Mebingbing

We had the opportunity to visit a local Indonesian church, and while the pastor spoke in Bahassah, I heard the word “Mebingbing”, in which I was automatically intrigued by and couldn’t help but ask a local friend what it meant. To her knowledge she said it meant, “Guidance”. Oh cool! Perfect for this next blog post I thought to myself. In this post, I have a mumble jumble of things to share with you, friend!

Lets start off with the Indonesian people. Hospitality in Indonesia has been unreal. While my friend and I’s hearts are to serve alongside the Indonesian community, they in return have seemed to be loving the heck out of us too. Sometimes the hospitality has been so generous I don’t know what else to say but thank you thank you thank and thank you 50 times more. Between making new connections and exploring the country with locals, countless meals have been provided, free rides have been offered, and incredible housing situations have been provided too.

Food: Friends of friends in Indonesia have seriously blessed us with the opportunity to taste countless Indonesian foods, and my stomach has loved and resisted(some) of it at the same time. I like spicy, but *Spicy here is on a whole new level. To ask for no spicy, is like asking for hot when it comes to buffalo sauce in America or something, haha! I love it and enjoy the challenge of trying to build up what it takes in my stomach to embrace the heat, or at least try to. In Bali, a local friend of ours took us on what he called “a food safari”. One night from about 9:00PM-2:00AM we were out and about, following their lead to incredible street food places. From Satay, tasty peanut sauce, Chai tea, Martarbak, Mie Gorang, Nasi, tropical fruits, juices, and some interesting desert drinks, the tasting of a new culture, was and is so much fun. We’ve also had the honor of going to a new local Indonesian Res that a friend’s, friend recently started up. There we were able to try all kinds of drinks, and new foods, all on the house, just because! Through these food experiences, we’ve also had the opportunity to pray over the local owners and local friends, speak encouragement into their lives, and do our best to love them well too.

I enjoy watching the locals cook up their specialty food right before my eyes. There seems to be quite the night life here too, where some street food places don’t even open up until sometime in the evening and will stay open through the night. I love how laid back the culture can be! 

Housing: We are still currently living in the same guesthouse as we were one week ago. A guesthouse that costs ALOT more than our small housing budget, yet the owner excitedly agreed to house us with out small budget anyway. One evening last week we had the opportunity to eat a meal with the guesthouse owner and hear her story about following Jesus, as well as stories from her personal life of using the power of God’s love to allow people walking many different walks of life, encounter that Love.

She shared stories of a man from the mafia who stayed at the guesthouse coming to know Jesus, someone walking in witch craft around the neighborhood who attempted to cast spells upon her but couldn’t because the power of Jesus, and many more stories along those lines. I loved to hear how fiercely and graciously she shares the light of God simply by acknowledging His good presence in any given situation. It left me inspired to do the same!

Along with talking about our spiritual journeys, it’s also been super fun simply playing the guitar with her and her family, learning about their life more, hearing her dreams about the guesthouse, and also learning some more Bahassa here and there. It’s seriously has been such an honor to get to know this family that runs the guesthouse. As they said our stay at the guesthouse was an answer to prayer, the same goes to them towards us. God is such a good provider. For me personally, I’ve been thinking, how cool would that be to run an international guesthouse somewhere too! So I am putting that in my pocket and planning to dream with God on that a bit more.

Mt. BroMo: Some friends and I took a tour around one of Indonesia’s bigger mountains. We got picked up in a jeep where 8 of us all together sat on 2 small benches, packed in like sardines. It was about a 3 hour trek and as we climbed the mountain it was bumpy, and exhilarating all at once. To be honest, we expected to be sitting in a van that was possibly air conditioned for the 3 hour trek, the surprise of the tough looking jeep made it all the more fun. This tour went from about 12:00AM-12:00PM the following morning. We had the opportunity to watch the sunrise from the mountain top, explore the valleys of the mountain, horse trail ride up to an active volcano, ride on top of the jeep, drive through giant mud puddles, walk on black sand, and sight see some incredible landscape views. At Mt. BroMo, God totally gifted me in meeting a new friend from Italy. Having ran into each other several times below, we ran into each other on top of an active Volcano viewing only to find out that he was from Italy & I had Italian roots too. This man is doing some amazing work, with his career being one that helps protect and save the people of Italy from dangerous situations. Through conversation I got to learn about the culture of Italy a bit more, we heard bits of each others story, and also had some discussion about the meaning of life, brokenness within the Christian church around the world, yet God’s love for humanity regardless. It was such a cherished time!

Go Jek Driver: My friends and I had the opportunity to go visit a local waterfall. But the best part of it for me was probably spending time with our driver. He drove us about an hour to the waterfall and decided to walk with us to the waterfall. From there we visited a few other spots on the way down & though we spoke little Bahassa & he spoke little english, we were able to connect over google translate! Simply asking him several questions about his life and family, I noticed this smile appear on his face where he felt valued and noticed. By the end of our trip to the waterfall, we had all laughed together, explored together, and he dropped us off at a food place for lunch. Not only did he drop us off, but he ran inside and asked us to wait in the car while he grabbed us umbrellas and one bye one helped get us to the food place dry. It was SO kind! We ended the car ride with a selfie with him. This reminded me that it is the simply things, that really count. We may not speak a lot of Bahassa, but there are still ways to love and connect with someone, always. 

Indonesian Bible Study: We had an opportunity to join in on a college university bible study. It was awesome! I met a gal there who was so full of ambition and big dreams. It was such a gift to do my best in encouraging her and praying over her. I asked God for the right words to lift her up with and I’m pretty sure we both left off in tears, grateful having met each other. This gal said “God sent me a message through you today” and I sat there humbled, but so happy that she felt lifted up. She was a gift above to me too.

Abba has been showing me a lot about as I go about the everyday adventure in life, there are people, places, and things He has in mind for me to see & to learn from. It’s also been cool learning how to live out “life is ministry, ministry is life” motto when it comes to inviting God into every part of the day. There seem to always be something to learn from, or a person to meet & love on, often I feel it’s just a matter of tuning our eyes & hearts towards what the father is seeing and doing, then going in faith with that. You never know, when we step out, it may bring joy to a strangers heart, God may use it to share the love, someone may even have an encounter with Abba that leads them in closer relationship to Jesus, the ultimate expression of unconditional love. To me, I just ask for the “Mebingbing”(guidance), and God the good, good, father He is, seems to provide every time.

Amazed, grateful, humbled, growing. Those are words that come to mind when I ask myself what I am feeling. Thanks for tuning in again, friend. I do love hearing from you & please never hesitate to reach out and ask for more in depth details about the journey.

Peace, love, and gratitude.

Kailey