Bloom Where You Are Planted

As far as foreign assignments go, Perth is one of the best. They speak English here, the weather is great, the food is even better, and the kangaroos are adorable. It is safe for families and there are lots of things to do here. The public transportation is so good that with some planning, it is possible to get around very well without a car. The Australians are very friendly, and there is a variety of organizations for visitors from other countries such as the American Women's Club and the Petroleum Women of Perth. Then there are the sub-groups: bible studies, tennis group, young Mums' group, coffee club, walking group, book club, movie club, curry club and more. Local charities need volunteers, and there are even opportunities for paid work.

I am grateful to many people who helped us get settled here, especially the ladies in the beginner's Mahjong group. They have helped me find a good doctor, hairdresser, grocery stores, etc.  We've been here just over 3 months now. Vince's work is going extremely well and I have made dozens of new friends. It would be easy to spend my days attending one social event after another. But the question keeps popping up: why are we really here? What is God's purpose for us in Perth?

I don't have the answers to why Perth, why now, why us. But I do know that we need to make our days count. So... how do we do that? We started by finding a church, the Christian Reformed Church (CRC) of Perth. Their doctrine agrees with ours -- click here for more details http://www.crcperth.org.au/What%20we%20Believe.htm and we've been made very welcome by the membership, composed of about 70 families with weekly attendance of around 65 at the morning service and 25 at the evening (teaching) service. There is a shortage of Sunday School teachers, so I have volunteered to teach the 3-8 year olds once a month. Fortunately I'll have an assistant! Vince is considering teaching an adult Sunday School class because they don't have any. After the church service there is a social time with coffee and cakes -- lots of cakes -- and this has been our primary way of getting to know our fellow believers. We'll no doubt find other opportunities to serve in time.

We enjoy many things about this church. We're forming friendships here and being exposed to cultures beyond just Australia. The roots of this denomination are in The Netherlands and at least 2/3 of  our church members originate from Holland or South Africa. Many emigrated to Australia after WWII and raised families here who now also attend the church. Another 1/3 is Australian, and then there's Vincde and me, the token Americans. It's quite a mix of accents on a Sunday morning. There is a group of pastors who preach in rotation at the 5 Perth-based churches. This gives pastors a rest from preaching on two Sundays per month and frees them to spend more time on pastoral care or other matters and less on writing sermons. Music? Well, there is a huge ministry opportunity in that area! Pastors select their own music to accompany their sermons, so the music is unpredictable from week to week. There is usually a mix of modern and traditional music, but they mostly sing hymns. Our church does not have a regular pianist and there is no choir. Music is played either by the pastor's teenage children (piano and guitar) or via pre-recorded instrumental CDs. Many of the hymns have recognizable lyrics with just a few changes of words, but often the tune is quite different. I am still learning the tunes to many hymns. Vince is oblivious to this -- he is super tone deaf and just sings loudly and joyfully. More than once we have sung a capella when pre-recorded music was not available. So if you have a passion for music ministry and you want to come to Perth, let's talk!

We celebrated communion last week for the first time since arriving here. The Lord's supper is served in a wonderful way at this church. A very large and long table is set up at the front of the church (think of two 8-foot tables next to each other end to end with white tablecloths on them). At the appropriate time the deacons usher people by row to the table at the front. When every seat at the table is taken the whole church sings a hymn and the pastor conducts communion at the table. The bread is passed around and eaten, then the wine, in individual portions just like we do it in Houston. The difference is that 32 people are sitting around one long table and it feels intimate, like family. It works for our church because there are usually less than 70 people attending on any given Sunday morning. It is possible to serve the entire church communion in two seatings. While we don't exactly "recline at table," it does make me feel like I'm having communion similar to the manner Jesus' disciples did :-D

There are many senior citizens in our congregation who bring a richness and history to the group. I hpe I am treated as well as they are when I reach their age. Last week our most senior member, John, turned 90 years old. The pastor announced it at the end of the service, they brought in a large cake, and we all sang Happy Birthday.  His grandchildren and great-grandchildren put together a "Happy Birthday Opa" Power Point slide show with photos from his life. The love in the room brought many of us to tears.

Here is an introduction to our new church home and some of our "family" members.

The sun pours in on a typical summer day in February. Buildings in Perth are made almost entirely of brick The red carpet is a nice touch.

. Coffee, tea and cakes (cookies or other snacks) are served after every Sunday morning service. It's a time for visitors to meet people, and for regular attenders to socialize in a relaxed way. Here, a group of ladies is having a "cuppa."

Rob, one of the elders. He wanted me to mention the earring in his left ear- a bit unconventional for this crowd, but I've seen them oin many Australian men "of a certain age." Everyone dresses casually in hot weather, which is most of the year. Maxi dresses are in style here too.

Vince having a coffee and a chat after the service.

Inside the modest but comfortable building. The words to hymns and praise songs are projected onto the screen at front left. Our pastors tend to speak from the pulpit (center). Announcements are made from the table at the front left, beneath the screen. The chairs are all orange plastic and I suspect they have been there for several years. Many of them have seat cushions, handmade made by various church members, which are left on the chairs week after week. Like folks everywhere, people tend to have a fovrite seat!  The table at the back left holds sermon outlines and current newsletters.

Some of the kids are having some fun on the piano after service. Every child the world over can pick out  "Heart and Soul." :-)

We have a small youth group which they hope to grow. Like elsewhere, when teens go to "Uni" (University) their church attendance tends to drop off for a few years.

It's not just girls -- most of the guys were outside playing sports, but one of them agreed to pose for a photo.

The church is on a small street in a typical neighborhood. There is a shortage of parking spaces, so cars park right up to the front door, sometimes even on the grass, or "verge." 

Third from the left is John, who just celebrated his 90th birthday.

They take good care of the pastor here. He needs his own parking spot since he has 3 kids and drives a "ute" (utility vehicle, or SUV) . It has been so hot that you can break a sweat just walking the 20 feet from your car to the church.

Big Changes: We're Gonna Be Here A While

Some big changes are happening in the Vetter household! The original plan was to come to Australia for 9-12 months so Vince could manage the Australia/New Zealand practice temporarily. However, this position has become available permanently after some key staff changes. Vince has enjoyed this role very much in the 3 months we have been here, and he has accepted the job on a permanent basis. Woo-hoo! I hope you will share our excitement and anticipation. This is great news.

In the business world, "permanent" can mean anything from 2 years to life. For us, it means a commitment of at least 2 to 3 years. It's a great opportunity for Vince, with a boom in the oil & gas business going on here in Perth, as well as the challenge of growing the Australia practice significantly. We are both looking forward to making a difference here, in whatever manner God has planned for us. This also means that we will see less of the children and grandchildren, but we are already figuring out how to stay connected.

So... our trip to Houston in April will become the first of many over the next few years. We want to visit as many of y'all as possible during this upcoming 3-week visit. And now that we will be here longer, perhaps some of y'all can come visit us in Perth! It is a lovely place and we'd love to share it with you. Meanwhile, you can always reach us via email:  vince@vetter.com and anita@vetter.com and of course, vetteroo@gmail.com . 

Cheers for now,
Anita & Vince

Checking Out The Neighborhood: Jakarta and Singapore

Our plan for this past weekend was to drive to Western Australia's famed wine region. At the last minute Vince was called to Jakarta on business, so instead of wine tasting at the Margaret River, Vince invited me along and we experienced a bit of Southeast Asia!  We had a stopover and plane change in Singapore, so we stayed an extra day to sightsee and shop. Not only did we get two trips for the price of one, at Singapore airport I saw my first Starbucks since November. :-D

One word sums up Jakarta: different. The only thing familiar about this place is the humidity. Jakarta is situated at the northern tip of the island of Java, about 50 miles from the equator. It's the end of the rainy season (no winters here) and the days are hot, humid and overcast. Like Houston in August. Population is 8 million in the city, 12 million if you include the suburbs, which works out to 44,283 people per square mile.

Wide streets, green spaces, expensive cars (most taxis are Mercedes), modern skyscrapers and shiny building - a visitor's first impression of Jakarta.

Motorcycles are the preferred mode of transportation for the vast majority of residents. Motorcycles and mopeds outnumber vehicles by at least 10 to 1.

While Vince met with clients, I went sightseeing and shopping. I wanted to try the open air markets in search of batik fabric but was counseled against it. The streets are not laid out in any recognizable pattern, I don't speak Indonesian, and I guess they thought I would be at risk. So I headed for the closest mall and a store I read about on the Internet called Batik Keris (pronounced "crease"). Jakarta is not pedestrian-friendly. The congested traffic and the absence of sidewalks makes foot travel dangerous and impractical. Not to mention the heat and humidity. A 10-minute taxi ride from a mall I could see from the hotel window took me to the Grand Indonesian Mall, a towering building some 41 stories. The mall occupies 7 floors and has many modern stores like Harvey Nichols, Marks and Spencer, Prada, Gucci, Armani, even a Starbucks. The store employees were impeccably dressed and groomed, full of smiles and "may I be of service?" I tried to help the economy out by spending money in their stores, but there was very little actual merchandise to buy and the clothing stores carried only 1 item in each size. Once sold, they didn't have another. Another cultural trademark appeared: nobody ever says "no" or "I can't." If you ask them a question they will answer "yes" no matter what it is. Do you have these trousers in size 38? Yes. But they were not on the rack and when the saleslady went to look for some she returned with a big smile on her face and said "the size 38 has been sold. Thank you!" It happened in several stores. But I did find the Batik Keris store and swooned over the beautiful fabric. Some of it will find its way into my wardrobe, I am sure.

Spotless malls for tourists with cash to spend. They are heavily guarded to keep out undesirable visitors. Before entering this mall I had to pass through a security checkpoint, a metal detector, and have my purse inspected.

Koi pond, video wall and (behind) a play area for children. Note the guard at right.

My favorite store. No haggling, just good quality fabrics and clothing in traditional Indonesian Batik designs.

Vince models a recent Batik Keris acquisition :-)

It is a land of contrasts. There are two classes of people here: a few very rich and the masses who live in poverty. Traffic? It's one big game of chicken. As three lanes of traffic squeeze their way into two marked lanes, the horn you hear warns you that another car is about to enter the lane ahead of you and cut you off, so you'd better prepare for it. Everyone knows and accepts this system, and I didn't see any scratches or dents on the cars we passed, but all the same, I chewed my nails to the quick. As our car snaked through traffic (which makes Houston's freeways look like the Autobahn), our first views were of tall, beautiful hotels and skyscrapers reflecting a golden sunset and the trendiest stores in multi-story malls. That's the tourist view and it's obvious a deliberate effort has been made to maintain this gleaming image. A closer look reveals a very different place: a city so crowded that bodies literally spill onto the streets. Thousands and thousands of people not living but rather surviving; families of 10 or more living on a piece of ground the size of a Houston living room. No running water, toilets, electricity, shelter, or even a change of clothing. They populate every street, sitting in the dirt, the luckier ones selling trinkets to whoever will buy. One family was living inside a discarded refrigerator. The smell was intense and the breeze did not help much: Jakarta is the world's third most polluted city. It's not third world but it's close. In spite of these conditions, everywhere I looked people were smiling. The men smoke cigarettes and chat on street corners, the women take care of the little ones who run half-naked in the few green areas, chasing each other and laughing. And talking. Chatter everywhere, in a language spoken at a fast, clippety-clip pace and sounds like a cross between Dutch and Chinese.

Looking up: contemporary government buildings. At street level: the everyday business of making a living and shopping for family.

The word "Masjid" means mosque - Jakarta is currently a muslim country, combined with historical influence from the Chinese and Dutch, which is most easily visible in their architecture.  Gray skies? A combination of weather and pollution.

The haves and have nots. An abandoned bus shelter becomes a sales stand and refuge for people living on the street. The rest of the family is living behind the blankets to the right. The motorcycles belong to the shoppers to the left.

Old crates become a combination family home and place of business. I wonder what potions those bottles contain?

A shop by day, shelter and sleeping quarters by night.

A typical street scene. Note that the men do all the selling and business. Women care for the children and manage home life.

How do people survive in this environment? They are... resourceful, and the kindest way to describe it is to say that they do what is necessary to survive. If they are very fortunate or have connections, they might work for the government, which appears to provide very little assistance but does seem to employ an awful lot of people, at pitifully low wages. For the unemployed in the cities the alternatives are begging and crime, and both are common. Another approach is the offering of personal services in exchange for gratuities. Those whose jobs which allow them to mix with tourists and businessmen use every opportunity available to earn extra money. We experienced this (except the crime :->) immediately upon arrival. When you arrive at Jakarta airport you must purchase an "entry visa." We queued for 20 minutes and paid US$25 apiece, cash only.  It took 2 employees to tell us to keep moving and point to the available window and another two to count our money and place a visa in our passport. From there we joined a second queue to go through immigration. Another 15 minutes and 3 uniforms later, we cleared immigration. On to baggage claim ( no help available there) and then another queue for Customs, mercifully shorter since we had nothing to declare. A final perusal of our passports and we were good to go.

"Glad that's over," I said to Vince just before the large glass doors opened into the public section of the airport. Instantly it was noisy, crowded and chaotic. I knew to expect crowds and to watch out for the usual ne'er-do-wells, but this was ridiculous. Swarms of people everywhere,  calling out to one another and confronting newly arrived visitors with offers of everything from cheap hotels and taxi rides to "beautiful girls" and shoe shines. There was barely room to move as we pushed forward to meet our prearranged driver. In the 5 minutes it took to find him we were besieged by no less than 4 people offering to carry our luggage, 2 who asked if we needed a hotel, and 6 who offered to get us a taxi or drive us to our destination. They followed us like an entourage, ignoring our polite "no thank yous" until we had to literally shoo them away. We met our driver at the airport McDonalds which for some reason is called Tony Jack's, and as we followed him to the parking lot a second string of would-be luggage carriers and taxi drivers pursued us all the way to the parking lot, offering lower prices and good service for a low price. Whew! Exhausting.

Our hotel was a fortress-like island in the center of town, surrounded by trees and a long entry road, including a security checkpoint where 5 uniformed guards opened our car doors, looked inside at our bags and inspected the trunk.  Since the hotel bombings at the Marriott and Ritz-Carlton two years ago, everyone is being extra careful. They allowed us through and we entered an oasis of beauty: a gleaming, spotless hotel with dozens of friendly and courteous bellhops and parking attendants. Service and smiles everywhere. The noise abated and my pulse returned to normal, and I realized I had been clenching my purse so tightly that my fingers were sore. Once inside, we registered and got room keys, etc. The usual tipping procedures applied here, but the people who helped us always took the opportunity to offer something more: having taken our luggage to our room, did we want them to put it on the bed or help to put things away? Did we want them to show us the way to the restaurants? Did we want to schedule a spa service? Upselling nirvana. The hotel was wonderful, and everything so lovely that you could almost forget about the sea of poverty 12 floors down and a block away.

Sightseeing in Jakarta is kind of like sightseeing in L.A. or Houston -- everything is spread out and too far to walk to. I hired a driver to take me to the Textile Museum, so I could learn a bit more about the origins of the batik fabric I enjoy so much. The journey to the museum was actually more fascinating than the museum itself, which was a small house containing a collection of various textiles and royal outfits from the different islands of Indonesia.  The hours of labor represented in the beadwork and weaving boggled my mind.

Traditional gowns worn by royalty in earlier times.

Samples of hand woven fabric in a timeless design. I purchased fabric similar to this in a modern mall.

They made beautiful fabrics and costumes from hand looms like this one. Amazing.

While visiting the textile museum I was joined by a group of school children who were here on a field trip. I asked permission of their teachers (the guys at the back in matching shirts) to take a photo and they obliged. Note the headscarves on the little girls.

Such precious children. Even though I didn't speak their language, they understood my smile and gratitude.  This shot captures their true spirit.

From there we went to "Taman Mini Indonesia Indah" (Beautiful Indonesia Miniature Park). Wikipedia describes it best.

The park is a synopsis of Indonesian culture, with virtually all aspects of daily life in Indonesia's 26 provinces [in 1975] encapsulated in separate pavilions with collections of architecture, clothing, dances and traditions all depicted impeccably... There is a lake with a miniature of the archipelago in the middle of it, cable cars, museums, a theater... and other recreational facilities which make TMII one of the most popular tourist destinations in the city.

I took many photos. A few are below, and I will soon post a whole album on Picasaweb. Although the country is not at its best right now due to a corrupt government and the suffering of several natural disasters, it was once quite dazzling. The site occupies 250 acres and even with a car it took several hours just to see the main attractions. Before this visit I didn't realize that many countries had an influence on today's Indonesia: Holland, which ruled the islands from the 17th century until 1950, Thailand, Fiji, China, and even Japan. 

Musical Instruments

It was an interesting trip and I'm glad to have the opportunity to experience Jakarta. However, I left with a sorrowful heart for the millions of people who suffer in desperate poverty. It is hard to accept that conditions there will not change until those in power choose to act. But I can pray for them.

Business went so well for Vince that he stayed an extra day in Jakarta, leaving us only an afternoon and evening in Singapore. We made the most of it, taking the train from the airport into the city to get a feel for the place, and walking through as much of it as we could. This is a shopper's paradise as well as a beautiful, pristine metropolis. We will have another stopover here on our way back from our trip to Houston. Looking forward to it ;-)