Off to Singapore

I am finally in Singapore. It has been a bit of a long day, but I am good, and I think that I will have a really good week while I am here. Whenever I come here I am struck by the difference between the metropolis that is Singapore, with the laid back way of Indonesia, but I love it. 

I am so excited to learn Indonesian! Honestly, I can hardly even tell you how excited I am. School does not start until Sep 17th, but there are some things that I will need to take care of before then anyway. When I get back from Singapore I will have to go to Semarang and register there and get an Indonesian ID card for my time there, and things like that. I have many projects that I will be working on in September actually, one thing is that I am going to attempt to translate all of the songs for the Sunday service so that we can have the Indonesian lyrics with the English translation on the overheads. Another thing is that during the month of September Ps. Sam is heading up a mission to "adopt" a small town outside of Salatiga. During the day in this town you can find around 50 prostitutes, but at night there are over 300 women there, so every weekend we are going to be doing something to help. The first weekend we will be giving out food. The next we will have kind of an "Empowering Women" conference (for lack of a better word) to help them know that there is another and better way of life. Also, Sam will be giving away the book that he wrote about his testimony. To add to this adoption, they are also going to try and buy the church building that is in the town, as it is there are about 10 people in the church, and the pastor there is deathly ill, so Sam is going to be talking to other pastors around Salatiga to see if they can all spare members of the worship team, and a week to preach, and try to buy the building and really build up the church members (I am not talking just about size, but build up as in give them faith and transformed lives) in that area. I just want to mention here, that this venture will be costing Sam quite a bit of money, and if any of you want to donate to that cause specifically, then you are more than welcome. Just let me know. 

Back to what I am doing in Singapore, like I told you all before I have friends here that I will be staying with, and the plan is to go to the Embassy on Monday, because everyone is closed down for Ramadan on Friday this week. Actually, it has been really interesting to be in a Muslim nation during this time. Of course you all know that during the month of August, they all fast, but what I didn't know is that the fast ends in a week of feasting and what is called Idul Fitri, which is essentially the Muslim Day of Atonement. All of the families get together and forgive each other for things that happened during the past year. During this time, most places to eat are closed, so if you don't want to cook, go to someones house....because they will feed you, but be careful, because they will also take you to the neighbors house and you will probably get to eat three or four dinners before the day is out, which, by the way, happened to me. 

Well, it has been a long day, and I really want to sleep. I will update again soon. Please pray that everything goes smoothly and that there is no problem getting the visa. Love you all.