Russell and Eileen's Church Missions: MIRACLE IN JAKARTA

We haven't posted the last two weeks because I (Eileen) have been quite sick with a respiratory infection. Despite self medicating with a z-pack I am just barely starting to feel human again. I am grateful that it is the first real respiratory illness I have had since being here for a year. I have missed my exercise routine, going to the pasar and interacting with others. I have tried to stay inside to avoid spreading illness to others. Yesterday it was great to be back to church.

The rainy season has subsided and now we are into the hot and dry season in Jakarta. Walking outside into 93 degree temperature after being inside our air conditioned apartment for a couple of weeks was a big surprise!

Two weeks ago we saw the Seiters and Keplers return home after serving 18 months as senior missionaries in the Surabaya area. They have gone on several projects with us in the Surabaya area. They also created a unique project of their own with the missionaries and members where they served. Once a week they went to the Surabaya zoo and painted, cleaned up, and created an environment which would be much more appealing for visitors to visit the zoo. We appreciate them for the strengths they brought to the mission field and their fun, happy, personalities. There was never a dull moment with the Seiters and Keplers.

Last evening we were invited to go to the Lisks for dinner. The Lisks are the office couple in Jakarta. They arrived in the latter part of January. At about 4p.m. I received a call from Sister Lisk asking me if she could use my oven to cook dinner. She calmly said her oven blew up. Russell and I raced down to the Lisk's apartment. We arrived to find dust on the floor outside in the hallway. At first we thought it was ash. Sister Lisk was pale with singed hair and eyebrows and some slight burns on her arms and face. She started pointing to her crispy hair and telling me how disappointed she was as she had just gotten a nice haircut the day before. I immediately laid her down and elevated her feet. I thought even if she was talking coherently surely this must have put her into a little bit of shock! She explained how she had turned on the oven and reached down to light the oven when it exploded. We have gas appliances here in Indonesia and the gas must have built up in the oven. Elder Lisk was in the other room and said he heard what sounded like a bomb go off. He thought it was outside their apartment. The force of the explosion caused the metal latch to break off their door. The door to their laundry was also jammed shut and the impact of the explosion had blown the dust from their refrigerator out into the hallway.

We were so grateful that the Lisks were protected from any harm. Russell knows of someone from his prior employer that actually died in an accident exactly like this one. What turned out to be a small inconvenience for the evening could have been a deadly disaster. We expressed our gratitude unitedly in a prayer thanking Heavenly Father for Sister Lisk's protection.

Later that evening we had a very nice dinner and discussion with a young man named Johann. He will be baptised as a member of our church next Sunday after our Easter church services. We are grateful to our Heavenly Father for the miracle of a beautiful, safe Sabbath day.