Back to Jakarta

This past weekend we were back in Jakarta for MAF management meetings. No we are not management but since Jakarta is so close to Bandung, all the language students were invited to go to the meetings for 3 days. What a great time of meeting old friends from Papua. Janna and I are so absolutely excited to get out there. But we have about 3 more months to go before that is a realization.

One great thing that we heard during this meeting was where we will be living. That is exciting for us to hear and now we both can not stop thinking about the house and what we need before we move there. As MAF career staff we must outfit the entire house ourselves. So this is going to be expensive and difficult as you can not buy many things in Papua, so now we must decide whether to buy here and ship or wait and just see what we get.

Janna and I continue to learn language and interact with the people here. God continues to lead and we continue to seek Him in our lives. During the meetings this past weekend a pastor from the states came and spoke to us about John 1 - 2. John knew who he was and who he was not, and he did the work that God wanted no matter what. He also was so close to the work of God that he could recognize where Jesus was. Amazing. If only we could be like that.

Yoyjakarta

A city located in Central Java Yoyjakarta is a city that is close to one of the seven wonders of the world in the Buddist temple Borobudur. Jason Pratt, a friend of mine, and I traveled some 8 hours by motorbike to get the city so that we could go to the temple. What an amazing sight!! Built in 750 AD the temple is absolutly huge. The temple has 10 levels: 1 - 7 are about the worldly life and what you should not do. What happens is that people come and walk clockwise around the temple looking at the carvings in the rock. The first 7 levels are about worldly life and how to overcome the worldly. The next three levels are about how to reach nirvana. Very interesting. We also learned about the beginning of Buddism and Karma.

Close to the city is also the tallest Temple in Indonesia. Borobudur is the largest and Prambanan is the tallest. This temple however was built about 100 years after Borobudur and has recently been damaged from the earthquake 27 May 2006. So we were not allowed to enter the temple due to reconstruction.

We then traveled the 8 hours home and the last 2 hours were in the rain. Great fun on the motorbike! Hopefully soon you can see pictures on our website of the temples.