Adventure Time with Keri!

Sunday, May 05, 2013

Happy Voting Day to Malaysia! I hope and pray the right party will be chosen!! Malaysia BOLEH!!

It has been a whirlwind of fun these past few weeks and I’ll try my best to detail everything. Unfortunately I was busy and exhausted most of the time and didn’t have much time to document everything, but I will persevere!! 

For those of you that didn't catch on, I was in Tomohon/Tompaso, Indonesia (North Sulawesi Island) for 10 days on a mission trip with Quiet Hour Ministries.  

Friday

The night before I left for Indonesia, I barely got any sleep. Why, you ask? Mainly because I had a hard time sleeping early (since I was used to sleeping whenever), and so I finally fell asleep around 1am and had to wake up at 3:30am. I left the hotel at 4:30am and was astounded by so many ppl at airport so early in the morning. My flight to Jakarta was uneventful although it was weird flying to another time zone and then flying back to the same time zone. It’s confusing, I know. I grabbed the free shuttle to the other terminal which took forever and a day and then waited in the airport for a long time b/c my flight was delayed. The whole time I was texting Bryan who was at Makassar airport with Arody. They were supposed to arrive an hour before me but their flight was delayed as well. We all eventually departed and I ended up arriving at the Manado airport 10 mins before them. I was about to sneak up on Arody (he still didn’t know I was coming on the trip) but just as I was about to pounce on him, he spun around and headed for the bathroom and didn’t even see me! Bryan and I had a good laugh while we reunited and waited for Arody to come back out. We finally saw him coming back and half way back to where we were, it finally registered  to Arody that I was standing there. He stopped in his tracks and looked around, looked back at me, looked around again, looked back at me with a stupefied and confused look. Hahahahaha! I couldn’t contain my excitement so I ran up to him and threw my arms around him. He was so surprised b/c he hadn’t the slightest clue I was going to be there. While we were getting their bags a random taxi driver came up to us with sign that said “MAU KERI.” I was like…ummm…that’s me. We were all confused b/c we didn’t know who was picking us up or how we were being picked up. It turned out to be the Union President and his wife were waiting there and he was only expecting me, not the boys, but we made it work. We drove the long, winding, narrow road up the mountain and I was feeling slightly ill because of that plus I was exhausted from lack of sleep PLUS I don’t do well with altitude changes (going up, that is). After about an hr and a half we arrived at a nice Catholic compound (more on that later) where we are staying just as everyone was leaving for their sites (8-9 sites).  After we dumped our stuff in our rooms and changed we jumped in a car with Mr. Nathan who was preaching at one of the churches. It was another long drive and I was still exhausted and slightly dizzy from the previous drive. Since I had nothing better to do, I helped the boys out with their equipment (I’m used to this now =.=). It was late by the time the program was finished (due to the fact that they LOVE to sing) but we still had dinner to eat! We ate awesome food and got to talk with some of the members. Arody was a hit with the kids per usual.  It was super late when we got back and we were all trying to figure things out when we got back. 

Back to where we were staying. I don't know if you've ever gone on any mission trips, but lodging usually isn't a 5-star hotel (and if it is, we have a problem and you need to reevaluate whether you're actually on a mission trip or not). Anyway, we were staying on a Catholic high school academy (oh the irony!!) compound, SMA Lokon, right in front of an active volcano! We each had rooms at their guesthouse, which was really nice, and I ended up getting my own room (woot!!). There was even hot water!! You have no idea how happy I was! Hahaha. Anyway, it was a beautiful campus and we were blessed to be able to stay there.

Sabbath

In the morning I was still exhausted but managed to drag my body out of bed. During breakfast and worship I got to get acquainted with the group. They, of course, were awesome and a half and I’m so privileged to have worked with them! Fay found out I wasn’t attached to any given site and I ended up helping out with VBS at Ryan and Mrs. Crombie’s church. It was a tiny church but there were a ton of kids packed behind the main church area. The translators’ family was pretty awesome and they took us under their wings. I had brought my violin along and ended up playing for church - they love having multiple special music selections for any given program. It was pretty neat though. Ryan did a fantastic job with the sermon and then we were whisked away (after a ton of pictures and handshakes) for lunch in the same area that we had had Sabbath School earlier. We sat at a table with big chairs and I’m pretty sure they gave us all the non-spicy food. Lol. After we were done we sat around the table posing for pictures for a while, but I managed to escape after a few rounds. Since I can blend in well, I’m not a big deal…haha! I kind of felt sorry for Ryan and Mrs. Crombie though, b/c they sat there smiling for pictures for more than half an hour! We finally succeeded in leaving and went back to rooms to chill and talk even though we were all extremely tired. Around that time Fay asked if I would be willing to lead out in VBS at her church since her husband, Ken, wasn’t feeling well that evening. Always willing to lend a helping hand I agreed and ended up getting a crash course from Jerralyn in leading out VBS.  I took over for the night with Nathan assisting me and it was a blast! It was my first time leading out in VBS but thankfully it went smoothly. I realized I tell stories like my mom, who is a Kindergarten Sabbath School teacher back at home. Must be all those times I sat in her class observing her. Haha. I, thankfully, had a very enthusiastic translator, which helped a lot. We ran out of things to do since the meeting went so long (we realized this would be the case for every meeting). Therefore, I had to improvise and tried to teach them “I Like Bananas” (which almost turned out to be a disaster b/c they hadn’t the slightest clue what they were saying) and did charades with the kids except I told the story and they had to act it out. I kind of went on a whim and hoped I was telling the story right. Man, I really need to brush up on my Bible stories! Nathan was a huge hit with the girls and had to pose a thousand times with them. Haha! That evening (or was it the next? I can't remember anymore) Bryan and I were able to lead out in discussion and worship – Pastor Joedy style! Haha. I love those moments where the whole group is together bonding, talking, discussing, and being able to open up with each other.  This is just one of the many reasons I love mission trips.