We’ve been in Indonesia over a month now with just over two weeks left overseas! It’s crazy to think I’ll be going home next month but I’m so excited! It’s been awhile since I posted so there’s a bit to catch you up on. My last blog post talked a lot about what the Lord was teaching me and what I’ve been struggling with but I want to focus this one on what we’ve been doing here.
I can’t share super specific details but I can share some information. While we’re here we’ve partnered with another organization that’s been working here for about ten years. Our hosts are full time missionaries from Brazil and some of the coolest, sweetest people I’ve ever met! They’ve done a lot of ground work over the last few years but since we’ve been here we’ve been able to help partner alongside them in a lot.
Shortly after getting here they opened a building where they offer classes to the kids and anyone else in the community. I can’t lie it was a bit slow to start out and people were hesitant to come but after lots of community outreach and a filed day we’ve managed to get a lot of kids signed up and coming. We went from having just 1 kid the first day to having over 60 within just a few weeks. The main two classes we’ve started teaching are English and sports. Both of these classes are thriving and the kids are loving them. We’ve also been doing literacy classes for the younger kids and a craft class in the afternoons.
This past week we’ve also been able to add some music classes which has been a lot of fun! I’ve gotten to have a bigger role in helping plan and figure those out and I’ve loved it! So far we’ve only done one class with the kids but they did amazing and I’m looking forward to doing more with them this week! We’ll continue to help teach classes for the last two weeks that we’re here and then our hosts will continue them after that.
I can’t lie there have been some challenges with our work here, it’s definitely been slow to start. Since this is a new project we’ve kinda become pioneers which is really exciting but also challenging. Paving the way is fun but it also means a lot of trial and error and we’ve certainly had a lot of that. Because of certain religions and restrictions there’s not as much to do as we were hoping and thinking so keeping ourselves busy and finding stuff to do was rather hard at first. A lot of us struggle with what felt like a lot of free time and not a lot of “tangible” things to do. Now don’t get me wrong there’s plenty of things to do here and ways for us to serve it just looks different then we were excepting. Instead of always teaching, evangelizing, or manual labor a lot of ministry looks like loving and caring for our hosts or sitting in intercession. Now as someone who loves to keep busy and actually feeling like I’m doing something useful these are much harder things for me to settle and adjust to.
I’ve often found myself discouraged and doubting how much good we’re actually doing here. The problem is that I often forget how powerful prayer can be, the reality is that prayer does so much more than action or works but the results are often harder to see. I’ve also been reminded how important loving people and building relationships can be. Jesus always sought relationship before anything else. He loved and cared deeply for His disciples and one of the ways He did this was by praying for them. Even though there are times I feel like I could be doing more I’m reminded that simply praying for people and loving them is the best and most powerful thing I could ever do.
I know I didn’t share a tone of details but I hope that in some way you can find this encouraging! Even if it feels like there’s more you could be doing or you don’t see the results you want trust God and remember the power of prayer. I mean how crazy is it that we literally get to sit and talk to the God who created the entire universe. We get to stand in the gap and intercede for others the way Christ does for us. Jesus gave His life and tore the veil so we could have complete access to God yet how often do we take that for granite. There truly is no better or more powerful thing then getting to talk to God and intercede for others!
Thank you for taking the time to read this and for supporting me! I hope you have a Happy Easter!
Prayer requests:
- Continued strength and health for my team and I to finish well
- For even more kids to continue to come and for more people to come and help once we leave
- For hearts to continue to be open in the country of Indonesia
With love,
Emilee 🙂
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