We arrived safely and healthily in Cambodia on Monday and have since made the 5 hour bus trip to Battambang. First of all I'd just like to say a huge thank you to everyone who has been praying for me and the team. It wasn't until I reached Cambodia that I realized how crucially important that is, so please be encouraged and continue! Ok here is the update you've all been waiting for....the first 3 weeks of outreach in a nutshell (typed from a computer with an exceptionally stiff keyboard!).
When I stepped off the plane in Bali it was as if I was stepping back in time to 5 years ago when I was in Malaysia....the smells, the language, the heat....it was all "same same but different" and I was focussing on the same same part. The first night we stayed in a fairly nice hotel in Dempasar with a pool on the roof overlooking the city, which helped immensely with the heat. The next morning it was off to our friends Rus and Made Alit's oasis in the 3rd largest country in the world-the Bali Appropriate Technology Institute (or BATI for short).
We spent the majority of our time in Bali at BATI where our days were filled with walks through the 3 surrounding villages surrounded my hillside rice paddies, learning skills such as building water tanks, pumps and jars as well as building solar-heated-water-purifying showers and coconut oil production. We also participated in a couple village work projects such as carrying rocks (on our shoulders not on our heads like the villagers) ~200m up an embankment from the river to help rebuild a path, and road construction (cement mixing, gravel collection from the river and carrying rocks). We were blessed with delicious food, beautiful smiles, and probably the world's cutest baby (Joshua!) courtesy of BATI's staff.
Each day was filled with devotion time on the grounds surrounded by jungle and rivers, worship time each evening, biulding our team connections and eating (did I mention the food was delicious? We've decided to change the name of our DTS to the Fine Dining DTS instead of Earthcare).
Christmas was amazing and I really felt like it was God's idea of Christmas and not the commercial holiday it has become. On Christmas eve we left BATI on a 2hr trip to Dempasar area where we visited an orphanage Rus (our host) founded 30 years ago and his wife attended where we sang some songs and spent time with the kids. Many of the Christians in Bali now are associated with the orphanage and have grown up to become doctors, pastors, teachers.....We then visited the beach for the first time (BATI is in the mountains) and had a little swim before dinner and then a Christmas eve service. The church is mainly focussed toward tourists and also westerners who have moved to Bali. It was filled with all my favourite carols and scriptures and we had an amazing time of fellowship afterward. Lots of unbelievable stories....in church I sat between a lady who has been a missionary in Bali for 60 years and another lady who became a Christian 15 years ago on the beaches of Bali.
Christmas day was spent doing some work on the solar shower (mainly the guys) and digging up cassava root and making cookies from it (the girls). Then we had a lovely lunch (fine dining DTS, I'm telling you!) and our afternoon was filled with free secret santa gifts (either made from natural materials or something we had brought with us). I received a handmade Advent wreath from native plants and gave one of my shirts and a bamboo bookmark with Khmer writing on it courtesy of Seang. Highlights included a bamboo outrigger boat and a coconut bikini! After dinner together we watched a movie with a projector on the wall : "The Ultimate Gift"which I would recommend!
On Boxing day we ventured away from BATI again to go to a baptism in the only Christian village on the island at a huge Indonesian church which was an experience in itself. Played in the waves of the Indian Ocean after a very hot bus ride and then had dinner of freshly caught fish (from a pool under the restaurant) overlooking a volcano and rice paddies and drove home in the sunset.
Another huge focus in Bali for me was our Christmas Play which we performed on New Years Eve for many of the local (Hindu) villagers as well as Rus and Made's friends and family from all over the island. We wrote the script of the Christmas story together based on the scriptures and then began our practices. The set consisted of a bamboo/banana and palm leaf stable and our costumes were generously shared by the BATI staff (their sarongs, udai--headpieces, shirts). The staff also shared the star of the show with us Joshua--Iluh and Darmonan's 17month old son who played our Indonesian baby Jesus! Along with Mark (a kiwi guy on our team) I was responsible for the Christmas Play....who knew I'd be doing a Christmas concert in Indonesia.
Our new years eve celebration included more food (of course!) music by Made and Rus and Karaoke after a full day of visitors from all over Bali, the Christmas Play and a giant meal (including pigs which were slaughtered on site!).
New Years Day we set out for Dempasar again and enjoyed a meal on the beach at sunset to say our goodbyes to this country of refreshment. We sent Nathan (kiwi guy on our team) back to NZ for the remainder of his outreach and then left early the next morning for Cambodia via Malaysia.
Got to revisit a few Malay favourites at the Kuala Lumpur airport including Julie biscuits, teh tarik, Nasi goreng, Chrysanthemum tea, and a smoothie from the Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf cafe.....yum!
On arrival in Cambodia it felt as though a weight had been lifted off me and that my thinking was finally sharp (those prayers from home are working!). We stayed at a guest house in Phnom Penh where we visited a New Life Church (who knew we'd see Hillsong-worship in Cambodia!), and had some teaching on spiritual warfare.
Now we ar settling into life in Barbara''s house in Battambang and are excited to see what God has in store for us over the next 6 weeks.
Prayer requests include: team unity, discernment for God's calling for us, communication with locals and withn the team, and continued good health
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