# data[].attributes.body
Have you ever gone on a week trip to somewhere you have never been, without your parents? Well, this experience actually happened to me not too long ago on September 14th 2024. Let me rewind a bit. Back on September 14th 2024, I went on a missionary trip to Batam with some of my friends and teacher. Before this missionary trip, I obviously had packed my suitcase and got ready for that day. But of course, someone hadn’t.

# data[].attributes.body
On September 14th 2024, I woke up at 05.00 in the morning. Then, I got ready as fast as I could and went downstairs to grab breakfast. After that, I ate my breakfast and went to meet some of my dormitory friends who would also go to Batam. We were supposed to meet at 07.00 o’clock in front of the Redeemer/Annex Dorm elevator, but of course, not everyone arrived on time. There’s this one student, who hadn’t even woken up. So, a student actually went to his room to wake him up. That’s when we realized we had been waiting 30 minutes for nothing! Finally, after we waited for him for quite a while, 2 students started to book 2 grab-cars, so we could go to the airport. After we waited for quite a long time, one of the cars finally arrived. Three of the students rode that car, meanwhile the other 3 students still waited for the second car. Finally, the second car came, we hurried up and put our luggages in the trunk and the grab driver drove us to the airport. The teacher told us to meet at the airport at 08.15, but obviously we were late.

# data[].attributes.body
After we arrived at the airport, the only last year student helped us and guided us to the check in area, and that is when we met all the other students. After all that hussle, we finally could go to our boarding gate, and we actually met some of the students who will go to Balikpapan at the airport. The boarding gate was a little confusing, but after we waited for 30 minutes, we went inside the airplane. I sat next to the window, which was really fun, but I slept that entire flight. After we landed at Hang Nadim International Airport, we went to the baggage claim area to grab our luggage and took a photo together. Right after that, we rode a minibus to eat at kopitiam. Finally, after a tiring day, we checked into our hotel, and we took a rest. During the night, we went to eat at a night market. I’m not a big fan of the food there, but I ate anyway. Right after that, we went back to our hotel and took a rest.

# data[].attributes.body
The rest of the week was really fun, but there was also this day that was really memorable for me. It was on September 17th 2024, we woke up as usual and ate breakfast. I ate basically the same food every single day, which was either bread or porridge. Right after that, we went and met up at the lobby and went to Sekolah Kristen Kalam Kudus. The first activity that we were gonna do is teaching. Me and some of my friends are assigned to teach Mandarin. To be honest, I don’t know Mandarin at all, so I only helped with moving the canva slide one by one, while my other friends explained. Then, after a nice Mandarin lesson, we started playing a telephone game, where the first person needs to use their hands or feets to do a gesture that symbolizes a hobby. Right after that, the other students behind the first person need to imitate that gesture until the last person. The last person then, would draw a picture based on the gesture that they saw. Next, we played some games like puzzle 3D’s. We divided them into small groups of 3 and let them play by themselves. But, obviously, since they were still 1st grade until 3rd grade, they couldn’t do much and needed our help. So I basically needed to juggle between groups to try to help them. But in my opinion, the puzzle is kinda hard for young kids like them.

# data[].attributes.body
After a while, we finished our job basically and went to take a tour of that school. We also went to another higher grade classroom where we met some of our friends as well that are assisting an activity such as making bracelets and legos. There was also this kid that gave me and some of my friends ice cream. It was so cute and so nice. After we took a quick break to eat lunch, we continued our teaching with seminar about MBTI to junior high students. Then, we just got divided into small groups and we just shared and discussed MBTI. It was really fun meeting all the kids there, and I just loved talking to them and playing with them.

# data[].attributes.body
Well, after all that experience, I felt really grateful. After being there for a week, I finally realized how many kids or even people out there that needed our help. To be honest, I never really visited a nursing home or an orphanage ever in my life. So with missionary, it kind of unlocked a new experience for me. Through this journey together with my friends and teacher, I also unlocked a new kind of friendship. A friendship that was there for me to help me when I needed help, and the kind of friendship that was there beside me for a week. And from there, I felt really grateful. This new experience of Missionary, teaches me way more than I could have ever expected. It teaches me how to be disciplined when my parents aren’t around, it teaches me how to be confident talking in front of many people, it teaches me how to work together in a team, it teaches me how to solved a problem if there is any, and finally it teaches me how to be grateful for everything that I had.