Dear Friends and Fellow Laborers, June 2023
May was such an enjoyable month for us. We had just over a week to catch our breath and adjust to life with two little ones around. It has been so fun watching Thalia interact with Inara. We are so thankful for these two little ones with which God has blessed us. On May 7th I started language school!
Having been in Indonesia since February, we have both picked up some Indonesian vocabulary, but after starting language school, I have tripled the amount of Indonesian I understand. Which honestly isn’t a lot, but I’m excited to learn more! I have made a few friends in class. Most of the class does not speak very much English, so the only way we have to communicate is in Indonesian which is helping us all work on our Indonesian.
After language school, veteran missionary Josh Ewing and I go out in the area of his church plant to talk to people. I get to practice the language, and he get’s to use me as an excuse to make contacts and witness! There’s one store we go to almost every day and there’s usually three of four men who are there regularly who will practice the language with me. Josh has been able to share the Gospel with them a couple of times too! Please pray these times out practicing the language are fruitful not only in language learning but in the harvest of souls the LORD desires to reap here in Indonesia!
An important part of learning is being able to laugh at your mistakes, and I find that I have already started gathering some laughable moments. I was practicing Indonesian with one man and he asked me if I liked it here in Indonesia. There are two words for “like,” and he happened to use the one that I did not know, but that sounded (to me) like a word I did know which is the word for “child.” I was confused as to why he was asking me if I had kids in Indonesia and began telling him my family had moved with me. He was confused as to why I was telling him about my family, when he had asked if I liked it in Indonesia. It took us several minutes to figure out what we each were trying to communicate, but we had a big laugh about it, and I learned even more vocabulary.
We do have a family prayer request. We are in the process of getting Inara’s birth certificate and passport. We have a conference that we are supposed to travel to in August so we need her passport before then, and like most paperwork, it takes a lot of time and involves a lot of trial and error on our part. Please pray with us that we are able to get Inara’s passport in time for this conference.
With Love in our hearts,
In service to the King,
Jens, Gina, Thalia, and Inara Looney
Your Missionaries to Indonesia