. Russell sees the traffic and freeway construction as economic progress as more people can afford cars and motorcycles here in Jakarta. We have decided we will use the time while we commute in the taxi to make phone calls, answer e-mails, or study.

We are near several mosques. The call to prayer starts around 4:00 a.m. and can be heard throughout the city. While at first it was quite a challenge to sleep through, we now look at it as an alarm clock to remind us to get up early, study and exercise. We need to remember that life is what we make of it. We have been blessed to know many good and kind people in our lives that have been able to take unfortunate circumstances and make the best of them. We look to them as an example of how we want to live our lives.