Last Days in Indonesia :'( January 13
Wow, I cant believe that the 2 weeks has already come and gone so quickly! I have had so many memories that I hope to never forget... but its not over just yet, one more half day at school then its fly away in a plane back to america-33 hrs :)
Today went well. I hitched a ride with a man on a motor bike to get the school- I had to do it before I left...it only cost me $.40! He was generous and drove slower than usual :)
Today went well. I hitched a ride with a man on a motor bike to get the school- I had to do it before I left...it only cost me $.40! He was generous and drove slower than usual :)Today, I had taken on another job and I got to do the lower elementary kids chapel, and thanks to this summer and teaching kids the bible, I was somewhat prepared. I was going to talk on the reasons why God deserves the glory. I gave them 5 reasons and put a story from the bible with each one.
He deserves the glory because:
1. He created us
2. He can do awesome things
3. He changes us
4. He saves us from our sin
5. He can use us!
I was expecting for the stories to take up more time, but no I was done within maybe 30 minutes and chapel lasted 50 minutes! We sang some songs like "Who's the king of the Jungle" and "My God is so big"...but unfortunately with the attention span of a 3-5 year old, they were done. We did sing "Father Abraham" and that was hilarious and the kids thought so too. So ya that chapel might have felt like a bust, but God is always at work and I need to remember its not my job to impact the lives of everyone let alone anyone, thats up to God.
I then had the afternoon off until 2:30 when I was scheduled to talk about DBU to the high schoolers. It rained cats and dogs all afternoon, so instead of going on a run, I packed then watched a chick flick. Though I love chick flicks and love living vicariously through the characters' unrealistic love lives, I have realized that is not a good thing for my heart. I get these pictures in my mind that love is so easy and so predictable, but that's not the case. I had made it a new years resolution to guard my heart, and I am afraid watching chick flicks like "The Family Stone" probably doesnt help much. I am really going to work on keeping God my number one and not letting someone let alone anything distract me from my number one priority: growing in my relationship with Christ!
This is going to be an interesting semester to look forward- a lot of changes and a lot of challenges expected, so staying focused is key!
Ok, so back to today- I went and spoke to the high schoolers about DBU. That was so much fun- man if DBU wanted someone to go to international schools and talk about DBU I would be the first to raise my hand! I loved it and it went so well!
The rain fortunately stopped, so it allowed me to go for a run. I was a little bit more brave and ran outside of Molly's neighborhood today. Man the stares you get here if you are white, its funny, but kinda gets old after a while...maybe it was because I was singing along with my music-so what ;)
The same student that brought the sushi yesterday wanted to bless us again with amazing Korean food! What a blessing that was because the gas wasnt working for the stove, so we werent sure what we were going to eat for dinner- man God is so good and is always faithful to provide!
The rest of the evening was filled with packing and talking. Not much of an eventful night, but I think I have had plenty to make up for it. It is kinda weird knowing I leave tomorrow. Molly wont be coming with me to the airport in Jakarta, so maybe that will help make the goodbye easier. I have been thinking about the questions "what am I going to take away from this trip? What has God taught me through this experience? and Am I changed?" These questions will be reflected upon while I am on the plane for 33hrs.
Tomorrow I will be speaking in the middle school chapel, and then I hop on a shuttle to head to the airport! The Lord is so good and if I could say one thing it would be I am so super blessed to have had the opportunity to come here and experience everything I did and I give all the credit to the Lord because He totally orchestrated this whole entire trip!
They were learning how to ask people questions to get to know them, so I was the guinea pig they practiced on! It then poured the rest of the afternoon. I let Molly have the afternoon off otherwise she would kill me, so I went home to work on my talks. That 
Well I started off my Saturday thinking it was going to be a pretty uneventful day, but man was I completely wrong! The day started off slow with a rainy morning, watching Gilmore Girls, going for a run and thinking about preparing for speeches. Around 2pm Molly and I decided to head out to Bandung to get some more shopping out of the way (school supplies and other gifts for back home)before the birthday dinner. Now, Molly had never driven to Bandung by herself let alone with a passenger on the motor bike- the other day was the furthest she had driven!Again, we broke another record and headed to Bandung on the motor bike-yikes. I think I have talked to God more on a motor bike than on any other type of transportation! Molly did a great job, it was the other crazy drivers around us that I was worried about! After about 45 minutes of driving, we finally arrived to the mall where we were gonna get some shopping done. This parking lot was ridiculous (as you can see from the picture!) 
Bikes were literally packed in there like sardines! Our shopping trip was successful (especially when I bartered for a bracelet with an indonesia with the only number I knew and got the cheaper price!), but the challenge was getting it back home with all our stuff- I stuffed all of my goodies in my purse, and with one hand held on for dear life and the other I held a bag of school supplies for Molly. 
After our shopping adventure, we headed up the hill to go eat at a Mediterranean restaurant for one of the Emily's birthdays. The food was good and it was fun meeting more of the teachers Molly teaches with. After dinner we headed up the hill more to find a restaurant that had a beautiful view of the city. We ate dessert there (which was delicious) and drank these ginger tea drinks (not my cup of tea, a lil too spicy for me).
Now, after dessert was when the real adventure began. I (as well as molly) was a little nervous driving back with molly in the dark. Aaron, one of the guy teachers, offered to drive me back. O man was that beyond thrilling! All the girls gave me one bit of advice: "Just hold on, he goes fast"...well they weren't lying haha... I really think I saw my life flash before my eyes once (ok maybe there's a bit of exaggeration there) but I did see headlights a couple of times as if we were playing chicken. I kept thinking to myself "is this really happening? Am I really driving on the back of a motor bike in Indonesia with this guy I just met today?" and the answer? HAHA YES IM NOT DREAMING AND ITS AMAZING! It was definitely thrilling (a bit scary) but I'll cross that off on my list of things to do before I die: ride on the back of a speeding motor bike in Indonesia. We got back to the house safe and sound as well as the others, so that was relievingThe rest of the night was Gilmore Girls..man what a day!
Um, I met the rest of Molly's roommates! Now there are 3 Emily's in this house, kinda confusing I must say :) But its fun to be in a full house! 
Drinking Cat Poop Coffee (like on the bucket list) for breakfast and eating cereal! what a great start to a great day!
The day ended up being fairly productive, so I will continue with my reflections of 
Right off the bat I was asked to share my story to the family. It ended up going well and they were able to understand and responded in a good way. We then had a 2 hour conversation that revolved around the Kingdom - it was really interesting to see how they 
Our day had only begun when once we got back to 
Bowling was so much fun- not to brag but I got 5 strikes in a row! Who knew that would get you a free game :) After bowling we then headed over to the Arcade to play some basketball, air 
So first I will reflect on the past few days while in Batam. The trip to Batam was a quick flight and was happily greeted by one of Molly's friends. She took us to lunch where we had avocado drinks! She was really sweet and informed me of a lot of do's and donts while we were there in Batam and on the island. We met up with the other girl that was going to the island with us and went to dinner. That evening we talked about the trip and what to expect, where we were with the Lord at the time. When it came time for me to share I got really emotional.. It is so humbling to me to know that the Lord wants to use me and my story to touch the lives of others. I tend to take for granted the amazing things the Lord has done for me through out my life and that all hit me that night. Knowing that I was going to meet the same family Molly met back in April, who heard my testimony was hard to believe. The fact that we were getting to go was a total God thing, so I was interested to see how the Lord was going to work! We prayed for the trip and called it a night. 
The next day we headed to a harbor and got on a wooden boat to head to the islands. That was definitely one of the coolest things ever! We got to see the skyline of Singapore, have the ocean water spray in our faces....it was awesome! After about a 45 minute boat ride we reached our destination! 
It was the coolest sight, these houses were built over the water! It was so interesting! It was so cute when we saw these little boys floating in a bucket in the water! We walked to the huge pink and purple house that we were going to stay in. On the way to the house we were definitely stared at. Im not sure the people there saw too many white people. We got to the house and were warmly welcomed by the family! Now these women like to eat and talk. So they had us sit down and we started to eat! We ate deep fried banana, deep fried banana bread and cookies :) We napped for a little bit and then walked around the island to hang out with the people. 
We played some volleyball with the women on the island, made a kid cried just because we were white people :-D I played some soccer with a group of boys. That was an interesting experience because I dont think women really play soccer, so when I went out onto the field, they were a little hesitant. I scored a few goals and saved a few, so I think by the end they accepted me :)
After lunch we met up with a family from England who was going to take us hiking. They have 3 kids- 2 boys and a girl. I really think I could watch this family all day long- why?
We headed up to the waterfall after a game of soccer out on the pitch :-D The hike was absolutely gorgeous! The trail we hiked on must have been a couple inches wide with water crest fields on with side of us. After about 30 minutes of hiking, we reached the waterfall! O wow it was beautiful! The pool of water was too deep, so we weren't allowed to swim, but I think I could just sit there forever- it was so peaceful! I climbed around on the rocks with the kids for a while, got too much sun probably and just sat in awe of God and His amazing creation.
It was getting late and we were scheduled to make pizza for dinner! So we headed back to the house to do some cooking. I helped Suzanne with the pizza, then we enjoyed dinner listening to theological explanations of different bible translations and the importance of taking Greek...very intriguing I must say! Dinner was delicious, but it was getting late, so we all headed back to Kota Baru.
