Pictures 12-27 April

Third post of the day because I forgot to add the link to more pictures!

Click: Online Photo Album!

:)

Mt. Merapi 26-27 April

This excursion gets its own post because I'm so excited about it! Last weekend, I had the opportunity to hike my 4th mountain here, the active volcano next to the city of Jogja. Ever since I saw Merapi from the summit of  Merbabu, I couldn't wait to "befriend" it too!
Because I like to tell stories, here goes the account:

Our route, approximately

After a 2 hour motorcycle ride from our church, 3 guys and I arrived at the base in the village of Selo. Starting at 6:30 pm, we started to naik (climb). The moon was beautiful and full; the stars, clouds and Merbabu to the rear were bright and awesome! Kudos to our fourth group member, who was embarking on his first hiking trip ever. After a bout of feeling sick, he kept going and eventually made it down the mountain the next day too. :) As we exited the "tree line" and entered the rocky part of the volcano, the mist started rolling in. We couldn't find the camping area, a plain called Pasar Bubrah or "devil's market". After quite some time, we found the rocky plain and pitched a tent. Our 12:00 am supper was short and sweet (literally. I've never seen anyone spread so much Nutella on one piece of bread...) and then we had a rest. It rained while we were pitching the tent, so we went to bed slightly wet...Not a good idea. It was also chilly so I didn't sleep much. It still amazes me how cold it gets up there!

Sunrise

At 5:20 am, "woke up" and looked out the tent to see the lightening sky and the summit of Merapi right there! After the sun came up, three of us headed to the summit. This was the most difficult part as it's mostly sand and then rocks. Good thing it only took less than an hour! We reached the top and WOW looked down into the volcano!! It's a crater, with a flat bottom and few rises. There were small spots where smoke was coming out. There was a lingering sulfur smell and a constant sound of rushing wind throughout the hole. There was one spot down there, probably a few metres across, where lava could be seen! The outer wall is complete except for one large gap, that can be seen from Jogja. The original summit, called Puncak Garuda, was reduced to a stack of large boulders by the eruption in 2010.

The top!

Puncak Garuda

Good friends, good fun! Merbabu in the background

We hung out at the top for a while, taking tons of pictures and basking in the sun and complete awesomeness of Creation. Merbabu to the South was perfectly clear and the sea of clouds, beautiful. I didn't want to leave!

Tea time

We descended after some time and this was the easiest part: awesome sand-surfing! At the camp, we ate a hearty breakfast of boiled potatoes with bolognese sauce, leftover snacks and good tea. More pictures, and then we set out to descend the mountain. It's always so cool while going down to see in daylight what we missed coming up the night before. This was slow going but we had some great conversations about culture and personal opinions. Made it down around 3:00 pm - SUKSES! Posed with the lovely Hollywood-esque sign at the trail head. Made the journey home, in the rain, and arrived safely in Jogja! Sunburnt and sore, natually, but man it was AWESOME! Every time I see Merapi -which is everyday - I can't believe I was there. It's also reflective thing because the eruption in 2010 was devastating and a nightmare for many people in the area. The power that nature holds is amazing and terrifying! I praise God for the livelihoods and  environment that have been regrowing since then; also for the strength of the people here to rebuild their lives when such disasters happen.
Another amazing thing about hiking here is the community. As evident in many other places (e.g. Austria), the mountains are a place where everyone is family. My friends struck up conversation with everyone we passed and shared a good many laughs. It was mostly in the Javanese language and in those cases, I just had to wait until the conversation turned to "who's the foreigner?" It was great meeting people from all over, including many other foreigners that day!

Camp at Pasar Bubrah

In conclusion, I'm not sure when my next hike will be. I have desires (and people to take me) to hike more mountains in Java but time is short. There's Lewu, Semeru, Slamet, Gede... Aduh! So many! I also figure I should get to the white sand beaches because we do not have those in Canada!
Thanks to my hiking group who took me to Merapi!! Trima kasih, saudara-saudara, untuk mengajak aku ke gunung! Pengalaman LUAR biasa dan juga keren "beudh" haha.

The trail head at "New" Selo. Climbing those metal bars was sketchy!

A happy and satisfied little Austrian hiker,
Lisi :)

Life as it happens

Greetings from Indonesia! Kepada teman-teman disini, trima kasih atas membaca blog ini :) Aku sangat senang bahwa ada pengikut dari Indonesia!
The past three weeks have been busy and quite enjoyable. As a SALTer who's been having a great experience, I'm finding myself caught in an unavoidable phase of the program. Having reached a level of familiarity and ease with the surrounding community, I am able to have meaningful communication and join many great activities. I've reached the point where I can tell jokes - sadly, my sarcastic humour is still difficult to get across - and share deeper stories about life. I can present at church or school, with or without using an Indonesian script in front of me. I can comfortably get around Jogja using the 2A or 3A Trans. bus line, impressing curious bus-goers with my Indonesian in the simplest form of conversation: self-introduction.
At this point, I find it difficult to imagine being in Canada! Of course, I cannot wait to see my family and home. In the past few weeks, many friends have graduated from college/university and I missed my first wedding of 2013. Two good friends are getting married this weekend as well. I realize that missing special events is salah satu drawbacks of living overseas.
As usual, some highlights from the past three weeks:

• English Club on 12 April was an evening at Alun-Alun Kidul, the south city square behind the sultan's palace. Our small group rode around on brightly lit 6-person bikes, ate street food (crepes, siomay, noodles) and attempted the Masangin trick that I tried back in the fall. While improving English wasn't the end result of the night, we had a great time getting to know each other! 

• Helping out a friend host an informal English lesson for neighbourhood kids. Ten elementary school girls came to her house and we sang songs, played games, and giggled together. They were really smart!

• Met Stuart Murray. As a CBC student and one interested in Anabaptist theology, this was a big deal! He's a British missiologist, church planter and author of The Naked Anabaptist. On his Southeast Asia tour, he stopped at Duta Wacana and joined a discussion on Jesus, kingdom work and justice. Got to chat with him and theology profs at Duta Wacana and later joined Mr. Murray and his hosts, my pastor's family, for dinner at a Javanese restaurant. What to talk about with this man?? I could've asked a million questions! A funny thing to note is how my communication has a bit of Indonesian influence now. As I was wracking my brain for questions, all I could think of was "Tell me about your family" and "how old are you?" Couldn't remember what Westerners consider sopan or polite.

• Sharing at Tuesday family fellowship! I was asked to share on what the GKMI Jogja family can do to make foreigners feel welcome among them. A bit of cross-cultural understanding, personal testimony and Q and Eh?. Felt good about it, just fumbled through reading my Indonesian script. But people laughed and hummed in response, so I can say sukses! My hope is that we, as diverse communities, can work together and proclaim God's gospel. 
• Joining gamelan practice at church. These lovely Javanese percussion instruments sound so cool! 
• Trying sanggul, the traditional Javanese hairpieces used for special occasions. It's like a bun pinned to the back of the head. The black bun on my brown hair didn't really match but it looked cool anyway! 

Once again, I thank you for your support and love. It is with great joy that I am able to share such a wonderful experience with you all! I continue to ask for prayer for strength, health (oh my finicky digestive system... I call them my "usus khusus": special intestines), and opportunities to share the gospel in my current context. For the challenges, may we all find God's peace and trust that he works for the good of those who love him.

In making plans and picking courses, I'm looking ahead to the summer and fall when my Canadian life picks up again full swing! I am looking forward to returning to Kamloops and lanjut to Abbotsford for the final year of my BA! 

Damai dan anugrah Tuhan buat sekalian, 

Lisi :)

Krik krik krik krik

Dear faithful friends, family and fellow pilgrims,
It's time for a blog post. To bring Easter greetings, to share life, and to herald the last 3-ish months left of SALT! This last point brings great joy and also deep sadness...
Happy Easter to you all, I hope that you took this holy-day to reflect and worship the risen King! Hallelujah, he has risen indeed :)
I have really enjoyed the past few weeks, they've been pretty full. There's never a dull moment. A few stories...

• First, after a detailed application process, got the invitation to become a Resident Leader (senior housing) on CBC campus next year!! I am thrilled! Also incredibly nervous. This is a position I didn't see myself in until very recently, and am counting on the Lord to give me courage and wisdom as I take on this role. 
• As the leader of the English Club here at PPBA, I've enjoyed the meetings and am so encouraged by the students that participate! In March, we had Epic Board Games (giant Dutch Blitz being the "epic"ness) with friends from MCC, a potluck and Easter celebration (delicious snacks!) and a small group of us going to UKSW (Salatiga's university) to watch Hairspray, the musical. Five EC members, my boss and I watched the English department give a great performance, they did so well! This is one of my favourites for music and choreography, SO good! I am impressed with our own group and the few students that show real enthusiasm on a weekly basis. Props to my fellow "foreigner", a student from East Timor, that has a passion to practice English!
• The highlight of March was spending a week with my MCC family. Even routine immigration trips to Semarang are enjoyable! This is the first time since October that all the YALTers were together and oh what joy to see everyone again! Minus our dear friend in Canada, of course. We packed up a bus and the entire staff (with families, about 35 people) drove to Pangandaran, a tourist destination at the edge of West Java. We spent 4 lovely days swimming in both pool and ocean, "walking-walking" (sight-seeing), watching a sermon series from Canada ("Inglorious Pastors" on peacemaking and Christ), sharing stories, worshiping together, laughing, praying and playing games. Needless to say, we were all quite tired by the end of it! But I had such a great time reconnecting with everyone. I was able to spend a lot of time with my Salatiga host family, who continue to shower me in love and the privileges of being their daughter. So blessed! Thanks to everyone for the great time! It was refreshing in the sense that I feel ready to take on the remaining time with focus and passion.
• Since I've been back in Jogja, things have picked up again. I mentioned that there's never a dull moment. Now, this being said, don't misunderstand: there's a lot of "down time" in which I must pick constructive things to do! Therefore, I have become very thankful for wonderful and talkative host parents, friends to keep up with around the world, and Bonhoeffer's The Cost of Discipleship - my most recent pursuit into a curious topic. The first few chapters of this book have been a challenge to read (not including the translated German, 1930s writing...) but I have enjoyed it. Discipleship has been a topic on my heart since last year's classes at Columbia. What is discipleship? What did it mean in Christ's time? What did it mean to the Anabaptists in 16th century Europe? What does it look like in my life, a 21st century Canadian claiming to be a follower of Christ? These are all things I am thinking about and, because I'm not a theologian or skilled in rhetoric, check it out yourself! ;) Or, I'd love to talk one-on-one later if anyone's interested. I just encourage everyone to give Christ a thought - a SERIOUS thought - and ask if your life matches up to his. Are we living as he did? Do our passions seek to bring his name glory and bring justice to those seeking it? Is our purpose in life to live as a "good person", helping ourselves and others, or is there more? 
• My struggle is to fully commit to this and my goal is to make the last three months in Indonesia totally worth it. I am blessed by great communities and friends that I am serving alongside. Please pray for continued understanding, opportunities to serve, and eyes to see God's work in front of us. Time is really short now (where did it go?) and I'm realizing how much I'll miss. The people are great, I have my met wonderful people, the [mild] food is delicious, the culture is intriguing and the way of life is comfortable. However, I will continue to pass on certain aspects, thank you very much. I don't want whiter, clearer skin and I don't need three cell phones... 

Thank you, as always, for your prayers and thoughts! They mean the world to me and I persevere because of them. I'm also encouraged that YOU are encouraged by what goes on in my life. Isn't it great to be part of something much bigger than ourselves?? That's why, my fellow pilgrims, we must stay connected and build up the body that has been called to earthly ministry - for eternal results! Semangat!
Now may the God of peace, who through the blood of the eternal covenant brought back from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great Shepherd of the sheep, equip you with everything good for doing his will, and may he work in us what is pleasing to him, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen.
Hebrews 13:20-21

Shalom,
Lisi

Family!