Outreach to Bandung Area March 5 to 10

A TIRING BUT SATISFYING TIME!

SATURDAY 6 MARCH - TRIP TO SUNDANESE Pengalengan in Mountains about 2 hours out of Bandung.
We left after breakfast, and went straight to a small meeting place. About 8 locals plus our team were there. Nice people, we were all blessed!

After the meeting, we went more into the mountains to Pak Lukas’ place there where he sells snacks he makes himself and ministers. We enjoyed hiking and visiting house to house (mostly Muslim neighbors) where we learned about traditional Sudanese homes (cooking fire inside, on floor - lots of smoke! No interior walls, just thin partitions. Even the outer walls are often just woven bamboo mats. Floors and basic structure are rough-hewn wood. We witnessed the hard work, carving out the rice terraces and preparing the soil which is these people’s daily life.

Arrived back in Bandung well after dark. We were blessed to have a nice, rain-free day for this outing! It had been raining hard moonsoon rains previously!

SUNDAY 7 MARCH
Church was in a building on Air Force property, borrowed by the church. There are 7 groups that use this building. Basically the same group as yesterday, with a few additional participants from town. Ibu Guna (the pastor) provides a transport to bring the people from Pengalengan and back home. Sunday afternoon we visited an orphanage in Lembang, about an hour drive out of the city.

MONDAY and TUESDAY, 8 and 9 MARCH - PRISON VISITS
SUKA MISKIN PRISON
When I kept hearing the word ‘miskin’ I thought we were going to visit some poor people! (miskin is Indonesian for poor). The prison visits were not on our planned list of activities and we only knew about it on Sunday evening. They were, next to the mountain visit, the highlight of the visit. Sukamiskin prison is the ‘Number 1' prison in Indonesia. It is the only prison where inmates are housed in one cell per person (one person per cell). It is the oldest prison in Indonesia, built by the Dutch for political prisoners.

We held church services in the church (or chapel) at both prisons. Both were prisons for men only. Both had groups of men sing very moving music. In Sukamiskin, the special songs sung by the group were specially about how they found freedom in the prison. It was very powerful for me.

Discussion with guards and administrative personnel before and after the meetings was very interesting. Photos were allowed inside the chapels. I was very impressed with the well-kept grounds of both prisons, as compared to prisons in other Asian countries. The only other Indonesian prison I have visited is Bali, and the entry there is mostly parking lot. These two prisons both had nice, well - manicured gardens just inside the gates. Very clean and neat.

WEDNESDAY - AIR FORCE DAY
In the same church building as Sunday, this service was specially for Air Force personnel. As usual, there was music, testimonies, some preaching. Approximately 30 in attendance.

Wednesday evening we met with a small group in Ibu Guna’s home for Bible Study and prayer.

Each day, in between formal meetings, we had informal home or business visits. Monday after the prison visit we also went to a funeral where the wife of an Air Force officer had passed away.