As I sit down to write this blog entry it is really hard to know where to start- how do I summarize 2 months of amazing and difficult experiences? I’ll break it down into four areas:
Team: We had a team of six people 2 Americans, 2 Koreans and us. We actually had great team unity which is amazing considering we were together every day, all day, for 2 months. Our team was very diverse as far as personalities go, with some being extremely introverted and others extremely extroverted. We had a few small bumps along the way, but they were good for building character. Four of the six of us will continue to work with Titus Project leading teams in the future- so exciting!
Teaching & Preaching: Our main goal coming here was to train people HOW to study the Bible. In lots of the 9 villages we were able to do this, but in a few we focused on teaching them the big picture of the Bible using a story telling method. Of course, in every village the pastor would have us preach on the Sunday morning and usually another service during the week. They are used to having DTS teams come through here so we always had to explain that we didn’t do dances or skits but we were bible teachers :) Actually we did end up doing lots of skits with our teaching because the people loved it, but no dancing (Thankfully! Have you ever seen Ben dance???). One of the highlights was just this last week. YWAM Borneo was having a staff conference and asked us to train all the staff how to study their bibles. So for 25 hours we trained 30 full time workers that go out into the villages all the time. We went through the books of Titus and Ephesians and by the end of the seminar they REALLY seemed to get it. A great way to end.
Health and Pregnancy: This was probably the biggest challenge for us. We aren’t sure why, but Ben was often sick. Between the heat and the food, he often had no energy and his stomach was constantly bothering him. He threw up a few times too. The amazing thing is that whenever he had to teach or preach he had the energy and strength to get through and never missed one because of sickness. I was blessed with good health, only once or twice feeling a little sick. My tummy got bigger and bigger throughout the two months, and little Beaner kept getting more active. But God has really been so faithful and kept me healthy with no scares or fears. Being pregnant was also a great conversation starter with people everywhere we went.
Marriage: This was one of the unexpected surprises of this time in Indonesia. I thought that because of the lack of privacy and the uncomfortable conditions that it would be a challenge for our relationship, but actually it was the opposite. We’ve grown even closer, love each other even more and had some really fun times together.
There is so much more to write, but you will all just have to come to Taiwan and have coffee with us :) Hope you enjoy the short video (sorry mac users) and pictures! The video should be a little higher quality than usual but this also means it will take longer to load. We will be back in Taiwan by the 9th. Once we get home we will do our best to get back to writing emails and updating the web page regularly. Until then, please be patient with us :)
Teaching Adventures 