After being blessed with a week to rest up after our first village stay, we got to head out to our second village! This one was a lot different from the first. It was bigger, more spread out, and even had a coffee shop where people would meet to do karaoke together.

raft building: before…

and after (note our little heads peeping above the water)

Like last time, we were split up into different homes. The guys stayed in a home overlooking the ocean with their host parents and brothers. Us girls stayed in a home deeper in the jungle with one of the village leaders, his wife, and their daughter, who is a teacher. While this particular stay had a lot less cultural activities, we spent more of our time sitting in a circle with our host families.

Chatting with the highschool guys!

One thing that we noticed in the last village was that it seems like many of the people in the villages are culturally Muslim, but often will shy away from discussing religion or won’t participate in the calls to prayer. The family that we (the girls) stayed at was quite different. Our host father would go to the mosque for the prayer calls, and our Ibu was eager to talk about her thoughts on heaven and hell. This led to a couple interesting conversations. We had been warned that the devil will often try to distract us away from spiritual conversations, and boy was this evident during our first conversation!

It was after breakfast, and we were sitting around chatting, and our ibu started talking about prayer and how she often prayed for safety and forgiveness of sins. She said that she was getting old, so she was trying to do good and make up for her sins in order to have a “comfortable grave” and avoid hell. As she talked more about her beliefs on the afterlife, the distractions began to pile up. Some little boys showed up and started shooting rocks with their sling shots in her yard. Her husband came home, and she needed to attend to something in the kitchen. Another mother and her baby came over to greet us. And finally, the guys showed up at our house to hang out. This was right after she had asked us what we believed, but by then, the conversation had entirely trickled out. Our teammate, Tatum, later commented that the timing for the distractions was so perfect it was almost comedic. As we were reflecting later that day, our team talked about how frustrating it was, but also how God is greater than Satan’s attempts to thwart our conversation. God would open other doors for conversation. We didn’t have to wait long.

Hanging out with host families!

Jetty time

The next day, after lunch, our ibu asked us again what we believed, and our translator began to talk about Jesus. She was soon cut off by our ibu, who asked, “Who is Jesus?” From here, our guide was able to share the story of the Gospel from Adam and Eve, to Jesus’ miracles, to His death on the cross and God’s plan for redemption. All along, us students sat quietly listening and praying. There was not a single interruption. When she got to the end, our ibu asked us students if we believed the same thing, and we all got to share a little bit about our own faith walks. She didn’t say much else, but it was awesome to see how God opened up the door for conversation. While we don’t get to stay in the village long term, to see the rest of what God has in store, we trust and pray that God continues to make his glory known to our friends.

Apple playing hopscotch with one of the village girls

Dave helping one of the village girls with the traditional stilts

While the little boys in this village were unimpressed with Dave and Nathan six-seven-ing, they were able to find other ways to connect with the kids. Whenever we had activities with children, you could always find the guys playing football or volleyball with a group of little boys. Nathan has done such a great job of learning the language and putting himself out there to make friends with the local men. He especially got to spend a lot of time with his host brothers, striking up conversations with them at every chance.

Trying durian fruit with some new friends! Nathan was a big fan… the rest of us were much smaller fans.