#CompassionINDO @CompassionAU

One afternoon we stumbled into a Compassion project class while they were proudly sharing their poems. Rodrigo had just shared a moving poem about how his “mumma” is everything to him. Pride, joy, gratitude and affection for his mum was evident even before we heard the translation into English.

Fega (on the right) was much more coy when it came to sharing her poem. She was visibly moved before reading it. And chose not to share it with the class.

However, she shared it with me. Her poem, like Rodrigo’s, was about her family. Filled with grief and tears she shared how her dad had died when she was young and her mum was gravely ill. The poem spoke of anguish and uncertainty about the future. Gut-wrenching.

Although only with her for a short time, it was special to be able to comfort her with the comfort of Christ and to pray with her.

Hopefully this doesn’t seem too crass, but Fega reminded me that sponsor kids are real people, with real families, with real emotions and real pain.

Poverty in our world is massive. The number of children that die each day from preventable diseases is heart-breaking. But it’s easy to let the tragic numbers wash over you. Fega isn’t a number or a statistic. Her deceased father and ill mother aren’t a number or a statistic.

I’m thankful to God for Fega’s grandmother and her care for Fega. I’m thankful to God for Compassion and their care and support of Fega.

Compassion know that children aren’t statistics. Compassion workers on the ground know the children and their needs: physical; spiritual; and emotional.

Check out www.compassion.com.au if you want to bring comfort, care and compassion to precious little ones like Fega.

“Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves receive from God. For just as we share abundantly in the sufferings of Christ, so also our comfort abounds through Christ.” (2 Corinthians 1:3-5 NIV)

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I mentioned in a previous post that it’s difficult to connect across language barriers. One way to break down barriers is through sport.

We spent an hour or so one afternoon playing Takraw (3 vs 3 soccer tennis style Asian sport). Sweaty work. Good fun. Great to connect with the boys.

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We enjoyed so much delicious food in Manado! My favourite was the fish on Bulakan Island (bottom right pic) and the avocado juice.

There was also lots of sketchy food to stay away from. I’ve since heard that more than half the team were sick upon arriving home. Bummer. Literally.

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Manado was hot and humid, thirst-inducing weather! The water in taps is sketchy so I had about 8 bottles of water a day. (Side note: so much plastic dumped and in waterways!) Water is cheap for rich westerners, it works out at about 10cents per bottle.

Each drink reminded me of the gap between home and East Indo and the need to continue to find ways to provide suitable water.

We saw some of the wells that Compassion have provided and also communities in desperate need of a water source.

I’ve done some water projects with Compassion in India and Uganda in the last few years. If you’re interested in doing a one off project like this, do it, it’s worthwhile. Check out http://www.compassion.com.au for info.

The cool thing with all that Compassion do is that it’s centred on Christ. They point to THE Source of water and THE water never leave you thirsty.

“Jesus answered, “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life.” (John 4:13, 14 NIV)

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Andy and Tom, from Compassion Australia, have been capturing this trip on camera and film.Colin (and Riley) have been followed for most of the time, but we’ve all had opportunities on camera formally and informally.

I’ve been really impressed with the skill of Andy and Tom in what they’ve captured, their thoughtful questions and how they’re telling the story.

I’m looking forward to the documentary and different vids coming out afterwards.

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#CompassionINDO @CompassionAU “Is not this the kind of fasting I have chosen: to loose the chains of injustice and untie the cords of the yoke, to set the oppressed free and break every yoke? Is it not to share your food with the hungry and to provide the poor wanderer with shelter— when you see the naked, to clothe them, and not to turn away from your own flesh and blood? Then your light will break forth like the dawn, and your healing will quickly appear; then your righteousness will go before you, and the glory of the Lord will be your rear guard. Then you will call, and the Lord will answer; you will cry for help, and he will say: Here am I. “If you do away with the yoke of oppression, with the pointing finger and malicious talk, and if you spend yourselves in behalf of the hungry and satisfy the needs of the oppressed, then your light will rise in the darkness, and your night will become like the noonday. The Lord will guide you always; he will satisfy your needs in a sun-scorched land and will strengthen your frame. You will be like a well-watered garden, like a spring whose waters never fail. Your people will rebuild the ancient ruins and will raise up the age-old foundations; you will be called Repairer of Broken Walls, Restorer of Streets with Dwellings. (Isaiah 58:6-12 NIV)

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Manado is a busy city, there’s a bit of tourism, but mostly locals. Of those who are tourists, we’ve only seen a handful of other Western looking people.

It means that even walking to the shops is almost a celebrity event! It helps when one of our team members – Sam – is about 9 feet tall! The locals are very friendly and enjoy practising their English while we practise our Bahasa Indonesian.

We regularly pose for photos in town (away from the Compassion projects) with random people.

Riley, our youngest team member, has been asked a number of times if he is Justin Bieber!! He is winning when it comes to posing-for-requested photos count.

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On Wednesday we visited the East Indonesia Compassion HQ in Manado. Visiting an office might sound boring, but it wasn’t! It really was an amazing privilege to meet the incredibly godly people on the ground in East Indo.

I was struck by the systems, processes, accountability and how each staff member knew their role within the whole. What this means is that when money is provided by donors, you can be confident that it is being spent wisely, with precision and genuinely helping children.

Compassion East Indonesia currently has 39,000 children within their projects but only 30,000 have sponsors.

Prayerfully consider becoming a sponsor of one of the other 9,000 kids. Only $44 a month. See www.compassion.com.au for more info. It’s worth it!

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This photo is taken from the roof of our fairly swanky hotel. Manado has lots of new development and wealthy houses side by side with poor, broken and destitute dwellings.

Lots of the rundown houses still have pretty good looking televisions, but not much else.In the city there are poor people rubbing shoulders with relatively wealthy business and commerce workers.

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Manado is in East Indonesia on North Sulawesi. We don’t see sunsets over the water on the east coast of Australia.

After a visit into the local shops, we stuck around for the #beautiful #sunset. It was worth it. Then we saw an even better angle, which is the photo below, taken not long after the sun went down.

We enjoyed a delicious – and quite spicy – Indonesian dinner tonight.

More about the projects and Compassion’s work tomorrow…

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We’ve arrived in Manado after a day of travel. Flying is still glamorous for me… good times. The highlight was the small rolled up hand towels they gave us to wipe our faces and some gangsta movie on the first flight.

I’m here with a team of 13 including @CompassionAU workers, ministers and others from churches in Sydney, Newcastle and Canberra.We will be visiting a bunch of the projects that Compassion are part of in the Manado area.The photo is somewhere in the air during flight 2.

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