Indonesia

with the university insignia. I thought this suited him, he looked really cute. It was like seeing our own son again after a long absence. I had missed him, and he was also a bit homesick for Kupang. He had organised for us both to stay with the van Emmericks, an Australian missionary couple teaching at the university.

As the following day was Easter, Mes got me up at 4 am. The students marched with torches through Salatiga, singing Easter hymns. Although there were a lot of Christians living in Salatiga, the majority were Muslims, and I thought about their feelings being woken up so early by the students, but they seemed to enjoy themselves. On Easter Monday we went on an excursion with some other Timorese students to Kopeng, an extinct volcano overlooking Salatiga. Mes also showed me around the university, and I met some of his lecturers. Broto Semedi, his theology lecturer, was most interesting. After talking with him for more than an hour, he wanted to invite me to give a series of lectures on Christology sometime in the future. I felt very honoured but I had to decline owing to my commitments at Tarus. But Broto insisted and suggested that I give twelve lectures in three weeks, rather concentrated, but better than nothing at all. Well, with such persuasive power I couldn't resist. I agreed, but at some time in the future.

From Salatiga I went by night train to Jakarta. At the Indonesian Council of Churches (DGI) I met the other delegates of GMIT. I was to stay at the DGI guest house, where I met Eugene Carson Blake at breakfast, the then General Secretary of the World Council of Churches, who was heading for Pematang Siantar too. A charter plane took us to Medan, and then by bus up the mountains to Pematang Siantar. We were accommodated on the campus of the Nommensen University.

The Assembly was a huge event. The opening took place in a sports stadium with thousands participating. The minister for Religious Affairs from Jakarta opened the Assembly. There was folk dancing and lots of choirs and speeches.

On the Sunday of the Assembly, all members of the assembly went on a picnic to the island of Samosir, in the middle of Lake Toba. This was obviously a tourist spot. Several ferries took us across. We were shown a traditional Batak house. Legend has it that all Bataks came from the island of Samosir. They are now spread all over northern Sumatra, and most of them are Christians. The first missionaries to this area were Lutherans from Germany before the first World War. They now make up the largest Protestant Church in Indonesia.

At the final session of the Assembly, all participants formed a chain by holding hands, and then shook hands with everybody. By then I was feeling homesick, and tried to go to Kupang on the quickest way. Sleeper from Jakarta to Surabaya, overnight again with John Rossner, and next morning to the airport by MERPATI, although they had told us the night before that they couldn't fly to Kupang, as the wind in Maumere was too

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