Finally I made time to upload pictures from our trip to Indonesia in April. They can be found in the “photo albums” page.
We left home around 5:30 in the afternoon on April 19th for Fresno Yosemite International Airport. The flight from Fresno to SFO was on a small propellered airplane. It was so noisy that Tryphena cried almost all thorough the flight. Keep in mind that it was her very first time flying, too.
The flight from San Francisco to Hong Kong left around 1. Tryphena was cranky for the first two hours of flight, and we found out later that she was hungry. We gave her a bottle of formula, and then she felt asleep.
In Hong Kong we had a 5-hour delay due to mechanical problems. At first it was only going to be an hour delay. We ate breakfast at the airport and checked-in. The plane was taxing when the pilot found that the problem had not been completely fixed. He stopped the airplane, and the passengers were bussed back to the terminal. We waited for another 4 hours before we finally took off for Jakarta.
In Jakarta we stayed at my sister’s house until Monday the 23rd. On the 24th we left for Bandung and stayed there until the 30th when we went back to Jakarta. On the following day, May 1st we celebrated my mom’s 70th birthday. On Thursday night, after eating dinner I felt really sick I thought I was going to die. On Friday evening because I didn’t get any better and after my dad forced me, we went to see a doctor. We woke up very early on Saturday, ready for the long trip back home. I felt better, but still couldn’t eat much. I just ate a little bit before we left for the airport.
The flight from Jakarta to Hong Kong was okay. I felt better, too. However, the flight from Hong Kong to San Francisco was quite full, and I felt so sick again. It was the worst flight I’ve ever had! We finally landed in San Francisco and continued with a commuter plane to Fresno. I was so glad when we got home!
The main purpose of this trip was to visit family members, so we didn’t go to many places. We’ve got to see a lot of family members, though! Mom also turned 70 and we had a gathering of about 50 some relatives. It was good to see them- some of whom we haven’t seen for more than 10 years. In the morning before the party my sister and I went to pick up some dishes and birthday cakes. We went to a cake shop where they had many delicious-looking cakes and varieties of chocolate. Yum….yum….yum….
We spent two Sundays there and attended two worship services, one in Jakarta and one in Bandung. Both visits were not pleasant, to say the least. Both of us were disheartened and sad. During the church service in Jakarta I didn’t even know that the pastor had already started his sermon. There was no prayer of illumination or anything sort of that. I just thought that he was still doing some kind of “short discourse.” The bulletin also contained what was supposed to be a pastoral letter from the stated clerk of the synod, so I just read the letter that, in my humble opinion, was nothing but a piece of rubbish. (It was a liberal church, mind you?!)
One thing I remember from the 2nd Sunday’s sermon in Bandung, not because it conveyed the truth of the Gospel but because I was so depressed hearing such a sermon. The preacher mentioned something like, (and I translated it almost verbatim) “If husband and wife are sleeping in separate beds, they need to take care of that first before they come to worship God.” ** sigh ** Ugh! What kind of preaching is that?! Recent survey reveals that more and more couples are now sleeping in separate quarters for reasons other than bad relationship. Even if he implied “bad relationship” by saying “sleeping in separate beds”, should it not be dealt privately during elders’ visit? Or through discipline? Why hundreds of worshippers (yes, it’s a big church and there’s a picture of it) had to suffer and hear this?
In both churches Christ was almost absent, except in the closing of the prayers. I literally counted how many times the name of Christ was mentioned during the service in Bandung and excluding the prayers he was mentioned only twice! We are so thankful for our church where Christ is so central in every worship, from the singing to the prayers to the sermon!
During this visit we also met Indra’s your brother’s wife whom we’ve never met before! It was always a pleasure to meet new family members! We also met their 5-month-old baby Jesselyn. She’s soo cute…….
Despite the sloooow Internet connection (I had to check work e-mails almost daily and did some work-related stuff), bad church experiences, and being sick the last two days we were there overall it was a good trip and we’re looking forward to having more visits in the future!