Sunday July 18th - Goodbye Baing!

Wow, so much to cover on our last day in Baing!

We have to leave from Wainapu airport to fly back to Bali tomorrow morning at 7:30am, so have to be at the airport at 6am. We decided that instead of getting up at 2:30am to make the 3 1/2 hour drive that we should leave around 3pm today and stay in Wainapu overnight.

After breakfast we went to Pastor Elias' church (right beside his home) and

Masta and Pastor Elias' wife did the Sunday school lesson for the kids.

Gary blew up balloons for them and we gave out tons of stuff - (I think Kelley had spent every waking moment planning what to take for them - what a huge success!) sunglasses, balloons, gum, silly bands, balls, leis, etc, etc.

The adult service came after - Clay gave a message on being available to be used by God. As an example he had a young boy play the part of a crippled man - he was lifted and passed by hand over the top of the congregation to the back of the church, to a young girl who was playing Jesus. Point being that we can all be used by God and need to be available to that. It was a good message and definitely seemed to have an effect on the congregation.

They sang "Amazing Grace" in Sumbanese, a sweet echo of our rendition of it the evening before.

David had us stand and had each of us tell where we were from and to say why we were in Sumba. Then he asked for volunteers for testimonies. I had asked Joe to give his because it was one based on a relational approach by his buddies in college. I gave mine because Gary and my walk with Christ began after the death of our son, and since they had lost children in the village, I thought that it would be a good way to relate to them that God can work through tragedy (not causing it) to move the hearts of His people to Him.

Afterwords we greeted the congregation and had our last meal in Baing. Pastor Elias and his wife gave us some Ikat (a very detailed fabric) to thank us for coming.

We then started back for Wainapu. Everyone except the team was staying in Baing to get ready for Clay's team #2, traveling to Kabunda. Pastor

Casper was to go back with us to pick up some more supplies in Wainapu.

On the drive we passed Casper's house. (Shown with Clay on the bus.) Unknown to us, Casper had received a call before we passed his house that his mother had died. She lived on Roti island. He told no one on the bus. We got to Wainapu at dusk (it gets dark at 6-6:30 there) and he helped check us in to the hotel. After that he went with us to dinner, then he tried to help find some Ikat and Sumba peanuts. He was staying the evening

with Pastor Mangi in Wainapu, and I was concerned that he was trying to accomodate us when he could be spending time there. Still we had no idea what had happened...