Rivers Baptist Church - Christ alone - and Him crucified

Hi,

Another update for you from Sulewesi :) Well we are halfway through the time here and the last week or so seems to have gone a lot faster than the previous weeks. Last week we actually went to the university campus for orientation for the students. M wanted to show us that it actually existed because they keep changing all the starting dates so we hadn't actually had a chance to see it yet. If I go to university next year I will definately appreciate all the things our oz unis have because over here it is very basic. I'm not sure what the last date I gave you was, but teaching will not start now until November 5th (and I think that is final...but who knows :)

Some of the higlights of the last couple of weeks:

THE BEACH YESTERDAY!
- Postcard peferct island beach. Very few people, white sand, clear water and plam trees. Teg and I had the chance to go snorkelling and it was beautiful!

Some of the conversations that I have had the chance to have with some of the girls here. One of the things that has really hit me is that these girls may be in a completely different culture with different faiths and ways of living, but they still struggle with the same issues, ask the same questions and have the same needs. It has really raised some deep thinking on my part :)

Watching the sunset on the beach with some new friends and going to a BBQ afterwards. The BBQ consisted of BBQ fish and rice. I ate a whole (little) fish! : ) That was after I had smothered it with chilli marinade to get rid of the flavour. Teg was smart and didn't put as much on, but both our mouths were still burning and I was crying and nose running. I learnt my lesson. :)

Spending time with the American family and their children. They are all so lovely, and we enjoy the fact that we eat a bit of western food at their house. The other day it was chicken nuggets and chips for lunch...yum!

Watching a P service at the harbour the other day. It was really eye opening. At this time I had the opportunity to ask many questions to one of M's friends who we had just had dinner with.

Teg and I have been shopping at night by ourselves a few times. We love it!
We walk into town and shop and manage to bargain with the shopkeepers. We have developed a habit of buying a magnum on the way home and sitting on the water to eat it! Its our little escape, and a magnum for about $1.50 you can't go past that!

Tommorrow we will fast for a day to see how the people actually feel. So it involves getting up at 3am and having a last substantial meal before the sun rises (we will porbably go back to bed after :) and then going without food or water until 6pm tommorrow night when the sun sets. It will be a challenge but we don't plan on doing much so we can conserve energy. The hardest part we predict will be not drinking as it is very hot!

Next week on Tuesday is the end of the fasting month so it means big celebrations for the week...equivalent to our Christmas! We will spend most of the week visiting peoples houses and there is lots of food as you can imagine! So yeah that will be a good cultural experience! : )

Well bye for now, I hope that you are all well Simoane (and Teg)