TIMOR LESTE
Timor turned out to be a little jewel. I wasn’t expecting anything from Timor since it is so small but what a fun time it ended up being. To start with a little background- Timor Leste is the first new country of the 21st century. It formed in 2000 or 2002, can’t remember. It was released from Portuguese control in 1975 and taken over by Indonesia for the next 25 years until it fought for independence and became its own nation in 2000 (?) It is super small and is the size of Connecticut and shares the island with Indonesia. There was a lot of blood shed in its recent history so it is just barely recovering from political unrest. Oh by the way, it is 99% catholic and grants religious freedom and is screaming for the gospel, yet the church does not exist on the Island…yet. Hellllloooooo lets get this party started and get missionaries over here! Another fact- the language here is an interesting combination of Indonesian and Portuguese called tetan, sometimes I hear words every once in awhile that is Portuguese, but alas, I cannot understand the language. It doesn’t sound too hard though. Weird comment to make, but I feel like if I learned it, I could get this one down.
That said…Dili, the city we are parked in, is great! We have limited liberty- confined to one single street appropriately named beach road. It literally lines the beach and is a busy road. My liberty group consisted of All new people- Emily, Debbie, Erin, and then Me and good ole Brad. I love our group leader Brad. He’s the best.
So our happy group departed the ship and took the liberty bus to the Christ statue trail. It was a tiled path that went all the way up this small mountain. Along the way there were sculptures of Christ’s last week before the crucifiction. At the top is a beautiful statue of Christ with his Arms outstretched standing on a huge globe. It is pretty much a copy of the awesome one in Rio de Janiero, but smaller. Ok, the view up there was SPECTACULAR. The mountain sits at the point of land that almost makes a peninsula. This means you can look towards land in one direction and see land between 2 sparkling, brilliant blue beaches. The sight pulls awe and wonder from any eyes that are lucky to see it.
After that, we walked around a little, took pictures etc. Then, the real party started. Somehow, Brad got in touch with an LDS man who works for the U.S embassy. He and his family are the only members in the entire country! So starving for comrades, they so kindly invited us to dinner! We walked up to a set of 3 nice houses gated and guarded by a guard. He let us in and we entered the most wonderful home. Chris and Kelly welcomed us in to a home that they had made theirs. She decorated the place beautifully. But what greeted us first were their adorable, super outgoing, spunky little boys. They are 3 and 4 and couldn’t wait to show us their toys, go to their room, and play play play. We talked for while and then went out to the patio and Chris grilled good ole American hamburgers complete with local bakery buns. Delicious would be mocking how good this meal was. On a scale from 1 to “my senses are exploding” it hit exploding. Such good food, and then the company we were in just made the night incredible. I would LOVE to do what they are doing. Live somewhere abroad comfortably like they are. I never even knew jobs like this existed. I’m starting to dream big. I gotta figure out how to do this.
After getting a crash course on photography (Kelly is amazing) and talking a little, it was time to go. Wow. Such a great night.
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