Indonesia

We spent a week in Indonesia for a conference.  We traveled by Asia Air, which they title a low cost airline, we soon found out the reason why.  It cost us $4.00 per bag that we checked in, no assigned seats, consequently the line began to form 45 minutes before the boarding time and they was a race to the plane to get a good seat, these people don't mind pushing their way through.  There was no free anything, food, drink, blanket, and they only took the money of the country we had not yet arrived in.  We flew to Malaysia, got in at midnight and stayed at a hotel near the airport, we then took a 5:30 AM shuttle from the hotel to the airport and took another packed flight to Medan, Indonesia.  When we arrived we had to pay for a one week visa, the only problem was they did not like the new American bill we gave them so off to the ATM we went. We finally boarded a bus that the church had to pick us up and arrived at the hotel, only to meet another line for check in.  

There were at least 600 people at this conference.  They had 5 Hugh buses to shuttle us back and forth from the hotel to the church.  The first evening the Governor of the area came and was honored, he was a friend of the pastor's and a Muslim.  He welcomed us to the area and of course the press was there to capture it all on film. 

We were told many times not to venture away from the church or hotel by ourselves.  There were armed guards everywhere.  On Thursday they had arranged for a city bus tour and trip to a beautiful seven story mall.  There were five buses and we were escorted by a police car, sirens going and all.  We felt like royalty.  I am sure that the city wondered who the heck we all were. We also had four police girls, not women, on each bus.  They were so cute, not sure how much protection they would have been.  When we arrived at the mall we had two hours to shop.  The police women were stationed at the main entrance and we were released to shop.

On Friday afternoon we packed up and were taken to the five star hotel of the previous evening for a missionary retreat.  There were 35 of us from all over Asia.  We had two great days of fellowship and prayer.  We all needed to reconnect with those who know what it is like to be in the field.  At the end of the evening we just stayed and talked, none wanting to leave.