150th Celebration Worship Service And Sunday July 3 Events

Nancy provides this description:

Reina and Nola came over at 8:15 am to take us to church. The worship service had been changed from 8:30 to 9:00 due to the 150^th anniversary celebration of the HKBP – The Church of Christian Batak Protestantism. It was 150 years ago that Dr. Nommensen, a German missionary, brought the protestant faith – specifically Lutheran – to the Batak people.

We walked along the back “road” to the church. The road meanders through the campus, past big palm trees, faculty homes, and the girls’ dormitory (and yes, they all yelled “hallo” to Jacob). We arrived at the church at 8:55 am. The building is huge, with big open windows, cathedral height ceiling, and a large altar area on a stage-like platform. Inside the walls are solid white, and peeling, the floor is concrete, and there are at least 50 rows of wooden pews or plastic chairs. There are three aisles – and the place was packed to overflowing. We’re guessing over 800 people were packed in there. We sat in the wooden pews, which were not meant for people taller than 5’. Our knees could not fit in front of us, but not a problem for the Indonesia people. The pews had a little wooden desk in front of you where you could set your Bible and bulletin. It was 9:15 am when things finally began to happen. This is known as “Indonesian time.” Things happen when they happen. Eventually, the pastor told everyone to get up and move outside for the processional. We are sitting with Reina, Mary, Nala, and Krystin. With the other 800 members, we move out the back doors of the building and gather in the courtyard: a dry, dusty, rocky, dirt area with a sidewalk. Tall empty buildings on are one side of the courtyard, in front is a busy street with the usual honking motorbikes blasting by.

Looking around, the people are beautiful! Many women are wearing the traditional cabaya – a long, silky gown with sparkling threads woven throughout. Their raven black hair is beautifully coiffed with pretty clips in it. There are many youth, college students, children, as well as elderly women, and young families. All the women wore dresses, the children were clean, wearing shoes or sandals, all smiles. The adult men were missing and in spite of my questions, I never got an answer as to where the husbands were. A mystery.

On the sidewalk a group of 30-40 children gathered, each with an extremely loud “noisemaker” – something you’d see in a Dr. Seuss book. They were playing their horns as part of the celebration. A lovely woman in her cabaya was directing the children. It reminded us of Krista Lee trying to herd a huge group of energetic children.

The main pastor(there are six, including one female!) was standing in the doorway, leading the activities. First, the children blew horns. Then, the congregation sang a song (to the tune of “Joyful Joyful We Adore Thee”) all played by two guys on trumpet and cornet, plus a drummer. We sang at least 4 verses. Then, four doves were released to indicate peace. The doves flew up and roosted on the roof of the abandoned building next door. Next, balloons were released into the sky. The balloons said “Happy Birthday” and one had a picture of Sponge Bob on it. But, the balloons took flight and everyone clapped and cheered. There were a few words spoken, maybe a prayer… hard to tell. But it was definitely festive and joyful! The congregation was then invited to process back into the building, the children blowing their horns, the trumpeter playing, and then inside the church, the piano, organ, and other instruments were blaring away.

We continued to be stared at as we stood at least one foot above anyone else and we didn’t have the deep, dark, black hair, beautiful brown skin, or dark eyes. Even in church, everyone was staring at us. I don’t think “foreigners” make it to this congregation very often.

The service was very traditional (based on what our hosts were explaining to us), following the Lutheran liturgy with an opening hymn, a song by the choir, the Epistle, another song, a bunch of read-and-respond (which we had no clue about what we were hearing..). There were announcements and the Prayers of the People. Everyone stood for this, and the prayers lasted 12 minutes! I’m not kidding! During it, several people sat down, probably due to the 800 bodies, no fans, no air conditioning, and no breeze. The Apostle’s Creed was also shared (so I’m told), and there was the first offering. Eventually we got to the Gospel lesson (taken from the third book of Moses – otherwise known as Leviticus) and the sermon. The pastor climbed into a 20-foot high podium and looked down over his flock and preached for a good 24 minutes (but who was timing it?)… Jim, Jacob, and I chose to read our Bibles since we understood nothing. After that there was another hymn, another offering (really!), and then a final benediction. For this, the six pastors stood in a line on the stage, all six raised their hands, but one gave the blessing. The pastors all wore black robes and white tie/collars.

We processed out after almost three hours.

We walked down the busy street, stopped at a small, new market to get some much needed rice, and then went home to use the rice-cooker Reina had brought over.

When we came home, we noticed the “university grounds crew” (that’d be the guy next door with a weedtrimmer and broom) and a few other guys had chopped down all the grass and growth in our area. They used the brooms to rake the rubbish into large piles. Then they set it on fire. Yep, right outside everyone’s open windows, the piles of grass are smoldering, creating a ton of smoke. It wafts right into our home, and everyones! Well, this is apparently normal. However, for us, having a house full of smoke is not normal, and rather frightening and disgusting and dangerous. Determined not to be the obnoxious Americans, we pack it up, find Krystin and head to the internet café.

The “internet café” is across the busy road from campus. You just cross the street, step over the big concrete gap for water and trash, walk over the broken concrete and step inside the dark room. The young guy running the shop is friendly and smiles at us. Thank goodness for Krystin who helps us get everything up and running, explains the cost, etc. The booths for using the internet are 3-foot high, wooden sectioned cubicles, with a cushion on the floor, and the computer on the floor. These cubicles are great if you are under five-foot tall. (Yes, we think of our sweet Betsy every day – this is perfect for you Betsy!!) So we clamber up and down, and Jim puts photos on the blog, while Jacob and I use another cubicle (both of us on the floor of this one was hysterical, our legs were sticking out in the aisle!). We check facebook as best we can, given the very slow nature of the internet. Did I mention there was one fan above and lots of cigarette smoke? Anyway, we giggled, laughed, smiled at everyone, and after an hour packed had taken as much as we could stand. Cost for one hour of internet service: 3,000 rupiah – or 40-cents.

We walked around the area, found an ATM, stopped and bought a few cold drinks, and headed back home – where the smoke had dissipated in the house leaving a nice smoky scent to everything. Maybe it will keep the bugs down.

We ate rice for dinner (no one has much of an appetite – it could be the heat, the smells… who knows), and were quietly reading when at 8:30 pm a giggly knock came on the door. Four girls, university students, under the guise of wanting to welcome us and practice English, came to see Jacob. I’m not kidding. We invited them in, asked them a series of very simple questions, smiled, and then they all wanted to have their pictures taken with Jacob. It was so funny. The girls’ names were: Ana, Duma, Siska and Fine. Siska and Fine are the daughters of one of the lecturers we met. We were kind, polite, thanked them for stopping by and sent them on their way by 9:15 – at which time we turned off all the lights and went to bed.