"Missions"

Hey everybody,

welcome welcome welcome to update wednesday. we are committing to for SURE for sure have an update atleast every wednesday, and we will probably have little blurbs of our thoughts, learnings, observations, and genius spread out through the week as well, so hold us to it.

(disclaimer: for you grammar and punctuation police out there, jared is the writer, so if you dont do well with severe lack of punctuation and capital letters, just skip to jared's updates...sorry)

we've officially been in the east pole for a full week now, and i dont know about jared, but i feel like ive been here a month already. as many of you know, when you get a foreign country for the first time, your body sort of goes into information overload- learning new names, new smells, new ways of dodging cars, new foods, new LANGUAGE, new social norms, new time zone, new ways to offend people accidentally, new bathrooms, new forms of toilet paper, new new new. you pack so much new information into your brain that it feels like you've been in the country for forever, when really its been a week. like summer camp. but more bugs, rice paddys, and small people.

i would say the transition has been as smooth as i have ever experienced. neither jared or i have come even remotely close to getting sick, and with all of the street meat, "what the heck is that" sauce, and unfiltered water/ice cubes we have encountered, i would say that it is nothing short of God's hand being on us. our contacts here have been incredibly helpful and patient with us as we fumble around trying to get our feet on the ground, and we have already developed some really great relationships with the people here. We can feel your prayers.

so what have you guys been doing? what do you eat? where do you live? hows the language coming? have you started being missionaries yet or do you just go to the beach and look at volcanoes? what are you learning? are there dinosaurs?

guys guys guys, just be patient. please.

im about to put up a significant amount of pictures and fill in the blanks with captions. for you visual learners.




this is our room. we share a bed. its huge. and we have dont touch me pillows down the middle. dont worry about us. apparently i have much sweeter blood than jared, because i have been ripped to shreds by bugs, and jared has like...a bug bite. so ive been sleeping with a mosquito net/dome thingy that has significantly reduced my bites. but anyway, we live on the company's office grounds, which is a really quiet neighborhood about 10 minutes outside the city. we have a shower, a toilet, running water, and wifi. it is kind of ridiculous...we werent expecting this, and we are so grateful for it.



this is how we get around. if youre wondering what we need prayer for...besides learning the language, being led by the Spirit in our conversations and interactions, and favor with the people here, i would say this is a pretty big hitter on the list. we are learning day by day, but between driving on the left side of the road, learning how to switch between gears with the gas and clutch while dodging gigantic trucks who dont give a rip about motorcycles, and the fact that neither of us have done any of these things before, please pray for our protection. i pray every time i get on this thing, and dont stop until i am safely back on the ground. we are still in the "back roads practice" stage right now.

in other news. it is ridiculously fun to drive.



we have been able to get a feel for the flow of traffic because of our new friends and roommates, ferri and wisnu. they work for the company and get to live on the grounds. they live with us, eat with us, teach us east polean, take us to cool places in the city, take us to the beach, teach us how to drive, teach us how to cook rice and other meals, and hang out with us at night once things settle down. they are 18 and 19, and dont really know much english, but we have developed a very strong bond with them already. dependence does that i guess.






these are some pictures of what is basically our backyard. about 200 yards past our house, this is our view. the mountain in the background is called Mt. Merapi. It is the most active volcano in the world, and has a constant flow of smoke coming from the top. it is pretty incredible.









if you saw our video, we told you we were having a company christmas party. it was our first introduction to everyone we will be working with, and they are definitely a large, tightly knit family (my guess is around 100?) we spent the day picking up trash all over the surrounding area around the company (in the middle of the city), played games, ate some really good food, and listened to a sermon about christmas that i didnt understand. it was really fun to meet all of the people we will be working with though. also, it was a 7 1/2 hour christmas party. from 530am-1pm.






sunday morning, ferri and wisnu got us up at 5am to go to the beach. they wanted us to see the sunrise there. it was absolutely beautiful, and totally worth the early rise. jared and I were the only ones swimming out of literally thousands of people on the beach...apparently its illegal this time of year or something. we turned around from frolicking in the waves to see about 4 life guards in orange life vests just waiting on the shore for us to drown i guess. hah. woops.

so when you hear "missionary" or "mission trip", most people (including myself) can close their eyes and picture what they see in their minds as what a missionary to them looks like and what they would be doing...like i would picture a white guy in a long sleeve button down shirt, a bit dirty and faded, pants, probably a beard. maybe he's a doctor, or a teacher, but he is preaching the gospel, Bible in hand, to a village of people (africans, asians, some indigenous tribe), complete with grass huts and naked kids chasing after a tire. you with me? girls may see themselves in a long skirt, hair pulled back, holding an orphan on one side and feeding another with the other hand, or helping her husband preach to that tribe. whatever. the point is that we all probably have an idea of what missions looks like.

for pretty much the first time, jared and I arent just in a country for 2 weeks to visit some schools or orphanages, build a house, not really learn the language or culture, and then go back home to america. (and dont get me wrong, those trips are extremely important and useful, they are just different). and im not saying we are these long term missionaries either, because there are people who have been in countries for half of their lives that make this trip look like a little poof of dust. the point is that for the first time, we are being forced to learn the culture, the language, customs, the underlying foundations that make these people who they are, and it just flat out takes time. it takes patience, and it takes questions and conversations and making mistakes, learning the hard way.

so when i close my eyes and picture what a "missionary" does, they dont just jump into that circle of people in the tribe preaching the gospel in their native tongue with understanding of how to communicate in a way they relate to and comprehend. that takes years. that takes patience. that takes building relationships.

right now, we are just a couple white boys who are eager to learn, eager to grow, and eager to soak up anything and everything we can from these people that we now do life with. so this is what missionary looks like to us right now, in our stage of the trip:




and this:



and this:




so much to learn, and its not always glorious, but we are having the time of our lives. we both feel like we have already grown tremendously, even in the last week. this post is already way too long, so we're gonna fill in the blanks with a video.


love you guys so much. thanks for running along side us.

j^2