Traveling to Indonesia

Hi ya’ll!

Yes, this is an update! I have SO much to fill you in on… I’ll start from the top.

PRAISE JESUS we got here after a five day journey! When we arrived at the airport in Brisbane Friday night [you know, all the way back in March] we were greeted by Malaysia Air employees informing us that our flight was cancelled and that is actually never even left Malaysia because of engine issues. So, as they took our information and gave us new itineraries, Becaa realized she forgot her passport and tickets on our living room floor! [Thank you Lord for lining that one up!] So they gave us taxi and hotel vouchers and put us up in a horrible little ‘hole-in-wall’ hotel- just kidding! As Kodan put it as we waited in the five star hotel in downtown Brisbane, “Oh we’re the sorry, you’ll have to live in luxury for the night.” [He’s funny.] Man, God really hooked us up… we each got our own rooms with queen-size beds! It was such a nice little gift.

In the morning, the taxis took us back to the airport where we met the Africa team for Becaa’s passport, which worked out so perfect. Then we flew to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. It was a really nice eight hour flight. [p.s. I definitely recommend Malaysia Air.] We arrived in KL pretty late and realized that our departing flight to Medan wasn’t for two days! So we “talked” to the Malaysia Air employees there and finally after about two hours they switched our flight to the next day and gave us more taxi and hotel vouchers! So we were off to downtown KL expecting that ‘hole-in-wall’ hotel and to our delight we stayed in another really nice hotel, The Blue Wave. [Very tourist-friendly!]

Then the culture shock set in… with the call to prayer. One of the five pillars of the Islam faith is praying five times daily. At which times the mosques announce, which is more like singing prayer on a loud speaker so that all the devout Muslims know it’s time to get on their mats and pray towards Mecca. And in case you’re not sure where Mecca is, they have an arrow on the ceiling of each hotel room pointing towards it. Weird. I honestly felt a spiritual heaviness. So I prayed my little butt to sleep. J

In the morning the taxis took us back to the airport, which was about an hour ride, so we got to actually see a bit of Malaysia- gorgeous. Then we boarded our flight to Penang, Malaysia; then another flight to Medan, Indonesia [on the main island of Sumatra]. In Medan we were greeted by friends… well friends of friends of friends. Friends nonetheless! Moulia and Jennie were a HUGE blessing. We were bombarded in the airport by Indonesians, urging and pleading with us to let them give us a ride… so overwhelming [definitely more culture shock]. They love boolays [white people]! Moulia is an employee of Herman, who is Jeremy’s main man in Nias. Herman is the youth pastor at the church we work with. And Jennie is Moulia’s friend. They carted us around Medan, fed us and helped us buy tickets for our little flight to Nias, which wasn’t leaving until Tuesday. So we just chilled out [ha!] in Medan for two nights. Medan is like a tiny New York City with the same amount of pe!
ople!
And the same driving skills, add in motorbikes! Craziness. And I’ve come to find, that is a very good picture for most all of Indonesia.