Birthday Celebrations

One of the fun things about being here and living in the close knit community that I do is being able to share in people's special days and celebrating birthdays together. This quarter we've had three (besides my own). In January we celebrated Lindsey's birthday with a surprise party. But not a surprise just for Lindsey, for everyone involved. We had a true "pot luck" dinner and had everyone bring something. But we didn't tell anyone what to bring and no one was allowed to tell what they were planning on bringing. This way we may end up with all desserts or no desserts at all. But we were going to be surprised. It was a lot of fun and we actually ended up with quite the spread of various things.



Then on April 1st we celebrated my roommate Emma's birthday. For this special day we decided to go to the Sheraton hotel for their fancy buffet dinner. We got all dressed up and enjoyed eating lots of delicious food. We ended up going on the Asian food night (not exactly what we were craving, but it still turned out to be good). A lot of us spent most of our calories for the evening eating their yummy bread. Good bread is hard to find here so we felt like we were in heaven.



Lastly, in April we celebrated Aaron's birthday. A large group of people went out to eat the Saturday night before his birthday at a restaurant where you eat in the dark. It was one of the weirdest experiences I've had to date. You walk in and look at a menu and order. Then they take you upstairs (lead by a blind guy), where you are seated in a room that is completely pitch dark. The kind of dark that your eyes don't get used to and makes you dizzy after a while. Your eyes try so hard to adjust but in the end you fail to be able to see anything. The waiters serve you using night vision glasses. I had steak and french fries with ice cream for dessert. I basically ended up eating with my hands. Silverware is too hard to use in the dark, besides if it's dark no one cares if you eat steak with your hands. :)



Then on Aaron's actual birthday a few of us went to a local hole in the wall restaurant for some spicy Indonesian food. We enjoyed "surprising" him with some party decorations and a chance to blow out a candle. We got really wet on the way there, as it's still rainy season here, but it was still fun.




I've put together a Web Album to give you a chance to see more of the pictures from these celebrations. Click on the following link, which will take you there: http://picasaweb.google.com/emilyinbandung/BirthdayCelebrations

Sea Tribe Pictures

I finally got a Web Album up of all of the pictures from our spring break trip. There are quite a few of them that have been compiled from all of the team-mates. If you are able, take some time to look through them. I think it will give you a glimpse into what our trip was like but also what the lives of the people who live on the islands are like.

Click on the following link and it will take you there:
http://picasaweb.google.co.uk/clauson.emily/SeaTribe2008

Dreams

One other story I want to share from my time on the sea tribe islands. On this trip it became clear that the Father is still working through dreams, especially in remote areas of the world where there are not enough workers to share the Good News with people and many have yet to hear. One afternoon on the second island it was incredibly hot. A few of us were sitting around in the shade with the Ibu (mother) of the house trying to stay cool. One of our students had had a funny dream the night before about me and our guide boxing on the back dock where we were sleeping. This student decided to tell the story of her dream to the Ibu and the Ibu thought that it was pretty funny.

Then we asked her if she ever had any dreams. The Ibu shared how she had had a dream that the head guy of the tour organization came to her house. He's only been to that island a handful of times, but the day after she had that dream he showed up on the island and at her house for a visit.

Then I shared a story I had heard many times growing up of a man who interprets dreams. The story begins with the dream interpretor, named Joseph, having a dream that his eleven brothers would all bow down to him. This makes the brothers very angry as they insist that that would never happen, so angry that they plot to kill him. They throw him in a pit and are ready to end his life when they get an idea. They see some men passing by and decide that instead of killing their brother they will sell him and earn some money while they are at it.

Joseph ends up being sold to a powerful man in a distant land. His new master recognizes his honesty and hard work and quickly gives him more responsibility over his estate. The master's wife, however, has an eye to try and seduce the dream interpretor and ends up destroying his reputation and trust with his master. When the master finds his wife and his trusted servant together, he throws Joseph in jail. While in jail, Joseph meets two men who had both worked for the king and who had both had dreams while in jail. The dream interpretor listens intently to these men's dreams and then shares with them what he thinks the dreams mean. As it turns out his interpretation is exactly correct and the events he predicted end up coming true.

The king finds out about this man who interprets dreams and calls Joseph to see him, for the king had also had a dream that was puzzling him. As the king carefully explains his dream, the dream interpretor knows exactly what it means. The dream contains both good and bad news. The good news is that the land the king rules is going to go through 7 years of plenty. However, those 7 years will be followed by 7 years of drought. The dream interpretor advises the king to collect all the excess from the years of plenty and store them to be used for the years of drought. The king finds this to be such a brilliant plan that he puts Joseph in charge of it. So this man who had recently been put in prison now finds himself in a powerful, high ranking position working for the king.

Seven years go by and just as the dream interpretor foretold, there are 7 years of plenty. But those are followed by 7 years of drought. However, because of Joseph's plan this land has more than enough food to feed everyone and no one is hungry. Back where Joseph's family lives, though, this is not the case. His brothers find themselves starving and without food. They decide that their only hope is to travel to this distant place where they hear there is food in abundance.

So they set out on the long journey and arrive to find they are generously given food to take back to their home. Joseph spots his brothers as they arrive and looks on as their sacks are filled with grain. As they get ready to leave Joseph has an expensive cup secretly put in one of the brother's sacks. When the brothers start to leave they are stopped and searched. At that moment Joseph steps out and catches them with the precious cup.

Out of desperation the brothers fall down on their knees and beg for forgiveness for being caught with such a special thing that does not belong to them. Joseph then reveals himself to his brothers and they are glad to see that their long lost brother is still alive. Joseph reminds them of his dream from years ago. He had dreamed that one day his brothers would bow down to him and this day his dream had come true. The brothers express how sorry they are for selling him to be a servant and as a result for all that Joseph had to go through. Joseph's response to them is surprising. He says, "what you meant for evil, God meant for good."

As I ended the story, the Ibu sat in silence for a few moments. Then she made a realization. "That's kind of like my life." A few months earlier her husband had been put in prison for some illegal activity that he was involved in. As a result their family has been struggling financially as well as struggling without their father around. The Ibu took these words to heart: "What you meant for evil, God meant for good." In the midst of all that was going on in her family at that time, she realized that perhaps God does actually have a plan to use those things for good. And I walked away with a fresh realization that the Father is still working through dreams.

Mandi Sumur

Here are some pictures of our experience public bathing and doing laundry at the well.

Some of the kids being silly. They thought it was so fun that we would go bath at the well.

Cassie with her little boy. He was attached to her and she was attached to him.

Here we are learning the art of washing clothes by hand. The first task is to scrub them to get out all the stains.

Joy is finding that it is tough work.

Did I get out all the dirt and stains? I'm not sure what to do now?

Next step is rinsing. After rinsing several times we then rung out the clothes and took them back home to be hung up and dried.

Some of the other girls on our team bathing at a different well. Looks like they are having quite a party with the locals!

Living Water

As we headed out to the island we had two main goals in mind: live life with the people on the island and share stories and parables with them. On the first island a common part of their culture, especially for the women, is public bathing. Several times a day the women would go to the nearby well in a sarong and bathe. We knew about this ahead of time and made sure to bring our own sarongs. While we were nervous to try it at first, it soon became an enjoyable experience that we looked forward to. In the midst of the heat it felt so good to go to the well, cool off, and get clean. We were taught the proper ways by the locals and often had a large group of kids gather to watch the "bules" (white people) bathe at the well.

After a few days on the island some of us were running out of clean clothes and so we decided it was time to go bathe and do laundry the island way, doing both at the same time at the well. One of the high school girls went ahead of us with a group of kids. As we arrived at the well we noticed that they had already started. She had the whole group of kids with shampoo in their hair. There was soap everywhere and water was splashing all over the place. It was truly a community event.

Then they taught us how to hand wash clothes at the well. It was not an easy task and took us well over an hour. And as we washed we got to tell a story we knew about a woman who had once met a man at a well. We told of how the man had been traveling from far away and stopped to take a rest at the well. He asked the woman for a drink as he was thirsty from traveling. The woman was shocked because their people didn't get along and as a result he wasn't supposed to be talking with her. The man answered her that if she knew who asked her for a drink she would have asked him and he would give her living water. The woman was very confused and asked "where can you get this living water?" The man answered that whoever drinks of the water from the well will be thirsty again but whoever drinks of the water he gives will never thirst. For the water he gives becomes a spring of water welling up to eternal life. And in desperation that woman asked "will you give me this water so that I won't get thirsty and have to keep coming here to this well?" The story continues but for lack of remembering we stopped there. While nothing miraculous or life changing occurred that day we did get an opportunity to plant a seed. A seed that we trust will be watered and hopefully one day will be harvested.

A Picture is Worth a Thousand Words

Our team is back now from our sea tribe trip. We had an incredible time. There are so many stories that I want to share... that need to be shared. But I'm experiencing some writer's block and am having trouble getting my thoughts and memories down on paper. So they'll be coming soon. But for now some pictures. Someone from our team is compiling all the photos from the trip and has several thousand that they are weeding through. The ones below are just a few I took to start with. As they say a picture is worth a thousand words so hopefully these begin to give you an idea of what our trip was like. They will be filled in with details soon.