Update #18

Hey everyone. For us it is Monday, the start of another week. One week from today we will be flying into Kosarek to start Outdoor Education! WOOHOO! I am so excited. We have been busy getting everything done so we are ready. On Wednesday Pak Gerson, a translator from Kosarek, came out to train us on how to teach the people effectively, how to teach using a translator, and to give us some songs and materials that have already been translated into the Mek language. He was using the Bible story of when Jesus told Peter to go out in his boat, throw the nets in the water, and then he caught more fish than the nets could handle. (Luke 5:1-11). Pak Gerson told some of the struggles in translating a story like this. The people have never seen a large body of water, they don't know what a boat is, and have never seen a fish. So, how could you tell this story so that they understand? Wow. Hard, huh? It was such a beneficial time with him to think through some of these things ahead of time so we are more 
effective when we are there.

Let me tell you a little bit about Kosarek. It is a village area of 7,000-10,000 people. It is about 90% illiterate. Right now there is an American missionary family in there, Mike and Amy from Michigan and their three kids, and an Indonesian couple. The Indonesian husband and wife, Adit and Putri, were both teachers at an Indonesian school and felt called to go to a place that didn't have a school. So they packed up everything they had and starting hiking through the jungle. Forty-two days later they came across the village of Kosarek and decided to stay and help the people there. Amazing, huh? 

Each OE group got a t-shirt that says on the back, "I believe in the words of Jesus. Do you?" Many of the people in the village of Kosarek are learning how to read so the T-shirts are all in the Mek language. In the smaller villages that we will hike to most can't read or haven't even held a book before. Imagine that! (We are so blessed, aren't we?) We will be helping them to get excited about the literacy programs that these missionary families have started. We will show them how to hold a book and that you read left to right. We will set up an alphabet garden for them with a path that starts at A and goes to Z and we will make an item for each letter so as they walk through they can learn the letters. Doesn't that sound like fun?

Some of the other projects are tearing down a clinic that is falling apart, saving the wood, and rebuilding it. We will take logs and plane them down so that wood can also be used in building the clinic. We'll do work on the airstrip, make a learning center, work in the school that is there, gather rocks from the river to use in building, set up clean water systems, talk to the people about hygiene, and health, do HIV/AIDS clinics, kids clubs, help in gardens, etc. We use all of our minutes when we are there to bless as many people as we can. Even our "down" time is spent loving on these kids, playing games, and just being with the people. Since we don't speak Mek and they don't speak Indonesian, we show them the most love by our actions. So we will love on them as much as we can. 

One way of showing love is by taking care of their medical needs. We always bring an American doctor with us, and we set up a clinic then everyday the people pour in with their complaints and we do our best to help. The doctor has shown all of us how to listen to their lungs, their heart, how to take a blood pressure etc. so the kids are all very involved.

This is my group. I have three people that have never gone on OE before. Starting from the left it's Gloria, Eliana, Cindy, Stefan, Jong Woo, Mordy, Seowon, Tehya and me.

I have a lot more I want to share with you guys but I will save it for the next post. Thanks for caring you guys. Thanks for praying.

Rachel