Russell and Eileen's Church Missions: December 2012

Sunday, December 16, 2012

MUCH APPRECIATED MEMBER SUPPORT

This week we were in East Java. We flew to Surabaya and then from there visited two pesantrens (Islamic boarding schools) in Mojokerto, a neighboring city. One of our projects this fall has been building toilet and washing facilities (MCKs) at a number of pesantrens on Java. We have previously noted this project in two prior postings. On Thursday we participated in a closing ceremony for the project at a large school of 800 students. In addition to building the facilities, we also presented hygiene classes utilizing a puppet show and handed out hygiene kits to each of the students. The hygiene kits were assembled by the members of our church in Jakarta and Surabaya. Over two thousand kits were distributed during this project. Following one of the hygiene classes this week, members helped us distribute over 300 of the kits.

At the closing ceremony a number of members from the Surabaya congregations attended. The trip took all day as the journey was over hours each way. We really appreciated the member’s support. One of the members, Devita, showed us pictures of when she was at our house in Centerville with her mother 19 years ago.

This project has been a particularly challenging one in that the locations have been at seven pesantrens in three different cities. Originally there were three more pesantrens, two of which declined our offer to construct the requested facilities once they knew we were Christians. The hygiene classes were also a bit of a challenge in that although the content of the classes was approved by the sponsoring Islamic society (NU), local reception to teaching anti-smoking is not always popular.

BOYS HYGIENE FACILITIES BEFORE OUR MCKS WERE BUILT (FOR BATHING AND TOILETS)

GIRLS HYGIENE FACILITIES PRE-MCK

BAND AND SINGERS PLAYED ARABIC MUSIC

DEVITA AND ELDER AND SISTER SMITH FROM MALAYSIA

EILEEN USING THE MCK WHILE MANY CHILDREN WATCH

MEMBERS OF OUR CHURCH THAT ATTENDED FOR THE DAY

CEREMONIAL STUFF

RUSSELL SPEAKING AT CEREMONY

PLAQUE ON MCKS

NEW MCK (FOR BATHING AND TOILET FACILITIES)

NO MORE STUDENTS COULD FIT IN HERE

EILEEN TEACHING HYGIENE

BEHIND THE SCENES AT PUPPET SHOW

Sunday, December 9, 2012

LEARNING OPPORTUNITIES

When I was here 37 years ago, I learned a few things that have stuck with me ever since. One lesson was, there are going to be good times and bad times. You need to enjoy the good times and learn from the bad times. If you don’t learn from the bad times then you have just suffered in vain.

This week has been a challenging one. While there have been plenty of problems before, this week seems to have more than its share of “learning opportunities.” Between a post project review that was not well received, problems with a new project we had such high hopes for, and challenges at home that we are too far away to be of any real help with, it will be good to move on to another week with its new challenges and distractions. It does make us grateful for the loving family members who care and for the gospel of Jesus Christ. The words of the song “Where Can I Turn For Peace” seem particularly comforting.

Where can I turn for peace?
Where is my solace,
When other sources cease to make me whole?
When with a wounded heart, anger, or malice,
I draw myself apart,
Searching my soul?

Where, when my aching grows,
Where, when I languish,
Where, in my need to know, where can I run?
Where is the quiet hand, to calm my anguish?
Who, who can understand?
He, only One.

He answers privately,
Reaches my reaching
In my Gethsemane, Savior and Friend.
Gentle the peace He finds for my beseeching.
Constant He is and kind,
Love without end.

Tuesday, December 4, 2012

CHICKENS AND THANKSGIVING

Two weeks ago we visited an old water project with a man named Taufik. Taufik knew our prior Bishop Leon McCarrey when he served here. The area was several hours away from Jakarta, in the mountains above Bogor and very beautiful. When we arrived near the location we realized that it might be dangerous to take the van down into the village as the road was quite steep and slick from the previous night’s rain. The men hiked down to the village while I (Eileen) found a very primitive looking restroom. Later I decided to join the men and hiked into the village by myself. It was obvious that a white woman walking around was quite out of place. I might as well have been an alien from outer space. I tried to talk to the women in Indonesian and they looked away. It wasn’t until I started talking to them about the fact that I had 6 children and 11 grandchildren that I heard whispers about my family. Eventually I was guided to the spot where I found Russell and the other men looking at the spigots where the water came in from the mountain.

We were then taken into a house where we were invited to sit on a rug on the the floor and a meal was spread for us. I was a little out of my comfort zone as the man in charge ripped the chicken apart with his hands and asked me to partake. We were supposed to eat in the typical Indonesian fashion, which meant no utensils just with our hands. I had left my hand sanitizer in the car and I am fanatical about using it before eating, especially after shaking hands. We were fed a huge meal despite the fact that it was only 11a.m. After lunch, Russell was presented with two live chickens as a gift. When we climbed the hill to get to our car 3 more chickens arrived as presents from other villagers. Since we are not allowed to have animals in our apartments, by the rules of our apartment complex and our own love of pets, we then gave them as gifts to the other men in our car. They were thrilled to get them. I sat in the back of the car on the way home and listened to them peck at each other and try to get out of their box for the 3 l/2 hour drive. Again, a little outside of my comfort zone. I hope they made a good dinner for someone.

During the week of Thanksgiving we met together as couple missionaries and had a conference. We each had topics to present. We had the topic of “Because I have been given much”. I made a slideshow of all of the humanitarian projects we have been involved in. I also put music with it, and slipped in some pictures of the families of the senior missionaries. I was presenting on the morning of Thanksgiving and there were many moist eyes as the missionaries thought of their loved ones back home. I will post a link to you tube below so you can see the slideshow if you would like.

Last Sunday we presented at the Coordinating Council Meeting for the Church leaders of Indonesia an Emergency Disaster Plan. While their plan had many aspects to it, we focused on encouraging the leaders to find the contact information for those on their church rosters so in case of an emergency they could quickly assess the damage to member and their households.

This week we presented hygiene puppet shows to over 600 students at pesentrens. Pesentrens are Islamic boarding schools for children. Our church has been building toilet and bathing facilities at several schools. Our hygiene presentations focus on good dental care, hand washing and antismoking. Currently Indonesia has 60 million smokers. At one school I taught at I asked how many children had a father that smoked. Out of about 75 children, every child raised their hand. We were asked if we would include antismoking in our presentation by the health department of the Islamic organization. The children seemed to enjoy the puppets. Afterwards we gave each child their own hygiene kit complete with towel, toothbrush, toothpaste, soap and shampoo.