Living Waters

Another two days have passed since my last report, which is unbelievable. Time seems to go much faster suddenly, now that we’re over halfway our time here.

Yesterday, we were all doing our usual jobs: Jaap, Bernard and I were painting, Tom was helping Chris with the electricity, and Ingrid, Ruth and Gisella were entertaining the children who are not going to school (because they haven’t been here for a year yet) or who are in primary school.  The day we arrived, the school closed for holidays and unfortunately they won’t re-open until we’re away again, so we won’t be able to see the school in action.  They only have primary school up to grade 4, but it moves up every year.  The older primary school children and the Junior High School children go to Manggala (a village 2 miles away) and the Senior High School children go to Nanga Pinoh – I think they leave at 5.45am.

There was a bit of delay to start work in the morning, since the children discovered a snake, which caused a lot of excitement.  I was a bit suspicious about lunch later on...

After work I was sitting next to our sponsor child Beno and one of his friends, who speaks English, asked me about a scar on my leg.  I told him that I had been bitten by a lion, so he got all excited and told Beno.  You should have seen his big eyes looking up at me!  For a moment, I must have been his hero.  I starting laughing immediately though and told them that it was a joke and that there were no lions in England. Beno’s friend asked: “Kangooroo?” I said no.  He asked: “Cheetah?” I said “No, only pigs and sheep”.

The children are also fascinated by Tom’s beard, because the Indonesians don’t have hairgrow like that, so they all want to feel it. We went swimming again, which was the usual fun.  It’s not good for your heart though, when you’re at the back of the truck and Chris accelerates on a “better” part of the road, causing all the children to start cheering and throw both hands in the air while we’re going downhill – even the ones that are sitting on the sideboards of the truck, with one leg out and one leg in!...

You won’t believe the cars we have been transported in here on the site – sometimes you have to hang on for dear life, once you’ve managed to climb or crawl in (some of them are definitely not made for tall people).  One of them has a plastic chair (like the ones you use in your garden) that’s more of less fixed to the floor, as the passenger seat next to the driver.

When we came back from swimming, Ronny had just arrived back from a week in Kuching, with his car full (which means a full load in the car and a full load on the roof).  It’s great to see how the children come out to greet him and to help him unload the car.

After dinner, I noticed at some point that he took a broom and dustpan and swept something from the floor and I remembered him saying a few months ago that the staff (including himself) are on the rotas just like the children, because they need to give the example.

Later on, Jaap, Ingrid, Ruth, Bernard and I were sitting in the common room, when he came in and sat with us for two hours, which was lovely, when you consider that he hadn’t seen his family for a week and still took time out for us. He promised to come to our church when he’s doing a tour in the UK next year.

We talked about the problems he has with the government and the border officials - he used to bring materials per truck from Kuching, but now he can’t get a truck like that across the border anymore, so everything has to be brought by car – remember it’s a day each way!  He also said that when he goes around preaching he notices how fired up for God the youth is and how big business people are pumping a lot of money in the spreading of the Gospel, so the Church definitely has a future, but God’s Word mustn’t be compromised as it happens in a lot of places.  He certainly doesn’t compromise, because he will never accept any government money here (they offered to help pay for the school and for the hospital, but he doesn’t want to be dependent on them) or any other money with strings attached – even some well-known Christian organisations have offered to support him, with tens of thousands of Euros, on the condition that he doesn’t evangelise to the children anymore or teach them to evangelise, so he has told them that they can keep their money because God will provide anyway!

This morning, after the prayer meeting, he set the record straight for several things which he wanted to be changed and he organised a huge clean up. The place was buzzing. All the children needed to do their chores and help cleaning and clearing up rubbish before they could have their morning activity.  The whole Training Centre has been cleaned and also the kitchen.

Ingrid and Ruth were appointed to lead the cleaning and Jaap was the overseer.  At one point, there was a lot of screaming in the kitchen, because they found a living rat, which the children killed. If you thought of coming over here, don’t let it put you off, because it’s dead now... 

Tom helped with the electricity as usual and Ronny asked Bernard and I to do a few smaller jobs, like repairing a cupboard door.  Gisella, who is a retired dentist, has helped the dentist today – she absolutely loved it and the dentist says that she has been brilliant (scaling, pulling teeth, etc.) and that she’s a real blessing. If she could, Gisella would probably stay longer, but that will be difficult.

There’s a little girl, called Tina, who has only been here a few weeks. When she got here, she was very wild and agressive and looked like a boy, what caused her to be teased quite a bit – the first day we were here, she was crying, because two boys had put here in a dustbin...  She looked quite sad in the beginning, but Ruth spent a lot of time with her and I started to make a fuss of her as well and now she always comes up to me and when I ask her: “Happy?” and show her a smile, she smiles.  She doesn’t speak English and even no Indonesian, which is another reason why she gets teased a lot.  I really feel for her. The staff want to make sure that she grows her hair and they dress her more girly.

Another girl was brought here by her father, because his wife had died and he couldn’t take care of her anymore.  Sometimes he would walk for miles to bring her some sweets and finally he got a job here on the site.  Now you can sometimes see him in the evening, reading his Bible under the light...

Jan-Willem and Marlinda, the Dutch couple who were in Kuching renewing their visas when we arrived there last week, also have come back to LWV now and Marlinda told me today how you get to realise, when you’re a house parent, that every child has a story and most of them have experienced terrible things.  Sometimes they lie under their bed, with a blanket over their head, scared, and she has to try and comfort them.  One of “their” children is the 5 year old girl who is on the DVD and who was an alcoholic.

It reminds me of what Chris preached on Tuesday night – he said: “Jesus loves you and no-one can touch you, no matter what the witch doctor has said”! 

These little lives are so precious! It’s wonderful how they have been rescued out of the darkness into the light, into the Living Waters of Jesus Christ!

Chris took the girls swimming again tonight and Jaap and I went along once more, but after 5 minutes we had to get out of the water, as it started thundering and raining.  When we were under the trees, big branches were falling off around us, which was a bit scary.  It can really rain incredibly heavily here (after all, we are in Living Waters Village!), but it feels lovely.  By the time we were back, we were all soaking wet. And guess who was having a mud fight outside in the rain at the Training Center? Tom and Bethany! They were really having a go at it and the children loved it.

The meeting tonight was lovely again.  A young couple, who are doctors, are leaving after having worked in the Medical Center for a month, and they did a role play with some children to remind them of essential healthcare tips, interwoven with verses in the Bible.  Afterwards we watched a lovely and very challenging short DVD about evangelism and we prayed for Indonesia.

And so it’s almost bedtime again, at least for us.

Have a nice day.

See you soon now...