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.