Idul Adah

Well friends, it's been a while since I posted.  Not that I haven't doing anything exciting, or had any thoughts worth expressing.  But maybe that's why it's been so long.  Too much going on, that sitting down to type up a blog post isn't top priority.

But a few days ago I got to witness something new.  Since Indonesia is a Muslim country, Islamic holidays all become national holidays.  Last Thursday was one of the most important Muslim holidays. Idul Adah.

In Christianity and Judaism,  the story of Abraham's sacrifice is about his younger son, Isaac, born to Sara.  Abraham and Isaac went to make a sacrifice on Mt. Uriah, but brought no animal for the sacrifice, because God had asked Abraham to sacrifice his promised son.  This was a common practice among other religions at the time, but since Isaac was a son that included a promise for countless descendants, God's request would be confusing.  Nevertheless, Abraham showed his faith in God by being willing to do this act.  Abraham is listed in the Bible as a man filled with faith as shown by his actions here.

This holiday, Idul Adah is celebrating this even.  But the Muslims understand the story differently.  They believe that Abraham sent Hagar and Ishmael away to the desert (which the Bible also teaches us), where they wandered and thirsted.  Last year I bought a Muslim Children's book about the Hajj that taught me, as well as my class, about the rituals, many of which represent Abraham, Hagar, and Ishmael.  They believe that Abraham had a dream where he was sacrificing Ishmael, which he understood as God's (Allah's) call.  So he prepared for the sacrifice and laid Ishmael down to sacrifice him. But at that  moment, God called out to stop him from sacrificing his son, and instead provided an animal sacrifice.  God was pleased at Abraham's willingness to obey.

On Idul Adah, Muslims take part in sacrificing to remember what Abraham did.  They give one third to the poor, keep one third, and give one third to their friends.  They are called to use the sacrifice as a representation of putting their own desires to death so as to better be able to acquire the desire to do the good works that Allah asks them to do.  (Here's where I found quite a bit of my information: http://www.muslim.org/islam/sacrifice.htm)

I had never been around over Idul Adah until this year.  It always fell on a longer holiday when I would go travel, so I was excited to hopefully get a glimpse of this important holy event.  A friend and I hopped on a motor bike and went to a kampung nearby.  We drove down a little side street and arrived at a clearing with a few trees shading a large crowd of people.  Men were bent over the bulls, carefully gutting them.  Women sat to the side and chatted.  Children ran and laughed and played with the heads or other body parts laying around.  They were dividing up all the beef into different piles, It was quite an even to witness!  They were very friendly and welcoming, inviting us to take pictures and telling us about what they were doing.

I had been expecting a somber event.  But it was really a celebration!  The whole village together to sacrifice, eat, and enjoy.

Below are some pictures. I would say enjoy, but most people don't enjoy scenes like this.  But be informed, and learn, as I did, a little about this religion, just as strong in our world as my own.  It's so closely tied, shares many traditions and beliefs, yet is so far from knowing and experiencing the truth of God's love and grace found in Christ Jesus.

More New Zealand Highlights

North Island Part 2

New Zealand is the place to go to check off items on any bucket list... and that we did!

We stopped at Hobbiton on our way to Rotorua. Louis, our guide, shared lots of fun facts.  For instance, the family who owns the property has thousands of sheep.  But not one of those sheep appeared in any of the movies.  Every morning that there was going to be filming at Hobbiton, the family had to move all the sheep off of all the surrounding hills so they wouldn't get into a camera shot!

The inside of the Bilbo's hobbit hole isn't anything, just about a meter and a half of an empty wooden closet.  The actual interior of filming was in a studio in Wellingon, a few hours away.   

We made it down to Rotorua, an area famous for hot springs, mud baths, and geo-thermal parks.  We also found a red-wood forest.  It's not natural... the trees were imported from America.  But it was still awesome to see the monstrous trees scraping the sky.  We took a little hike to enjoy the fresh cool air.  

If you're familiar with the All Blacks, the NZ rugby team, you'll know that their icon is a silver fern leaf.  Here's one of those ferns just beginning to open up.  The greenery in New Zealand was interesting.  Looking out at a forest from the road, it looks like a tropical forest, with palm trees shooting up.  But upon a walk through the woods, you realize it's completely fern covered.  Those palm trees seem to be giant ferns rising above the rest of the forest.  It was such an interesting mash up of vegetation.

We went to Waitomo caves, the most famous place for glow worms.  Glow worms are only found in New Zealand and a few places in Australia.  They live in dark caves and feed on other bugs that manage to fly in. The reason why they glow is that their poop ends up hanging from the walls and ceilings of the caves, and it glows.  So this magical sight is nothing but a fascinating bodily function. Nevertheless, the hours we spent crawling through tiny holes in muddy caves, laying on tubes to look up at thousands of glow worms, and swimming through frigid underground rivers was an awesome first caving experience, one that I would gladly repeat!

The guides at the tubing company suggested a drive up a windy mountain road to get to some beautiful gems. These less crowded, hidden gems had few travelers and we were able to explore this corner of creation for a little while.

One of the highlights of the trip was sky diving in Taupo.  It took three days before the weather finally cooperated enough to let us go up.  We suited up, crawled into the plane, flew 1200 feet into the air, hooked onto our instructors, and then jumped out of the plane.  We spent forty-five seconds free falling, the air drying out my mouth as soon as I opened it to scream, my toes freezing in my Chacos from the cold of the altitude, the sound of the wind screaming in my ears, and the mountains and lake spinning below us.  When the parachute finally opened, the silence was deafening.  I looked out at the land below as I soared through the sky, floating on air.  For about four more minutes, we peacefully fell to reach the field back at the company.  My reoccurring dream, ever since I was a kid, was flying.  And I finally did it.  And it was everything I dreamed it would be.

Middle Earth. Selandia Baru. Aotearoa. New Zealand.

It's the country that everyone dreams of going to, but never actually sees it as a possibility.  It's the land that loaned it's mountains to the creation of one of the greatest movie trilogies.  It's the nation that's first to greet each day.  It's further down under than the normal down under.

New Zealand.  The Maori name, Aotearoa, means Land of the Long White Cloud.  Because of the weather patterns and the mountains covering the islands, there is often a long white cloud that seems to stretch over the entire land mass... even though not necessarily over the ocean as well.

I had the opportunity to travel to this beautiful country for three weeks with a few other teachers from SPH.  Planning this trip was in the works a year before the trip, though we were still making plans a day before we left.  It was the trip of a lifetime.  I hope that these photos give a little glimpse into our adventures camping across one of the most beautiful countries I've visited.

North Island: Part One

Brisbine Airport was pretty empty, which made for a nice spot for a nap!

After watching the video on youtube, it was sweet to travel Air New Zealand

We stayed in Auckland for the first couple days while we got the car, shopped for camping supplies, and got used to life in the western world again.  We stayed with Heather's parents and were able to meet up with the other group from SPH for a BBQ.

Our first stop was Coromandel.  After a few hours trek along the ocean, and some stops in quaint beach towns, we arrived at a scenic horse farm, Kim's first choice for adventures in New Zealand.  It was a fun and relaxing way to start the trip.

During last year's trip to Australia, camping my favorite thing.  So when we planned this trip, camping was a top priority.  We bought food to keep in a cooler in the car and cooked every night.  It was fun to be creative with different camp meals, have picnics outside our cozy tent, and enjoy a glass of wine, which is much cheaper in NZ than Indonesia.

We made our way across the peninsula towards Cathedral Cove, where one of the opening scenes of Narnia, Prince Caspian was filmed.  It was so picturesque.  

I like my selfies...

We drove south toward Mt. Manganui, where Phil and Raema are from.  Here we met up with the other girls for a while to go to Christmas Eve service.  On Christmas we took a hike up and around the mountain, played frisbee on the beach, and enjoyed a little cafe... the only place that was open on the holiday.  In NZ, everything shuts down for Christmas, which means that everyone has to spend quality time with their friends and family at the beach.