Lift-off to Laos

In some hours we will board the plane to Udon Thani, from where we will get the Bus to Laos. We will meet Kristian and Kim and a bunch of Ex-Junkies there. Well I don't really know a lot of what we will be doing so far, but you can read from their experiences in Thailand over the last few days (if you know German, but also some cool pictures). Also Wolf wrote a bit about meeting with us.
We just spent 4 days in Singapur, met with some people from Sonic Edge and were reminded of the old and glorious Steiger days: Some of the people we talked to have been involved with Steiger and were in Germany at the Steiger Conference in 1998. This is where I first found the flyer of Delhi House (now Sewa Ashram)in India, where I went later on. Okay, five links are enough for one post. Hope we will get Web Acess in Laos.

The flood experience...

We had a really good, full and intense week in Jakarta. On Sunday we were able to distribute rice, noodles and oil to the families living in one of the poorer areas of the city. I will just add some pictures, we wrote a more detailed "report" :-) about the whole thing that we will send by email... Sorry, you have to view the pictures upside-down, because I couldn't save them on this computer...


The community lives by a canal that carries the water coming down from the higher parts of the surrounding areas. Flooding happens regularly during the rainy season, but this year the water rose as high as 2 metres and stayed for a whole week, so the families had to vacate their homes.


Most homes are just sheds built out of bits and pieces of wood. Some were literally moved by the water, so a lot of fixing needs to be done. Household goods have been carried away or damaged. Unemployment is a serious problem in the community so the loss is a heavy burden for the families.


When we came for the first time to talk about what the needs of the people were, the water had already receded. But then it started raining again and immediately the water rose again, so when we came back we had to wade through it. The children were having fun...


Due to the flood the price of rice has increased by 10-15% which means a lot for poor families. We were told that food would be most helpful, so we decided to get rice, noodles and oil which are staple foods in Indonesia.


Volunteers of the community helped to measure the goods...


...and to distribute them to the families.


It was a happy day for the families and we heard many times "terima kasih", the beautiful indonesian way of saying "thank you" - the literal translation is "I appreciate your love"...

our family in jakarta...

rocks!!!


the guys here are great, everybody has a wild story to tell about how jesus changed their lives. now they are living together and are doing crazy stuff all over the place. some are involved in hiv prevention work, caring for the sick, educating the young, hanging out with the people in the most vulnerable communities. others run a sort of education center for children of families that are too poor to afford education, and lots more.
at the heart there is the community, sharing lives together, living together and by this learning from each other, encouraging each other to live what god has put on everybody's heart to do. it's all very simple, very passionate and very natural.
and they invited us right into it all. showed us around, let us take part of their every day life.


yesterday night we visited some of their friends from the local punk scene, and i faced the challenge of riding on a motorbike through jakartas streets. i was really nervous but it got better, i guess the prayers i kept muttering helped :-).


I have a lot to learn from the guys here. I remember Ton in India saying "church is irrelevant without the poor" and here it is again, the poor people right at the heart of the community of believers. and although there are many projects, many things to be done, it is all very relational. they are not building some other type of denomination. instead a network of friends has been established all over indonesia. and there is freedom for all sorts of things, friendships with junkies on the streets, business ideas to enable the communities of the rural poor to earn a living, creative ways of communicating the good news and educating children about drugs and hiv... it's very broad and it's totally about living and enabling others to find real life as well.

hey thank you so much everybody for the generous gifts for jakarta!!!
we have some things planned and will let you know how the money is used.

leaving new zealand...

the land of endless nature has a name for the enrolling fernleaf: "koru", which became a symbol for new beginnings. new life... hope.
enjoying creation reminded me of the one who constantly offers new beginnings, second chances... and with that - hope. how i need jesus!


- and friends. it was so cool to meet Nora and JP

for some lovely hours of talking and eating together...
good to know and feel we are walking the same road.

Jakarta unter Wasser

Hallo liebe Freunde!

Eigentlich sollte heute unser erster Tag in Jakarta sein. Aufgrund verschiedener Empfehlungen haben wir unsere Plaene geaendert. Jakarta steht unter Wasser, und ein paar der Leute, die wir dort besuchen wollten haben die Stadt verlassen weil die Zustaende so chaotisch sind. Wir wissen nicht, wieviel in Deutschland in den Medien berichtet wurde. Laut BBC haben mindestens 50 Menschen nach den schweren Regenfaellen ihr Leben verloren und ueber 300.000 ihre Behausung. Es wird befuerchtet dass sich Krankheiten epidemieartig verbreiten, und viele Bewohner haben ein Trinkwasserproblem.

Wir werden trotzdem am 12.02. nach Jakarta fliegen, bis dahin sollte die Situation wieder stabiler sein. Unser Freund Wolfgang, den wir letztes Jahr in Deutschland kennengelernt haben, wird uns vom Flughafen abholen und hat eine Unterkunft bei Bekannten fuer uns organisiert. Es ist eine Art Community von jungen Leuten, die in Gemeinschaft ihren Glauben leben und verschiedene Projekte machen wie z. B. HIV-Aufklaerungsarbeit an Schulen. Wolfgang selbst war vor Ort sehr aktiv beteiligt bei den Hilfsarbeiten nach der Tsunami-Katastrophe, hat also Erfahrung mit solchen Sachen. Er hat uns gefragt, ob wir moeglicherweise helfen koennen, Medikamente fuer Betroffene der Ueberschwemmung in Jakarta zu besorgen. Der einfachste Weg ist, das was benoetigt wird vor Ort zu kaufen und strategisch sinnvoll zu verteilen. Dafuer braucht man Geld.

Wir haben uns ueberlegt, wie wir am besten helfen koennen und haben beschlossen, Dich zu fragen, ob Du bereit bist, auf etwas zu verzichten (vielleicht ein Doener fuer 4 Euro oder eine CD fuer 15, vielleicht auch eine neue Wohnzimmereinrichtung ;-)), um dafuer den Notleidenden in Jakarta zu helfen. Wir koennen dafuer keinen offiziellen Rahmen bieten und keine Spendenquittung, nur ein herzliches Danke und unser Versprechen, dass wir vertrauenswuerdig mit Deiner Hilfeleistung umgehen. Falls Du Teil einer Gemeinde oder etwas Aehnlichem bist, kannst Du vielleicht initiieren, dass fuer diesen Zweck beim naechsten Treffen gesammelt wird. Das Ganze hat eine Deadline, und zwar Samstag, den 17.02.07, weil wir Jakarta dann bald wieder verlassen. Schreib uns eine email wenn Du dich beteiligen willst, und wir schicken Dir Details.

Wir sind noch dieses Wochenende in Neuseeland bevor unser Flug geht, und es geht uns gut. Vielen Dank fuers Lesen, fuer Eure Anteilnahme und fuers mitmachen.
Alles Liebe und Gottes Segen!
Hajo & Rebecca