Driving at night, waiting, and ministry.
The most exciting time of the day for me was doing ministry to a group of young people who are among the poor of the city. They call the ministry “social” and the program is YDP
(youth development program). They train them in leadership, english and Christ. They wanted me to give a leadership challenge to them, so I prepared a 15 minute lesson so after translation it took 30. These kids don’t have the ability to learn english where they live, so they use translation for this group. The night before we saw one of the young men begging on the streets and now got to pour into them the leadership.
- To watch them worship was cool. They were so genuine and many of them very moved. At the end of the night we were told they often resist going home because of the love and safety of this ministry in their lives.
Timing is not everything here.
We discovered that 9:30 am might just mean sometime in the morning. That money is seen as valuable, but not time. Time is more of an estimate. One person expressed that with traffic you plan to do one thing a day when in America we might try and do 10. So it takes planning to have things to do when you are waiting for people. A whole new adventure of multitasking. Or you could just learn to relax. Which do you think I do, or even more so Dana? Yup…bring something to do!!
The driving at night I wish I could explain. 
I tried to get a good picture, but to see a family with a baby in a sling on the back of these bikes is unreal. Here is a very blurry pic of the family. The baby was on the back of her, but as they pulled into a parking spot she swung the baby around to her side before leaping off. CRAZY
The bikes and cars travel like a school of fish. They zig and zag and there really are no rules per say. Just don’t hit each other and that bikes have the right of way. You change lanes slowly so the bikes or other cars can swerve to miss you. You have to be aggressive and get where you need to go. The lines on a road mean absolutely nothing! Nor are there speed limit signs anywhere. You just move with traffic and there is always traffic. There are speed bumps on streets which are more like speed mountains that help you to not get up to any too extreme of a speed. Funny thing is they drive crazy fast and lock their brakes for the speed bumps, then it’s off to the races again after you lump over them.
The kids are still way tired, and so are we a bit.
They are waking up at 2, 3, or 4 am and we are getting them back to sleep just to wake up again at 5:30. Eventually we will get used to the time change…maybe just in time to head home.
While I don’t have a good pic of Lizzy (the lizard in the air vent downstairs) yet, I do have a good pic of the reaction every time she comes out for a visit!
This is Jenna….she doesn’t like Lizzy! Enjoy.
Today we venture out to the store and to do ministry to kids in a graveyard. We are crazy excited to get our hands involved in ministry and to see what normality looks like in the outer spaces of this city. Watch for pics on Instagram (Thad’s or Dana’s) and Facebook or await the post tomorrow about our experience today. Tomorrow’s post might be a bit later due to Sunday being very packed full of ministry. Or I may have time tonight to get this updated.
Thanks for your prayers! #indo13
