Hong Kong / Indonesia
December 17th – 20th, 2015
Day 1 – 2
Pastor Itok Rumbayan from Medan in Indonesia has invited Brother Vin for this season to fellowship around the Word, to preach and conduct minister’s meetings, with the purpose to prepare the believers and ministers for His glorious coming and to show them the day and the hour that we are living in. They’ve received a lot of inspiration and revelation in last year’s meetings, which were hosted together by Pastor Itok and Pastor Mahanaim, who has his church in a different part of Medan. We will all meet them again in a couple of days, while they are in great expectations.
It was very difficult to get decent priced tickets for this time of the year, and therefore we have to start our journey as many days as possible before Christmas. These extra days help us to get some rest before diving into the busy schedule, that the brothers have set-up. They know the value and importance of this Bride’s ministry, and cease every moment for God’s servant to be with them.
Our journey to Indonesia – that is Brother Vin and Timmy, Burkhard and myself – starts early this morning, December 17th, in Vancouver and the first stop after a 14 hour flight will be Hong Kong.
We meet Brother Vin and Timmy at the airport in Vancouver. They have been the past week in Marysville/USA where Brother Vin ministered three times to the precious believers of Divine Love Tabernacle. Pastor Didier Kalambai, his wife Sister Leslie-Ann, and little William brought them to the airport and to our surprise we meet also Brother Neville Mahya from Brazil this morning, who is spending some time in Surrey/Canada for the wedding of his wife’s sister. We all have a little bit of fellowship before our non-stop flight to Hong Kong departs.
Every seat in this plane is occupied, mostly with Chinese people who travel back home for the Christmas holidays. It seems to me that time stands still and we never get there; the flight is soooo long and the seats are very tight and uncomfortable.
When we finally arrive in Hong Kong we are taken by surprise by the efficiency of the Chinese people; the immigration process is incredible fast; a man is urging us with “faster, faster” …they seem to have a total different system than what we know in North America…knowing time is of essence! Although there are so many people, we are through with everything in less than 5 minutes, something unheard of in our so-called advanced North-American society.
We have a van waiting to take us to the hotel in 30 minutes from here and after having a bite to eat we just crash in our beds. It’s a 16 hour time difference to Vancouver and by that we are now already in the evening of December 18th.
Our body clock is up-side-down, especially from just being 2 weeks ago in Moscow and Siberia, and only one week in Canada to get our laundry done and repack our suitcases, and now we find ourselves again on the other side of the world. Sleep is very rare these days, and we are staying in the hotel for 2 nights and 2 days, and when we are awake, we eat a little and are looking out to the harbour, watching the old ships going by, and going back to sleep. The temperature here is about 16 degrees C, mostly cloudy and its not very inviting anyhow to step out the hotel, which is located in a very “local” area of Hong Kong.
Hong Kong covers only an area of 426 square miles, but more than 7 million people are living here. The main religion is Buddhism followed by Taoism and Christianity, and just a small part is Islam.
December 20th – December 21st, 2015
Day 3 – Day 4
Tonight we continue our journey with a 5 hour flight from Hong Kong to Jakarta, arriving in Jakarta at 11 p.m. Compared to the modern Hong Kong we feel like entering into a total different world here.
The suitcases are coming slowly one by one, and it is after midnight when we finally leave the airport. Lots of planes have arrived this time of the day; the airport is crowded with all kinds of nationalities. It is hot and humid here, even at night we still have 25 degrees C.
We had made reservations for 2 cars, but we see that there is a van available, which has the same size, which we just had in Hong Kong. While it was normal for them in Hong Kong to load all our luggage in that one van, here the driver and some other chauffeurs are just looking at us and don’t move a finger. They definitely want us to take 2 cars to make some more money. But we insist to go with this one van, knowing by experience that it works, and we are loading our luggage ourselves. The driver only smiles for the first time when we give him a five Dollar tip at the end of the one hour drive to the hotel.
Arriving at the hotel, we are stopped at a gate and after some people are checking through the van, they lift the bar, then a second bar and we can enter the hotel compound. Here the luggage is checked; its a set-up just like we know it from the airports, even ourselves we have to go through a scanner. What a world we are living in! Later we find out that there was a terrorist attack in this very hotel in 2009, and that’s why they have this severe security measures.
It is 2 a.m. when we finally crash in our beds.
Jakarta is officially known as the Special Capital Region of Jakarta and is the largest city of Indonesia. The city alone covers 256 square miles and the population is more than 10 million people with Islam as the main religion. Besides this the government recognizes only Catholicism, Protestantism, Hinduism, Buddhism and Confucianism. We see Christmas decorations everywhere and even here the annoying Jingle bell music is playing.
Jakarta holds the unbeatable record of the highest buildings with 800 Skyscrapers and 82 High rise buildings (150 m +) with 52 more still under construction. I don’t want to think of the terrible destruction if an earthquake would happen here.
Except for having breakfast in the morning we have been in the room all day, but in the evening we decide to step out a little for some coffee and then return for a bite to eat to the hotel. Here we receive a very special treat from Chef Darius, who asks if he could do something more than just having the normal buffet, which is already incredible.
Somehow Darius is attracted to us, because he treats us with special salads, Timmy gets a big portion of garlic scrimps!
And Darius keeps coming back with nicely cut-up local fruits, which are not known to us at all; lychees and mangosteen fruits, which we only know from the can.
But here they are fresh and everything is delicious and by the end of the dinner he comes back with two paper bags with Mangosteen fruits as a gift for us to take along.
The scripture from Matthew 25:40 comes to mind: “Insomuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me.”
This is hospitality on a higher level, which we cannot remember ever have experienced in another hotel; and we have been in many!
The Lord wanted to give us a special blessing – He knows what is laying ahead – and also bless “Brother” Darius, because God is the one moving the hearts of men and direct their path. We will remember Darius for the rest of our lives, and no doubt, miss him in many places!