A Peep into Christmas in Indonesia

Our family was invited to attend the aviation Christmas party a few weeks ago.  It would prove to be a fun evening with a gift exchange, games, food, etc.  I was asked to bring potato salad.  Indonesia people love this American food.  The table was filled with bountiful food.  Some of the dishes are:  Fried eggs, with a sauce and peas on top.  Dark greens cooked in some sort of coconut/seasoning combination.  Stir Fry.  Rice.  Gluten in peanut sauce.  A white bread roll filled with coconut and brown sugar.  Noodles.  Water melon.  Indonesian chips.  Yum!

While we waited for the program to start the children found  and played with a beetle, complete with incredible pinchers that kept grabbing the boys clothes.

We played a version of pass the parcel.  To give it a more interesting twist we had the children unwrap each layer wearing oven mitts.  This proved to be quite challenging.  As each layer was unwrapped, all the children would dive at whatever the prize (usually a bunch of candy and just grab what they could).  In some layers there was tucked away little prizes.  The greatest joy producer was when the silly glasses and nose from the Dollar Store was uncovered.  Oh everybody thought it was so funny.  They kept standing the boy up who had them on and then everyone would just laugh and laugh.  It was certainly more fun to give them away then to find them discarded in my house in some forgotten corner.  The very last price was 10,000 rupiah (just over a dollar).  We always have a little chuckle at how much it seems (10,000!!!!!).

They also enjoyed the game that we learned while at Recharge in the States.  We had taken PVC pipes and split them in half and the group must send a golf ball rolling down these open chutes without letting it fall off.  When everyone is excited and jolly it is hard to get a lot of focus, so as two teams are racing and the ball is careening down the chute and falling off midway it results in more silliness from the light hearted and urgency from the serious natured people.  : )

We were most intrigued by the gift exchange.  Names were drawn days prior to the party and instructions were given to spend under $5 for each person.  Jacob and Nathaniel both received tee-shirts.  Aubrey, Andrew and myself each received flour, sugar, toothpaste, soap, cookies.  All very practical items.  It was a really eye opening experience for me into the Indonesian culture. 

This peep into gift giving really helped me to know how to approach a desire of our hearts and that was to help some needy families.  I sent a text to our pastor friend asking him if he knew of any needy families.  He sent back a list that included 22 children, all but two of these belonged to 4 families (you can do the math, it is more than the statistical 2.1 children per family).    22 children was about 15 more then Darron had in mind, but after agreeing upon a budget, I assured him we could do this.  I knew  what would really mean the most to these families was rice, cooking oil and maybe some clothes for the kids.  So one day we were in JayaPura and I had my list and you should have seen me picking out t-shirts for all the boys (17), for the girls (5)…..I could not resist, they all got dresses!  When I got home I spread out all the goods.  Later I walked into the kitchen and what did I find, but Darron holding up a little girls dress! : ) 

Today, Christmas, the boys, Darron and Pastor Desmond went and delivered the gifts.  Here are just a few pictures of the homes they went too.

Truly it is more blessed to give then to receive.  My heart is so grateful, that my children are learning what it is to be in need and how incredibly blessed they are.  My daily prayer is that they will forever hear the human heartbeat need of humanity and that wherever their lives take them that they will never forget the lessons that they learned here.  May God use these moments to mold their hearts into a desire to serve and make a huge difference for Him and others.

As always, thanks for reading……Merry Christmas!