And at Last, Lombak!

For the longest time, I had no clue where or what Lombak was. I think I even told the majority of my friends and family that we were going to ‘Mumba’ because I misheard it when my leaders told us! So to begin, here’s a bit about Lombak because I don’t expect you to have ever heard of it before either. Lombak is one of 17,000 islands of Indonesia. Its a small isle just 70 km wide and has been left quite untouched by the influences of the rest of the world. It has a population of 3.1 million, the most of which are Muslim and the majority of the island’s residents live on less than a dollar a day. The kids love flying homemade kites on the streets and the adults are grotesquely obsessed with chicken fights. You don’t know spicy the way they do and their hot dogs are actually made out of dog. This obscure island went from non-existent in my head to crucially important to my heart in just two short weeks.

We arrived worn out, exhausted, and not keen to give up the air conditioning we were spoiled with in Bali for the 40 degree humid temps this island had to offer. In this last leg of our outreach journey our leaders encouraged us to push through and give it our all for the final stretch running our race with endurance. And we did just that! Fully relying on Jesus to provide us with the strength and energy we ourselves did not possess. Staying in an orphanage meant minimal comforts (back to the bucket showers!) and little rest being constantly surrounded by kiddos who were unphased by the heat and seemed to have very late bedtimes. However, trials oddly often end up doubling as our greatest joys! And in this case, that’s exactly what happened!

Denny and Lia the couple that ran the orphanage exemplified Christ possibly more than anyone I’d ever met before. They loved the children as their own and were the walking definitions of servant-hearted people. Many of their kids came to them out of poverty and went on to receive university educations! It was a blessing to do life with the children and share things God had been teaching us (as well as play their hilarious card games and save the new born puppies from their crazy antics). Denny and Lia arranged for us to teach English at a local Christian school where we put to practice all our English skills to the full! We also got the unique opportunity to teach at a remote Muslim village building partnerships for the Gospel to be brought to them for the very first time.

For some reason, Indonesians seem to quite enjoy watching us foreigners dance! We were invited to do the program for a youth group and ended up being pulled to the front to dance for everyone! A pretty rockin’ time to say the least! The next morning we were invited to the same church for Sunday service where we were asked to join the choir (who also danced) in front of the mega church singing songs in Bahasa!  That same night we were impromptu asked to put on an entire evening service with less than half an hour to plan! And it went off without a hitch! Not because we are phenomenal planners, but because we placed our trust in the One whose always got our back!

On our last week of outreach, Ben + Ali called a team meeting where they announced that our outreach would end with us travelling with a certain renowned Pastor Lalu to villages in Northern Lombak…without them! They asked Dan and I to take on leading the team  and gave us a short debrief before we headed on our way. Unfortunately, Pastor Lalu spoke no english! Luckily, Grace, a young girl from the orphanage came with us as a translator and greatly helped in the communication department (however some hilarious miscommunications were inevitable). From crazy drives and Lalu’s early morning “runs” to Dan throwing up on the side of the road and me getting nearly electrocuted, our time with Pastor Lalu was an adventure to say the least! He certainly had interesting tactics, but Pastor Lalu certainly knew how to get things done! We went from home to home praying for the sick, massaging the sore, and helping Lalu with his intriguing medical ministries as well as sampling some Lombak specialties along the way. We shared testimonies and sang acapella as a team to a sweet and welcoming little house church to end our very last ministry! Our time with Lalu was a baton passing in a way as we went from students under our leaders care to missionaries exploring new territories making it the perfect last sprint to end outreach strong. Terimikasih Papa for being with us every step of this unforgettable journey!!