Photo by kent.edu Someone from the States asked me if I can update about the earthquake situation in Indonesia on my blog. The reason behind the request is that people hear the news about the earthquakes (there have been more recently) and the terrorist bombing and they want to know if […]
The Reminders through the Call to Prayer
Photo from Freewebs I think one of the things that people have to get used to while they are in Indonesia is the daily calls to prayer. All throughout the day, you are able to hear the multiple calls to prayer for the Muslim people. The retreat center that I am […]
High School Retreat Revisited
Photo by Steven Fernandez For some reason, it seems so long ago that I spoke at a high school youth retreat, but in actuality, it has only been a few years. There is something about youth retreats that still has a special place in my heart. First of all, my first […]
My First Exam as a Professor
Photo from nomadlife.org This past week was my first time writing up a midterm exam on the college level. So many things ran through my mind. I thought about some of the most difficult exams that I have taken in my life. I thought about some of the easiest test that […]
Power Outages
Photo by uchicago.edu I have heard about the power outages that occur once in awhile in Indonesia. People have told me to be prepared for them because it happens randomly and the electricity can be out for hours. It was all head knowledge until we experienced our first power outage. Now, […]
I Don’t Want a Revival
Photo by Northview Some years ago, I was reflecting on how God sent revivals throughout history. At first, I was baffled at the fact that we haven’t been experiencing the type of revival that we read about in history. There were some of the more recent revivals in the 1990’s and […]
Obama’s Possible Miscue on Culture
Photo by Presswire The 2016 Olympics will be officially held in Rio de Janeiro, Brasil (yes, I am spelling it with an “S” instead of a “Z”… spelling with the “S” is the official Portuguese way). It was a joyous occasion for people of Brasil because this will be the first […]
Batiks are Indonesian
Photo on Friendster On October 2nd of this year, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) has officially recognized the batik as an Indonesian cultural treasure. In order to celebrate this recognition, President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono asked Indonesians to wear a batik on this day. This was a huge […]
Earthquakes in Indonesia
Photo by Reuters So much has happened in our 3 months in Indonesia. Not only in terms of the church plant, but we have been welcomed by a terrorist bombing in Jakarta, an earthquake (that we actually felt), and now another earthquake in Sumatra Island. The death toll is slowly rising […]
Enough is Enough
Photo by pdesigner.com I don’t know how many of you have been following the news this past week, but there are a lot of global things going on right now. Recently, the United Nations (U.N.) had their 61st General Assembly session in NYC. Not only was this meeting a bit tense […]
Making Changes
Photo on Flickr Even though it has been a little less than 3 months since we have been here in Indonesia, God is showing us a lot of different things. By His grace, God has allowed us, not only to transition well, but to reinforce a lot of the values that […]
The Concept of Personal Space
Photo by Reuters As you can tell from the picture above, things are crowded in Indonesia. This picture describes not only the massive amount of motorcycles on the road, but also the chaos on the streets as people are all trying to get home for the Hari Raya Idul Fitri holiday. […]
The “I” in Idolatry
Photo by Anne Elliott The American Heritage Dictionary defines “idolatry” as, “blind or excessive devotion to something.” It is interesting that throughout the Bible one theme that keeps on coming up is the topic of idols. It is germane to who we are as God’s people. God created us to worship […]
True Freedom
Photo on Diane Beeler website In class yesterday, we had a good discussion on the topic of freedom. I challenged the students to think about the true meaning of freedom as we were going over the Old Testament. I pointed out that we see the plight of humankind constantly disobeying God, […]