A thing that is worth to be waited

You’ll find that some friends are like whisky

The older, the better.

-

As planned. This June 11-12, I will meet my old friend Drew Rinehart. We first met when Drew was in the Envision program in 2019. It's like a little reunion for us. At that time one of his programs was teaching English. So I helped a little bit because my English isn't very good.

Envision has several sub-ministries, including Refugee ministry, Teaching English, Music & Art ministry, Orphanage ministry, Sports ministry, Organic Farm ministry, and many more. But roughly this envision program has a goal for social ministry.

- Back to the good old days.

I guess Drew was one of my first friends in the early days when I was at Green gate. He's a typical sports-man, he used to play tennis at his house. I didn't really like sports, but at that time Drew invited me to play basketball, but I ended up just walking around the court haha.

 

Drew made me a map of the U.S.

See ? For someone who don’t know the U.S like me, Its simply to understand haha, cool.

Sometimes we have a coffee together.

CDB days !

- Back to present

Five years later, after arranging few things, we finally got to meet again! It was great to see our old good buddy. Drew actually invited me to come to his wedding in July last year, but I was in the EV scholarship program at the time. So I wasn't able to make it to come.

After Drew got married, we called each other several times, I once had a chance to talk by phone with his wife Anna. And today I finally got to meet her too! Anna is such a lovely person. In my eyes, she's totaly matches Drew. And yes, I'm so glad that Anna is with him.

See ? how they really get along ! Sometimes I want to get married too if I see something like this, especially when they’re our friends, hehe. What a lovely couple !

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Granolas for breakfast, it's been missed!

 

At breakfast I also met Ms. Budi and her two children, Azeez and Shqyla. Ms. Budi is of Indonesian-Malaysian descent, but has lived in the U.S. Her children only speak English. Ms. Budi's family is close to Anna. It's summer break in the U.S., so they all went on vacation. Azeez and Shqyla are children who get along easily. It didn't take long for us to become close

Actually, Green gate is a nice place and good enough for us to talk about the days when we didn't meet. But we didn't want to miss this meeting by being 'ordinary'. We went to The Parlor!

Azeez and Shqyla looked very happy riding the mini go kart rides.

Siblings friendly race results ! Azeez the winner ! Haha

After that, we took a walk around Brunswick. No one told me that it will be a loooong walk haha, but the distance didn't really matter because we talked the whole way.

Brunswick cliff. It wouldn't be right if we visited without taking a photo here, we have Ryan on that day as well !

After an 'unplanned long march' almost until late afternoon, we went to Downtown to sit and get coffee.  A short break, the kids were exhausted, but the photobox got them excited again. After that we had dinner and then went back to Green gate.

Cute Shqyla

Our tired faces today haha!

Gifts from Drew and Ms. Budi, my bag is suddenly full!

 

I'm glad they're all good. We have no idea at all how God works. But to think how He organizes life here, and there, in so many parts of the world, it's a miracle. Not everything always goes smoothly, but we can try to make the best of it!

 

Actually two days wasn’t enough for us, but still, It was good meetings afterall.

Thanks Drew, so good to see you again !

As you said before I leave to back, until later !

 

وَٱلَّذِينَ جَـٰهَدُوا۟ فِينَا لَنَهْدِيَنَّهُمْ سُبُلَنَا ۚ وَإِنَّ ٱللَّهَ لَمَعَ ٱلْمُحْسِنِينَ ٦٩

“As for those who struggle in Our cause, We will surely guide them along Our Way. And Allah is certainly with the good-doers.”

-Al-Ankabut : 69

 

"My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.”

-John 15: 12-13