Conference

Feb 11-16th was the Regional Conference for our organization.  As Josh and I are part of the admin team here in town, we were involved in the planning and implementation of the event.  We also got to attend! :)  It was a crazy few days leading up to the event, coordinating "duties" for each colleague to make sure all the needs were met for the 80 people attending.  We had some guests, but most were our colleagues and their children.  We enjoyed worship and teaching times in English as well so updates from those who work interior.  It was great to hear about their joys as well as their struggles and to be able to pray together for them.

Prayer time - a different team gave an update and were prayed for each morning

We enjoyed lunches and suppers together.  Lunches were ordered in packets - usually rice, a veggie (usually a steamed green or raw "coleslaw" or cucumber) and a piece of meat.  We had rendang (VERY GOOD), yellow rice (delicious), and so on.  One of the lunch times we invited our colleagues from Germany (2 couples) to join us at our home.  We all brought our box lunches with us, and then I fried up some Mennonite Farmer Sausage (which we'd smoked in our backyard smokehouse) for them to enjoy.  Sausage is a part of their diet in Germany which they'd been missing since good sausage is very hard to find here.  We were so thrilled to watch them enjoy it!  

Adding a Mennonite side dish to local food - YUM!

For suppers we only served those who don't have a home in town, so the numbers were somewhat lower.  I, along with 2 colleagues, planned, prepared and served dinners.  Since there were less people to serve (around 45) we opted to go with more "western" fare - sandwiches.  We actually were able to have some deli ham sent out from the capitol with a guest, so we did sandwiches two days.  We made some pickles (also a "special treat") from dill we special-ordered from the capitol to add to that.  

Enjoying fellowship while sharing meals!

Sandwiches are a treat!

 On the 14th we had a Valentine's banquet with the evening session taking place at a restaurant in town.  The place was pretty booked up and we ended up in a tiny room up some winding stairs overlooking a large open room.  The open room was being used by a birthday party for a child - they had LOUD kareoke going on while we were trying to hear what our speaker was saying!  They finished just in time for us to hear the closing prayer!

Karaoke - taken through a window - see the stage with the lady and girl on it?

One of the many delicious dishes at the banquet.  The basket is made of fried sweet potatoes - I think...

Sweethearts... :)

On the 15th there was a special Ladies Tea which we held at our home since it was close by.  We had a short talk from our guest speaker's wife and a time of sharing.  It was nice for us women to all be together (no kids!) and chat a bit.

Andrea made delicious desserts out of some waffles and served hot chai and iced friendship tea.

The kids really enjoyed the children's sessions which were facilitiated by some colleagues from another region.  They had lessons as well as a lot of time to play organized games, do crafts, etc.  The last night they sang a number of songs for the adults.  Evenings were nice and low-key with the leaders reading stories to the kids in two groups - little kids and bigger kids.  

Younger kids activity time

Older kids activity time

Story time - see Mitchell in the green!

All in all it was a lot of work but a fun change.  I wasn't able to attend all the sessions as Katrina is still napping and since we live close to the facility where we held the conference, I just took her home.  

Katrina played well during sessions when it wasn't nap time!

Josh was part of the worship team and had very sore fingers since he doesn't play guitar much these days.