'Hello Misses - Where are you going???'

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Hey guys!

Sorry about the complete lack of blog for the last 2 weeks or so! It has really been a hectic few weeks here in Flores. Pretty much go, go, go, go, sleep, go, go, go, go, sleep, go, go, go, crash...you get the idea.
Where to even begin in sharing what has been going on here?!

Well I'll just quickly explain the title...this is what i hear every 5 minutes when i walk out of the hotel. Everyone in Flores wants to know where I'm going and wants to give me a lift in their pimped out, pretty dodgey looking taxi/mini-van thing (seriously weird looking taxis...they are a bit like that car you see driving around at night revving it's engine and pumping music really loud with it's neon underlight thing...it's a boy racer taxi mini-van which everyone takes...it's so bizarre watching old ladies get in and out of them). I also get whistled at like a dog and stared at all the time....welcome to being the minority. It's like being a celebrity but it's gets pretty annoying pretty quickly and there is no break from it.
People also love to take pictures with me and of me. I think even the biggest poser in the world would be sick to death with the amount of photos we've had to do since getting here! The weirdest part is i'll never see those pictures ever again! Usually it's bareable but I snapped the other day when we were at Kelimutu (a tourist attraction which used to be one of the wonders of the world because there are 3 lakes which change colour every other year for no apparent reason) this guy asked to take my picture and I said no and gestured no and then walked away when he still pointed the camera at me and he still took a picture of my back. I will definitely not miss this aspect of outreach!!!
Ok so Indonesia rant over...

Ok so I'll start with what some of the team have been doing pretty much every morning for the past 2ish weeks. We've been getting up at around 6ish every morning to go down to the market near our hotel to pray for some ladies who have tumours growing on their necks. Definitely a new experience for me. I have actually laid my hand on a tumour. Never thought i would do that in my lifetime. We originally thought that the ladies were muslim because of the names they had but they are in fact Catholic. They are all pretty old, very sweet and very desperate for prayer and healing. It all started when my leader (Tanner) and one of the team members (Christian) when on an adventure to try and find breakfast for us. They went to the market, got what they needed and while they were trying to find fruit, saw these women and felt like they had to go and pray for them. They continued to find fruit, found the fruit and almost left but God reminded them to pray for them so they went back and asked to pray for them. It was pretty tricky communication wise as they don't speak Indonesian and the ladies don't speak English but God placed people around them who could speak English and communicate what they felt God had asked them to do. I started going with them the third day in to them going back and praying for them and by then we also had a new addition to our team...a girl called Gabby who is from Indonesia...so the language barrier was no longer a problem! We've gone back every single day (except Sundays due to early morning church) and we have seen the tumours get smaller and looser. We have continuously tried to encourage them that it is not through our power that they are being healed but through Jesus and that they can call on His name anytime, anywhere and they did express a faith that Jesus could heal them. Hopefully they will continue meeting and keep praying out in faith. Each time we went we attracted a crowd as we are white. Initially people thought we had come to give them medicine and some thought that we were witch doctors and when they saw we were praying for the women some other people came to ask for prayer as well. One day we were there for over 2 hours because of people coming forward and asking for prayer. It can get pretty intense, especially with all the mentions of people being cursed by witch doctors because of someone having a problem with them. Witch doctors is definitely a popular form of revenge here. We went for our last morning of prayer today as we're leaving tomorrow to go to Lombok and they were all really sad. Some of them couldn't make it because of business in a different market or because of a death in the family but we gave them pictures of the team and will definitely carry them in our hearts. One of the ladies gave us 2 massive bunches of bananas because that is all she could afford and she wanted to bless us and another gave us a scarf which was traditional in Ende (the city we're in). Seriously sweet ladies. The church we've been working with during our time here sent some workers to meet them this morning so prayer will continue and hopefully they will be encouraged further that is not through the power of westerners that they are healed but through the power of Jesus.

Phew...this could turn out to be a long blog! Apologies!!
Ok so next thing. For all those who know me relatively well you probably know that I do not like the idea of appearing in dramas...at all...urgh...no thank you. Well guess what...i've been in a few now! Because the group is so small and because our main focus is youth there is no option to get out of being in a drama so it wasn't by choice that I did this but it definitely wasn't as bad or painful as I thought it was going to be and at some points I even really enjoyed it (although this isn't an invitation for anyone to ask me to be part of a drama...the hatred is still there!). 'What drama?' I hear you cry....well we went for the standard Christian drama of the Lifehouse skit...don't know what this is?? Well check out this:

'Who did I play??' I hear you ask....well i played the drunk person...and a very convincing drunk at that. I think that is the only role i can play convincingly. My clumsy nature helps as does my experience of being a student. I don't know if this part is meant to get the crowd laughing...but every time i did it people laughed. I'm putting that down to sheer perfection of appearing to be drunk rather than bad acting.
We learnt the drama in about 3 hours then performed in that night, the next day 3 times (twice in church and once at a prison) and then the day after that in a village...without music...on a very very small stage. If you've ever been in the drama you can probably appreciate how weird it would be doing it without music as your cues come from the music and so does some of the impact of the message the drama puts across...it was so surreal...i felt like i was deaf...the crowd was so quiet and we were just miming the whole thing. I also fell on Lisa's butt (Lisa plays suicide so is next to me when we get flung back) because the stage was so small. Each time we were asked to do the drama i was like 'nooooooo' inside but we did it and got positive responses and it wasn't all that bad.

Wow things have been so hectic here I can't even think where to begin with explaining what we've been doing. I guess the summary is we've been praying for a whole lot of people, been working with quite a few different kid ministries (some of which involve handing out operation Christmas child shoe-boxes which is pretty cool because i've been doing them for quite some time...i actually got to see where some of them go and see the kids when they open them), we've been to prison twice, the majority of the team have spoken on Indonesian radio (sadly I wasn't one of them), we've spoke at quite a lot of church services/events, we've been welcomed into peoples' lives and we've ate a whole lot of indonesian food.
I think one of my favourite days so far was when we went to this epic village (where we did the silent lifehouse skit). The church had been to the village before in 2001 but had been told not to return due to disagreements regarding some of the children not receiving shoeboxes. The roads were also washed away/damaged in someway which prevented cars from accessing it for a while so we were the first team to go in some time. It took about an hour to get there and some of the roads were pretty bumpy and very very close to the edge of the cliff. I was sitting right next to the window which overlooked the drop so after a while I had to start singing worship songs...i'm a bit of a worst case scenario person so all i could picture was the car driving over the edge (which it thankfully didn't). When we got there we were greeted by the village chief and a whole lot of children. We sat through a meeting where they spoke about something which was probably very important and meaningful (in indonesian) and then Ibu Irene (the lady who is co-ordinating our stay while in Flores) asked us to perform the Lifehouse skit...and we were like...are you serious?! We did not bring out speaker so music was automatically out of the question and we had already performed it 4 times in the space of 35 hours so it wasn't exactly our favourite thing to do but we did it, it went as well as it could have gone and then we handed out shoe boxes. On the way home the car which we were riding in developed problems with the back wheel so we all rode on the back of a trailor...which was so cool. Open air, beautiful views, pumping music, shocked faces of locals who realised there were white people riding in the back of a truck and plenty of laughs. So fun.

So there is a little window into outreach in Flores. I hope the length of the blog hasn't killed you!

Off to Lombok tomorrow which is a muslim island so prayer would be appreciated. Don't have a clue what we're going to do there and we're only there for 4 days because of the amount of time it takes to travel there (1 and 1/2 days = 12 hour car ride, 9 hour ride by boat to an island, 6 hour ride by boat to Lombok and rest in between) and then after that we'll be taking the boat to Bali spending about 1 and 1/2 days there and then flying back to Perth to start the Australia part of the outreach! Time is really flying and dragging at the same time! Am loving it here 😊

Hope you're all well and have had a great weekend! Shout out to anyone and everyone I've not wished happy birthday to/congratulations on having a baby/congratulations of getting engaged/congratulations on getting married! Many happy returns and all that jazz 😊

Love and blessings,
Rachel

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