In 1989 the band travelled from Medan to Jakarta and Bandung to take part in the Salvation Army congress and greet General Eva Burrows (the Salvation Army's international leader at the time). The trip was financed by Michael Hall and myself.
In 1994 BBJ travelled to Jakarta once again to take part in a special congress celebrating 100 years of Salvation Army service in Indonesia. These pictures document our interaction with members of the Salvation Army's Adelaide Congress Hall band from Australia, which also attended the Congress. Once again, the trip was financed by Michael Hall and myself.
There has always been a turnover of membership as older boys leave the boys home to find jobs and younger ones join the band. This section includes some close-up pictures of band members in the early to mid-1990s.
This section contains candid photographs of life at the Salvation Army's Boys Home in Medan during the 1990s. Some of the very young boys pictured here, such as Lasnointer Marbun, are now among the senior members of the current band (BBJ). Others later gained university degrees after years of taking night classes in local tertiary institutions. There are also sad stories behind the pictures, such as the one of the little boy who drowned after ignoring instructions not to swim in the river behind the boys home.