Some questions came up in my mind, “Can I handle the changes if we move back here for a long term?”, “Is it possible for me (and of course my husband and daughter) to have more patient with these people?”, “What would we do to show God’s love and be the light to these people with their rudeness?” and more and more questions that I was afraid to answer them. I only hope and pray that God is the one that enable us, empower us with his Holy Spirit to be here and to be more patient about all what we experienced so far and will experience tomorrow as long as we are here. And may be for the long term ministry in the future. If I had to do it by my own strength, I will be fail.

This week, we had a great time to visit my family and spending time with them all. This week we were invited by Windy’s parents-in-law (Tony’s parents and family) and Sella’s boyfriend’s – Joe – parents for dinners. How’s about that to experience the authentic Indonesian food? They were all very nice and friendly. We were so glad to see them, and so did they.

Apo and Abigail

Akung and Abigail

We went to one of the most favorite water park in the city, Ancol/Atlantic City. It was so crowded! We all had a blast day swimming, taking the babies playing in the baby pool, and I was so glad to see my dad and mom were able to had a good time and quality time with their grandchildren, and even they can enjoy the time and relaxing. There was big swimming pool that every hour they will have the “fake wave” and every one would jump into that pool. Also, there was a pool that went around some pools and had rapid water, we didn’t have to swim to move on, the rapid water would take you. There were some other pools with various water attractions that designed to give so much fun for every one. We were there since noon until about 6 in the evening. Time passed so fast when we had fun time. On the way back, we caught into the heavy traffic of the city. We spent about 2 hours to get out of the traffic. While waiting, I saw a sign. It was so funny because the sign telling people cannot sell things along the streets or sidewalks, but there were a bunch of people selling stuff as known as “Kaki Lima”.

After swimming...hungry and tired

Cannot Sell Anything Along the Street... but...

We also were able to spend time together and catching up stories with some of my friends. We all went to the Atma Jaya Catholic University and studied the same major at Education Faculty, majoring in English. They were my close friends while I was studying there, and they are still my close friends! We spent time together, talking and talking, and had dinned together. And of course, taking pictures! I was the last one who graduated from the school because I took 2 years off from my study and by God’s grace and blessing I could finish it in 2007. Praise the Lord!

left-right: Lulu, Eva, Josevin, Helen, Ivonne, Hanny

Here are the husbands: Ferry (Ivonne's), Dave (of course mine..hehehe) and A Hon (Lulu's)

and the children: Monik (Ferry&Ivonne's), Callista (my sister's), Christy (A Hon&Lulu's) and Abigail (ours)

On Sunday, we visited the church that my sister Sella works at. It is called Christ Cathedral and is nothing short of a miracle. The city we were in is called Tangerang, and while part of the megacity of Jakarta, it is actually a separate city and the capital of the province Banten. Banten was the site of one of the early Sultanates in what is now Indo and has since then been consistently and staunchly aligned with the majority religion. However, not only was the church granted legal building permits to construct their place of worship (which is almost unheard of) the governor herself visited the church for its Easter service. How incredible is that? We met the pastor and his wife, who are old friends of me and were able to talk a bit about BT and Disco* Trip program and the needs in Indo.

To be continued…

The post The second week of our trip appeared first on Helen G. Designs.