SENIOR COUPLES CONFERENCE

Earlier this week we had the opportunity of attending a senior couple’s conference in Bali with the other missionaries that are serving in Indonesia.  Currently there are two couples in Surabaya, one couple in each of the areas of Solo, Jogja, and Manado.  Manado is on Sulawesi, an island northeast of Java.  Four couples are serving in Jakarta, the mission president, an office couple, a local couple helping with the Perpetual Education Fund and ourselves working with the humanitarian projects.  The couple from Manado came a long distance.  They are quite isolated. Geographically they are closer to the Phillipines than they are to Jakarta.  Each couple led one or more discussions on  topics  varying from religious themes to dealing with culture shock.  We realize that despite the fact that we have lived abroad and traveled extensively we were (still are) dealing with some aspects of adjusting to our new home. 

BEATIFUL BALI

 It was great to listen to our mission president and his wife, get to know the other couples (one of which had just arrived from Australia two days earlier, it is their second mission to Indonesia).  Referring to John 17, President Groberg talked about the importance of becoming one with God and one with our brothers and sisters here on earth.  One of the other couples noted that we couldn’t really fully serve the people of Indonesia until we first grew to love them.  We believe that regardless of the message we are trying to share, be it religious, humanitarian, or educational in nature, it will be very difficult to be heard unless the recipient knows that he or she is loved and appreciated.  Russell says he has a lot of work to do in this area. His prior profession focused on quantitative, usually financial results.  Whereas his (our) new profession focuses on relationships and more qualitative factors.