Permias Callout

Wah wah.. ternyata ciri khas anak-anak Indo yang satu ini.. masih dipegang kuat juga :D
Jam kareeeet!!

Well, buat yang ga tau apa itu Permias Callout, let me get this straight for ya..
Permias, pendek dari Perhimpunan Mahasiswa Indonesia di AS, yaa.. sesuai namanya adalah organisasi anak-anak Indo yang kuliah di Amerika.
Callout, itu semacem welcoming event buat khususnya anak-anak baru (tahun pertama) dan tujuannya tentu supaya mereka ikut bergabung jadi member baru.
Oke, rasanya cukup jelas deh.. :p hehehe..

Nah laluuuu.. Sabtu kemaren ini.. callout nya Permias Purdue! cieeeh.. (jangan nanya Purdue itu apa yah, ga bakal dijelasin :p I assume you people know!!). Seperti biasa, anak-anak Indo kalo lagi ngumpul, gila banyaknya.. dan ramenya.. aku ga ada statistik tepat sih, cuman terakhir aku tau ada plus-minus 300 anak Indo di Purdue (wuih banyak juga ya). Tapi.. ini juga cuman yang diperkirakan sejak 3 taon lalu pas aku dateng.. sekarang ga jelas :p. Oh, yang lebih penting.. anak-anak freshmen nya ada 40-50, at least 30% itu arek Suroboyo, and 90% of them.. arek Petra-2 ^^ hmmm...

Ok, get back to awal cerita.. jadi mestinya kita ngumpul jam 11 siang, tapi aku nyampe sana jam 11:25, dan.. ga ada acara, ga ada yang omong di depan, ga ada.. makanan :p (maklum laper, dateng siap mau serbu makanan). Jadi deh kita ngobrol-ngobrol ngalor ngidul sejam-an. Ada yang menarik sih.. aku uda ga dateng 3 callout terakhir, dan rasanya uda ketinggalaaaan banget sama berita-berita anak Indo, dan wajah-wajah baru juga.. tapi not bad lah, aku masih kenal most of them.. dan I especially enjoyed myself chatting with them :). Friends oh friends..

Akhirnya, yang ditunggu-tunggu dateng juga. Enak loh, ala Indo banget.. ada ayam goreng, kari, dan pecel lagi. Sayang, porsinya yang ala Indo juga, couldn't satisfy my appetite at that time, hehe.. Setelah itu ya.. banyak pengumuman dari sana sini, mulai dari acara taonan kita yang paling laris -- Michigan City Trip, sampe e-biz anak Indo yang terbaru -- eQlan.com. Coba cek deh, another creative idea dari IE (Industrial Eng)-CS (Comp Science) folks.

Yang terakhir, guess what.. introduction dari anak-anak freshman. Well, what else yah? Satu hal aku point out deh.. ada paling dikit 4 anak baru di CS - 3 co, 1 ce! horeee.. finally... Yah, aku doa'in mereka semua betah and even love CS lah.. especially one who I will be mentoring.. :)

All the best deh buat semua freshmen.. and for fairness, buat sophomores, juniors, and khususnya seniors juga hehe.

Introducing my Care Group ...

Waah.. such a long night..

Tonite, we had the first care group this semester. It was an even larger group than the one for the summer. First, we had Subur and FOG combined, which grew my initial care group from about 6 to 10 people (yeah.. more more!). Now, there are more brothers from other care groups, plus some freshmen coming in to Purdue. What a big family we are! ^__^

Well, I guess it was just another boring news without any introduction. Let me introduce you my family here in Purdue. My care group in Spring 03 - Subur (Suka Berbuah) - consisted of Ellen, Willy, Rudy, Teddy, Linda, Dolly, Netty, and myself. After graduating in May, Ellen and Willy went back home for a new journey in their lives =). Linda and Rudy, while also graduated in May, found their home here in Lafayette for the second time. Linda continues to pursue Master in Food Processing Engineering, while Rudy works in a local company in Lafayette. It was hard to see that they have to go different paths and be faraway to one another, but God sure has plans for each of them and it will surely work out for the best of all.

Oh, let's go on to.. FOG (Family of God). There we have Patty, Renny, Lita, and Ryan. There are some interesting facts about them ^_^. Patty happened to work in Cummins - where I worked, too - during the summer, so she was my roommate for the whole 3 months. Meanwhile, Ryan.. is our current Permias President! Walaa.. safely though I'd say, this care group is not gonna be - by all means - political. Ryan surely has our supports nevertheless, and hopefully for the best of all Indonesian students in Purdue ^_^

Wheew.. that was quite a number of people. But hang on.. there are still more. By the end of summer, we welcomed Andrew and Eka from Overgrows, and last but not least.. Lisa, Albert, and Sigit from Indo. So there we go, 15 people - so far. We are expecting some new faces to join us soon. Well, the more the merrier, besides, I heard someone is from Surabaya (oh my beloved hometown), well.. can't wait to meet her! ^_^

We sure had fun in the gathering tonite. First of all, thanks to Renny, Linda, Patty, Lita, and Rudy, for preparing a delicious Indonesian dinner for all of us. Then.. the games were.. ^_____^ quite something.. though a bit embarrassing for some people :p.
It ended with.. 'Nice Netty', 'Linda Lemah Lembut', 'Tedious Teddy', 'Lita Lincah', 'Rudy Rancu' (duh, red.), 'Periang Patty', 'Extraordinary Eka', and couple others.. plus the dances and the songs. It doesn't hurt to be a little childish sometimes, right.. especially when it is among our own brothers and sisters. It put smiles and laughters in every face anyway, hehee..

I sure hope next care groups will be as joyful and loving..
Oh Lord, please build us as children in your family, united and caring to one another, and being closer to You.. ^^

Lafayette Urban Ministry

Do you know what LUM is? It's the Lafayette Urban Ministry, a homeless shelter in downtown Lafayette. It has been around for a while, except that I just noticed it. After a one-year period of.. wanting to volunteer regularly (but failed due to not having enough time :p).. I finally put my heart in there.

The experience..
It is a kinda different volunteer work, I'd say, that people do there. Everyday.. 3-4 kind volunteers get themselves busy from 8 PM to 7 AM the next day. Yeah, they stay overnite :). My first nite went very well actually. I helped with check-ins and check-out. Nothing too complicated, just say "Hi", keep people's stuffs in the lockers, and jackets on the hangers. Oh, we had to take down their information, too, assign bedroom, and all those logistics.
I'm so blessed to have such friendly volunteer friends there. They made me more than comfortable. The coordinator was even ce Vivi's (my housemate) fellow friend in the Chemical Eng department. He is such a nice and moderate guy :). Plus, I did not have to do my 2-hour nite shift, cause someone chose to do that for all of us - the volunteers. The next morning, having to wake up at 5:50 AM was surely not a nice thing :(. I felt.. sick. But yah, after another hour of checking-out people.. it was a peaceful and satisfied heart driving home.. and 2-hour napping.. :p

Always here..

He is always here.. always here..
Right when I need most comfort..
He is here.

What a day today is.
No good, no joy..
No friends, no smiles..
Well, you name it..

But wherever I am, whenever it is..
God never leaves me :)
I happened to drop by Logos, and the love of God touched me thru these Christian songs by Selah. This particularly wonderful composition - You Raise Me Up - has blessed me SO much, that I'd like to share it with you..

When I am down and, oh my soul, so weary
When troubles come and my heart burdened be
Then, I am still and wait here in the silence
Until You come and sit awhile with me

Chorus:
You raise me up, so I can stand on mountains
You raise me up, to walk on stormy seas
I am strong, when I am on your shoulders
You raise me up... to more than I can be

. . .

I love You, God :)