Borobudur and Bowling

What is life like on our island?

Well, imagine you live in Pea Ridge, Arkansas (only with a few more tennis courts and a badminton club, but no mule jumping competitions) and now imagine that is the capital city - no offense to Pea Ridge - it just might help create an image. There really isn't much to do and so when we had the opportunity to get out of our island and do a little site seeing we were really excited. We traveled to a city of about 5 million people and felt like we had been transported to a different planet. There were malls - 4 malls!!!! (and I hate malls). But we enjoyed indulging in our old sin nature of materialism. I think I visted every single coffee house and drank more coffee in 1 week than I ever drank in my whole like in America. Lindsey and I enjoyed just walking around, looking at everything - we kind of felt like the 'country cousin'! Most building were airconditioned, which made a wonderful sweaty-free change from our island where air conditioning is rare; it was really nice! One of the malls we visited even had a bowling alley! It was new and had not yet opened, but they said we could play anyway. I guess we were able to play the very first game ever played in that city. Mayebe we should get out more often! :) Anyway, we had a great time! Lindsey and I were even able to go to the movies for a date night and watch Spiderman 3. It was great! The next day, after these fun adventures from the 21st century, we were able to travel back in time to the 9th Century and visit the largest Bhuddist temple in the world - Borobudur.

The whole structure is designed to give worshipers a path from their world of sin and pleasure (the bottom level) all the way up to Nirvana (the top level). All I could think of, though, was how my daughter - who is created in the image of God - is so beautiful and innocent. Okay and how beautiful my wife is too. So after traveling from the 9th to the 21st Century, all in the same area, we decided it was time to go back home and re-enter our daily life of what feels like the early 21st Century. Pea Ridge here we come :).