Last Sunday in February

We started the week with a well-attended penghiburan, an event to give comfort to a bereaved family.  This was the same family who lost their mom last week.  About 30 people from the branch came up (at least an hour to the north of the chapel) to sing and give thoughts.

The people at Lotte grocery thought we were crazy to buy three loaves of their kue pisang.  But this tastes a lot like banana bread from home, and now we have a freezer we can get extra.  We couldn't figure out why sometimes they have it but mostly they don't.  Then we found out that they only bake it on Tuesday, so if we are ever in the neighborhood on a Tuesday afternoon, we try to stop by.  This week it came in handy; we were asked to teach Seminary (high-school aged) on Saturday and the teacher usually brings a treat, so we thawed a loaf and brought along New Zealand butter.  

On Tuesday night Sister Porter was crazy trying to prepare the materials for two weeks of English lessons, and Eder Porter went to the park to cheer on the missionaries and YA in their Ultimate Frisbee game.

One of our visits was up in the seaport of Belawan, more than an hour to the north.  We brought along a young missionary to help us teach and also because the elders are bertiga until a new companion arrives this week.  

It was strange driving around the town but couldn't see the sea, being blocked by houses.  Then our driver pointed out a gang, and it did lead down to the water.

While we were in our teaching appointment for an hour, the sea water had intruded and covered the street that had been dry earlier.  Probably due to the wonderful full moon that I had seen that morning when I was up on the roof reading scriptures.

Our weekday English classes were well attended, with 29 adults on Friday night.   We also resumed teaching a class for church members on Sundays after church.  Being the last Sunday in February, the theme was love and hearts in the scriptures.

We also spent more time measuring potential buildings and working on that.

funeral, museum, microphone

Last Sunday morning, we were shocked to learn that a mother of two great kids had died the night before.  Although they hadn't attended recently, we knew them and had taught their kids English for several weeks last summer.  The husband of the deceased sister is blind, so raising his kids will be a challenge for him.  We took a carful of people (including branch president) up to visit on Sunday, and then returned on Monday for the funeral.

Here in North Sumatra, a funeral is a family-oriented event.  They will rent a facility for a wedding, but all the funerals that we have attended have been held in the home.  The body is uncovered and unembalmed, so children are well aware of death and very involved in the ceremony  There was a religious service in the house, then the body was moved into the casket and carried outside.  Canopies had been set up in case of rain.  The widower is singing a hymn on the right and on the left are his two children.  A picture of their mother is at the head of the coffin.  Close family wear the white headbands.  This family is from the island of Nias.

Because we spent most of Monday, our typical Preparation Day, at the funeral, we took some time on Tuesday to (finally) visit the Museum of Northern Sumatera.  It is not open on Monday, so we had delayed a visit for some time.  It was an impressive museum, with lots of signage in both bahasa Indonesia and English.

There was a lot of emphasis on the local culture and the various tribes that are part of the Medan mosaic.  One of the interesting things was a display that talked about each group, and mentioned the prominent family names.  Just about all of our branch members were represented.

Our newest young elder is from Java, but his family name is Siahaan, a well respected Batak name.  All the Batak members who meet him explain how they are related to the Siahaans.

 This totem pole and the accompanying red and black design reminded me so much of the Tlingit Indians of Alaska, who also make totem poles and designs in those colors.  It blows me away how similar themes can occur throughout the globe, bearing witness that we are all children of the same Heavenly Parents.

The last time that we had Sunday School, the teacher's excellent observations were lost because the class is so big that we have to meet in the chapel and sound does not carry well.  So the church office in Jakarta authorized the purchase of a portable sound system.  This one is very lightweight, and comes with both a headset for the teacher and a handheld microphone for class members to use when they comment or read scriptures.  It was passed around today and worked very well. 

We bought it from a shop run by a nice Indian couple who lowered the price a bit.  But when we tested it at home, there was strange feedback and we thought it might have to be returned.  However, that was not a problem today at Sunday School.  Elder Porter thinks maybe the LED lights in our apartment may have caused issues.  

The portable speaker will also serve as a backup for the finicky existing sound system, can be carried to activities (2-hour battery) and plays music (the sound system inputs no longer function).  It will be great for movie nights.

Our branch decided to have a Valentine's Day activity.  You may have noticed, this branch is GREAT at activities.  Sister Sinaga made pork rendang.  This is pretty unusual for Indonesia; Sumatra is one of the few islands where pork is readily available.  

We brought pink and white ice cream, which was a hit.  Also, we are constantly joking about Elder Porter's ice cream consumption in our english classes.  

One of the new converts, who serves in Young Women with me, sang this song, which some may recognize as the theme for the youth this year.  Yes, she sings in English.  She is amazing.

Our English classes have been very well attended.  On Friday we had 23 adults who brought along 11 children. Elder Porter teaches the kids for the first part (we have a room with a wall of windows so parents can see their kids) while Sister Porter focuses on the adults. Each lesson we have a young missionary companionship who helps with taking roll, greeting people, and small group activities if they happen to be a native English speaker. But the Indonesian missionaries like to attend so they can learn as well. Only about a quarter of participants are members of our church.  We have an enthusiastic student with video skills who made this video.

We Gathered Together

This week we enjoyed several opportunities to see people whose company we hadn't enjoyed in a while.  On Sunday, there was a delightful surprise as the teachers from that afterschool program where we taught last fall came to our church.  They had been invited by the mom who would be leaving for Hong Kong on Friday (second from the right).  They ALL came, and were such good sports about participating in the lesson.  It was so good to see them!  President and Sister Mackay had been in town to look at possible new buildings, and they were there as well.

Tuesday was a national holiday for the Lunar New Year, a big deal here with our large Chinese population, both expats and families that have been in Sumatera for generations.  The Remaja Putri (YW) try to grab the days off for activities, but the Relief Society already had an activity planned for Tuesday.  So the RP presiden figured out that if we did a Monday night activity, the kids could sleep in on the holiday.  It took us an hour to hash out the plans, and I even called the presiden back to confirm that we would meet at Lapangan Merdeka (a park) at 6:00.

Well it turned out that no, they were meeting at church, doing some service there, then coming to the park.  I was frustrated at the lack of communication, and even muttered those horrible words, "Maybe we should go home."

But we were at this great park, and people were coming up and talking to us, including helping an English student with a required interview with a bule.  The weather was perfect.  We think we might go back there again, when we have time in late afternoon such as with cancellations.

And eventually our group did show up, and had a sweet family home evening lesson followed by games and dinner.

The next afternoon, the Relief Society met at the home of Sister Lisbet.  I brought the young sister missionaries, and showed up at the advertised time.  It was an hour before anyone else came.  A lot of men came along because that is how the sisters could be transported, by motorcycle or becak driven by her brother or husband.  The theme was speaking good words, and we played a game saying good things about people, including our branch president, who was celebrating his 26th birthday as well.  We had excellent fried rice for makan malam.  Sister Sinaga is an amazing cook.

Keeping the building operating in good function is another part of our job.  Elder Porter had been patching the doorway into the Primary room, thinking that there were no longer active termites on the site.  And there were not, on either side.  But when he explored above the doorway, they came out and started crawling.:(

He reported it to the church office in Jakarta and they assisted with the patching effort.

We are also looking at portable speakers with  a microphone to use during Sunday School.  We used to have Gospel Doctrine in the Relief Society room, but now that Gospel Essentials is also combined, we have to meet in the chapel, where teachers struggle to carry sound to the back of the room.  The portable speakers can also serve as a backup to the big sound system, and can be used for special occasions and programs.

Our English classes continue to be well-attended.  We have tried to format the classes with challenging stuff at the end and include grammar and reading from the TOEFL exam, etc.  It takes a lot of preparation.

Some people are bringing their children as well, and Elder Porter takes them off into the Relief Society Room to teach from the lessons we had prepared and used before.

One of our enthusiastic students made this banner and wants to print it into a big canvas sign to hang in front of the church.  It looks great but we don't know how many new students we can handle.  Although some of the students are also coming to church on Sunday, so a good thing altogether.

Finally, we ended the week with news that Elder Putra (far left) and Elder Miller (tallest) would be leaving us on Tuesday.  Don't know where they are headed yet, but the congregation there will be blessed. 

Well, we left out a lot of ministering visits and medical appointments and other things, but those were the highlights for this week.   This video was a thank-you from children of new converts, who were glad to get paper copies of these out-of-print books for bedtime reading.

Forest People and Giant Ants

On Monday, we finally made the trip out to Gunung Leuser National Park to see the orangutans and monkeys and birds and butterflies and ants.  We had been wanting to do this for some time, but couldn't figure out the details of how to do it.  We are not sure that we can take our mission car out on fun outings, so we had to rent a car and driver.  We ended up calling a driver who had driven us in town before, and given us his card. Also, there doesn't seem to be any official information from the park, and we knew a guide was required but not really how to go about hiring one so there was some confusion.

It is about 3 hours away, longer than the distance should take because some of the roads are pretty bouncy and bad. We were picked up at 6:30 a.m. and went to pick up a sister in the branch who was interested--she has lived in Medan for decades but her family is not interested in hiking or picnicking.  Then we picked up two of the young missionaries.  They had gotten up early to email their families before leaving.

Bridge over the river.

When we neared Bukit Lawang, the town that is the gateway to the park, some guys on a motorcycle pulled us over and directed us to their office.  It turned out that they were licensed guides.  The amount they charged was shocking to our Indonesian friends, but they always charge more for bules and they did cut a deal for the two Indonesians.  Fortunately, we had brought enough.

They took us to see some orangutans over a path that was not too unreasonable.  It had rained the day before and was slick in places, but we started at 11 a.m. and were back by about 2 p.m.

Elder Porter was kind enough to let Sister Porter use the trekking poles, because she does not have depth perception.

One of the unexpected pleasures of the trip was the insect life.  There were a variety of butterflies all through the park.

But the biggest thrill for Elder Porter was seeing live Dinomyrmex (Camponotus) gigas ants.  These are among the largest ants in the world.  The little giant in this picture is 3/4" long.  We never did see one of the majors, which have a bigger head and are about 3 times heavier.
We had seen them in museums but never in real life, and the guides were amused at how excited we were.

The park used to have a platform where they fed orangutans twice a day.  That was discontinued about two years ago as the apes have thrived and learned survival skills, and park funding has changed.  Some of them were given names by the park rangers, and our guides were knowledgeable about where we might find them.  Our guides worked in tandem, one scouting out ahead while the other lead us along the established path.

We were able to find two mother orangutans with their babies.  One baby was about 3 years old and liked swinging around in the branches near its mother.   The other baby was only 5 months old and spent most of its time holding on to its mother's hair and peeking out at us.

In bahasa Indonesia, “orang” means person and “hutan” is forest, so these are forest people.  And they do act so much like people that it is not surprising that there is a 97% overlap with human genes.

On our way back, we stopped for a break and the guides cut up several kinds of fresh fruit for us to eat.

There are also six species of monkeys in the park.  We saw one up in the trees and another species that looked like punk rockers.

After we returned to the car, we ate a picnic lunch.  Sister Porter had packed a cooked chicken legs and rice and rolls and apples. Our friend from church brought a nice cake.  We ate quickly on the porch of the guide's office and then headed home.

Our driver had not come on the trek, and was apparently rested and got us back safely although the late-afternoon traffic made us a bit later than we intended.  Our friend from church took a becak the rest of the way to her home.

On the way back, reality hit.  Our branch president informed us that a family in the branch was in need of a food order.  So that is how we spent the evening.

We had a busy week with various visits and English lessons.  On Saturday, our mission president and his wife arrived to look at possible buildings for the new church building.