Dear friends and family,
Let the bells ring out ! Let the banners fly ! Let all men everywhere know that the God of Heaven hears and answers prayer. Our son Noah is officially engaged to be married to one of Heavenly Fathers choicest daughters - sweet Jennifer Irwin, a young woman of great faith and courage, who has won a place in our hearts.
Let the bells ring out ! Let the banners fly ! Let all men everywhere know that the God of Heaven hears and answers prayer. Our son Noah is officially engaged to be married to one of Heavenly Fathers choicest daughters - sweet Jennifer Irwin, a young woman of great faith and courage, who has won a place in our hearts.
It is a long prayed for moment of joy and hope; a moment of both agony and ecstasy. On the one hand we couldn't be more thrilled, on the other hand, we couldn't be more separated by distance. We weep our tears of lonely joy, feeling a little isolated in Jakarta Indonesia. We hoped and prayed that this marriage would happen and we couldn't be more thrilled by the choice that Noah has made. Sweet Jennifer is a young woman of extraordinary faith and independent courage. Her influence on our son has earned her a place of significance in our family and in our hearts. Our prayers and gratitude fill the world around us as we ask our friends back home to offer the support to this young couple that we cannot offer ourselves. When we decided to go on a mission we knew that certain sacrifices would be required and we also believed that certain blessings would flow out of those sacrifices. We believe that this is one of the great miracles that have Heavenly Father has granted to our family and we pray that Noah and Jennifer will be richly blessed despite our absence. I have confidence that our friends will be able to reach out and provide the love and hands on support that we cannot, as they plan their marriage. We feel as though our family has been blessed with a spiritual giant and a heavenly gift that has come in the form of a daughter-in-law. Isn't life wonderful ? Isn't it marvelous just to be alive and to feel the richness of Gods love and see His divine influence on those we love. It's a good thing that we aren't Baptists or there would be a string of " Halleluiah's " that would pour out of our hearts and mouths that would confuse the life out of the people of Jakarta.
It is currently 5:00 PM on Saturday evening in Jakarta Indonesia as we send out our love and regards to our friends and family everywhere. The journey to Indonesia has been long and tiring and we are in the process of adjusting to the inevitable combination of both jet-lag and culture adjustment. The good news of our sons engagement has overshadowed the adjustments here so it all still seems to be a little odd and surreal. We awakened at 4:00 AM this morning to the Imams call to the faithful to prayer. I did not go to the mosque but did use the opportunity to offer a prayer of gratitude to our Heavenly Father for the privilege of life and the blessing of being on a mission with my companion. I was thankful for the reminder that we should be prayerful and thankful for all of our blessings. Every single person in Canada needs to drop on their knees in gratitude for the inherent blessings and opportunities that they have available to them, simply by being where they are.
The weather in Jakarta is very nice but we have never seen anything like the smog here. There is no blueness to the sky. It is all grey and casts a grey gloom over everything here. Perhaps it is a small blessing because if that tropical sun ever actually broke through it would make for an interesting experience, in an already very warm place.
Thus far, Jakarta has certainly lived up to its reputation of being one of the most polluted and congested cities in the world. With the exception of this mornings taxi ride to a shopping centre, the traffic is beyond belief. Sister Kane and I have been to a lot of places in the world but we have never seen anything to match to the traffic here. You could drive a bicycle far faster than you can drive a car, although it would be worth your life to be out there. We thought the traffic in downtown Rome was the worst we had ever seen but it is a freeway compared to the snails pace that the million of cars and scooters move at here. I can easily see how anyone with breathing problems would have a hard time here. We will stay here until nest Tuesday, ( Boxing Day ) before we relocate to Bogor, where we will be living.
There are some clear reasons why poor countries are poor. Perhaps those reasons are more obvious to a visitor. Poor countries have layers and layers of inept beaurocratic procedures that strangle time and energy. We spent all day yesterday getting finger printed by the national police and getting an immigration stamp in our passports. These things allow us to stay here that will allow us to stay but they are over and above the three month process that it took to get a visa to be here. We will be able to pick up our passports some time next week.
It is clear why we would need a driver / translator to be able to get anything done here in terms of working with governments or other agencies fro humanitarian projects. There are protocols and procedures that we would never be able to learn. We look forward to leaving Jakarta to go to Bogor next week. We are staying in a very nice hotel that is reasonable as the mission home is full of missionaries that are either arriving or leaving.
We had a chance to visit with the Mission President and his wife yesterday evening after we got the immigration procedures cleared off. The lines ups in the government offices ( which still operate with typewriters ) and traffic jams took us more than 7 hours. It was very helpful to meet with the Mission President and hear his counsel and we then went to dinner with all of the senior missionaries in the district but it was tough staying awake as we were still in the midst of the adjustment from jet-lag. We wonder how long the process will take.
We are happy that we have the company of Elder and Sister Pier, who we have trained and traveled with. They have been great supports for us and we have become good friends. They will be staying I Jakarta as employment specialists. They will be setting up the Perpetual education fund here in Indonesia. We will be sad to leave them behind when we head off to Bogor next week.
Our journey to Indonesia was interesting. It started off with a delayed flight in Salt Lake City and a change of planes, but it all worked out. miracles happen to us as evidence that we are being looked after in our travels. We arrived in Los Vegas with only minutes to spare before boarding the flight to Korea. The flight from Los Vegas was more tolerable that I thought than a 13 hour flight would be. Korean Air does a great job and the plane and the staff were truly impressive. The stewardesses were all candidates to star in " Memoirs of a Geisha " . They all were as beautiful as they were tiny and incredibly well dressed in impressive uniforms. They bowed when they spoke to you and could not possibly been more gracious or classy. We were at the airport in Korea for almost 11 hours as it was too cold to go out and have a tour of the city. This was followed by an uneventful 7 hour flight to Indonesia.
We arrived two nights ago at 11:00 PM. We were picked up at the airport by Elder and Sister Peterson ( Country Director ) and Lieshman ( Employment Specialists ) and it was good to see them and to get to meet them.
Our adventure here is being modified by the luxury of our current circumstances. We are staying in a very nice hotel in Jakarta while we wait out the Christmas Season before going on to Bogor. There is little point in heading over to Bogor before Christmas as our driver/translator has the day off tomorrow and Monday ( Christmas Day ) and there is precious little that we can do without his help. We really are babes in the woods without the assistance of translators and it would be next to impossible to find our way around the city without a driver.
We are grateful to be here and share this experience together. We wish all of you the very best in the Christmas Season. Keep us in your prayers as we struggle to be worthy of our callings.
Love
Elder and Sister Kane
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