The rainbow never sets

only ask for one thing, don't send me to jail for just one year, make it two. The longer I spend in jail the more people I will be able to reach."

He was declared 'not guilty'. After the usual tourist sights in Java we also made a very short visit to Salatiga, the Christian University where I had been a guest lecturer in 1972. Willi Toisuta was now the principal, and it was good to meet him again. In Jakarta I met Frans Balla, a former student of mine, who was now lecturing at the Theological Seminary there.

We met two people from the DGI (Indonesian Council of Churches) who spoke about some of their programmes, which our group found interesting.

In Kuala Lumpur we met someone from the Australian High Commission who was dealing with Indochinese refugees. In Penang we stayed at a hotel right next to a beautiful beach. I was able to talk to the locals, as Malaysian is almost the same as Indonesian. After our morning devotions in the hotel, I gave a bible to a waiter who asked for it. He was a Muslim and had never seen a bible. The ethnic Malays are not allowed, by law, to become Christians. The churches there are mainly ethnic Chinese. I noticed also that since Malaysia is a Muslim State, they do not allow Christians to use the world Allah for God, as it is customary in Indonesia. This is to emphasise a profound difference between the two religions.

In Bangkok we met leaders of the Church of Christ in Thailand, who briefed us on the Church's social programme. The following day we stopped at a Christian centre in Klong Toey, renowned as one of the worst slums in the world, where it is easier to get drugs than rice. At Bangkok's rubbish dump, in Onn Nuch, the smell was so strong that some of our ladies refused to get off the bus. The church had a medical clinic there, and had started a school, now taken over by the government. At that time they provided a pre-school and occupational training for young adults. A bee-hive of activity, and I thought a very worth-while ministry of the church.

In the country side I noticed sugar palms being tapped just like people in Rote used to do. Then it struck me, that the features of the Thais were very similar to the Rotinese. Could there be a link? I will probably never know.

A train journey over the 'bridge on the river Kwai' was interesting. In the train we met some students from Bangkok who practiced their English on us. Chiang Mai, in the north of Thailand, had a thriving christian community. Thailand's major theological seminary was in town. What impressed us most was the way they expressed the gospel through traditional Thai dancing and in the Thai way of life.

The church also ran a large hospital for the treatment of leprosy patients, 300 inpatients and 2000 outpatients. It was built on an island of the river Ping, where once a white elephant had died. As this spelt bad luck for the local buddhist community, the church was given the whole

394