A letter from Bernie and Farsijana Adeney-Risakotta serving in Indonesia
December 2014 - bridge people
Dear Family, Friends and Colleagues,
-1_medium250.jpg)
Farsijana sharing Christmas pictures with Grandma
What is Christmas like in Indonesia? Like everywhere, we experience joy in remembering the birth of Jesus. We went to the early morning Christmas service, where soldiers and Muslim youth groups guarded the church. It reminded us of past Christmases when radical terrorists bombed churches. This year over 25 million Indonesian Christians celebrated Christmas in peace. Many churches were guarded by Muslims. As an extra gift, the Council of Indonesian Ulamas issued a fatwa that it’s fine for Muslims to wish Christians "Merry Christmas." In our household Muslims and Christians celebrated together. We have a tradition that Bernie makes “stockings” (actually hand-woven baskets) for our extended family and then plays Santa Claus. This year he made 20 “stockings” full of Javanese goodies. Bernie has great scarlet doctoral robes that make for an impressive Santa outfit.
December in Indonesia seems like a month for disasters. Ten years ago, on December 26, 2004, we experienced the greatest disaster in modern history with a 9.1 earthquake and tsunami that killed 240,000 people. One of our students lost 13 close family members. God worked for good in the midst of our sorrow. Our grief was shared by the world. A decades-long civil war came to an end and the whole world rallied to help. Presbyterians alone gave millions of dollars. No one can bring back the dead, but time brought emotional healing, better housing, political stability and a healthy economy. Ten years later on December 26, 2014, we huddled in our house on a cliff overlooking the ocean while hurricane winds and rain lashed our house. It reminded us of the similar storm 10 years before. But this time there was no earthquake or tsunami. The kids told stories and sang by a big fire in the fireplace, which provided light while the electricity was out. It was great fun.
This December has been mercifully free of epic-scale disasters in Indonesia, but extreme weather warns us not to presume on the benevolence of Mother Nature. After a long dry season December brought heavy rain almost every day. Flooding and landslides hit many parts of Java, especially affecting the poor. Recently a whole village was buried in landslides, killing over a hundred people. The last victims found were a mother, hugging her child. Poor villages are always vulnerable to the dangers of weather and politics. During the drought many crops died. Then came the deluge with landslides and floods.
Celebrating Christmas reminds us of the challenges that Mary, Joseph and Jesus had to face. They returned to their home village to be enrolled for taxes. Their village was overcrowded for political reasons, so they had to find space in a barn. The story of their flight into Egypt and the slaughter of the innocents reminds us of how the poor suffer because of the cruelty of the powerful. How can villagers be prepared for rapid changes brought by weather and politics?
-2_medium250.jpg)
Islamists demonstrating
When people are poor, they become desperate, not only to survive, but also to find meaning and purpose for their lives. Democratic freedoms don’t mean much to people with no work and little prospects for the future. A radical Islamist movement to form a worldwide Islamic State (Khilafah) is aggressively recruiting among the poor of Indonesia. The Indonesian government has outlawed ISIS, and all the major Muslim organizations in Indonesia vigorously condemn its teachings. But still there are routine stories of Indonesian poor people being arrested for wanting to go to Syria to “jihad” for ISIS. According to the World Values Survey, hard-line Islamist views are much stronger among the uneducated poor than among educated, middle- or upper-class people.
-3_medium250.jpg)
Farmers prepare their fields
Ever since she was a theological student Farsijana has had a special passion for villages. Twenty-six years ago she left her comfortable home in Jakarta to travel to remote Halmahera, in the North Moluccan islands, to work with villagers who were struggling to adjust to global economic forces. Later her Ph.D. research concerned the impact of those same forces on interreligious, communal violence among villagers in the same area. During her years of working with the Indonesian Women’s Coalition she was drawn more and more to work with women and children in the villages rather than at the centers of power.
Now Farsijana has organized an integrated service for five villages in the Special Province of Yogyakarta (DIY) as a pilot project. Villages are places where indigenous knowledge shapes and enriches life. People show great skill in producing their beautiful crafts. Unfortunately the poor people are seen as just laborers, rather than as designers or artists, even though they produce beautiful, complex batik clothes. Farsijana visited a Muslim artist in a village who creates amazing batik paintings of stories from the Bible. She felt so sad to know that the artist was paid so little compared to city prices.
Farsijana launched Griya Jati Rasa (Home of True Sense) to help villages learn from each other and stimulate their ability to compete in an open market. In 2015 globalization comes much closer because the ASEAN Free Trade Zone will eliminate all tariffs between Southeast Asian countries. Griya Jati Rasa draws on the unique local skills of five villages to help them face a rapidly changing world. It also provides training, drawing on the skills of caring professors from Duta Wacana Christian University as well as from a local Muslim university. The universities help the villages and the villages provide practical training for students.
Both of us strive to be bridge people, bringing together Christians and Muslims to work together to achieve our common goals. Through education of top leaders at the Ph.D. level and telling stories to simple village children, we are lucky to be in able to share the light of Christ to people at all levels of society. We are so thankful for your prayers, love and financial support. If you have never donated toward our financial support, please consider making a one-time gift or becoming an ongoing partner in making our work possible. God be with you in the coming year.
Warm regards,
Bernie and Farsijana
baryogya@gmail.com
The 2015 Presbyterian Mission Yearbook for Prayer & Study, p. 239
Read more about Bernie and Farsijana Adeney-Risakotta's ministry
Write to Bernie Adeney-Risakotta
Write to Farsijana Adeney-Risakotta
Individuals: Give to E200303 for Bernie and Farsijana Adeney-Risakotta's sending and support
Congregations: Give to D506007 for Bernie and Farsijana Adeney-Risakotta's sending and support
Churches are asked to send donations through your congregation’s normal receiving site (this is usually your presbytery).
