:: Trip update 26-27 Jul 2008 ::

Met Persis at Harbourfront at 1.30pm, bought our tickets, and went to Pacific Coffee to chill and discuss what we are going to do. Ticket price increased a lot man! The fuel surcharge rose to 3 times since I last went!

We passed by a cartshop selling cute stuff and she decided to order personalised stickers for Phei Phei. It turned out really nice!! =)

Anyway we made it back early for the ferry. We continued to prepare for the sharing for Youth cell group and slept through the rest of the journey. Persis even brought papers to mark!

Arrived rather on schedule la, Phei Phei reached the jetty about 5 minutes before the ferry did. We changed money, confirmed our return tickets and headed to Vita's house. There we unpacked and rested while we snacked on the food Persis brought from her Parent-Teacher Talk/meeting!

About 6.45pm we moved off to the main road to catch an oplik to the church. Oh, the oplik fare increased! It's now 3000Rp! I only changed $8 cuz i didn't expect the price increase and set aside more. I'm gonna be very tight on this trip man.

Started cell group with a short time of games. It's called "tag". Sigh, i feel old playing this game. haha.. We had a guest from another church who led worship. He speaks Indonesian and only a little English, but wanted to teach the song "How Great is Our God". It was great la, can hear the youths trying to learn English while I am able to worship with this familiar song. Then for the time of sharing Persis and I shared abt "Having a good relationship with God". I described the kind of relationship we have with God and so what our response should be.

Persis demonstrated using object lessons of using 2 cups filled with coke. One had a piece of paper in it but the youths couldn't tell. So it's saying that even though people see us as perfect, we may be rubbish on the inside, and our relationship with God may be in a mess, and God is not pleased. we need God to cleanse us. The other object lesson is that there are many small pieces of paper, in 2 colours, and Persis got everyone to guess without looking the colour of paper in their hands. While some people got it correct, some got it wrong, but Persis showed that she could guess the colour correctly everytime. It's because she was the one who created the game, so she knows the texture of the paper well. Just like God created us, He knows us inside out and He knows our future. Since our future is secure in His hands, it is important to draw close to Him.

After cell group we went to the pasar malam to look at shoes hahaha.. It was drizzling but thank God, Phei Phei said that it was raining the day before. God really blesses me with good weather everywhere I go. :P We wanted to go pasar malam because Wati bought her beautiful shoes there! but anyway i'm broke so i just planned to window shop. Seems like the prices have increased, so we decided to leave. I told Vita to ask Novendi to cell group but he was busy, so we met him at the pasar malam instead. Chey, turns out he's Weilun and i met him before. hahaha.. these youths from balai add me on msn and i dunno who they are lor.

We (the whole cell grp) walked to near the jetty for dinner.. it was a really nice new place they opened up, Ah Yang told me it was opened 3 months ago only. It's called "Gloria" i think. We walked past this cute, interesting ride.


Persis and I were amazed at this innovation!


I ordered Mie Ayam and the rest ordered Sate (satay) and Tela-Tela. Another amazing new snack that took Balai by storm. hahaha.. i think all the youths are crazy about this new snack la!


Took oplik back, showered and watched tv.. I find Indo commercials as interesting as Thai. I can't tell the good commercials are from Indo or Thai anymore. =) Nando was smacking flies with an electric "badminton racquet", so cute! Vita was watching Channel U in the room, so we joined her. Then we went to sleep.


Next morning we could sleep in because someone else has been scheduled to do Sunday School. Had breakfast (mee rebus and fried lao shu fen) and chatted with Vita. She's graduating next yr but dunno what to do after that. If she wants to come to Singapore to study she may have to study and get a S1 degree first. (dun really know what's that but it means a long route) I feel quite sad about the future of the youths in Balai, some of them obviously can study and get good results, but what can they do with them? They can't find jobs in better places yet unless they continue to study some more. Youths like Adriano has taken a smarter move, by going to Singapore to study since primary school. So his English foundation is stronger and enables him to go Singapore unis as easily as any Singaporean. Just that when he first entered pri sch he had to study one year extra la, but what is this one yr compared to 3-4 years that other youths like Vita has to take? Vita can also go Batam to study la, but seems like the degree there is also not very recognised if she wants to work in Singapore.

Anyway, we left the house about 11am, went to the supermarket nearby to do our "shopping". This cat at the entrance came up to me and snuggled at my feet.

Love it! but a little too ticklish hehe..

Persis bought boxes of red pens because it's really good. And i bought my usual supply of Indomie Goreng. :P Wanted to buy other stuff but no money!! Gotta set aside some for transport and return tax! And talking about the return tax, the price has increased too!! :( It used to be 10,000Rp, but now it's 25,000Rp! That means 15,000Rp less for my spending! We didn't know that till the pastor from Holy Trinity church told us. He and his team were teaching Sunday School.









Deep in thought


Tela-Tela menu!

Tanjung Balai babies:

Sera! She can walk already!


Aimei plays with us, finally!


New baby, Yong Guang, Sera's younger brother


Xiao Ying, she likes to bounce on people's laps! But looking a little grouchy now.


Oh! I saw this cute baby asleep as I was getting my bag from the inner room after service.

Uncle Asun preached from James 2:14-26 about Faith and Deeds. Wati was sitting beside me so i reminded her of the lessons from cell group yesterday.

Persis and I had only 6000Rp left after setting aside 50,000Rp for return tax. This 6000 is able to get us an oplik ride to the jetty, but we were more than an hour ahead of time, so we decided to walk there. :P Adventurous sia! =D


Badminton court. What a beautiful sky in the background! Praise God for good weather!


We stopped by near the river to take photos, since we've always taken oplik and passed by but never got down to admire the view.


Life there seems peaceful

The Holy Trinity people took oplik to Indo A. Yani to shop. We walked past them as they came out and were taking oplik to the jetty.


My sandals snapped! But thank God! It only snapped when we were VERY near the jetty. (We were almost lost and had to ask our way to the pelabuhan!)


We still had the 6000Rp so we bought gorengan with it! Yummy!~ See our wornout faces.. haha.. We boarded the ferry early and managed to find seats.. thank God! The Holy Trinity people boarded the ferry quite late and were unable to find seats. Maybe they were enjoying their coffee they forgot the time?