Let the children come

Two days have passed since my last report.  There is less “news” now, since we are just getting on with our jobs, with attending the meetings and with cuddling as many children as possible.  If there is a Guinness Book World Record for that, you could easily come and beat it here. 

I wonder what it will be like for the children when we are gone, especially for our sponsor children: will they miss us?  I think they will, because they take every opportunity to grab our hand and walk with us or sit with us.

It seems unbelievable that we have only been here 6 days now – it feels longer, probably because we have really settled in by now, which is not difficult, since everyone is very friendly.

The mosquitoes seem to like me as well: I’ve had numerous visits already. It’s nice when you feel welcome in a foreign country.

We were told that they only come out after 4pm, so I didn’t bother putting mosquito repellent on during work the previous days, but most of us still have our watches on English time, which must be very confusing for those poor little creatures.

Yesterday, I was back at my painting job, whilst Jaap and Bernard did some plumbing work.  At some point, I thought I heard people talking, but after a while I realised that it was a huge bumble bee (it sounded more like a mumble bee), hovering above my head for some time, probably wondering what this strange tall white man with that ridiculous hat and a handkerchief in his neck was doing.  The fact that I had some black stripes on my face didn’t seem to scare him/her off.

Today, I helped Jaap with the plumbing job until Bernard came and joined him. It was really hot today, especially when I was sitting on a tin roof, in the afternoon sun, finishing off a small painting job from yesterday. 

It was unbearable – luckily it only took me 10 minutes.  We have been told to pace ourselves and not to overdo, because the climate does wear you out, if you’re not careful.  That’s why we only work until 4pm.

Our daily (including Saturday) routine is:

• 5.00am: getting up
• 5.30am – 6.00am: prayer meeting (apart from Sundays)
• 6.30am: breakfast
• 7.30am: work starts
• 12.00: lunch
• 1.15pm: work starts again
• 4.00pm: work finishes
• 5.45pm: dinner
• 7pm-8pm: church meeting (only on Tuesday and Thursday)
• +/- 9.30pm: bed time

After work today, at 4pm, I went swimming again with Chris and Jaap came along as well. Yesterday, we had missed the Hallelujah Train (that’s what it looks and feels like) by a few minutes since we were back late from work.  The children are sometimes waiting from 2.30pm for Chris and his truck, so he really can’t afford to wait for anyone who isn’t in time. 

They often ask him in the morning already: “Swimming?”  They don’t really get a chance to go swimming when he’s not here, as everyone’s very busy and they can’t go unsupervised, in case the river is too wild or there are snakes or a storm comes up (a lot of children get killed by lightning in Indonesia, whilst swimming in a river).  Chris is always pleased if he gets some extra people for supervision, because then he can take more children.  So I didn’t want to miss it tonight.

This time it seemed to be for girls only (although a few boys came along as well), so I thought it would be much quieter, but those girls are just as demanding as the boys!  You do cool off after a day’s work in the hot weather, but you don’t get a rest after work this way…

Today we had chips for lunch again (with rice) and there were plenty.  On top of that, one of the Dutch girls has brought her own mayonnaise from Holland, so we had a real chips festival!  It almost felt like being in Belgium, although they were Indonesian French fries with Dutch mayonnaise…

The dentist who has arrived on Sunday evening told us about her first visit to LWV.  She was only allowed 20 kgs of luggage, but she had so much equipment with her that she had 80 kgs with her.  She had to pass 5 borders and not once was there a problem!  At one instance, a guard wanted to go through all her luggage, but suddenly he changed his mind completely unexpectedly, as if someone had turned a switch in his brain…

She came for a month last year and did a full check-up on 360 children plus managed to do 3,500 operations, working from 6.30am until 10.30pm, six and a half days a week.  She had a frozen shoulder for several months afterwards, but she didn’t care.

We just had our Tuesday night church meeting and it was fantastic again. From the first chords of music, you could feel the presence of God very tangibly! But then how could God not smile down on 400 children (some without an earthly father) dancing and praising their heavenly Father? 

Jesus said: “Let the children come” and that is certainly what Ronny and his people do.  

After some beautiful worship songs, a choir of cute little children sang and danced and then 2 little girls sang a song. The sermon was in English this time (with translation in Indonesian), because Chris Tapp preached and he did a great job.  He talked about what sin is and how Jesus loves everyone and came to save us from sin, and at the end he did an altar call, to which 15 or 20 children responded.

What a perfect way to end the day!

To be continued…

Love from all of us at LWV