Road to Indonesia--Missionaries and Movies

 Very busy the last few days.  Sunday we went to church, and then were invited to lunch with the token Christian and Missionary Alliance missionary community here.  CMA is my background. We served with them in Quito from 1976-1980, and have overlapped with them many times since, including most recently attending an Alliance church when we have been in Greenville, SC. There are three couples here. One of them are in their late 80's.  They gave testimony in church that they have finally finished their Bible translation of the Old Testament in a local language!!! They will retire to the States this summer.  What faithful, faithful servants.  Their name is Ellenberger, and we served with their nephew and his family in Senegal.  We both taught their grand nephews.  Mission life is always entertwined. The youngest mission couple here is about 50, and the wife attended the Alliance Academy in Quito as an MK from Brazil some years after we left. It was such a good time.

I am impressed how humble the missionaries are here, illustrted through the housing. The apartments for the school staff is very, very nice.  However, the other mission homes we have been in, most make me think of my grandparents' home from the 50's.  They are spartan and relatively older and small. It helps us remember what God has called us to, and what is important.

Then Sunday night the school director drove us to the provincial capital, Jayapura, for a movie.  This is the first theater we have been to in the last year. It takes about an hour through some pretty spectacular country, most of which is urban, not really rural, past huge Lake Sentani and the Pacific Ocean.  We went to the premier theater which has reclining seats, etc. We had to sit very far apart. No one near at all with all of us masked.  It was the latest Kevin Costner movie about finding his grandson. It cost $7.  We went to A & W for supper.  Life is interesting. I will try to write tomorrow our Monday and Tuesday schedule, which has continued very busy.