The rainbow never sets

seen plane loads of corpses being unloaded at Kupang airport. He commented that the Indonesian army had nearly been wiped out. No one would ever know the true casualties of the early fighting. Then the Indonesian commanders changed tactics. They sent in West Timorese troops, who were ethnically the same as the East Timorese and could not easily be identified by them. That seemed to have reduced the casualties drastically, but the conflict continued. In 1987 not even people from West Timor were allowed to visit East Timor. Everyone needed a special permit, 'to prevent further unemployment', they were told. GMIT had four ministers working in East Timor. They looked at that area as their mission field.

Mes showed us the foundations of his own house in AMANUBAN, a new suburb of Kupang. Some walls were already up, and I could see that it would look very nice and spacious.

*

After staying in Kupang for three weeks we flew to Hong Kong via Bali. Alison hadn't been in Hong Kong before, so we did the usual tourist rounds together. On a clear day we went up to the PEAK by the scenic cable tram, from where we had a wonderful view of Hong Kong. One rainy day we took a double-decker tram around the island and saw as much as we would have seen with a guided tour. We didn't buy too many things, as we had agreed that each one of us would carry their own bag.

From Hong Kong we started our epic train journey, which would end in Frankfurt, Germany.

The train had 14 cars, and all were packed. We just relaxed and enjoyed the luxury of train travelling. First stop Guangzhou. I had booked a room in a guest house, which belonged to a local church, and when we arrived, Alison saw our name on a piece of paper held by a Mr. Ko Lin, who introduced himself as our guide for Guangzhou. He was a student and a member of this church and donated his services as his financial contribution. He wouldn't even take a tip.

Mr. Ko's English was excellent. He took us first to the Dong-Shan Yuan guest house, and then sight seeing. He was a wonderful guide. He told us all we would need to know to manage on our own in other cities. At dinner time we tried to be adventurous and fumbled through the menu of a local restaurant. They didn't have a menu in English, so we just pointed to dishes on other tables and were surprised how well we managed. Apart from visiting the church and the bible college with 34 students, we talked to a 74 year old minister, still active. He told us about the difficult times they had during the Cultural Revolution, when all ministers had been moved to the country to do farm work. But all that was in the past, he said, and they had religious freedom again.

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