A Visit with Partners and Missionaries in Indonesia and Laos

Debra Frantz of the Southern Asia Office and Phyllis Richards of the Global Sharing of Resources Office visited Global Ministries missionaries and partners in Indonesia and Laos in September 2005.

Our visit to Indonesia began with a 3-day visit with John and Karen Campbell Nelson on the Indonesian island of Timor. John is a Missionary for Global Ministries and is assigned to work with the Timor Church. While there we met with local pastors, community members and church leaders to learn from each about the challenges and issues that are prevalent on Timor. We had the pleasure of meeting with Ayub Ranoh, Moderator of GMIT and some pastors from the region who were gathered for a quarterly consultation. The Pastors in their meeting had been dealing with issues of globalization and Karen Campbell Nelson later translated the content of their discussions for us. The Pastors were also discussing an incident that happened in Java the previous Sunday when a group of radical Muslims tried to close a Christian Church. The radicals in Java were trying to use an obsolete law to claim that the Christian churches had been founded illegally when more recent laws clearly guarantee freedom of religion. Youth here in this predominantly Christian area had been threatening some kind of retaliation. The Church leadership is speaking with wisdom and advising that there is nothing “Christian” about retaliation. We asked GMIT church leaders to identify issues with which Global Ministries might be able to offer support. They mentioned that one of the challenges they face is getting advanced schooling for theological students. John also mentioned that GMIT tries to help pastors with education of their children and recently several pastors have died leaving school-age children who need help to finish school.

We visited an urban church in Kupang which serves around 650 families. They have 3 services on Sundays. Sunday schools are held in the neighborhoods with the children gathering at the church itself only once per month. One of the challenges they face is keeping young adults engaged when they come to the city for work or school. They often don’t connect with a church. The clan and tribal loyalties are very strong and the young adults are reluctant to go to another church unless they have a family connection to it.

We had a conversation with Letta, a local woman, with the help of Karen as translator. She is an educated woman who gave up her career with an NGO to minister to and organize rural communities which are suffering economic exploitation of various kinds. The language she uses, however, refers to the sacredness of the relationship between the people who occupy the land and the land, the rocks, the forests and the water. She spoke of the importance of women in maintenance of the sacred relationship. I guess this view lifts up women as the nurturers. Letta began by traveling on foot through these villages listening to the stories – the ways that people have been robbed of their relationship with the earth. Now they have a people’s movement that stopped a marble mine and is powerful enough that there have been threats to imprison her. I asked what would happen if they did imprison her. She said if she were put in jail that hundreds would show up and insist on being imprisoned with her.

Letta also talked about the critical role of women in sustaining the family. The husband cultivates the land. The woman plants the seed. They harvest it together and then the harvest is stored up over the kitchen or cooking area. Nobody except the woman can access the stored food. It is her job to make sure it lasts until the next harvest. Even if she is away from home, the husband is not permitted to access the food that is stored. It is her sacred duty to make it last. These people are deeply spiritual and deeply connected with the earth as their sustainer. They are deeply committed to caring for the earth. As they put it, the villagers fear God more than they fear the government.

We met with Ina, who does research, advocacy and education for the church and who worked closely with Karen Campbell Nelson (when she was a missionary with the Church in Timor). She told us about the plans to follow the Pastors discussions of Globalization with regional meetings with locals for education on resource use problems and sustainability. Other interests include mining, violence against women, and continuing the Education for Democracy efforts. Ina talked about the severe drought on Savu. Deforestation and ground water depletion, in particular. Deforestation reduces the land’s ability to absorb/retain rainfall as ground water. There are to be meetings next week to consider what GMIT can/should do both in terms of short term relief and long term solutions. Environmental degradation is an issue, too. Sacred groves were targeted by Christian Evangelists as pagan worship and the government cut trees for buildings. Brain Drain is another challenge. There is an attitude that if you want to become something you will leave the island, so only those who are failures/hopeless stay. There is little sense of empowerment and little belief that people can change things. Ina talked about the cultural factors that contribute to the spread of HIV/AIDS. In reality, nobody has a clue how prevalent it is here on Timor. Only the hospital in Kupang is capable of testing for it. Most people who die don’t know what they are dying of and there is no effort to find out. There is also a high tolerance of chaotic sexual behaviors. People here think of HIV/AIDS as a westerners’ disease (we are thought to have free sex everywhere in “the west”). Ina has been a pioneer in this area and has taken a lot of heat for it.

On Sunday, we attended the small church in John & Karen Campbell Nelson’s village. The service seemed very familiar except for the language. John & Karen translated for us as needed. There were many different choral groups and the music was very good. They took up the regular collection and then the collection with which they hope to build a bigger and better church someday and then they auctioned the donations of produce that had been given.

We traveled from Timor to Sumba where we were met by staff from GKS, our church partner there. During our conversation with consultant Mervin McCullough, he made an interesting comment that although the subsistence farmers who live here are very poor they don’t know it. This is just the way things are. Water resources are diminishing due to deforestation for firewood and climate change due to global warming. Some people have to haul water from as far as 10 km away. But they aren’t agitated or angry about it. They have no comprehension that the excesses of the western industrialized world are causing changes here that make life harder for them. Western Sumba used to get 6 months of rainy season. Now they get 3 months and because the rock is very porous there, the water does not last. They are very, very dry. Eastern Sumba is better off, but still dry much of the time. One of the pastors we met explained the impact of the changes that are happening in the climate and the reduced rainfall. Instead of having a rainy season and dry season, they now speak of the rainy season the dry season and the “hungry season,” which is when the food runs out before the rainy season returns.

We met with Rev. Umbu Dingu and his senior staff. They reviewed for me the status of the Training Program for Church Commission workers- a program that is on-going. The Theology School to train Lay workers – a two-year training program – has been delayed while they get good planning and organization in place. This program is essential because of the rate at which new churches are starting. Trained lay leadership capacity is critical. On Sept. 27, a meeting is scheduled to establish the management team which will be responsible for getting it up and running by the end of the year. They want churches which sponsor people for the program to pay the equivalent of $350 per year which is a big challenge for small remote village congregations which generally are not financially self-sufficient. The Theology School will train 50 in each class for 2 years and will run for 4-5 years as it is planned.

We went to Lewa, which is an hour drive inland over paved but bumpy and curvy roads, to see the training center and to visit a couple of rural congregations. We met with some of the trainers at the Lay Training Center. The Training Center leadership expressed particular interest in locating training resources that address HIV/AIDS, Drugs (methamphetamine is predominant now, but IV drugs are on the increase), violence against women, and rape from the aspect of how the church can help the victims of rape.

On Saturday we arrived in Laos where we were met by Xuyen Dangers, Global Ministries’ sponsored Social Development Worker. We visited a school and a youth building project at Phonsinuan.
The School (grades 1-3) at Phonsinuan is very simple and minimally furnished. It was really rather dreary, but it is a school which is more than many children in Laos have. There were only 3 or 4 classrooms to serve 120 children. Xuyen explained to us that most Lao children drop out after either the 3rd or the 5th grades. Middle Schools and High Schools are not available everywhere, so many children in order to attend these have to live with relatives who are nearer to the school. In reality, very few get past 5th grade.

Data has indicated that many of the children who drop out early cite the fact that they aren’t learning anything as the reason, so teacher training seems critical to getting children to stay in school. In some remote areas girls are rarely sent to school at all, partly because they are needed to carry water. In some of these villages Church World Service staff have cut a deal with the village leaders: CWS will put in a well if all the girls will go to school. So far this seems to be working in the villages where it has been tried. Apparently there is a new law that requires teachers to have at least a 5th grade education which is unrealistic. Many schools would have to shut down if it were enforced.

We visited three of the After School Activities Programs which Xuyen has helped to start. The After School Activities Programs are for after school, all day on Saturdays and all day long 6 days a week in the summer. At Udomphone the Activity Center is the teacher’s home. They hope to build a Center at the local school, but have not found the resources to do so yet. Nahay and Donkoi have facilities for the programs that include modest buildings, resources and staff. Several youth volunteers help direct the wide range of activities that are available to the children. The after school activities programs are designed to continue and augment formal education in hopes of keeping children in school. The activities included weaving cloth and straw mats, making wood blinds or mats, drawing, making paper baskets (which are made from folded paper pieces and are very sturdy), theatre, gardening, stone decorating with glue and paint (making animals), reading and writing, raising mushrooms and of course dancing at which the children are very adept. The weavings, books, artwork and mushrooms are offered for sale to help support the programs at the Centers.

Xuyen explained that the Youth leaders are volunteering to show their dedication and hard work – hoping that it will earn them a scholarship to study at the university. Most cannot afford to get any more schooling. You have to pass an exam to enter the National University of Laos and for most this is not realistic. The cost to study at NUOL is $80 per year plus another $20 for books.

We went to church in Vientiane where we were provided with translators. The service was very similar to a service in the U.S. and with the help of our assigned translators we were able to follow the messages and readings fairly well. We recognized the music of the hymn “How Great Thou Art”. The congregation seemed young to me – very few had grey hair.

At Nahay we spoke with the principal who explained that the school has 222 students this year. Only 1/3 can afford the $5 per year tuition cost and another third can’t even afford the uniforms, pens and paper. Few have textbooks, so they share. The government pays the teachers’ salaries, but does not provide any equipment or supplies. There is no paper except what the students can bring in the way of notebooks. There are very few books of any kind. There are no scissors, glue, or crayons. Phyllis brought a few coloring books and crayons to each of the schools from what was collected by a young girl at her church.

Part of Xuyen’s mission is to educate children on children’s rights and the dangers of prostitution, pornography, drinking, drugs, human trafficking, HIV/AIDS, crime etc. She wants to create an empowered youth that will avoid some of the many dangers that otherwise tempt young people. One village of around 300 has lost 60 youth to Thailand and they have no way to track them down and find out if they are in legitimate jobs or if they have been trapped in slave labor or prostitution.

Xuyen took us to the National University of Laos (NUOL) to meet the staff with whom she will be developing the new training program for social workers. Mr. Saychai and Mr. Phout met with us and showed us around their part of the University. The plans are to have 20 students each year in Sociology and Social Development. It will be a 5 year program: 3 years of coursework and two years of practical experiences. Xuyen and I agreed that in the future they will want to have a Children’s Activity Center and perhaps a Women’s Empowerment Center there at the University which could be staffed by some of these students. NUOL admits 2000 students each year. It is the largest of 3 universities in Laos.

I think Xuyen sees the emphasis of her work shifting in the next few years toward the training of Social Workers at the University. This supplying of Social Workers it is hoped will bring the large scale change in education and social development for Laos. She is very excited about the potential and has been accepted by the Ministry of Education as a teacher in the Sociology and Social Development Program that is beginning – probably next school year. They are about to begin the serious planning for the program.

We visited the Tammakhung Center, a half-way house for recovering drug addicts and Samsonga Center which is an intervention effort for those who are incarcerated for drug abuse. The talent and art work of these young men was amazing. They are gifted silk screen artists, wood-burning artists and sculptors (using clay). These young men were formulating plans to reshape their lives with the support of Xuyen and her staff.

We met with Rev. Kamphone of the Lao Evangelical Church and his staff. He told us that Christians have a disadvantage in getting accepted into The National University of Laos (NUOL) and explained the resulting need to send youth out of the country for education. They need scholarships for youth who cannot get into NUOL and need to go to private colleges ($500 per student per year). They need to send 10-20 youth per year for 4-5 year programs.

Rev. Kamphone is clearly a gifted leader for the Lao Church. The challenges in Laos are huge. He explained that the biggest challenge is poverty, but it is hard to address, because the people need to change how they do some things regarding income generation and economic development. It sounds like they find it difficult to get people to accept new ways. As soon as the “training program” is over they revert to old customs. Therefore any gains tend to be short-term. He also spoke of the difficulty of doing mission work in this communist environment. Partners want commitments with regard to mission projects, but Rev. Kamphone is often dangling on a string with regard to governmental approvals. The Church can never be certain what programs will be approved or disapproved. They simply deal with each challenge as it comes and do the best that they can with the resources and opportunities that come their way. Clearly, much has been accomplished despite the significant challenges they face.

For More Information
James Vijayakumar
Area Executive
Southern Asia
700 Prospect Ave.
Cleveland,Ohio 44115

216-736-3228
Phone: 866-822-8224 ext. 3228
Fax: 216-736-3203
vijayj@ucc.org