November 6, 2010 from Bandungan

I'm currently in Bandungan at a retreat center for the annual Team Meeting. I won't tell you what that all entails, but give you the short version: I've learned a lot about MCC's work in Indonesia. It's been really good to see everyone again, sing some good old fashioned hymns and it's actually really cold where we are. I'm wearing long pants and a hoodie, and I wish I had socks. My nose is running, and I felt like a grandma earlier when I was drinking hot water rather than cold! It will be a nice change to sweat again once back in Ungaran.

And in the news... Right now you may have heard about 3 disasters that have occurred here; and still occurring with tons of displaced people, tons of lives lost (I have no idea how many) and a lot of insecurity for people who have been left with nothing. There was a flash flood on Oct.4 in Wasior, Papua (the other half of the Papua New Guinea island that belongs to Indonesia) which is receiving little attention. There's also been the tsunami on an island off of Sumatra, as well as the eruptions of Mt. Merapi which I'm actually pretty close to (well, maybe an hour from)..Today we could actually see small pieces of ash floating in the air like tiny snowflakes; luckily for us (not so much for a lot of other people) the wind is blowing ash and debris southward away from where we are, but slowing things down elsewhere. Schools are closed because of the ash and subsequent rain that turns it into a muddy mess. A couple days ago all the staff in Indo met up for a team meeting and before starting we went shopping and put together relief kits to send to victims in displaced persons camps. It's a mess. And with more eruptions that have happened since the first one, it has become more dangerous. Yesterday the safety zone around the volcano was expanded out to 25km, calling for the need to move already-established relief camps to different locations, and further scattering people because of a shortage in transportation for these displaced people.

Anyway, all the people I know here are safe but please don't stop there. Keep victims, relief efforts and personnel, and decision-makers in your prayers. Although disasters like this are commonplace here, they are still shocking, distressful, tragic and overwhelming for the people. And like most disasters, conflicts and human suffering, timelines of the after-effects do not correlate with news broadcasters' limited attention spans.