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.

Photos Friday July 1

I know, this isn't a picture from Friday but since our Wednesday turned into Friday without sleeping, I'm going to count it! The WOW crew provided a great send off at the Knoxville airport. The upper case for l doesn't work, so liza will understand this is not a comment on her! Rachel and liza drove us to the airport, when Rev. Amy, Sam and Jeremy were waiting for us. Thanks for the love!
Here's our first view of Indonesia, provided by Jacob plastered up against the window.Here's the big Medan airport, which makes Knoxville look like a major air terminal.
While we waited for our driver to pick us up in front of the Medan airport, I grabbed a seat next to these two young ladies from Jakarta. They were there to pick up their mother. They must really love her to come all that way. They were nice enough to let me get on their wireless device and send a quick Facebook message.
This is our hero, the first driver that picked us up at the airport and took us to the Medan campus. Notice the steering wheel on the right side. Traffic moves just like in Japan or the UK, on the left side of the street. We will get the hang of crossing the street soon.
There are a bazillion motorbikes here.
Evidently when folks get married here it is customary for friend to put up signs congratulating them. This is one of about 100 we saw for Harry and lulu.

Here we are in front of the Nommensen University Medan campus administration building. We are joined by the Rector and the Vice Rector, the two big guys for the university.Gas here costs around $2 a gallon and the stations are full service with nice young ladies in red jumpsuits. Sure beats the guys in the glass boxes at home.
This is an impressive mosque we saw on the road to Siantar.
You think we were tired? You think Nancy is going to kill me for including this photo?
Motorscooters are used for all sorts of transport.
We were stuck in a monumental traffic jam, which allowed us plenty of time to check out everyone from the village as they walked by.
With traffic in complete gridlock, our driver got out to discuss the situation with a local Barney Fife.
Most of the cooking is done on propane stoves so propane canisters are everywhere. our home has a big blue one.
This was a glorious sight, the official entrance to Siantar. our three hour trip took more than five hours.

Photos Saturday July 2

Nancy and Jacob pause in front of our home before beginning our campus tour on Saturday. Note the banana tree in the background. Further in the background is housing for faculty members. Nancy points out that there are many lizards just above the front door, waiting to pounce!
Krystin, our student guide, shows off her cell phone while Jacob delights in connecting to the internet via his I-touch in the campus wi-fi hot spot. Unfortunately when we returned to the hot spot later in the day it was no longer hot. Apparently they turn it off when the last class in that building is over.
Here is Krystin, Nancy, Sun and Jacob resting for a moment during our campus tour. Both Krystin and Sun accompanied us for the day, including a visit to a shopping mall and the cell phone shop in town.This is at the cell phone shop, which was about the size of a telephone booth. Jacob, Sun and Krystin look over the available phone numbers for our new cell phone.Reina, the English Department head, conducts an outdoor class on Saturday afternoon. She was giving feedback to the thesis proposals submitted by her students. The field behind them was the location for a big soccer match the day before.

Photos Sunday July 3

We were invited by Reina, the head of the English Department, to join her for church this morning. It turned out to be the special celebration service for the 150th anniversary of the protestant religion arriving in Sumatra. So there was much fanfare before the service, with the children tooting their horns, balloons and doves released into the air, all before we processed into the church.

Many of the children were dressed in what I assume to be native costumes. I'm not sure about the hats that look like Santa Claus.The children formed a double line at the entrance to the church campus and played their horns.After the initial festivities concluded we all processed in together. The ministers are visible inside the church, wearing their white bow tie collars.

Jacob treated us to a scrambled egg breakfast, cooked on our super propane stove top. His cooking was disturbed by a big lizard falling off the ceiling in the kitchen, and then a frog joined us as we were eating. Apparently last night's rain storm has brought out the frogs.

Arrival in Siantar

We arrived last night around 5:30 in Siantar after a long drive from Medan.

We have moved into our house and have been warmly greeted by many here at Nommensen University. We will post more in the following days. Our love to all. Jacob so far has found many admirers.

Layover in Singapore

We have arrived in Singapore at a bit past midnight after traveling for about 24 hours. Our flight for Medan leaves at 7:30 and they are turning the lights off where we are sitting. The first photo shows us at Narita / Tokyo, while the second shows one of the Silk Airlines planes waiting to take us to Indonesia in the morning. The flight to Tokyo was 13 hours and 20 minutes long. Thank goodness they had video on demand systems that worked well. We each watched five or six movies...more than Nancy or I would watch in six months. Yes our rear ends are sore. We've decided if you have to overnight in an airport, this is the place to be. Peaceful music is playing quietly in the background and hopefully we can catch a little sleep here.

What's Up in Siantar?

Our curiousity is building so we took a look at the official city website for Siantar. That might have been a good idea before we bought our plane tickets, but too much info can ruin an adventure!

Though there is some variability in the census numbers, about 240,000 people live in Siantar. Judging by the website, there's some stores and stadiums and parks, so it should be interesting. Many photos are included, showing buildings and all the mayors of all time for the city. They don't mention traffic on the roads, but this is probably the Chamber of Commerce perspective of the city. Just the fact that they have a city website reflects an interest in the internet and communication. Here is the website for you to visit (thank goodness for the Google "translate to English" feature!):

http://www.pematangsiantarkota.go.id/

An interesting fact: the city has more churches than mosques.

The website includes a "fact book" from 2004 which features an incredible level of detail of subjects like traffic accidents, driver's licenses issued, pieces of mail sent, even the number of homes with telephones. Since everything on TV is summer reruns, this could make for interesting (and free) entertainment.