The Rescue

Today is a quiet Sunday. We've filled up on waffles after crawling out of bed late (is 8:30 late?) and are now watching Lord of the Rings (3rd one) in our pjs. Great movie but too much "dark action" so I need to take a break. We had Haris, our new driver, take us into Jakarta last night for church and then went to our favourite restaurant, Chiles. It's an American restaurant that serves Mexican food. It's rather expensive but the portions are so large that we've learned over time to share our meals.
This is a photo of Haris and in it he is apparently smiling. When I told him to smile he went from a big, toothy smile to this. I notice that Sri, our helper, has done that before as well. I guess 'smile' means 'don't show your teeth.' It's been awesome to have Haris during the week. I haven't taken the opportunity to drive into Jakarta with my camera yet, mostly because of feeling a bit sick, but that's over now. Janet Weeda and I did go into Jakarta on Friday to check out a massive shopping area that reminded me of 7 stories of Tijuana shops, selling mostly clothes, knock-off bags and children's items. I didn't buy anything but it was interesting to check it out. The area is called "Mangga Dua" which means "Two Mangoes." Funny name for a city district.

Last Thursday SPH held an Easter assembly which was called "The Rescue," with an obvious focus on the death and resurrection of Christ in worship and through songs that the choir sang. Abby was part of the choir but until I get a proper flash I cannot take photos in the gym...way too dark. The main speaker was a kindergarten teacher named Maribelle Flores (Miss Belle). She spoke, apparently for the first time publicallly, about a time in her life where she relied on God's help to rescue her. Miss Belle is from the Philippines, and when she was 11 (1985) she was a survivor of a ferry sinking. Along with 4 classmates and as many chaperones, Belle was tossed into the water off of the Philippine Islands during a stormy morning. When 36 hours of clinging to the sunken ferry's mast was finally over only 6 of the 40 passengers had survived. At 11 years old, Maribelle witnessed the deaths of her friends and others right in front of her eyes, and had only a few crabs and some raw seaweed to eat during that time (the crabs were attached to some floating coconuts shells). Once someone died their bodies were tied to the mostly-sunken ferry in order to take them home for burial. This didn't bother Belle at the time, she said, but the fact that she witnessed the deaths did. There was a time when some fishermen paddled by, and their little boat was so overtaken by the ferry survivors that the fishermen hit many of the survivors off the boat with a bamboo pole. The one thing Belle will never forget is a father who had made it onto a boat who told his son, who was still clinging to the sunken ferry, "just do what you can to survive." She was able to relate this to our God, and she said "can you imagine if God told us that? To do what we can to survive??" She spoke of God as our rescuer and how when we depend on Him then we can truly live. In the end, a fishing boat came along and picked up the remaining survivors. Maribelle's mom and Maribelle were 2 of the survivors, but her uncle, who had swam with some other men to try and get help, never survived. It was one of those events where I felt privileged to hear someone else's story.

Thanks for reading.