I was awoken again this morning by the calls to prayer drifting (perhaps wailing?) from the nearby mosque. The sound is hard to describe, it is a times both painful, sorrowful and, in all honesty piercingly annoying. At the very least it is an irresistible alarm clock with no prospect of hitting snooze. Yesterday, most of the time was spent around the office, trying to shake of the last vestiges of jet lag. We had anticipated going to the airport to pick up another member of the team, but her flight was delayed yet again. Last night, we dined on authentic Javanese food with some of the staff who work here in Jakarta. It is interesting to see the diversity of backgrounds and personalities that God has brought here to work along side each other. After dinner victory was finally secured in the battle with my American cell phone. through time and much software, I now can be reached through an Indonesia provider. This is far less expensive than going through the American service because of roaming, and allows people here to dial it local. I can still make calls with the American service, but this involves changing cards in the phone and is again costly, so I will mostly be only checking messages with that number. If you would like to call direct the number is +62 0852 134 23732 and remember we are 11 hours ahead of east coast time ( i.e here it is tomorrow morning , and there it is yesterday eve) This past Friday night, George introduced us to public transportation in Jakarta. We had gone to a shopping center for dinner and took the red bus home. This can be compared to a combination of city bus, taxi, near constant succession of playing chicken with everyone and occasional near death experience. But also a whole lot of fun. Today, out team will be going to a local Indonesian fellowship for worship, and then tomorrow we will begin our formal orientation to Indonesian language and culture, in preparation for living with an Indonesian family. Thanks again for all of your prayers.
Sunday Morning
