Life Update
Right when my friend and I landed in Batam, Indonesia, we were greeted by our contact and hurried to a mall where the school our contact works at was putting on a graduation show for anyone who wanted to watch. The families of the kids were seated in chairs and onlookers were standing along the outside. We were directed to the very front of the seating area where only the principal and her family was sitting. Suddenly all cameras were pointed to us instead of the concert and most eyes were diverted to us. We, a couple of white guys, had stolen the spotlight.
I’ve been here for over a week and I’m still not used to random strangers coming up and wanting to take pictures with me like I’m famous or teachers at the school coming up to me and asking if I’m married yet. In Africa people look at you like you’re different. Here, people look at you like you’re famous. I’m still not sure which one I prefer.
The good part is that we are meeting lots of people and everyone we meet is very friendly. We are getting by with speaking English but are also trying to learn as much Indonesian as possible. Although, that is a lot harder than anticipated because of the lack of internet in our house. Overall, living in Batam is very different and I’m still getting used to it.
Work Update
Our job here is all about going with the flow because people don’t really tell us what we are going to do until the day before or even that same day. Like at the beginning of this week, we were told that we should prepare a Bible story for class. But when we arrived at school and went inside the classroom, we were greeted by the whole school of about 200+ kids. From there, we had to tell a story, teach them songs, and play games with them for 3 hours. Everything we did that first day was improvised. We’ve done the same thing for this whole week but now that we know what to expect it’s a lot easier. Other than that, we expect that we will be preaching and leading youth groups most weekends. So far, it’s been tiring but also a lot of fun.
Special Requests
- To adjust well to life here
- To continue to meet people
- To use our stories to influence and help children and adults alike