Indonesia Journal; Monday

19 Sept. Monday 6 PM

The Manado Quality Hotel includes a full breakfast buffet with the room rate ($50/night). This buffet is like a Sunday brunch at a nice country club (Tapatio Springs, Fair Oaks Ranch, the Dominion, Corpus Christi Country Club). You can get a variety of omelets, salads, vegetables, four or five different kinds of meats (fried, grilled, stewed), fresh fruits, rice, potatoes, beans, breads, soups, and desserts. Then there is a section called “traditional Indonesian treats.” In other words, this breakfast buffet has just about everything you can image and some things you can’t imagine. The chiefs will even fry you two eggs, over-medium, with wheat toast and strawberry jelly. The coffee (kopi) is some of the best I have ever had. They begin serving at 6 AM. It gets daylight around 5:15 and it gets dark about 5:15. At 6 AM there are already shadows; it is full light. So, this is how my day begins, early. And it ends early (it is already completely dark outside at 6:10 PM).

We arrived at the seminary at 8:45 and started teaching about 9:30. We were suppose to begin at 9 but they told me they follow “rubber” time in Indonesia. This means “flexible,” or in other words, they don’t start until everyone gets there. The students were there but the pastors were slow arriving. Many of them had to come from far away. Many did not get there until after lunch. We heard that some will not be able to get there until tomorrow. I taught for an hour, fielded questions for 10 minutes, then took a 10 minute break. We followed that schedule until after 12 when we broke for lunch. The pastors and students are very attentive and are quick to ask questions. They laugh easily and have been taught the Word. Many can understand English although they cannot speak it very well. I had two different interpreters, one for the morning and one for the afternoon. We started up after lunch about 1:30.

The seminary buildings also serve as offices for the Indonesia Baptist Convention. This is a fellowship of about 350 churches across Indonesia. I met the president and some of the officers of the convention this morning. They told me that the president of the Asia Baptist Convention was coming today and wanted me to meet him. They said that he would be staying in Manado today and tomorrow on his way to a Baptist congress that is being held on Wednesday on another island. About 3 PM, pastor Ferry got a call telling him to bring me to the lunch they were having for this president of the Asian Baptist Convention. The pastors and students excused me and pastor Ferry and I went about five blocks away to a very nice house where the Indonesian Baptist Convention officers and several other people were waiting for this Asian convention president.

When he drove up they gave him the VIP treatment. They penned some nice flowers on his lapel, welcomed him with a glass of juice; really rolled out the red carpet. When he came into the room he immediately came over to me and asked where I was from and what I was doing in Indonesia. I told him I was from Kingsland in the heart of the hill country of Texas and that I was teaching pastors in the seminary. He asked if that was near Austin. He said he had been to Texas a number of times, to Houston and Dallas, but had never been to the hill country of central Texas. I asked him where he was from and he said from Nagaland in northeastern India. I told him that I had been to Bangladesh, just below Nagaland and that I hoped to visit Nagaland because I had heard about the strong Baptist influence there. He said that he represented 1.4 million Baptist in that region of India and gave me his card. He was introduced to the other people in the room and they began to eat. Pastor Ferry and I excused ourselves to go back to the seminary where the pastors and students were waiting. This took about 45 minutes out of our teaching time. When we got back to the seminary, I told the pastors that we got back as quick as we could. I told them that after the introductions I asked to be excused because there was a whole room full of VIPs waiting for me at the seminary, Very Important Pastors. The pastors all liked that.

We covered just about all of the material that I had planned for today by about 4:30 and it started to rain really hard. On our way back to the hotel we got into some deep water. It was at the bottom of one of the inclines and the runoff had not had time to runoff. Pastor Ferry said, “Don’t worry pastor Charles, it is only a small flood.” It may have been his accent, but it really struck me as funny.

It is very humid and hot. I am sweating a lot, but I then always do as many of you know. Today I sweat through everything twice. Beth packed me some gator-aid mix and I am drinking a lot of water. Pray for the remaining pastors to arrive safely and for everyone’s health. I’m just about back to a full sleep cycle and I can feel your prayers. God gave me insights today from His Word as I taught that overwhelmed me; things I had never thought of before about the parables of Jesus. Thank you for your prayers. The pastors and students are benefitting from them.