Medan, the last remarkable journey
Dear friends, family and prayer partners,
It’s been 5 weeks already. Fast, huh?! Yes, it is amazingly fast. Time flies, indeed! I am now back in Surabaya, with my parents, sister and brother. Tim and Tamara, the (ex) leaders of the team and also my colleagues are now staying in my house. They were really curious to the real life of Indonesian people in Surabaya
Anyway,.. maybe I can share something about my last trip in Medan. It was a little bit of happiness and disappointment. Maybe you are curious why it was a disappointment. First, because I had expected something big would happen in Medan or Parapat (a city in North Sumatra where we attended a student retreat of IFES Indonesia). Since last year, I’d been praying for Sumatra. I didn’t know why I prayed for Sumatera in particular, yet, I had hoped that there would be ‘something’ in Sumatera when the team came. Hm,.. there were some ‘things’ but not as ‘amazing’ as I had expected.
Nevermind, I found our activities were quite cool, too! We went to the student retreat, where we met hundreds of students from many different part of Sumatera island. I heard a lot of stories about the struggles of students life in Sumatera. It was really hard. The topic for the retreat was the balance of study and ministry. It was quite ‘idealist’ topic, yet, it went really well. Our team shared something about student life in the Netherlands. Even though we didn’t share a lot of things, but I believe our presence, and most importantly God’s presence, at that moment was really helpful and courageous for a lot of people.
In this kind of situation, I, kind of, feel that it was sooo great! Every people, in many different nation, praise and worship the same King!! Awesome!
Oh yeah,.. I haven’t mentioned why I felt the trip to Medan was cool! First, because of the reason above. Second was because I met some new ‘crucial’ people that have played roles to build my character and insight about Christianity world. Steve, Sara and the baby Daniel, were really helpful and nice. They shared about their ministry in Medan. It was so cool how their stories were. I slept in their cutie, cozy, house. It was so cool! Sara could bake the most delicious chocolate-chips cookies. Yummy!!! Third, the most important one , was because we went to have relaxing days and de-briefing in Tuk-tuk (Samosir island, near Lake toba).
I thank God very much for bringing us to Tuk Tuk. It was so amazing how He revealed Himself in the middle of us. During the de-briefing, especially, we felt His presence. It was good that we did the de-briefing. We had to fill in some papers, but by doing that, we knew what lessons we have learned during the trip.
It was funny, too, because during those 5 days, there were A LOT OF THINGS happened. If I told you one by one, maybe, I would need 5 pages of A4 to write There were a lot!
Another funny thing was that during our refreshing days, we went to Hotspring with motorcycles, and we had an accident. It was a long story, too, yet through that situation we’ve learned to be Christians for other non-believers by being wise in handling the situation. We learned to pray for our enemies, too.
I, personally, learned a lot about depending on God, stewardship. It seemed like God gave me a test, an exam, after I’d learned the theory about the stewardship for my preach a couple weeks a go.
During this trip, there were things opened and cleared in my love relationship with my current boyfriend.
Thank God, for that!
I learned about forgiveness and resolving a conflict in the group and with my past.
A lot,..
Thus,.. because Medan was the last city, and now I am already in Surabaya, I will stop write a report about my summer activities. Yet, I will certainly write the next newsletter when I get back from Indonesia in the end of August.
For now,… please pray for the commitments that I have made during the trip and also for a nice time with family and friends in Surabaya.
Enjoy your (summer) holiday,..
God Bless you all,..
Once again, thank you for all your prayers,..
Nia
It’s been 5 weeks already. Fast, huh?! Yes, it is amazingly fast. Time flies, indeed! I am now back in Surabaya, with my parents, sister and brother. Tim and Tamara, the (ex) leaders of the team and also my colleagues are now staying in my house. They were really curious to the real life of Indonesian people in Surabaya
Anyway,.. maybe I can share something about my last trip in Medan. It was a little bit of happiness and disappointment. Maybe you are curious why it was a disappointment. First, because I had expected something big would happen in Medan or Parapat (a city in North Sumatra where we attended a student retreat of IFES Indonesia). Since last year, I’d been praying for Sumatra. I didn’t know why I prayed for Sumatera in particular, yet, I had hoped that there would be ‘something’ in Sumatera when the team came. Hm,.. there were some ‘things’ but not as ‘amazing’ as I had expected.
Nevermind, I found our activities were quite cool, too! We went to the student retreat, where we met hundreds of students from many different part of Sumatera island. I heard a lot of stories about the struggles of students life in Sumatera. It was really hard. The topic for the retreat was the balance of study and ministry. It was quite ‘idealist’ topic, yet, it went really well. Our team shared something about student life in the Netherlands. Even though we didn’t share a lot of things, but I believe our presence, and most importantly God’s presence, at that moment was really helpful and courageous for a lot of people.
In this kind of situation, I, kind of, feel that it was sooo great! Every people, in many different nation, praise and worship the same King!! Awesome!
Oh yeah,.. I haven’t mentioned why I felt the trip to Medan was cool! First, because of the reason above. Second was because I met some new ‘crucial’ people that have played roles to build my character and insight about Christianity world. Steve, Sara and the baby Daniel, were really helpful and nice. They shared about their ministry in Medan. It was so cool how their stories were. I slept in their cutie, cozy, house. It was so cool! Sara could bake the most delicious chocolate-chips cookies. Yummy!!! Third, the most important one , was because we went to have relaxing days and de-briefing in Tuk-tuk (Samosir island, near Lake toba).
I thank God very much for bringing us to Tuk Tuk. It was so amazing how He revealed Himself in the middle of us. During the de-briefing, especially, we felt His presence. It was good that we did the de-briefing. We had to fill in some papers, but by doing that, we knew what lessons we have learned during the trip.
It was funny, too, because during those 5 days, there were A LOT OF THINGS happened. If I told you one by one, maybe, I would need 5 pages of A4 to write There were a lot!
Another funny thing was that during our refreshing days, we went to Hotspring with motorcycles, and we had an accident. It was a long story, too, yet through that situation we’ve learned to be Christians for other non-believers by being wise in handling the situation. We learned to pray for our enemies, too.
I, personally, learned a lot about depending on God, stewardship. It seemed like God gave me a test, an exam, after I’d learned the theory about the stewardship for my preach a couple weeks a go.
During this trip, there were things opened and cleared in my love relationship with my current boyfriend.
Thank God, for that!
I learned about forgiveness and resolving a conflict in the group and with my past.
A lot,..
Thus,.. because Medan was the last city, and now I am already in Surabaya, I will stop write a report about my summer activities. Yet, I will certainly write the next newsletter when I get back from Indonesia in the end of August.
For now,… please pray for the commitments that I have made during the trip and also for a nice time with family and friends in Surabaya.
Enjoy your (summer) holiday,..
God Bless you all,..
Once again, thank you for all your prayers,..
Nia
posted by Oma Nia at
12:57 AM
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