Welllllll, we went to church today. Didn't get there. But went!
And we had a full hour of prayer time, though.
I'd better explain:
Soagi has the day off. So in order to get to church we called Jim's company's pool car department. They didn't feel like being helpful and said that no car would be available until after lunch. So we called a taxi. They arrived after the time that the service was supposed to start but we were not dismayed, expecting it to be running on Indonesian time, anyway. However, we couldn't get in the "taksi" -- though it supposedly meets Jim's company's standards, there were no seatbelts. So we told them "no thank you" and went inside. After re-grouping, Jim decided that he'd get his driver's license and drive. The guy we rent the car from has given us his phone number and has said that he wants the headaches instead of us ... so we figured that if anything went wrong we'd just call him! So, Jim adjusted the seat as best he could so that he could FIT in the driver's seat. Which is on the right side of the car, of course. And traffic drives on the left, of course. That's not so bad 'cuz we've been in a bunch of countries in past years that have these standards -- Thailand, S. Africa, Australia, Tunisia, England, ... However, it was obviously going to be a challenge to use the clutch and make space for his knee, but he was confident that it'd work!!!
And, about 1/2 hour after the service was to start, we headed off to church.
This was the second church we've tried to visit. The first one ... well, no one ever showed up!
After much prayer and sweaty palms, with motorcylists zooming past us on both sides of the car and going any direction they felt like going, with the windshield wipers going in the midst of sunshine (whenever Jim wanted to let people know he was turning) ... we got to the location.
The advertising said, "Under the big tent."
No tent was obvious. Maybe it's not so big??? After 20 minutes of searching we gave up on the tent thing.
Headed back home. But to get there, we had to travel 10 minutes in the wrong direction, until we found a place to do a U-turn. That's a scary experience in itself -- cars zooming by, no space to turn, turning across two lanes, ... You get the picture.
And, speaking of the traffic -- why do they zip through a red light if they're going straight, only stopping if they're turning right??? We're clueless on that one.
We were gone a total of one hour. Hence the reference to the hour-long prayer meeting.
Most of the prayer was basically a repetition of, or a form of, "help us, Lord!!"
And He did!
So, I watched Joel Osteen's Lakewood Church broadcast from Texas. Never have seen it before. Amazingly enough, God used it in HUGE-O ways to minister straight to my heart!
I am blessed.
I am also very bewildered about these churches that take the trouble to advertise but don't exist!
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4 comments:
Sounds like a fun experience! :) Is the red light driving thru on a 4-way or 3-way intersection? So glad that God answered your prayers and kept you safe!
Good point, Jerz. He did answer the "help us, Lord" with a Yes!!
The red light driving thru is on a 3-way, much like that intersection on the way to Peppers. However, there's no green light/green arrow or anything that tells the left-most lane that they can go on through. There's just a red light!
Any insight from your experiences????
wow! That is quite the prayer meeting! Better luck next time I guess!!! And very glad you stayed safe!
Yeah, Karissa! Our church hunt will continue. We're thinking we'll try a fully Indonesian one seeing that the 2 international churches have bombed out. We might at least recognize some of the worship melodies! There are very few churches of any sort ... vast majority of people are Muslim ... mosques EVERYWHERE! But, we'll keep on!
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