Jakarta

I am, as the song goes, “on the road again…” I left Atlanta this afternoon, and am now sitting in the Los Angeles airport waiting for my next flight to take me Singapore, where I will then take the last leg of this outbound journey to Jakarta. I will be spending two weeks in Asia, first heading to Aceh to visit and check in on our ongoing tsunami project with Veronica Colondom, director of Yayasan Cinta Anak Bangsa (http://www.ycab.org/). YCAB is the Jakarta based NGO that Wellspring partnered with in northern Sumatra.

After our visit in Aceh, we will travel together back to Jakarta, where I will be attending the RZIM itinerant team meeting. This will not likely be a blog-friendly event with the same sense of adventure as previous entries, but a team of apologists meeting in Indonesia is actually still quite an adventure. These meetings are valuable for all involved, keeping us updated on the international office initiatives and the recent experiences and upcoming schedules of each itinerant member. Our annual meeting together allows us to keep up to date with an international team spread across the globe. It also helps us to retain our unified focus and brainstorm ways to maximize our efforts.

After these team meetings conclude, I will travel on to Penang, Malaysia, to visit two women that Wellspring supports monthly to provide basic living needs and education costs for their children. These women are both facing significant challenges with the kind of courage and determination that is not required of all of us. We became fast friends on my first visit to meet them almost exactly a year ago. One is a lovable girl with a little fire in her as she rides her motorcycle through town, and the other is the epitome of sweetness and grace. The purpose of this visit is to continue the ongoing relationship, spend some time with them, and reevaluate their monthly needs.

My final stop will be in Kuala Lumpur. Many of you might remember our heartbreak of last year, when we lost 22 year old Hama just weeks before she was to travel to receive a kidney transplant. Visiting them last summer with Jill Carattini from our office, and Bob Tigert, our videographer from Tigert Communications, we finalized arrangements for her travel--documenting costs, confirming the budget, and completing paperwork--and spent a night at her family’s home over a large dinner and much laughter and excitement. I will never forget Hama's mother, whose image is forever etched in my mind. We were limited in our communication due to the language barrier. But this quiet woman of small stature never stopped smiling at us, and every time we made eye contact, she would fold her hands and bow her head slightly to convey her gratitude. After spreading out our paperwork one last time, we left the small restaurant near our hotel on our final night, taking pictures together and smiling about the future before this bright, young girl. It never dawned on me that those pictures would be the memories we have of our time with her before she left the world as we know it, depriving it of a beautiful smile. (Please see the video at the top right of the blog for Hama's Story.)

Since that day in August, this will be my first time seeing her family again. I am truly looking forward to another evening together, this time with new sadness and hugs of a different meaning, but also with memories and the assurance that Hama was a gift, and that their story continues.

Thank you for keeping up with me along the journey. I will be in touch soon.

Naomi