Address

Hello everyone,
Here is my mailing address! Some of you were asking for it, perhaps to send some mail or to look it up on Google Maps :) Both ideas make me very happy.

Lisi Schrottner
GKMI Yogyakarta
Jl. Jati - Pingit Kidul
No. 9-11
Yogyakarta 55231
Indonesia

This is the church's address, which is faster since I live in a housing complex that's apparently not nice towards mail...If you would like my house address, please email me privately.
I'll update this blog soon, I promise!
Blessings,
Lisi

Merbabu 2



Mt. Merapi, an active volcano that erupts every 4-6 years. Last major eruption was in 2010, smoking a little bit all the time. Nevertheless, I'm going to climb this one too!




The puncak (summit) crew! Representing Canada, China, Zambia and America



From the summit



Merbabu 1

Dawn over the valley, around 5:15

The closest we got to seeing sunrise.  On the right is Merbabu's lower summit and the mountain in the middle is Andong

The last steep climb!

Getting closer to the top

The summit! :) Java's highest mountain, Semeru, in the  distance

Pictures from Class Outings

An enting-enting factory in Salatiga

The waterfall, Sekat Langit

The batik factory. The men are stamping hot wax patterns (close-up) onto fabric

Receiving wonderful hospitality during a village visit

For my fellow hikers and lovers of God's creation!

2 Oktober, 2012

Semangat!
I am sitting here with a fantastic sense of peace and joy and I owe that to the goodness of my God!

As week 5 of language class came to an end with a full class, we headed to G. Merbabu for an overnight hike. The seven very intrepid YALTers with varying levels of excitement and two guides approached base camp of the 3145 m. mountain at 6:00pm and ascended the steep and dusty trail. It reminded me of Kamloops, to be honest. Through the trees we could see the village lights between the cities of Magelang and Salatiga and looking up, the sky was a canopy of stars and moonlight. The waxing moon reached its full point at midnight, so flashlights were not always necessary! Unfortunately we dropped one member of our team who was sick at the start, so he had to remain in the car... But the rest of us made it to the 2nd stop/ camping spot. It was pretty cold at this point and we hurriedly set up tents and built a fire. After a quick dinner and a quick solitary lie-down in the grass under the full moon :) we went to bed. I think I slept less than an hour in the 3 hour time span we had to rest. It was so cold! Even for Canadian standards, yes. Oh well. We departed again at the chilly hour of 3:30am to reach the summit by sunrise. I was very excited; some may call it being overtired but I had energy and was stoked to do this! We climbed and clambered up the rocky trail as the moon set and the sky lightened up. Peaks started coming up through the clouds and we could see the villages once again. At the pace we were going, we unfortunately didn't make it to the summit for sunrise (can't cross that off my list of things to do but I don't mind trying again!). But the mountains turned golden as we continued and the view only got better. We reached several posts ("this isn't the top yet??" "5 minutes more") and it was getting quite warm. A group of Papuan students studying at UKSW in Salatiga passed us and practically ran up to the summit. Half our group stopped at the 700m remaining mark as we stared up a really steep cliff. I scrambled up and finally made it to the puncak (summit) at 7:15. Wow. I celebrated with the Papuan guys and turned around and there was G. Merapi, one of the most active volcanoes in the world. Have you ever stared eye-level at a volcano, speechless and jumping for joy inside? That was me that morning! It was unusually clear so you could see every ridge, rice paddy, and the sand slides and ravines left from the 2010 eruption. Amazing! The 3 other members of the group followed shortly and we ate peanuts, hydrated and took many pictures for a short while. It was an amazing experience and man, there is no other feeling like being on top of a mountain! Love it :) I praise the Lord for such joyful experiences and I am excited to have more! As my opening sentence states, my peace and joy was renewed and I really needed this.
We descended slowly and reached camp a few hours later. After a quick breakfast/lunch we headed back to the bottom. I finally started losing steam here and my ingrown toenails made for very uncomfortable shoes. But we all reached the bottom and boom. Mountain "befriended" (or conquered, whichever you prefer)! I crashed that night and spent the next day moving and keeping myself busy. I have to say, I feel great :)

The next day brought more excitement right away, in ways that I wouldn't have readily asked for but it happened. On the way to school I witnessed my first minor traffic accident; unfortunately, it was another YALTer ahead of me. A motorcyclist collided with her from behind and he crashed, the bike coming down on him and his wife. With shouts and crying coming from both sides of the accident, the mess was untangled and it was time for the two of us to use our Indonesian to find a solution and see what the damage was. This is difficult while trying to decide who to see to: comfort your crying friend or see if the other couple are truly alright? This was a little stressful and our language escaped us for the time being! But with the help of a wonderfully helpful passerby we made it to a walk-in clinic about 2 minutes away and our language teachers and MCC contact came to the rescue shortly after. The man required some stitches and the woman was just scratched and bruised. My teammate was quite shaken up but she's ok! I praise the Lord that nothing serious happened and that police were not involved. We learned to be super careful in traffic and that it was just a matter of time before something happened to one of the nine YALTers. Also, that people truly care and that we will not go uncared for during our stay in Indonesia!

Needless to say, I am a little more tired now after all this!
But "The Joy of the LORD is my strength" and  every night I can, with assurance, say that "I will lie down and sleep in peace for you alone, O LORD, make me dwell in safety".

Nighttime ramblings

27 September, 2012

We are nearing the end of the 6^th week in Indonesia; wow, time goes by fast! The past 2 weeks have been similar to the previous ones but every day brings its own challenges, blessings and joys to be shared!

Language study is going well, although it is often overwhelming. The words keep coming and, without practice, they are easily lost. But we have had an awesome time with our language teacher(s) exploring Indonesian culture in Salatiga and the surrounding area. They have been fantastic tour guides! On the 12^th we visited a factory that produces enting-enting, a sugary peanut snack that is famous here. The workers were quite happy to host us for 20 minutes, as we tried pounding the peanuts and wrapping the finished products. Next we went to a batik store where we watched them produce this famous fabric. Batik is done by stamping hot wax onto fabric in varying patterns and then dying the fabric. The wax is boiled off and a white or lighter design is left. Batik is often just printed now, as the dying process takes quite a while and the price is more expensive. But it was so cool to watch them stamp the fabric here and see how it’s actually done!

On the 20^th we went to a village nearby and were treated with the greatest hospitality by a Muslim family. We ate snacks and lunch at 10:00 and enjoyed some Indonesian/Javanese conversation in which the YALTers contributed much nodding and smiling. We left for a short time to visit a waterfall close by. There is a tragic story here involving SALTers several years ago, but fortunately we were quite safe. The area resembled BC quite a bit, excluding the palm trees, bamboo and other such plants and we enjoyed taking photos. We returned to the house to eat our second lunch and take along some snacks for the road. We were ridiculously blessed by this family!

Yesterday we learned to play gamelan, traditional Javanese percussion. There were about 8 different kinds of metal and wood instruments and we learned to read the notation and played 3 different songs. Eventually we accompanied our host to the wayang, traditional Javanese shadow puppets. This is really interesting and I can’t wait to see more! The detailed, flat puppets are held up against a white background so the audience can see both puppet and shadow. One person always performs and there are hundreds of different stories, often involving gods, goddesses and struggles between good and evil. The stories can last up to 12 hours! Luckily ours was only 10 minutes :) That afternoon, we finally got to play badminton. The language teachers arranged for us to play and it was a great time! I love this sport. Indonesia has some of the best players in the world (don’t think about the London 2012 games, bear with me) so unfortunately Team Canada came up a little short this day! But man, it was fun. The court was at the top of a very long hill so I almost passed out coming up – I had reached my exercise quota by this point – but it was worth it! I do need to be careful to not exhaust myself though. Biking around town everyday does take its toll!

So aside from language class, there are many other things that we do here. I still love meeting with the MCC staff members every week. An MCC Global Service Learning (GSL) team was here for one week and it was great to see some staff that we met in Akron. We had the opportunity to take them to lunch one day; this was the first time we got to be “experts” and lead the way. It was a great challenge! Last weekend, another YALTer and I went along to Magelang to meet my host father’s family. They had a ceremony to pray for and remember their mother, who passed away a few months ago. The 6 older sisters of my host father are wonderful women who love to laugh and share what they have. Once again, I had platters of food placed in front of me and was constantly encouraged to makan lagi: eat more!! It was wonderful! I can only imagine what a great woman this was to raise these children that love to serve. We also went around the city a bit, walking around an amusement park (which was closed but awesome nonetheless) and a giant mall. We came back for the prayer and dinner. It was a Muslim ceremony and it was fascinating to sit in and observe what was happening. The fact that there were less than 10 Christians sitting in the two rooms with more than 25 Muslims was completely ok and there were no barriers in fellowship. They were praying aloud (men only) and I was praying in my head for this woman that we are all linked to and want to remember. Both to the one true God who hears all prayer. It’s a connection that goes beyond religious barriers and it intrigues me. I hope to discover more as I stay here longer and as interfaith dialogue increases.

That being said, cultural adaptation is continuing to move forward. It’s still difficult, as I weave my way through the rules and ways of life and the traffic jams in the streets. I am sometimes overwhelmed with how much there is to learn, especially the language, and how little energy I have to do it! I am often tired which makes interactions more difficult, as I have less patience. But, I am here to learn and that is giving me great joy. It helps a lot in my daily activities to be reminded of my purpose here and why I am in Indonesia of all places. This is a small slice of my part of God’s missional plan for the world. I am always striving to live missionally and make my lifestyle one of peace and love in serving and learning. This takes place wherever I am. This year just happens to be taking place in Indonesia :)

10. September, 2012

The past week and a half have been bagus sekali (“very good” – it sounds better in Indonesian)!

The first of September was my little brother’s 4^th birthday so we drove to Semarang to visit with family for the weekend. We celebrated with an excellent fish dinner, a short boat ride on the ocean – welcome to the Java Sea! – and cruising around the city and a massive shopping mall. This is a wonderful family I get to live with, I will be sad to leave them in a month.

After a short week of language classes, two days to be exact, the MCC team gathered at a hotel on the edge of the mountains right outside Salatiga. It was a beautiful location and our stay was excellent! The three and a half days of Team Meeting were filled with many things. Most important for me was getting to know everyone on the MCC team. The team is approx. 25-30 people and I enjoyed the company of all of them. We had “lectures” and discussions, watched documentaries, rested by the pool, ate together and worshipped together. On Friday afternoon, a small group of bold foreigners took on Andong Mountain (Gunung Andong), close to the hotel. It was so great!! It was a short but steep hike, the first trio making it up in 35 minutes. I am thankful to have made it up in this group so I could spend the most time at the top! The view was awesome, overlooking villages, rice fields, tobacco fields and other mountains. Across the valley was Gunung Merbabu, the big guy in the area. I can’t wait to climb that one in the upcoming weeks before we leave Salatiga! Stay tuned for pictures even more fantastic than these! :) The Team Meeting ended and we all returned to our respective positions in Java and one other island. It was a restful and encouraging time that we had; furthermore, it was followed by a wonderful dinner hosted by a fellow SALTer’s host mother. It was her birthday and she invited all nine of us YALTers for dinner. It’s times like this that I wish I could express my thanks with more than Terima kasih, sekali, sekali! I am surrounded by servant hearts and could not be more blessed.

1. Our third week of language study has started and I’m ready to take on the lessons! I just hope I can retain everything and use it to communicate effectively soon. Please pray that I take the opportunity to practice with native speakers on a daily basis. This may take me out of my comfort zone but it needs to be done :)

2. Please keep in your thoughts the rest of the Columbia Bible College interns that have departed/are departing for their internships. I’m so glad to be part of this group as well! Right now, I can say that there are students in Canada, New Zealand, Germany/Austria, Thailand, Honduras and two in Indonesia! These are awesome people that share a common passion for people and making God’s love known to all.

3. Please pray for my family in Canada as our home is going through a time of transition. Our house is in the process of being sold and everything must be sorted and packed. Christi is leaving for Austria in the next few weeks for a semester abroad, back in March 2013, and in December Sophi will be going to Austria as well. Our stuff will be in Kamloops, either in our mom’s apartment or a giant storage container. It’s strange to think that this is going on while I’m here and that next year I’ll go home to…a home all over the place! One without my Huckle, at that. My little poodle-terrier was with me for 16 years and passed away two days before I came to SALT. I’m still grieving his death…I miss my old man! I do admit that when they talk about eating anjin (dog) there is a pang of sadness... Speaking about strange food, two days ago I ate a fish head including an eyeball!

Anyway, I trust that God is always in control and he is keeping me present in my time here in Indonesia, praise him for that!

Sampai minggu depan (until next week),

Lisi