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Mountain view from a garden hut

This was our view during the helicopter ride into the tribe

(that’s right, we got to ride in a helicopter!)

We stayed with some believers there....

This is Mesak and his son

And this is Mesak’s wife, Linu Hati

Since very few people in this tribe can speak Indonesian, we were again reduced to using gestures to communicate.  The kids were the easiest to do this with, since they found everything we did amusing.  So here’s some pics of the kids....

We hung out with some of the girls one afternoon and they taught us how to make these contraptions, which are used to cook rice....

It should be simple.  All you have to do is braid a couple of leaves together.  Yet somehow, hard as we tried, ours still looked pretty pathetic.  But we all got a good laugh out of it.

We also hiked to the top of one of the nearby mountains, and I’m pretty sure we used muscles that I’ve never before used in my life.  It was a steep and difficult hike, but it was a lot of fun and we got to see a lot of beautiful scenery along the way.

The village you see below is close to where we started our hike, and we’re only about half way done here.

And finally, the last full day we were in the village we got to join one of their weekly Bible studies

This tribal group heard the Gospel many years ago through NTM missionaries.  Today they have many small groups that meet throughout the week to study the Bible, pray and sing together.  They also gather as big groups on Sundays.  They’re working to bring the Gospel to the villages around them, and while they’ve reached many, there are still thousands within their tribe who have yet to hear the Good News.  They asked for prayer to remain diligent and faithful, because the work is hard, often taking them from their families and gardens for days at a time and requires long and rigorous hikes to get from one place to another.

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The next part of our trip took place in the northern part of the island, in a town called Manado.  We visited the Indonesian Missionary Training Center and were really encouraged to hear about the program there.  There are 30 people signed up to take classes this next semester, which is exciting, because hopefully some of these people will be my future co-workers!

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And finally, we got to do some snorkeling while we were in Manado as well.

Here’s some pictures from the boat...

We saw thousands of beautiful and strange-looking fish.  I don’t have an underwater camera, but found a couple pictures online to give you a glimpse of what we saw...

Nemo

So, all in all, we had a great trip, albeit a bit tiring.  Thanks so much for praying!

If you want to see more pics, click here.