Pastor Stephanus Dike and his Wife rode opposite me in the Luxury bus.
After waiting 2 more hours in Makasar for the rest of the pastors from the Papua delegation to arrive we boarded “luxury” buses for the rest of the journey. By now it is getting dark. So I have no idea what we past for the next 8 hours but I do know we were not in the flat land for long. The seats were comfortable but the curves were like non-other. I tried to sleep but it was useless. We arrived at 3 a.m. in the morning at the place where the East Indonesian Union Pastors Bible Conference was to be held. Someone forgot to make reservations and so with no place to go two bus loads of Pastors filled the lobby of the hotel. I tried to sleep on a coach but the noise and lights were simply too much. In the morning the treasurer bought breakfast which consisted of a bit of rice rolled up in banana leaves, some squares of fried tofu and some greens that were spiked with smokin’ hot peppers that left my tongue and throat burning for at least an hour.
When “breakfast" was finished we learned that check-in was not until 2 p.m. and then someone suggested we go on a tour of Toraja’s famous tombs. So blurry eyed we bounced along mountain roads for what seemed like another eternity and we came to the caves where the ancient Torajans used to bury their dead. The more important you were the higher up the cliffs or deeper into the cave you got put. They built caskets of wood that eventually became termite ridden and so today bones lay at the base of the cliffs. Royalty were actually carved into an evolving 3D mural on the cliffs above the cave.
The “Royal Family” is carved into this 3D mural upon their death. In this mural you have many generations all depicted at the height of their power and youth. Their bones buried in small caskets hung from the cliffs above the cave.
After our tour we came back for lunch and then we were to register for the event and check-in to our rooms. Somehow my name was forgotten and thus no room was reserved but a pastor down the road happen to have a nice room all to himself because his family was not able to come. Thank you Pastor Richel Sumlang for sharing your room even if your motel was several Kilometers away.
The next 3 days we enjoyed seminars and sermons by some of the top speakers from the General Conference and Dr Kis from the Seventh-day Adventist Theological seminary at Andrews University. As always I especially enjoyed Dr Kis talks on ethics.
On Sabbath evening as the sun set we reversed our journey. This time I rode back with the other mission I work along side – West Papua Mission. The mission president, Pastor Ted Wendewani, had bought soccor team shirts that said “Team West Papua Mission” on the front on the back he but numbers as if they were players on the team. Completing the shirt was the pastors last name on his back. Half the pastors wore blue soccer jerseys and half wore yellow. Various team building exercises were given along the road trip on the “luxury” bus trip back down those 8 winding hours of road back to Makasar. The president had confirmed a motel so that when we arrived at 1:30 a.m. we could have a few hours of sleep. But when we arrived at 2:20 a.m. the motel had given our reservation to another group – now what?
Pastor Toni Mayai also slept on desk chairs. He’s still in his “Yellow Team West Papua Mission shirt”
Soon the local Adventist highschool was located and the principle was awakened and they graciously let us have two classrooms to “sleep” in. I quickly sized up the floor and decided that it would be better to move 8 desktops together to make a bed. I always travel with a sheet but a sheet does nothing to soften iron wood desk tops. By 3:00 a.m. I was attempting to snooze in the same room as approximately 15 other pastors. We couldn’t figure out how to turn off the light bulb as the switch was broken so that the light when in the off position was more like a disco than being fully off.
Worship at 4:00 a.m.
At 4 a.m. one pastor decided that since we are suppose to pray at 4:00 a.m. why not ‘wake’ everyone and have worship and then those who didn’t yet have to go to the airport would walk to the beach. Seriously, I was in no worship filled attitude by this moment. In American culture we have devotions privately but here its often a collective experience followed by your personal time. There are definitely advantages to both ways but I must admit 4:00 a.m. after an all nighter was pushing it for me. But give that pastor an A for accountability for having worship.
As I boarded my plane for Jakarta for some appointments a few hours latter I fell into a deep sleep.
