Tawangmangu Bible College - Thurs and Fri

Hi!! Well I have a few days to catch up on!!! Last time I wrote we were about to board our flight to solo, on thursday morning.

We arrived in Solo about 10.30 local time i think, interesting airport, and Liz B almost had her malaria tablets taken off her! That would have been interesting! Couldn't get any money out because of the public holiday - it is the end of Ramandan (sp?) and so they are all on holiday thurs-sun. Which means....things are VERY quiet for us!!! We all felt a wee bit guilty for the first day or two, very relaxed, just lots of hanging out together and with Sam and Carol who run the college, and with the students...eventually...after they got over their shyness!!! Sooo interesting talking to Carol and Sam and hearing their stories...they are AMAZING people and are making an ENORMOUS difference in this nation. Thursday after dinner we had a bit of a tour of the college and met some of the students in their rooms etc. It's fun to talk to them but they are really embarrassed about their english so they are not very willing to try!!!

That night was the massive celebration for the muslims ending their fast etc so it was chanting and fireworks ALL NIGHT, but we managed to have a fairly decent sleep despite all the racket around us. Liz G and I are sleeping in Sam and Carol's house and the rest of them in the wee dorm rooms below. We are VERY comfortable here and feel like we are cheating a wee bit on this missionary thing!!! No reusing teabags here!! The food is incredible, the people are amazing, the climate is perfect (cooler cos we are up the mountain), and we are being very well looked after. :)

On friday morning we got up for their 5.30am prayer meeting which was great - an hour of prayer and worship, and some songs we knew, although it's pretty hard to remember the english words when everybody around you is singing in indonesian!!!!! When they have the words on the powerpoint we just sing it in indonesian, it's quite an easy language to read. After breakfast went down to the waterfall which was absolutely beautiful, and heaps of monkeys all around which was pretty exciting. One tried to grab Rebecca's water bottle out of her hand. We are like celebrities here, everybody wants their photo taken with the white people hahaha and strangers push their very shy little children towards us to take their pictures with us!! Pretty funny. That afternoon I think was just more hanging out...as far as I can remember. chatting to students etc. At night we had our first meeting, Becs did her testimony and Liz spoke, both did very well :)

I'm going to end this here and carry on in a seperate post cos otherwise it's gonna get ridiculously long and nobody will bother to read it!!!!

:)