UKR stands for "Untuk Kekuatan Remaja," or "For the Strength of Youth." It is an Indonesian-mission-wide youth conference. (It's not just the country; there are three recently baptized young people from Timor Leste who will also be in attendance.)
This past January, the first time during the year that the Young Women met, Sister Porter had to teach the lesson without any warning. The family of the YW president simply did not show up. Perhaps there was rain and their house flooded? Anyway, although Sister Porter did not have an advance plan, only three YW attended, and she used the opportunity to tell them about the youth conference that would be coming up in June. We went downstairs and looked at the pop-up poster, we consulted at the map to see where it is being held (on the island of Java between Semarang and Solo), and we talked about the theme for the year and played them the video with the theme song.
It has been great to have a goal to prepare for; the youth have taken it seriously and have focused on spiritual goals during several activities, and we read from For the Strength of Youth every week.
The cost is being handled by the Area, based in Hong Kong. The instructions in January were clear that we could invite less-active or even non-member youth who have been attending regularly. Our branch is one of the smallest and most remote in Indonesia, but we sent 19 young people.
There was some last-minute angst. The young sister who had surgery 10 days ago was well enough to travel. Some of the youth are still in school and the conference provided excuse letters for the week. But those weren't available until Wednesday, and on Thursday we had to take some out to a family an hour away. However, our tire was flat, and so it took a while to make repairs.
On Wednesday, it rained horribly and only two people came to English class. Rather than teach the next lesson in the series, we taught a back-up lesson, which happens to be about weather, very appropriate. We did not go to the park to watch the young adults play Ultimate Frisbee; we felt fortunate to be able to make it home safely. In the picture, we were inching along our street in 6-8 inches of water to our apartment, which is on the left. The columns in front of the foyer form a W shape, for "Wahid Residence."
Today is the day for the youth to leave for UKR! Our branch president is going as a conference counselor (the male counselors have to be returned missionaries). He is 26 years old and single, but he is very wise.
The flight was scheduled for Sunday at 11:00; the airport is a solid hour away. He invited them all to come and spend the night before, young men and young women sleeping in different rooms. A married couple (whose three teens are all going) spent the night as chaperones. It isn't a hardship to sleep on a tile floor with only a woven plastic rug, because many of them sleep on concrete every night.
We are so excited for them! They are the future of church leadership in Indonesia. One of our children had her heart touched, and made life-long friends, through attending an Especially for Youth Program, so we know what a profound experience this can be.
People started arriving in the afternoon. There was an enthusiastic ping-pong game going on while Institute was meeting off in a side room. But then there was a Relief Society activity at 6 p.m., so they had to put the table away while the sisters used the large room.
Later they practiced their dance & song for the talent show. People washed hair, took photos, played music and generally hung out. There was a formal meeting around 9:30 p.m. Everyone was in a circle and the Spirit was strong as final plans were discussed.
After the meeting was over, some started to settle for the night, while others were still eating. We were glad to see that someone had actually used the wooden chair-protector that Elder Porter had made some months before for the rice cooker.
We were up late signing notes and assembling all the bags that we had prepared for the youth who were going. They included snacks for the trip, including hard candy for the take-off and landing. Also colored pencils for marking scriptures, and the girls got burgundy hair scrunchees. At the time, I had also bought a purple hair tie in the same pattern, and gave that to the YW president. Since she also has a daughter who got one of the red ones, it will save confusion around their house in the future. (A reflection on the financial status of these girls: One gave her bag to her little niece, while another let her mom pick out some treats.)
We arrived back at church by 6:45 a.m., and the branch president decided to start the sacrament meeting a bit early because everyone was dressed and ready. It was very impressive that there were two young men who could bless the sacrament, another who played piano. It was a short meeting and then they changed clothes for travel.
The night before, we had a solid plan of who went in what car. But somehow it all fell apart. In the end, our car had only two young women, four parents, a niece and me and the driver. And I wasn't quite sure that we'd gotten all the youth on the way.
I was going directly and we arrived first. The rest were taking a Grab car only to the nearby shopping mall, where they could pick up a direct bus to the airport.
Elder Porter stayed back at the church to conduct the main sacrament meeting. We had 31 at the special early-morning meeting and 43 at the usual time, so a pretty good turnout over all. We got two new missionaries this week, so they spoke. There was a confirmation, and the Relief Society President and Executive Secretary spoke so it was a full meeting for those in attendance.
Since I have been to the Medan airport many times, I know my way around and could warn people about the initial security scanner just to enter the airport, and then show them over to the Citilink desk. We found a place to put all our luggage, which was a lot because we had packed luggage for the originally assigned youth. I directed them to the rest room. None of the youth had flown before; most of their parents had not, and so I took one mom on a little tour, showing where they would arrive next Saturday.
It took a while to check all the luggage. The parents and I walked the group over to Security, stopping to take this picture. At the last minute, our branch president said to wait, grabbed my phone, and had me step into the picture (upper right). After we dropped them off, I showed the parents where we could watch them going down the escalator after clearing security.
These are our girls going down the escalator. The one carrying a big bear is the one who just had surgery. The one in the back looking at paperwork is the female counselor.
Probably at least one is looking at her phone, but they have to surrender the phones at the conference. It is a device-free zone, although they promise to have lots of photographers.
Below is a video of the youth practicing their "Tor Tor" dance, traditional of the Batak tribe. (Remember, if you don't see the video, you may need to click on the title of the post at the top of the email.)
P.S. We heard that the plane has landed and they are on a bus to the conference site!
She is from the Batak tribe, and taught us how to make one of their traditional fish dishes, for which they are famous. Including using the torch ginger flower plant that I haven't quite figured out how to cook.
After that incredible meal, we returned to church where Elder and Sister Porter gave an English lesson, attended a baptism, and then sat to wait for the youth to return. They were supposed to arrive at 7:30 p.m. and it was after 9:30 p.m. before the first car pulled up. We arranged for rides home for several of the youth, and our driver took his own children home before returning our car to the apartment and going home on his motorcycle.
