TGI FRIDAY (WRITTEN ON SUNDAY!)

Selemat siang (Good afternoon) and Selemat hari minggu (Happy Sunday)

Watched the Germany v Serbia match. Countries represented in the room - Germany, England, Cameroon, Switzerland, Korea, Serbia and Indonesia so the next stages should be interesting!
Went to the Mall on Saturday and managed to get there and back on our own with our limited Indonesian. As you walk along the road people wave from their cars and motorbikes and the few that know a word or two of English shout "Hello Mister" for men AND women! I asked my group of students why Mister and they said it was because some people are stupid and they (my students)know that of course I am Ibu Sue, which means Madam, which means I am a proper lady!
People think we are a novelty not only because of our colour but also because we have a different faith, but as a robed lady we shared an ankoht with the other day said (Biddy translated), better a different faith than none at all. She couldn't understand how anyone could live without a faith - she said "What would happen to them when they die?" So - lots of areas for discussion.
We bought our students some highlighters (12 for the equivalent of 4 pounds)as we felt they would be useful to identify key words, but they can't afford to buy them as they have such a small amount of money to live on. Their parents (and often their older siblings) struggle to put the money together to send them here for 3 years and if they fail even one exam there is no money for them to come back, so there are now second chsnces. We got a real sense of how poor some people are when we walked back from the Mall. As we went over a bridge we could see down the river where there are little wooden shacks housing whole families. One lady was washing clothes in the river and hanging them on a line. The river is filthy and so therefore were the clothes.It makes us appreciate just how fortunate we are.
Went to Biddy's place of worship today - Ebenezer Evangelis. It was a service of Harvest Festival - yes really - in June! It was thanksgiving for the harvest of dry rice which is grown on the hillsides, and not in the wet paddy fields. They need dry weather for clearing the forest (otherwise danger from landslides) and then wet weather for planting the rice, so timing is important. There was also an adult baptism and communion, so rather a long service (with the usual three collections!) which lasted for 2 hours! (On hard pews!). Still, didn't have to tidy up and lock up, so not all bad!

PLEASE PRAY FOR -
Our students - they have to lead Thought for the Day this week and are really worried about it.
Us - that we can give them some ideas and support them.
Tri Septi - one of the girls in my group - she asked me to pray for her father's health as he was very old. When I asked her she said he was 60. When I told her that was not old she said it was in Indonesia. Please pray for her in particular and the families of all the students who are working so hard to give their children a future.
Love and blessings
Sue and Stan xxx