Graphic Gospel, and Grace

This year our church curriculum is focused on the New Testament.  Earlier in the year we brought the "individual and family" manual to people.  This week as we made our visits, we brought copies of the church picture books, which tell the Bible stories in simple language but with citations of the actual scripture reference below each picture.  We also showed a video from the life of Christ, from our church's excellent collection.  Many, but not all, are available in our language here, and it is touching to see their faces as Jesus speaks bahasa Indonesian, which of course he does.

These books are very special to  us, because this is one way Sister Porter learned bahasa Indonesia.  When we started in 2013, she could barely struggle through one picture.  By the time we got ready to leave, she could read through an entire story and some verses of the Alkitab.

One single sister lives with her extended family.  Although she is the only member of our church, all are Christian, and the nieces and nephews gathered around and took turns reading.

These stories are a powerful tool because illiteracy is common among middle-aged people or those raised in a remote village or island.  Indeed, one of the benefits of the new missionary communication policy is that some of the parents of missionaries do not have access to email, either because of lacking internet or the ability to read.

Last week everyone in our branch leadership was stressed because a great family in the branch had planned a wedding for their son, and had already sent out the invitation.  But it turns out that our branch president could not take time off work to perform the ceremony!  He is going to be a counselor for the upcoming youth conference, and has needed to take time off for that.

So who to perform the ceremony?  When we were in Jakarta, we tried and failed to talk a bishop there into coming over (he is originally from Medan but has not been back).  A counselor in the stake presidency will be a guest, but counselors are not authorized perform marriages.  So our mission president Greg Mackay stepped up and offered to make the trip.  This involved re-working a complicated travel schedule.  We are so grateful that he was willing to come!  His kindness is our grace: "...it is by grace that we are saved, after all we can do."(2 Nephi 25:23)  President Mackay is in the middle of this photo, and his bright red superman cape is hidden in this shot but very real to us.


On Friday, Sister Porter realized that she was coming down with a urinary tract infection, the third since October.  She isn't totally opposed to taking antibiotics if it was a specific drug for the particular infection, but she was disappointed that when she went to the klinik in December, they did not do a culture but simply prescribed a broad-spectrun antibiotic.  Cipro is available without a prescription here, and in a few years the population is going to be at high risk of antibiotic resistance.

So she is using this instead.  There was a pilot study in the U.S. that showed promise and a full-scale clinical trial in England.  The infection seems to have turned the corner.

We are finishing our second week off from teaching English, but did teach an advanced class on Saturday for a few of the Young Single Adults.



Because of the wedding tomorrow, we had record sacrament meeting attendance today of 102.  The bride is also of our faith, and family from Bogor came.  It was fun for them to meet our Young Women, since our girls are rather isolated and don't know the youth on the island of Java.


Two weeks from today, they will be flying directly to Yogjakarta.  Many of their parents have never traveled by plane, so it will be very exciting.


The break-the-fast dinner that we reported on last week was featured prominently on the church newsroom for our country and made the local news:

The reason we are taking a break from teaching English is the Lebaran holiday, when many people travel home to their village.  It is the end of the fasting month and local mosques sang and celebrated with fireworks.