Notes - June 20 - Nancy

Such joy to reconnect and spend time with friends! We have had many visitors the past two days, including: Hanna, Widia, Monfride, Christophorus, and Immanuel – friends from the English Club and fellow Sunday School teachers! Later Ester, Ludwig, Tika and Rosinta came by to spend time, practice English and catch-up on everyone’s lives.  

The next day: Siska, Lolo, and Eduardo came by to invite us to a seminar;  

Mam Reina and Berta (on her new motorbike!) came by to invite us to join their classes and Berta’s radio program;



Pina and Esra came by and joined Jacob in discussing seeds, planting, and eventually the afternoon turned into a full fledged concert of beautiful singing. 

After the seminar (more on that later) and music-fest, students Ester, Loudewyk, and Rosinta came by. We sat on our front porch where a warm breeze was blowing (at least it was a breeze!) and talked about their studies. Jacob showed them his summer reading/essay assignments and they were fascinated. We were able to share with them English text books they had requested which we were able to easily purchase (Amazon.com) back home and bring with us. They were thrilled with the books! The joy in their faces was priceless!

In the evening, we hear another motorscooter pull up in front of the house and Anton and Miss Kihm arrive, sharing traditional Chinese dumpling. We hear about their customs, admire Anton and Ivana’s gorgeous wedding albums (and I mean gorgeous!), and make plans for the English speech competition we will help judge later this week.

As ELCA missionaries, we were told our assignment was “to be.” As Americans, that is really, really hard to understand.  We want to build, create, do something tangible!  But “being” is what we have done best the past two days. We welcome friends in the name of Christ, we love our neighbors as ourselves, we walk with our friends – sharing time, music, language, memories, and simple gifts. Yes, Christ is present.