Sometimes its.....

Sometimes its just funny.  What is some Canadian doing here in this city in Indonesia, basically floundering around.  I just laugh with God.  I think God laughs along me and sometimes at me.  Ones in a while I try to get perspective of myself here, and its just really funny.  Basically, a man trying to figure out this thing called life in Indonesia.  It is hard to put into words.    

This experience is unlike anything else in life. 

Although, if I go abroad again after this year there would be some similarities to this, the combination occurring here is quite unique.  The combination of this being my first time abroad since I was 5, a new language, new culture, new job, new people and new home, new climate.  Few other times in my life will I ever being completely surrounded by people who are not from another country.  Many times when people go abroad there is at least one person who is in also a foreigner.

Sometimes its frustrating.

There is one gnawing question that has pursued me this week.    

How can I form deep relationships with Indonesians when asking about what they do for work is a massive undertaking? Being able to talk about things like, worship, poverty, politics, faith, dreams, struggles seems like an eternity away.

This is to be expected.  But still frustrating.     

I asked my dad:

“So what was your experience like with language in your time abroad in being able to communicate in depth?”

“Oh, it takes years!”

Well, at least that is honest.  I guess I will have to return.

Sometimes I am completely covered in sweaty stickiness.

More like always.

Finally, I have arrived in my host community where I will stay until July.  I was here 1.5 months ago.  I am loving being back here in Kudus, not necessarily for all of the characteristics I outline below.  

Kudus is:

--Industrial. Home to massive cigarette factories.

--Hot and Humid—feels like 40 degrees right now.

--800,000 people live in Kudus and the surrounding area.

--Muslim.  Even more Islamic than most of Indonesia.

--By a mountain.  But I usually can’t see it because of…..clouds or smog.

--Mennonite.  Significant Mennonite community here.

Sometimes it is confusing.

Basically I am half way through a 2 week orientation of life here in Kudus.  Trying to figure out family life.  Trying to understand what the church is about and where I will fit into it.  I am going to focus my time here in the church.  There was widespread confusion about my role her in Kudus with the community.  Rumors in the public school system that I was helping them.  Rumors in the Christian school system that I was going to help them.  Rumors in another city that I was going to work with their organization.  Everyone wants me.  I feel so loved.  But it is also a bit confusing and overwhelming.  

Sometimes its incredibly fascinating.

I had an absolutely fascinating encounter with corruption. 

I was invited to join a meeting for pastors in Kudus to better understand marriage law.  I can think of more riveting topics, but I thought I would join.  That turned out to be a great choice.

There were 2 government employees who sat in front of a group pastors explaining how one can get the paperwork done for marriage.  Then halfway through the meeting the topic turned towards payment methods for such services.  One was advised to give a “gift” to the employees if one wanted to have their marriage papers completed.  There was an amount established that was reiterated many times.  The “gift” was not only for the employees, but also for those higher up on the ladder. 

Why? 

It was paying them for overtime that they were not payed for.  The employees went on to describe that one was allowed to pay more as a “gift” in return for better service or could barter for a lower price.  Importantly, those whom were getting the papers done were told not to talk about this when the came to the office.  I was laughing out loud during the meeting with the youth pastor.  They set this meeting up not because they wanted to inform the pastors how to apply for marriage, but the “gifts” lately were not up to par.       

Sometimes its lonely.

This week I felt like a first-year university student in Canada who doesn’t speak English well.  Now I know what my first year roommate felt like.  I meet so many people with names that don’t stick in my mind at all.  Ari, Aris, Andi, Andis are among favorite names here. 

Probably I feel the loneliest when there are jokes and laughter going on around me which I have no idea what they are about.  This happens a lot.  Indonesians love to laugh.  I do to, sometimes I just laugh along with them.  Until I realize that it is about me.

At the same time there is a sense of exhilaration in these new places and with these people, in the same way that a new university student feels when they arrive for the first time. 

If you imagine a university student with little English going to class.  That is me here at meetings and gatherings. 

Sometimes its boring.

Here is an example: 

Indonesians love meetings.  I’m serious. 

The first meeting I was invited I figured would go for an 1-2 hours.  Nope.  2 days.

The second meeting I was invited to I figured 1-2 hours. Nope.  9:30am-3:30pm with 5 minutes to run out and bring back a lunch.  During my ummmmm.......captivity, I read 120pgs about Muslim-Christian spirituality. I have never read that many pages in one sitting.  I have never read that many pages in one day before. 

The meetings I went to this week were full of laughter even on mundane topics. 

They never started on time.

They were never any sense of urgency to complete the meeting. 

They was never a shortage of food.

And sometimes there is a shortage of patience and focus for Jason. 

Sometimes it is a ridiculously  fun.
There is a major “hangout” culture here.  They call it to “nongkrong.”  There tends to be less “things” to do as compared to at home so lots of sitting around talking and laughing…….and texting.  Oh my, a cell phone is an added appendage to many Indonesians. 

I feel quite free to be my self here.  Some remarkably similar ways of joking around.  The young adults are a great source of joy for me. 

Sometimes its energizing.

Like being on the back of a motor bike weaving your way through the streets of Indonesia.  

Like playing telephone dictionary with the youth.

Like eating mangoes.  My daily quota of 2.

Like knowing that I will study the Koran and the Muslim faith with a recent convert.

Like realizing the how much change that has already occurred in me.

Like getting mail from a friend from Canada.

Like not knowing what your day will be like when you wake up.

Like eating something different every day.  Intestines was a recent favorite.

Like having 2 cold bucket showers a day.  

Sometimes there is not enough time to write.  

I will cover home life and church life soon. 

I hope to reflect about the over turning of assumptions, identity thoughts and culture thoughts.

Pictures will come soon.

I hope to put a video up of my home.

What is up this week? Leading games, preparing reflections, visiting peoples homes, reading, continuing to study language, visiting more church ministries.  Another week of orientation. 

There is something gripping about being here, I would never want to go home now.

I always miss home and the life lived with family and friends.  But not so much that it is taking anything away from this experience. 

Absolute Beauty.

We woke up at 3:30AM from our tents which were half way up the Merbabu mountain.  Then hiked to see this wonder at 3,100 meters.  The highest I have ever been.

Jumping off of Mount Merbabu.  Epic.

Standing at the edge of the world.

Two more volcanoes in the distance.  Not called the Ring of Fire for nothing.

With hot steam blowing from the bowels of the earth, Mike and I are pretty happy to be headed for some hot springs. A separate adventure from the hike.

A walk through a mountainside.

A 40km solo bike ride into some villages surrounding a lake.  I constantly had to ask where I was and how I could get back home.

Last photo gallery featured some boats filled with mud that is used for mushrooms.  This is how the mud goes from the boat unto land.  I thought about joining the mud delivery and then I saw this.  Than I changed my mind.

Rice as far as the eye can see.  With over 130 million people on the island of Java, over 800 people per square kilometer, if there isn't people on it, then it is a rice padi......or a volcano, rumor has it that those aren't the best to live on.

I was biking along and then there was an acre of land with over 30 people harvesting rice on it.  I think I said something like "God, you make a good earth!"

He breaks off football sized chunks of rocks all day.  He has done it for a year. He loves his work.   Why? He makes lots of money.  That would be $3 a day.  I will never complain about boring or low paying work in my life again.

This is a 'warung"--a style of Indonesian restaurant.  This is the kind of place I eat at a lot.  In this picture, chicken with peanut sauce is on the menu.

reflections two months on

Just over two months ago I left Smithers.  It feels like a long time ago, yet I can’t believe I have been in Indonesia for a month and a half.    

Life is about to change greatly in the coming days.

Tomorrow is my last day at language school. 

Friday I leave for my community of Kudus to spend the next 9.5 months. 

Saturday I begin my role as Pastoral Intern.   

And the rest….haha…..I have no idea.

Since the future is unknown, why not talk about the past.  Here I go…

1.

Before hoping on a plane to Indonesia, I barely thought about the first 2 months of my time away. I only thought about my time in Kudus, joining the church there, and becoming apart of my host family.  However, these first 2 months have been extraordinary from Orientation in Akron, being in my Kudus home for a week and language training.  There has been plenty of preparation, anticipation, some nervousness and a plethora of excitement. 

I never quite realized my degree of excitement and interest in living life before coming here. 

My fellow SALTers ask me sometimes when I want to tell or show them something. 

“Is this Jason interesting or everybody interesting?” 

2.

The end of these two months also means that all of the SALT/YAMEN participates each goes their own way.  For group of 8 people from all over the earth to come together and share a lot of life together for 6 week and bond like we did, is amazing.  One relationship that I am particularly thankful for is my friend Nicole from Paraguay.  She is also entering a pastoral intern role in an Indonesian church and we have been able to share with each our worries and excitement about our positions.  It has been a real blessing.

3.

So how fluent is my Indonesian?  Besides having constant trouble with the word “tahu” which is pronounced differently depending if you want to say “know” or “tofu.”  Honestly, Indonesian is a very easy language and I have learned it far easy than I ever imagined learning it.   My tumultuous experience with French is the opposite from my experience with learning Indonesian.  I am at the stage where I am learning the words for “boil”, “worship” and “realize.” Of course I know important words like “cool”, “fart” and “cookies.”  

4.

It has been a joy to be apart of a second family here in Indonesia.  Being in two homes has allowed me to expand my views of Indonesian family life.  Gentle and patient—my host parents have had to put up with me for 6 weeks. 

My dad going on a desperately shopping for boxers due to my horrible laundry planning ability.

My mom cutting up mangoes as fast I can could eat them. 

My sister pulling on my thick beard and being proud of her older brother. 

Okay, it wasn’t thick.  And she laughed all night about it.

5. If you care to see how I think about my university studies in politics and economics relate to my work here.  Read this.  It is my preliminary thoughts over that connection that I submitted for the King’s University College Website.

“I have been in the PHE program for 3 years and have been enriched by the students and staff of that program greatly.  The program has continued to foster in me a strong passion to see the political and economic systems of the world transformed so that they seek to glorify God.  A strong interest of mine is to understand how the churches can actively work towards public justice.  It is imperative that Christians realize the ideologies (idols) in the political and economic systems of the world and work towards seeking the justice and peace that God has called His church to pursue.   So with that desire and three years of the PHE program completed, I am currently participating in a year long internship with the a faith-based NGO called the Mennonite Central Committee in Indonesia.

I will be doing pastoral work in an Indonesian church.  

So my most common question is: "So, you have studied theology or gone to seminary?"  

My answer, is "No, I am actually studying politics and economics."  

Generally, a confused face is the response of whomever I am talking to.

I have yet to entered my position here in Indonesia.  My initial thoughts are that politics and economics are the context to which the church exists, therefore the public life that the church is in is crucial to understanding it's mission.  I hope to listen and learn from Indonesians on how they live out their faith in the Indonesian political context.  Even more interesting to me, is how the church is to respond to rapid globalization in Indonesia.  I am especially keen to learn about the church's reaction to this political/economic phenomena.  Maybe even share my perspective from the North American experience.  Issues such as environmental degradation, cultural/religious pluralism, growing income disparity are some of the other issues I look forward to learning about in the context of the church engaging in public life.  

In the first 2 weeks here I heard 3 out of 4 sermons explicitly discuss a specific political event during the sermon, something that I am not used to in Canada.  That really sparked my curiosity, as the church that I will work with is not shy from engaging in public life.  I hope to come back to finish the PHE program invigorated from my year in Indonesia and ready to share with others about the Indonesian experience.”   

6. 

Hmmm…I wondered how to write some of my personal emotions and personal transformation so far.  But I found this excerpt from theologian Henri Nouwen, thanks to another SALTer.  It is worth reading. 

From Henri Nouwen’s Gracias!: A Latin American Journal.

After talking about negative reactions to new culture Nouwen writes……

“ But we can also use the new opportunity for our own healing. When we walk around in a strange milieu, speaking the language haltingly, and feeling out of control and like fools, we can come in touch with a part of ourselves that usually remains hidden behind the thick walls of our defenses. We can come to experience our basic vulnerability, our need for others, our deep-seated feelings of ignorance and inadequacy, and our fundamental dependency. Instead of running away from these scary feelings, we can live through them together and learn that our true value as human beings has its seat far beyond our competence and accomplishments.

One of the most rewarding aspects of living in a strange land is the experience of being loved not for what we can do, but for who we are. When we become aware that our stuttering, failing, vulnerable selves are loved even when we hardly progress, we can let go of our compulsion to prove ourselves and be free to live with others in a fellowship of the weak. That is true healing.

This psychological perspective on culture shock can open up for us a new understanding of God`s grace and our vocation to live graceful lives. In the presence of God, we are totally naked, broken, sinful, and dependent, and we realize that we can do nothing, absolutely nothing, without him. When we are willing to confess our true condition, God will embrace us with his love, a love so deep, intimate, and strong that it enables us to make all things new. I am convinced that, for Christians, culture shock can be an opportunity not only for psychological healing but also for conversion.

What moves me most in reflecting on these opportunities is that they lead us to the heart of ministry and mission. The more I think about the meaning of living and acting in the name of Christ, the more I realize that what I have to offer to others is not my intelligence, skill, power, influence, or connections, but my own human brokenness, but my own human brokenness through which the love of God can manifest itself. The celebrant in Leonard Bernstein`s Mass says: “Glass shines brighter when its broken…I never noticed that.” This, to me, is what ministry and mission are all about. Ministry is entering with our human brokenness into communion with others and speaking a word of hope. This hope is not based on any power to solve the problems of those with whom we live, but on the love of God, which becomes visible when we let go of our fears of being out of control and enter into his presence in a shared confession of weakness.

This is a hard vocation. It goes against the grain of our need for self-affirmation, self-fulfillment, and self-realization. It is a call to true humility. I, therefore, think that for those who are pulled away from their familiar surroundings and brought into a strange land where they feel again like babies, the Lord offers a unique chance not only for a personal conversion but also for an authentic ministry.”

Go tell a story.

So every few weeks I have an ambitious plan to write an article for my university's newspaper.  I go to King's University College in Edmonton Alberta, and I am kinda sorta a student during this year even though I am an ocean away.  Here is the first article.  It is along the line of my last post, but reframed a bit.  

Here it goes..  

From Sunday September 25 until October 2, the BBC has published two stories about a suicide bombing in a nearby church, in the city of Solo.  The first story describes the event in the most basic and stereotypical details and the next explains how someone was arrested.  The lack of any violence in the past week in the city of Solo surely has shocked the news companies, analysts and ordinary people like you, and me, whom predicted and awaited a wave of violence.  For many, this expectation fits within a paradigm of the world that they hold.

If I never talked to those whom are working with the church that was bombed, I would be like many others.  I would have heard about the event, and then filed this event into the “Violent Muslims” section of my mind.  I file this story into that section because, that is where the world tells me it should go.  Although I am a Christian, this labeling becomes satisfying so quickly.  It is black and white view of how people get along.  It’s simple and  it is can be largely congruent with how many others in North America view Islam.  When I am asleep to Christ’s work in the world, then news flashes about the violent acts this past Sunday go unexamined and feed fear.  Fear that I ,along with an entire world, feed upon. 

However, some questions need to be asked.

Why was there no news about this incident for a week?  In other words, why was there no violence or retribution?  If there was, you would have heard about it.  But since there was not any, the news has better things to live off of.  Like this here.  I just checked the BBC, the latest story is about a Taliban man whom killed a Afghan negotiator. I’ll file that right now. 

But wait.

I heard a different story this weekend, and my close examination of my faith tells me that the file needs a name change.

How about, “From the rumble of violence, Christ is pulling His kingdom into reality.”

As I.S. speaker Scott-Bader-Saye said last year, living in God’s providence means after every evil we have the “ability to say AND….” For the Christian, “if the story hasn’t ended well then the story hasn’t ended yet.”

Let me tell you a story, that finds its home within the much bigger story that my faith is in.  It is stunning. 

In the city of Solo, what has been nurtured over the past 10 years has been a collective goal between Muslims and Christians of every denomination to seek peace through dialogue, eating meals together, and common projects like disaster relief.  Barriers have been broken down by the vulnerability of all those whom are taking part in this community building.  They have had the humility to set aside stereotypes and fears and to open the door to the other.

When the bombing event occurred, the city leadership, religious leaders and their congregations gathered together in unity towards responding in the only way they knew how—peace.

I sounds good and it manifestation is even better.  It was not just a lack of violence. There was purposeful action towards peace and love.

The largest Muslim organization in Indonesia had some of its local members pray for the church which was bombed. Muslims came to the church building itself and prayed for the congregation.  Think about that.  It is beautiful.

They have taught me that when one shapes their lives by peace in the little things, when something “big” happens, one has no other way to respond, but in peace.

As someone said to me this weekend, “we do not predict the end result of a relationship”—for the Spirit is at work in the world, going ahead of us.  The fruits of the Spirit are relationships that lead to peace like this.  They lead to a world where violence and fear is not the last word.  But that is where the BBC left it.  That is where many others leave it.  At every opportunity we must strive to proclaim that the fear and violence are not the last word.  Not just because the Bible tells us so, but because we experience it.  From September 25 to October 2 there should have been many more BBC stories about this. There will be many more stories that refuse to end with violence and fear.

Here is mine.

Tell me yours.   

Soon and very soon, pictures, stories will be for you to see and hear.  But you will need to wait  a few days.