Bule!!!

 

Our family and friends from school that came to see us off!!!

 

My favorite picture that I have taken since being here...our city at sunset!!!

Aside from others coming to glory, my greatest request is that I will grow in my knowledge and understanding of Him. During preparation and since being here, both Rebekah and I have been blessed by our wonderful family and friends that have supported us. Thank you. We truly love and miss you. 

We have been in our city now for three weeks. Bule is the word for foreigner. We hear this often as white people are, well, nonexistent here. We live in the home of a majority religion family. They have well-cared for us since being in their country. Our time with them has been greatly valued. During our first week, Rebekah and I would get up around 6a.m. to enjoy breakfast and tea with our homestay family. They would then head to work and we would have language school. When they returned in the evenings we would chat over dinner and tea. This has been a wonderful time of fellowship with them. We call our homestay mom, Ibu (the word for mother or mrs) and our dad, Pac (the word for father or mr) Budi. 

Ibu and Pac Budi took us for a bike ride with many of Ibu's coworkers one evening. It was a night bike ride throughout our city. On our ride, we made a stop at the mosque where they all performed their evening prayer ritual. Then we continued our ride. Once our bike ride was over, we had a bbq. Here, that is synonymous with singing and dancing. Of course, as the honored guests, Rebekah and I were chosen to come to the microphone and sing for the entire crowd. The only song we knew from their songbook was jingle bells. So embarrassing! haha The following day, Ibu's family came from another island to visit. We all spent the day together at the beach and ended it with a seafood dinner. We enjoyed our time with Ibu's family. 

After this first week, however, Rebekah and I became sick with dengue fever. We spent 10 days battling this sickness. It has delayed our language learning quite a bit. However, we will continue soon. The sickness was extremely painful but He honestly provided the needed amount of strength for each moment. We are now over our sickness and we are recovering. We are thankful for this. We now look forward to continuing the process of learning about our people, culture and language!