The Construction

The team spent four hours each morning constructing the foundation for a new church building.  We started early in order to avoid the heat, but boy, was it hot!  Even though we live in the heat of Texas, we were not prepared for the combination of heat, humidity, and hard labor we found in Sungai Galing.  I felt every single one of my 54 years.  We probably only worked 40 minutes out of each hour, the other 20 minutes spent “on break” finding some shade and lots of water.  Our Indonesian friends, of course, kept right on working.

Dedication ceremony; laying the first stones of the foundation.

The foundation had already been laid out and the trenches had already been dug (thank you, Lord!).  It was our job to build the foundation up from there using stone and cement/concrete.  There are no power tools, so the cement, sand, and water are hauled and mixed by hand.  The stones were moved into place by hand and by wheelbarrow.  Ronny was the head stone mason, and he directed us as we built up each section of the wall.  Ronny was working very hard and so, at one point, we set up a chair for him so he could sit as he worked on the wall.  Todd also set up some plywood to block the sun for him so he could work in the shade.  While he was sitting there on his chair, in the shade, waiting for the rest of us to bring him more stone and cement he said, “C'mon Hebrews!  Work faster!  Pharaoh is waiting!”  That, of course, got a huge laugh.  We referred to him as “Pharaoh” for most of the rest of the week.

Work in process.

After the first couple of days, more men from the village began helping in the afternoon.  These men would show up after their regular jobs and work through the hottest part of the day.  We were always very pleasantly surprised when we showed up in the morning and saw how much progress they had made without us.  By Friday evening, the foundation was nearly complete.

Ronny wanted to hold Sunday morning services on the site, inside the new foundation.  That meant we had to level the inside on Saturday.  That meant lots of stone, gravel, and sand had to be put in all of the low spots – about half the surface area inside the foundation.  We all formed a shoveling and wheelbarrow assembly line.  Let me tell you, wheelbarrows full of gravel and sand are HEAVY!  I got a really good workout in my arms and shoulders that morning as we made about 20 trips each.

The team poses by the baptistry.

Foundation nearly complete; floor leveled.

With the floor leveled, the local men put tarps on the ground and on poles overhead to provide shade.  We had a wonderful Sunday morning worship there, singing praises to our Lord and engaging His Word as Kirk preached about Paul’s conversion.  Two of the adults in the village prayed to receive Christ that morning!  Worth every drop of sweat and all of the sore muscles!  We pray that this new building will continue to be a place where people encounter the living Lord Jesus and give their lives to Him.

Sunday morning worship on the site.

The Village

The village of Sungai Galing is laid out along the river bank. There is a concrete sidewalk that was laid some years ago and as you went farther up river from the dock, there were houses on both sides of the walk. Just beyond the second row of houses is dense jungle. 

The houses vary in quality of material and landscaping. Some are very poor, the wood faded and in poor condition. Others are much nicer, with ceramic tile steps and porches and decorative windows. All have corrugated metal roofs, which makes it very hot inside. About half of the houses have satellite dishes. It was strange for us to see all of them pointed straight up… I guess that’s what you do when you live right on the equator! There is no electricity, but most homes have generators which they use to run their lights and their televisions at night.

There are a lot of children in the village, from toddler to middle school ages. It seemed like they made up more than half of the population. When we first arrived, one of the kids saw my hat and yelled “Cowboy!” (pronounced kuh-BOY). That became my name for the rest of the week among most of the kids. As I would walk back and forth to Aboy’s house and our main meeting place there were always shouts of “kuh-BOY!” The rest of the team were greeted with “Hello!” or “Good morning!” (no matter what the time of day) by the kids as they practiced their English.



The Animist Altar



Because of the heat, most people sit out on their porches or under shade trees by the river. This gave us opportunity to at least greet nearly everyone between Aboy's house and the church.

Unlike what I saw in Cambodia, there are not so many symbols of religion around. The Dayak people (the main tribe in this part of Borneo) practiced animism. The largest and oldest tree in the village has an animist altar at its base. We didn't see any sacrifices there, but were told that sometimes the people would bring offerings of food and place them there. A few of the homes had symbols of Catholicism and a few of Buddism. There appears to be a willingness to mingle practices and beliefs from several religions.

The main source of family income is from rubber and/or coconut palm trees on their land. Some also work at nearby coconut palm plantations. The plantation workers make $50 every two months. Yes – that's just $300 per year.

Since the village is so far from any city, and because there are so few lights, the night skies are amazing. The sky looks like a planetarium, with thousands of stars visible to the naked eye. We found ourselves just standing on the sidewalk and staring upward. The words of the old hymn came to mind: “Oh Lord my God, when I in awesome wonder, consider all the worlds Thy hands have made. I see the stars... Thy power throughout the universe displayed... How great Thou Art!”

The Accommodations

We had been told during our preparation meetings that we would be staying in the houses of some of the village church members.  We were prepared to sleep on the floor, on a mat they would provide.  We were thinking that it would basically be like camping.  Kirk and Todd were put up in the pastor’s house, the Serworwora’s and Kartawijaya’s at other members’ houses, and their bedding was as predicted. 



Man U fans are everywhere!



Indoor bathroom: "Shower" on the left, toilet on the right.

Chris and I were taken about a 10-minute walk away from the others to the house of a man named Aboy and his family.  They couldn’t speak any English – nor we any Bahasa – so there was mostly pantomime the entire time.  The family consisted of Aboy, his wife, his sixth grade granddaughter, Tia, and an older lady that Chris and I dubbed “the grandma”.  When we arrived, we couldn’t believe what we saw there.  We were given a private bedroom with trundle beds – complete with Manchester United sheet sets!  Granted, the mattresses were not what we were accustomed to, but no sleeping on a mat on the floor for us!  (They did think it was pretty strange that we put up our mosquito netting anyway.)  Unlike the other houses, Aboy’s house had an indoor toilet (yes, still a “squatty potty”) with mountain water and a hose for “showering”.

When we woke up each morning, they provided mocha coffee and biscuit cookies.  They also insisted that we give them our dirty clothes to be washed.  Each day during our stay we would come back from our working and find our freshly washed and folded clothes waiting for us in our room.  We had checked into the Ritz-Carlton of Sungai Galing!  Seriously, though, this family was so kind, warm and hospitable to us during our entire stay.  More about them later.

The Journey – Part Two

After our arrival in Jakarta, we were transported to the Hotel Ciputa, where we would spend the night.  It was a very nice hotel, far above my expectation.  It was a nice place to prepare for roughing it in the heat of Sungai Galing (SG). 

 

We had a short rest at the hotel before we went on a tour of the largest mosque in Southeast Asia, Masjid Istiqlal.   Unlike other mosques that I have visited, Istiqlal is built using very modern architecture.  It is 5 stories tall.  It is so large that the main worship and the adjoining courtyards can hold 200,000 people at one time.  Each of them would have a 3’ x 6’ area in which to kneel and pray. 

Our hotel was attached to a big shopping mall, so after the tour we decided to try out the “food court”.  We ended up at a place called “The Chicken Story” and tried some of the local dishes.  I can’t remember the name of mine, but it was some kind of fried noodles with chicken and shrimp.  Not bad for the first meal.  Very cheap, too… 35,000 rupiah (or about $3.50 including the bottled water).

In the morning, after a nice breakfast at the hotel, we took a flight to Pontianak, the capital of West Kalimantan.  There we met Iksan, a student from the Indonesia Baptist Seminary who would spend the week with us in the village and serve as one of our interpreters (and much more).  From Pontianak, we took a 3-hour boat trip up the Kapuas River to Sungai Galing.  It was a small, fast boat, about the size of a ski boat in the U.S.  The villages we could see initially along the river looked very poor.  We asked if that was what SG was like.  The answer: “slightly better”.  Ok, good.

The boat that took us to Sungai Galilng.

The highlight of the journey was our arrival at the village.  As we pulled up to the “dock”, the steep river bank was lined with the people of SG, adults and children alike, there to welcome us.  It was a sight that I will not soon forget.  What a way to start our work there!



The people begin to gather to welcome us.



The Journey -- Part One

Sungai Galing is a long way from Fort Worth, Texas.  How far?  I don't know in miles, but it's 23 hours in the air (four flights) plus a 3 hour boat ride.  That's not counting the layovers in between the various flights.  Let's just say it makes for a long couple of days...

I'm sitting here in the Cathay Pacific business class lounge.  It was a welcome sight after the 14.5 hour flight from San Francisco.  A hot shower and a shave following a full day of travel felt great.  I'm thankful for status on American/One World that allows me access to the lounge.  Now for the 4.5 hour flight to Jakarta!

Our team is mostly traveling separately.  Chris had business in Singapore before the mission trip, so left Fort Worth on Thursday.  Ronny and Lena left on Monday, Christian and Anne on Tuesday.  Kirk and Todd left on Friday, like I did, only their route took them through LAX and Taipei.  We'll all meet up in Jakarta this afternoon to begin The Journey -- Part Two.  Stay tuned...

UPDATE: We all arrived in Jakarta and will spend the night there before heading off in the morning to Pontianak (via air) and the long boat ride to Sungai Galing.

Travis Indonesia Mission Team

Welcome to the blog for the Travis Avenue Indonesia Mission Trip -- June 8-19, 2012!

Our team will be traveling to Sungai Galing, a village in the province of West Kalimantan on the island of Borneo.  Our assignment is to support the local village church by beginning construction of a new church building, conducting Backyard Bible Clubs for the children of the village, and assisting in evening worship services.  It is quite a jam-packed itinerary!

Team members are: Kirk Wooldridge (leader), Todd Butler, Mike Lee, and Chris Ratcliff.  Our Indonesian sponsor, Ronny Serworwora and his wife, Lena, are meeting us in Jakarta, as will our other Indonesian friends, Christian and Anne Kartawijaya and their sons, Timothy and Thaddeus.

This is a new partnership between the Travis Avenue church and the folks in Sungai Galing.  The hope is that we will be the first of many teams from Travis and other U.S. churches to journey to Indonesia to support the work, and that Sungai Galing will be at the center of a broader reaching educational and outreach effort.

We ask that those readers who are people of prayer will pray for our team and for the people of Sungai Galing.  We certainly need it and will appreciate it so much!  Keep checking this blog and we'll keep you up to date as to what we're doing and more importantly, what God is doing.