Manjoseph and Matt are baking buns.

Me showing them how the pros do it.

Mmmmmm...!!!!

These will become delicious little buns once they are folded up
correctly! Bums with treats on the inside! From back to front: srikaya
(coconut jam), coconut, and chocolate :)

Manjoe goes to school

Nap time at Mt Hope!!!

Bahahaha aren't they cute :) Five little sleeping peoples :)

Aaaaaand.....we're done :)

Hello! We are now in Singapore! It's after midnight so this will be VERY brief as I'm very very keen to go to sleep!! But thought i'd better check in! We've debriefed (and had the first warm shower in 10 days!) in Singapore. Had a wonderful time at Mt hope which I will not write about now but hopefully some of the kids will get onto in the next few days. Today we spent the day playing at Universal Studios which was super fun!! Got four 10/10s and two 9.5/10s (due to being quite tired) so safe to say that overall everybody loved the day :) Joe, Cherie and I fly out in less than 19 hours...feels a bit weird to be heading home...after all this planning and everything it's actually all over!! However, tonnes of awesome memories and lots to look forward to in coming home so all good :)
Can't thank you enough for your prayers and support. We honestly have so much to be grateful for. Health wasn't perfect but could have been much much worse. We always felt safe, we got along well as a team, everybody had a very positive experience overall. Lots of stories to tell! Looking forward to seeing friends and family.
Over and out for now
Kirsten xx
P.S. Yesterday we were totally in three different countries in the space if 9.5 hours - BAM!!! Amazing! Haha.
P.P.S. have added some random photos below. They are not at all a good summary of this trip but I have very few on my iPod and therefore available for immediate upload, so this wee selection will do for now :)
Goodnight! Xx

The Wendsley Dale Times from the Wop Wops

Kia Ora, G'day, Salut, Buenos Dias, Guten Tag, and Hewwo. As you may or may not have guessed being out in the middle of a jungle comes with its own set of challenges. A big one has been difficulty of global communication - texting is pretty alright ("yes mum I'm still alive type thing" except I'm pretty bad at that so hey mum I'm alive, only been attacked by some beefy ants that bite, some of us with bonus holy points are still mosquito bite free - Matt, Lissie, & I - boo yeah), wifi/Internet is very unreliable and has been down in the whole region around us too, carrier pigeons have proven ineffective (usually end up on a dinner plate), and the horse and cart set out untold ages ago and hasn't been heard or seen since. So this may be coming to you from mt hope or Kuching or some other spot where we have managed to scrounge some internets.

So where to lift off from? The rice paddies of Gadingan? The rain soaked and partially flooded streets of Kuching (hi from Aunty Belinda, Cpt Kern)? Perhaps jump shots into the hotel pool? Or the sprawling metropolis of Mt Hope? After an amazing time in Gadingan and a very sad farewell to Ps. Fera, Steph, Benny, Lely, Fisca, Sonny, & Ephan we headed to the skies and Malaysia once again. In Kuching we had a fairly large debrief time, followed by a quick journt of shopping, and topped off with a sauna & swim. Then quickly chased off to bed by 'aunty mum' (who is awesome & stayed up til 1am doing all our washing) and up early for the 2 hour trip to and across the border into Indonesia once again (where Matt was too scared to go the Arrivals counter by himself "incase they spoke only Russian.")

Mount Hope is a completely different kettle of fish (not the literal fish heads and ends we had for tea one night). First off there is way more people and the since the complex of buildings is primarily a school day to day life is very different. Also we have afternoon siestas, very different, but a good time to have some 'me' time or quiet time or even a nap since the whole place pretty much comes to a stop from 1.30-3pm.

With the shear number of people, 140 kids living on site with another 300 or so traveling in each day for school, it is a lot harder to meet and get to know everyone. However, through teaching English classes (we had 4 this morning from 8.20am - 1pm with helping at the bakery from 7am beforehand) we are slowly getting there. Our focus here seems to be a lot more just helping through serving, be that through teaching, baking, cooking, gardening, cleaning, playing with kids, Sunday school, etc etc. Something new and wildly varied pops up pretty much each day.

Now let's be civilized and talk about the weather for it is always an engrossing subject and eager ears await. We have had it blisteringly hot some days, muggy others, rain on one, and mildly pleasant on others. It has been a mixed bag but generally sweating through your clothes is a given. Then add playing volleyball, football, and badminton into the mix and you look like you've had a bucket of water tipped over you - very attractive...

On the iPod this looks pretty long so I'm going to wrap up here. Hopefully I've given you a little bit of an overview and a feel for the place. I'm going to have a bit of lie down, perhaps even 40 winks, before the site wide work time this afternoon.

Keep us in your prayers, a couple of us not 100%. Still a whole bunch of stuff for us still to do. Catch you laters.
Manjoe

"Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn't do than the ones you did. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sail. Explore. Dream. Discover."
- Mark Twain

I *AM* Mum!

(Kirsten here...I actually wrote this in Kuching but didn't get a chance to send it)

For WEEKS during the build up to this trip the "kids" have been calling me "Mum. (If they are gonna call me mum I'm totally allowed to call them the kids lol). This has somehow evolved into Aunty Mum since we've been here. This morning I felt like mum for the first time...was up at 6:45 am sorting out all the kids' washing while they slept!! Got 6 loads washed and dried over the course of the day - stoked!!!

Had a massive buffet breakfast (tried EVERYTHING hahaha). Then had really good team time/debrief in our apartment lounge room, and then headed out to explore kuching at lunch time. Found the cheapest lunch place ever - Lissie's entire meal cost her NZ$1.50!!!  Hahahaha loving it! Did a bit of shopping in an awesome cheap stationery shop and then went along the Main Bazaar which is the "touristy" stuff - souvenirs etc.
Fun day, loved how cheap everything was :) Back at the hotel we had a swim in the rooftop pool and then headed to bed. Getting picked up at 8:30 am by van to head across the border to Mt Hope.

From Gadingan to Kuching

Last monday we departed the little village in the wop wops that had come to feel like home, and headed towards the bright lights of Kuching (via KL as there was no direct flight). Fera, Stefany, and Efan took us to the airport. Got there in plenty of time so able to sit and have a drink with them before we boarded. Freshly squeezed mango juice for NZ$2, anyone?!?! Pretty emotional leaving after all we had seen, heard, tasted, and smelled, and the relationships we had built. two good flights. Big wait in KL but filled that in doing CSI-style investigations after discovering Dani had lost her camers :( :( :(  Unfortunately it was not to be found...we suspect it fell out of a hole in her backpack on the plane....a plane now bound for Hong Kong :( Bit of a bummer to lose hundreds of precious photo memories, but she did very well and we were all proud of the way she handled it.

Arrived at our awesome big apartment in Kuching...was close to midnight by the time we were settled and everybody pretty shattered so we called it a day, and settled blissfully into our air conditioned rooms with no need for mosquito nets, HOORAY!!! :D

Seriously, who does this?! By Dani

This sentence has been the most featured in my thoughts since we arrived in Gadingan. We are quite literally in the middle of nowhere, showering with cold water from a bucket, toliteing over a whole in the ground,  walking barefoot through rice paddies looming with snakes, crossing waist deep murky brown rivers that Fera later informed us was the village toilet, fighting fire ants- (first time by far the funniest- Kiks reached up into a tree to feel a piece of fruit , took her hand down, and upon seeing the insect wth the most painful bite n the entire animal kingdom, said in the tiniest voice ever, "um... This is bad?") Then i had the extreme experience of being woken up at 2.30m with my mosquito net on my face being weighed down by what I still believe was a bird eating tarantuala, found only in Indonesia. Faera attempted to reassure me the next morning that it was probab;y just a giant mouse as they have been known to bite peoples faces in the middle of the night. Needlesss to say I slept with Aunty Mum (Kirsten) after that.These are the kinds of experiences that I feared and even prayed against before I left!! But like my Dad says (and Dad, I hope you're reading this cos you'd be proud!, p.s. hi Dad!) "What's life without a little adventure?" I also couldn't help but notice that the roosters are broken over here as they crow from 3.00am untill.. well.. 2.59am. If I had a shotgun with me, I'd be adding to my list of adventures...hehe. But seriously, the one thing that has changed me the most has been realising the impacty of one persons obedience. Not sure how much Lissie wrote about the incredible stories from the family of the wee girl she sponsors, but they shook my whole world and changed forever the way I see forgiveness, hospitality, and grace. But then I thought afterwards, these stories of relsilience, miracles and incredible love would not exist if not for Fera and her obedience in this place for the past 20 years. The adventures we have had are NOTHING compared to the death threats, oppression, opposition, and sickness she has faced and yet she stays where she was called, serving faithfully every single day, raising people from the dead and experiencing God's provision and protection in ways we can't even imagine. In fact, even a week before we arrive there had been a massive flood that covered basically the whole village, with the exception of one building- the church where Fera lives. Which, I might add, is no higher up than the surrounding houses that were also flooded.
Better wrap it up now, but I left Gadingan, bruised, sleep deprived, and sweaty- but with a brand new determination to make my life count, no matter the cost or where it takes me.
Who does this?! We do.
Love Dangerous Dani and the team xxxx

Hey everybody!!! I have been very slack in updating the blog so here we go!!

One of my highlights so far has definetly been visiting the House of
Sinai, based somewhere between Solo and Gadingan the House of Sinai is
a vision that began by an Indonesian couple praying for healing as
they saw people in their community who needed prayer for mental
illness. They have completely healed around 1300 people and partially
healed so many more. They currently have about 180 people living in
who receive prayer and love as a means for healing. How
awesome!!!!!!!!!!!!Since hearing about the House of Sinai in 2010
after Kik's trip to Indonesia; coming here has been a dream. I
remember writing in my journal "God send me and I will go", so to be
able to go has been amazing!!!

Mount Hope has been cool for very different reasons to Gadingan, we
have this last week been teaching approximately 3-4 english classes,
singing songs, playing games and I have additionally been teaching
english in one of the kindergarten classes for a week while Aunty Kim
is away. It has been awesome! I get to laugh, sing and act like a
child and its not out of place. I read some of my favourite story's!
Hairy Maclary, that one is for you William [my nephew who i miss
terribly].

So tata for now! Missing everyone so much but it has been an awesome
experience, despite losing my phone...so don't try texting me :( .
Can't wait to see you all again next week! Love you long time.

Over and Out Cherie

Hey everyone! It's Kirsten's little sister here...
She had just text me saying they are having the most amazingly fun time... but they have no internet while they are serving at Mt Hope! They are going to try to get to some in the village today, but there are no guarantees.
They have been baking bread, playing sport with the kids, teaching english and enjoying the people. They went to a village church on the back of a truck on Sunday which was super fun! Dani preached, and Kirsten did her testimony, and they prayed for families there. On Sunday night, they went to church at Mt Hope - Kirsten preached and they all took the kids church program.
They still obviously need our prayer, especially for their health, as most of them are not feeling 100%.
So just so you know... they are safe and very happy... but please continue to pray for them! They will post again whenever they can get back to internet!

Kim :)

Touchy feely stuff - ManJoe loves it!

Wow, where to even begin! Every type of emotion has been flying through my mind and words can't even describe what we have seen and the stories we have heard. Some of the others have shared the details of what we have been doing since we arrived so instead I thought I would share their best day I have had whilst away (slash the best day of my life to date). On Saturday morning Pastor Fera took us out for a morning walk around the village. After having walked through a rice paddy (with the possibility of snakes-my biggest fear!), buying peanuts still in their shells and witnessing where the floods of the week before had been and the houses they had covered, Pastor Fera lead us into a bamboo house with a dirt floor and seats woven out a mixture of flax and bamboo. At this point I didn't realise the significance of this family that sat before us. Pastor Fera began to share their stories with us. Both the Mum and Dad have had extremely close to death experiences whose survival can only be explained by the favour of God, plus their house was the only one in the entire are not to flood (understanding they live only 50metres from the river). Then the youngest girl, Oktoresia's story was shared. It was a story that was extremely hard breaking and a bit too intense to share over the internet, but to say the least it broke all of our hearts and left us not really knowing how to feel. But then it clicked, that morning I had been talking to Pastor Fera about the need I felt to sponsor a child. I have always made excuses for why I can't, but the night before God had really hit me up about it. How could I come to a place like Gadingan, see what I saw, feel the emotions that I felt and not do anything about it. So right there and then Fera announced to the family and to all of us that this was the little girl that was for me. Man I can't even explain how it felt in that moment and in the days that followed. The love I felt from that family was beyond anything I have ever felt. The invited us straight away to stay for lunch, gave us their last 2 papaya's, picked all of their herbs etc from their garden for us, went out to the market and bought us even more fruit (without us knowing that that was what they had gone to do), bought us bottles of water, were the first to church and the last to leave the next day, then came around later that day. I thought that that was the last time I would see them as we were leaving the next morning, but then about 30min before we were due to leave they turned up again. All I heard was her little giggle from my room. The dad, Supri, had brought me a package of shuttlecocks (this is what he does for a job, makes them out of duck feathers). We continued to play and take a million photos and then said goodbye for the "last time". We were hopping it the van and then guess who turned up again and with perfect timing! Just before they left I had been talking about how my favourite fruit was mangoes and was told that they were all gone because they are a December fruit. From that they obviously decided that what better to do than go out and search for some mangoes to bring back to me! I was so surprised!! Man what better way to learn to give out of your little. These people have nothing yet they gave us everything they had. Before we left they told us that their devastation of the last 3 weeks through what had been happening to Oktoresia had completely gone through us visiting. Oktoresia went from being an extremely shy 3 year old to a bursting with energy, crazy, and ridiculously smiley girl within the space of 3 extremely special days. When she left on the back of the family's motorbike she yelled out in Indonesian, "come home with me." I absolutely loved Gadingan and now have a very legitimate excuse to have to go back and visit in the future!!! Thanks for all of your love and prayers back home! Bring on an amazing time at Mount Hope!!

Love Lis

[Insert Indiana Jones theme tune] Hi Ho Silver away!

This is it! - and it's not a (bad) Michael Jackson movie. We landed met amazing Ps Fera and set off on our way. Our first cultural experience was traveling in a car. The golden rule is whoever is biggest has right of way. Intersections and roundabouts are an interesting test of faith in your driver. There is also an interesting system of horn honking to let people know what you are doing. Other interesting points were a four wheel drive VDub, a man with a massive gun in an intersection, wheel chair guy, & a guy carrying walls (yes walls) on a rickshaw bike.

The following posts will, in all likely-hood, not be in any chronological order but detail various activities, experiences, and touchy feely stuff (and yes that was the heading in my journal) that each of us have been internalizing really complicated feelings in our heads... bro.

One of our exciting, fun, and varied activities was saddling up and heading off to meet some of the church members in the surrounding area. This entailed heading off and meeting the locals in the midst of their everyday lives. It was amazing (this word will get some serious usage) to just see the completely different culture. From such a small exposure it is hard to even comprehend the magnitude of some differences but just enough catch a glimpse. Life here is vastly different, many people earn a living through making rice products, growing fruit, or making shuttle cocks. As we wandered about we met people along the road or peering out of their houses and workplaces at us. For some of them we may have been the first ever white people they have seen in the flesh.

With our limited Indonesian and Javanese we said hello, good morning, thank you, and smatterings of broken English. When spoken too the curious and often blank faces would burst into radiant smiles. With the language barrier we weren't here to share the gospel by preaching from street corners but to share and show the love of God through smiles, handshakes, and taking the time to visit people. At times it could feel like we weren't doing anything special but to them it made all the difference (others will elaborate more on this). Everywhere we went we were greeted with warmth and gusto, and people were so generous. How many of us when entertaining guests would make a special food run to the supermarket, and give the best, and in some cases, the last of what we have?

This love, generosity, and complete need to rely on God daily has made a significant impact on us. How this we translate into action now and when we return is still an on going process.

I shall end there and write some more later. Be prepared for a flurry of posts.
Sitting on a deck at Mount Hope, hopefully not getting eaten alive (have yet to be bitten, puji tuhan)
Manjoe

"The Christian Life hasn't be tried and found wanting, it has been found difficult and left untried."
- G.K. Chesterton

The adventure begins!!!

I'm gonna try not to write too much about our days in Gadingan cos I'd like the others to share their experiences, and we all know that once I start it's hard to stop me hahaha. But I'll write about our first day for now :)

Got up and going fairly promptly on thursday morning and made the five minute walk from our hotel to the airport. Got all checked in and went back to the awesome and cheap food garden for breakfast. Flew to Solo, arrived at 12pm-ish, met at airport by Fera. Went to a noodle place for lunch and learnt some Indonesian food words haha. Everyone brave trying new foods and drinks. Fera told us sorry she hadn't sent us a schedule but the first thing was a service at 5pm that we'd be running. It was for the women of the entire district, so over 100 women, and it was a Christmas service. Oh yup, a Christmas service....never saw that one coming!! Hahaha. Back in the van about 2.30 after lunch and quickly put our heads together during the 15 minute drive to the House of Sinai. Good thing we're all pretty familiar with the christmas story! Spent time at the house of Sinai which Cherie will probably talk about when she writes. I was getting a bit nervous as time was ticking on and we'd had a grand total of 15mins planning time. Fera looked at her watch at 4.45 and just about had a heart attack! Was pretty funny. I wrote my message in the van on the way to Gadingan, we arrived and BANG we were right into it. Not sure if the team was freaking out or not...I was a bit preoccupied still writing my sermon in my head! Got to sing Christmas carols which was pretty alright with me!! Matt less stoked hahaha. Felt message went well, puji tuhan (=praise the Lord in Indonesian) and then fera announced that we were going to sing them a song, so sing them a song we did! Hahaha. Praise the Lord we have Matt on our team. All in all it was pretty fun and I think we totally pulled it off lol. Got a fantastic reception from all the ladies, it was really lovely. Had dinner and got settled, then it was devotions time (about 10pm). Sat down for devotions and once again found out we were running it. Whoops. Cherie stepped up instantly and brought a good word. Puji tuhan again lol.

Took us freakin ages to get our mosquito nets set up which was pretty frustrating cos we just wanted to go to bed. Rigged up a pretty flash system which required Dani, Lissie, and me to all sleep sideways on a double bed. My legs were off the bed from about the knees down haha. Lasted about 1.5 hours before Lissie turned over and our mosquito nets fell down on top of us and we were like flies trapped in a spider web. Couldn't be bothered trying to sort that out lol so left it like that the rest of the night.

Think that was pretty much our day...the others might add some bits ad pieces. I was ridiculously proud of them. The entire day was one spontaneous thing after another and they were all awesome and fully rose to the challenge. Went to bed happy :)

Hi from Kirsten!

Hello! We've just discovered we can actually write posts without Internet access and then post them when we get into a wifi zone, so this should be more efficient, especially because we've got some traveling time tomorrow in a bus. It's 11pm and I'm lying in bed in Kuching. We've seriously had the most incredible time so far...it's gonna be pretty hard to put it into words I think. Will get the others to write a bit tomorrow, but in the interest of keeping it a wee bit chronological I'll tell you about our day in kuala lumpur....gosh it feels like a life time ago but it was less than a week!

Can't remember what I said last time I wrote but we landed in KL at 10.30pm local time and it was 29 degrees. By the time we got to our hotel and got to bed it was midnight, so 5am nz time, so we'd been up for 24 hours. Slowish start the next morning.
Thanks Adam for the tip about the food garden at the airport, we made good use of it!! Everyone couldn't get over how cheap the food was haha. Had KFC for breakfast which is not as bad as it sounds, they have a blueberry pancake combo type thing here lol. Some had bakery style stuff and fruit. Had a bit of team time which mostly consisted of me talking, and then caught the bus into kl city, 48 mins away. Fluffed around a bit not knowing where we should go and what we should do and then chances upon a hop on hop off bus tour so decided to do that. But not before having lunch at an awesome food court - honestly everybody is getting the biggest kicks out of saying things like "my lunch only cost me THREE new Zealand dollars!!!!" hehehe :)
Bus tour was really good and we were pretty tired so it was an awesome way to see the city. Got off for quite a while at Chinatown which was really fun (in fact two people said it was the highlight of their day). Tried durian!!! ...and all decided we never need to eat that again! Revolting. Hilarious though....some locals in an open front shop that we were right beside were cracking up watching us and our reactions to the smell and taste - I think we provided some good entertainment for them lol.

Back at the hotel we piled into one room (you need to understand that these rooms were only about a foot on each side bigger than the double bed in them) and attempted to learn some kids songs (complete with actions) which we were really way too tired to do but it was pretty funny.

Sorry about the sporadic contact if you were texting us....seems that with the Malaysian sim the texts often don't actually arrive in nz. Indonesian sim much more reliable. Ok time for me to sleep really!! We're being picked up at 8.30am to go to mt hope - 1.5 hours drive to the border of Malaysia and Indonesia and then half an hour from the border to mt hope. Looking forward to it!!! :) goodnight for now!!

On a side note...

Dani almost killed Lissie, and we are rearranging the furniture LIKE A BOSS!

Yo ho and a bottle of rum... or perhaps a water...

Good evening all. Apologies for not updating sooner, having Internet issues, and debrief always takes longer than you think. Gadingan was amazing. We were woefully unprepared (shhhh don't tell) but that's when God filled in the gaps, we will post some stories up soon hopefully, wifi depending. About to climb the rigging and get some shut eye. Be waiting with bated breath and eyes pealed.
Yours Manjoke (thanks Benji-jump)

"That wasn't my highlight, that was just sparkles on the side."
- Matthew Stuart, Gadingan during debrief time with Ps Fera

Hello from KL airport!

Almost boarding our flight to Solo so will have to post about our adventures in kuala lumpur yesterday at a later date! Just want you to know we are all well and happy and there's some mixed emotions going on now that we're shipping out for real, but mostly excited :) FYI you can text our nz phones at no cost to you or us. Well, no more than it would cost you if we were in nz. Kirsten, Matt, Lissie, and Cherie have nz phones here that are working. Off to Gadingan now so may not have any Internet access until we're back here on Monday. Adios! Love from the team :)

Travel day - tues 3 jan

Most of us got up at 5:30am, all travelled to Chch (4 from Dunedin, joe from Auckland, Lissie from wgtn) and flew out at 4pm. Still didn't feel very real to most of us!! Long flight (11.5 hours) but not bad. Some of them did press ups at the back of the plane to pass time haha. Arrived 10.30pm local time which was 3.30am nz time. 29 degrees in KL. Got to bed at 5am nz time so almost a 24 hour day. All pretty exhausted but happy.

Team Commander, Reporting for Duty!

Hi everybody!

My first post!! :D  Joe has been doing an excellent job on here keeping you informed of our progress as we prepared for this trip, but seeing as I am team leader (and mum!) it's probably time I checked in as well!

In seven hours Cherie, Dani, Matt, and I will be on the road to Chch, where we meet Joe and Lissie and fly out to KL at 4pm. This trip has been percolating away in my head for almost a year now, and it is about to become a reality!! Bit surreal at this stage but very much looking forward to what is to come over the next few weeks.

Just want to say again how grateful we are for the support we have had - it has really been incredible, especially the financial blessings...you guys are honestly amazing and I hope you know how much we appreciate you!!!

The "kids" are tucked up in bed, and I have finally ticked the last thing off my to do list, so it's time for me to get some precious sleep!!!

Over and out!!
Kirsten xx

5, 4, 3, 2, ONE! ... Thunderbirds are GO!

ONE day too go. It is now less than 24 hours before we start our journey. It still has an unreal quality about it - we are going to Indonesia!



Stay tuned for more updates, tales, and testimonies from our trip.
MJ

“We meet no ordinary people in our lives.”
― C.S. Lewis