A Month Since Manado!

Yes, it is true.  A month has passed and I am just now sitting down to relate some of our experiences in Manado, Sulawesi.  I have a photo album on Face Book with lots of great pictures from the trip, but haven't written down, yet, the many stories behind them.  Here's a start:
Our eight day adventure, of course, started and ended en route.  The kids have become quite the seasoned fliers!  This is a photo of the prayer pamphlet found in your seat back on Lion Air.  You can find a prayer for safe travels, categorized by religion.

 When we landed in Manado, I suggested a trip to the bathroom before heading by bus another 2 hours to the city of Bitung for the first gospel rally of the trip.  I took the girls - and Jim and George headed for the men's room.  The girls and I got along just fine, but the boys were not so lucky.  Most restrooms don't stock TP and the boys were caught without.  George was in desperate need, so Jim made the ultimate sacrifice...his white linen hankie.  Then, in an act of equal kindness, George  helped  Daddy keep his stall door closed by "fixing" the lock for him.  Well, there was no way now to get it back open.  If you can imagine, Jim had accidentally pressed the "call for help" button upon entering the bathroom...so he thought maybe someone would come for them.  No, not here.  So, in true MacGyver style, Jim was able to pick the lock with a pen he happened to have in his shirt pocket. Thankfully, for you all, I do not have a picture of that!

As I mentioned, we were headed for our first rally.  We were tired, but excited, and enjoyed the scenery on the way.  We traveled up through the mountains and arrived at a field fitted with thousands of seats and a stage.  We made it!  And then it started to rain.  Ugh.  The kids thought that was great, but mommy did not think sitting for four hours in a downpour was such a great idea.

 Thankfully, we were invited to a covered sitting area and were able to stay dry.  How spoiled were we?  Thousands who attended braved the weather and never flinched!  It is really so hard to describe the feeling of worshiping together in a different language and culture.  After  testimony and preaching, many came forward to repent and come into relationship with the Lord.  This happened night after night, thousands in total and all because The Word is powerful and life changing!

I made friends that first night with a little boy named Frankie.  He had the most engaging smile and so desperately wanted attention from us.  After doing my best to speak a couple of sentences of Bahasa with him, I gave him a package of Ritz crackers.  He lit up and held the gift close to his heart.  He didn't tear into them, but brought them to show his mother and the rest of his family.  It was a sweet and tender moment.
The rest of our days were filled with seminars, meals at various seafood restaurants (with spectacular views), touring the mountainous regions of the island, being "mobbed" for photos and every night a rally in a different town.  A few nights, I stayed in with the kids and rested while watching TV and feasting on McDonald's.  We had a wonderful team that helped to take care of us... busing us around and finding food for us (we never had to eat dog.)  We got to know many people from Jakarta that we didn't know before.  What a blessing!

Jim's "God appointed moment" came when we were visiting a restaurant on Lake Tondano.  We actually spent a few hours there, waiting out the rain. We spotted a rainbow and then were dazzled by the sunset.

 Jim struck up a conversation (limited only by the language barrier) with the young workers and asked if they had thought about going to Dr. Tong's Gospel Rally that night.  They were working and didn't have a ride.  Well, the amazing young ladies that led our group (seen on either end of the line-up below) arranged for them to get the night off  and sent our bus back for them and the friends they invited.  Let's pray for Merlyn, Epi, Ghiska, Irsan, Ria, Novri, Jacky, and Rhike.

A family highlight was our boat ride to Bunaken Island, a world class snorkeling and dive site.  Our view of the underwater was from the window on the bottom of our boat.  Anna captured lots of pictures on her camera and she will post on that experience and include some of her images.

Am I forgetting anything?  Oh yes! Our bus broke down at 11:00pm in one of the mountain towns on our way back to the hotel in Manado.  Not to fear...the Governor of the town sent cars for all of us to get back.  We were well taken care of!

I think that is a good place to end this post        ..........We were well taken care of  in..................   "The Land of Smilling (sic) People!"