About Our Group

We are a group of 12 students and 2 professors from Calvin College venturing to Indonesia for three weeks. While in Indonesia, we will visit schools and businesses, along with seeing the sights! We fly out from GRR on January 2 and arrive back in Grand Rapids on January 23.

Monday, January 7, 2013

January 6: Religion

On Sunday we checked out of our hotel in Jakarta so that we could move to Karawaci, a  greener, less industrial city not too far away from Jakarta.

Our first stop of the day was at Reformed Evangelical Church of Indonesia. While we attended the English service, we also stopped by the main sanctuary where the service is held in Bahasa Indonesia, and the smaller room where the service is held in Mandarin.  True to its name, the church has reached millions of people (really!) in just the past year alone. It was wonderful to see a family of believers on our second day in Indonesia, especially considering that Indonesia is primarily a Muslim country.

Look who's picture we found at the church!

Connected to the church was a beautiful museum filled with items for over 3,000 years ago.  Beyond even the standards of an American museum, it was obvious that the museum cared about the preservation of history.

Next, we traveled to Masjid Istiqlal, Indonesia's largest mosque, and the third largest mosque in the world.  For the majority of us, this was our first experience at a mosque.  While from our hotel in Jakarta, we could hear the call to prayer, it was an incredible experience to stand in the mosque during prayer, as the loud speaker reverberated through the massive, five story building.

 Professor Van Der Heide with some kids outside the mosque





To relax after our first few days in Jakarta, and our two full days of travel, we were all (yes, even the gentlemen!) pampered with a 90 minute foot, leg and back massage. Yet another new experience for the majority of us, it was incredible that something that would have been really expensive in the states is so cheap in Indonesia, a reality we are continually amazed by.

After dinner, we checked into our hotel in Karawaci. Now, instead of high rises out side of our windows we can enjoy terra cotta roofs and tall, tropical green trees. We will be at this relocation for a few days, but there is only wifi in the lobby, so if you are wondering about the lack of iMessage texts, that's why. :)

Day three will bring us to Bandung, which is about a two hour drive from Karawaci.

Talk to you again soon!

Blessings,
Michelle

1 comment:

  1. Dear Calvin interim students in Indonesia! It was great to meet up with you that day. It looks like you're seeing the best of Indonesia in a flash! All the best and selamat jalan ya!

    Jessica Fox

    ReplyDelete