Hey everyone! Writing you from northern Indiana still. Been a little over two months since my squad was called home due to the Coronavirus. To this point, not much has changed for me since my last update. Life is still chugging along and things are going well. As far as my squad, we will be receiving information later this week about our relaunch and possible plans for when and what that could look like. I will keep you all updated and how you can be praying as we begin preparing for that.
For now, I wanted to post some pictures from our time in Indonesia back in February. It was an awesome month for our squad and God did some sweet sweet things in and through our squad.
We started out our month as an entire squad in Denpasar, on the island of Bali. It was truly beautiful.
(Crazy Story: this actually isn’t my picture. I missed this night. Our group was meeting at the beach and I had been separated. I was stuck for about an hour in a taxi before I convinced the woman driving to let me out so I could just run. I made it 4 out of the 8 miles running through the middle of Bali before this person pulled up on a moto and told me to jump on. They took me for free the rest of the way, all I had to do was help them drop groceries off at home!
We stayed in the city for two weeks and debriefed our first month with our mentor and coaches.
We had some down time in between where we got to explore and hang out.
After training in Bali, we broke into teams for the first time this year. I had the opportunity to go with Team Kooks for the month (I got really sick the day this picture was taken. Still bummed about it).
As a team we felt called to Bandung, a city in West Java, Indonesia. The travel down was about 25 hours by bus, ferry, and train.
It was long travel. We didn’t sleep or eat a ton, but managed when we could.
Had some fun too.
We stayed in a school in Bandung and had the opportunity to help teach classes, help the teachers, join Bible studies, and meet with parents.
This mom wanted a picture with me haha
Wild times
We were invited to guest teach at a Christian School in the city.
I had the opportunity to teach a high school poetry class, a science class on global warming, a history class on the Rwandan Genocide, and two English classes.
We were never certain what subject we would get until we got to the class, so it was always exciting to find out. These few days were so much fun. We got to teach, share the gospel and our testimonies, and just hang out with the kids. Probably some of my favorite moments from the month.
We were invited to a circumcision party where we got to sing worship songs from the stage. It was such a unique experience and such a sweet opportunity to share and minister to the family and people in the community.
Nora had her phone lost or stolen while we were at the mall one evening. Her and I went back to look for it and ended up spending a few hours with these guys. Honestly they were so helpful. Unfortunately we never found the phone and called off the search after they brought in their “hacker” and wanted to start searching the community around the mall.
This is the only picture I have from Jakarta. Good ole fashion A&W root beer.
We had spent about 4 days in Jakarta before we met the squad to leave for Southeast Asia. Though it was short, our team met some incredible people in the city. We saw God work and provide through prayer walks and faith days; we shared testimonies as a team and just had sweet time together.
It was an awesome month for me personally. I loved so much the time I had with this team and the people we met and the ways we got to serve in Indonesia.
I know that God launched a new work in my heart while in Jakarta and is something I am still continuing to press into even now. I am excited for what he is doing and am excited to have you all along with me as this journey continues to unfold.
That’s all for now! I’ll be updating you all in the next week or two as I receive more information about our relaunch. Love you all!
Love this, Brandon. Especially the story of you being picked up by a random moto driver??. Wish I could have been there just to see your response and all that went into deciding if it was a good idea.
Pray that God gives you wisdom for here and for later.