Six Weeks In

I started a blog largely as a means of recording what my experience living on almost literally the opposite side of the world from where I grew up is like. So far, I’ve followed through on that only up to the point where the plane actually landed. I’ve never been good at keeping a journal. I think it feels kind of strange to keep notes on the seemingly normal occurrences of day to day life, and in a lot of ways, that’s what it has felt like here for me. Normal. I’m surrounded by a language I came here not knowing more than a word of and am very, very slowly making headway in learning it. Normal. To go to Church, I hop in one of the beat-up red vans with two benches full of people in the back that go down my street, followed by mounting the back of one of the countless motorcycles whose riders make their uang rokok (cigarette money) by bringing strangers from point A to point B, followed by taking two separate city buses the rest of the way. Normal. I’ve eaten, and to varying degrees enjoyed, ox tail, ox tongue (nothing from in between though), chicken heart, cow intestine, and plenty more with plenty more to come. Normal.

Those things may sound nothing like normal to most coming from the American Midwest, but I haven’t felt terribly compelled to write home about it all because well, it’s just how people live over here. Not to say there hasn’t been and won’t be profound and even life changing experiences on this side of the world for me. I love getting familiar with an entirely new place, and the days off I’ve spent wandering around here have been wonderful. Being a teacher has been a more fulfilling and enjoyable experience than I anticipated. The process of moving my whole life here and starting new has been valuable and is teaching me a lot. All in all, it’s awakened me to a lot of passions that are either new or have been a bit dormant for a while.

I’ve felt very alive in a lot of ways since coming here. One hour I’ll find myself very excited about the idea of traveling to a particular location or two here in Indonesia. Another, I’ll start thinking about how much I want to get back to India and be there for the long haul. Another, I’ll just be thinking about how much I enjoy being a teacher and making a difference in the lives of the kids in my classes. Another, I’ll start reading something and think about how much I love learning and my desire to pursue a graduate degree. Still another, it’ll be about wanting to keep teaching and maybe even do it in a different country where I can gain knowledge of a new culture and make more money to finance my dreams of studying further and traveling. All of that equates to symptoms that I’m alive and happy over here. I’m dreaming now more than I ever did in the last year or so that I was in Minnesota. I’m bursting with desire to live life to the fullest and make a difference more than I can remember in quite a while.

I’m quite excited about all that lies in store for the next couple years here and the rest of my life after that. I have long term dreams of becoming a missionary, with or without the title of one, in parts of the world that are the neediest both materially and spiritually. I’d love to do that in India, but am trusting God with the logistics on that for now. Here, I’m attempting to be just that without any official appointment as one. Indonesia has a lot of poverty and environmental problems and a massive population that mostly doesn’t know Jesus’ love. I want to make whatever difference I can make with that while I’m here. Aside from it making the practicalities of living here much easier, that’s a main reason I have a goal of learning the Indonesian language much better in the next few months. I have other goals to accomplish in this next season of time here too. I’m waiting for my work visa to come through, which usually takes a few months, and once that’s in, I plan to buy a motorcycle and locate a place of my own to live in while I’m here. I also want to take a few weekend trips to other parts of Java in the next few months to get a little more of a sense of what Indonesia is like beyond its teeming capital.

Ultimately, I believe it’s God who’s brought me here, and that is exciting. I don’t know what exactly is in store for the next couple years and beyond, but there’s no greater adventure than following God where He leads you.