A Week in Siantar

I have had a busy week. I left Balige last Sunday night for Siantar, a city about 2.5 hours away. While in Siantar (full name is Pematang Siantar, but it is commonly referred to as just “Siantar”), I taught English Conversation classes at the HKBP Nommensen University, as well as attended other classes in the English Department. Each day I was busy teaching, observing, and sharing about culture. The students were very happy to have a native speaker of English and had many great questions for me.

I will return to Siantar at the end of June for more teaching and observing. I am in Indonesia primarily to teach at the Deaconess School in Balige, where I have already been for almost 2 months, but I hope to be able to help the students and the teachers in the English Department at Nommensen University in whatever ways I can.

Below is a video. I was supposed to observe in a Listening Comprehension class, but the professor was not there. So, we had a session on cultural exchange instead. I took questions from the students about myself and about American culture. Then I asked them to sing for me. Here they are singing a Batak song.

A class on English conversation. There isn’t enough classroom space, so some lectures are in the auditorium at the same time.

And here is one photo from my teaching. Technical difficulties on the upload are preventing me from posting more than one at this time. Hopefully that will not continue to be a problem.

Other news to share: I finally have a work visa and residence permit. Last week I also completed paperwork so that I have a re-entry permit into the country again. I am very thankful for all the help from Nommensen, who has sponsored my visa.

Sumatra Earthquake (updated)

As I wrote yesterday, I had been listening to the deep booms of an approaching thunderstorm. Barely 10 minutes after I posted my previous entry, the ground started to shake. It took a few seconds for my brain to register that this was, in fact, an earthquake.

Balige is well inland, and was far from the epicenter. Nevertheless, we felt some shaking. It was not violent enough cause damage here or knock anything over. I came out of the school and waited with students and others for the shaking to stop.

Then, as I was trying to update to family and friends what had happened, as I was sure this would make the news in America, the second one came.

I am well, and have made it through my first earthquakes. It was a concern at first, what would happen in the Aceh and West Sumatra provinces, as well as the chain of small islands to Sumatra’s west. People here have deep memories of the quake and tsunami that hit Banda Aceh in December 2004. Live news reports here showed people leaving the city.

We are very thankful there was no tsunami. Please, however, continue to keep this region in your prayers.

EDIT – 13 April:
Below is a link to a report by a local partner to the ELCA Disaster Response.
Final Report Earthquake 11 April 2012
The report has a map of each of the earthquakes and aftershocks, and details the situation. All the contacts have reported, and thankfully, very little damage has been reported.

A visit with Ibu

with Ibu Gultom

The other day, I had the great pleasure of visiting an 85-year old Indonesian deaconess, Ibu Gultom (“Ibu” translates to “mother” in English, and in Indonesia is used as a term of respect. Perhaps it’s equivalent in English would be “m’am”). She helped start the HKBP deaconess school and also spent nearly 6 years living and working in Germany with the deaconesses there. We spoke in German, as that was the best common language for both of us. What a surprise that my German skills would be useful so far away from home and from Germany.

Mostly, I sat with my coffee and listened to Ibu Gultom tell stories about her work in Germany (in Kaiserswerth, and other places, including Tuebingen, the city where once I studied for a year) and her family. She also told me some history of the Batak people and their culture, as well as some history of Indonesia. The younger generation of Bataks sometimes do not know the Batak language well. The children only learn Bahasa Indonesia in school, and it is then up to the parents to teach their children the language and culture. Batak is only one of about 300 languages spoken by the peoples of Indonesia. Therefore, Bahasa Indonesia is used as a unifying language. But it is important that the different cultures continue to pass on their own languages.

I am very grateful for the opportunity to listen to such wisdom in the presence of a woman who has committed a long life to service of others.

Horas from Indonesia

This post is a brief hello to say that I have made it and am doing well on my 3rd day here. After 28 hours of travel time, I finally arrived in Medan (Indonesia’s 3rd largest city and provincial capital of North Sumatra) on Sunday morning, April 1st. We spent the night there and then traveled by car to Balige on Monday. Because of traffic and a windy road with potholes, the journey took about 7 hours.

Enjoy these two photos below. First, one in Medan, then one of some of the students singing as I arrived at the HKBP Deaconess School. Stories, more photos, and video (I hope) to come.

enjoying fresh coconut

the students sing their greetings

On Missio Dei and What I’m Doing

I have already posted a page, that at this point, contains basic information about Indonesia, as well as a page about the global mission of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. Here I will give some background about the work that I will be doing, though most will be discovered and shared with you as I live through it.

First, a little about naming this site. I have chosen the name missio dei, because it is Latin for “mission of God.” God is a missional God, creating, redeeming, and sustaining all life. Our vocational callings lead us to participate in this missio Dei of in relationship with the world around us—communally, locally, and globally. Although I have accepted a unique position in the church, to walk alongside sisters and brothers in another part of the world, the missio Dei is not solely the work of Pastors, Deaconess, Missionaries, or other trained ministers. It is God’s work, alive in the work of all God’s people in all areas of life and creation. Or, to borrow a phrase from the ELCA, “God’s work. Our hands.” Therefore, this blog is the written journey of one small piece of the whole; an exploration and sharing of accompaniment through my eyes, recognizing that so many people all over the world are also a part of the life-giving, reconciling work of God.

So, what will I be doing? To sum it up: teaching English at the Deaconess School of the Huria Kristen Batak Protestan (HKBP) in a small town of Balige, on the island of Sumatra in western Indonesia. The HKBP is a Lutheran church body of 4 million members that has been in existence for 150 years. Read more about the HKBP as well as how the ELCA has accompanied them in ministry here. As I teach English to young Indonesian women, themselves preparing for lives of ministry and service, I will live with them at the school and share in the communal life.

Also important, is that I will be learning much as well. Here, you will read stories of the journey, of the people, the things I learn about Indonesian culture, language, and life at the equator in Southeast Asia. It is important to stress that in this relational process, that there is much mutuality of giving and receiving.

So, dear readers, my hope is that you, too, may be transformed in this process—as I will be and those with whom I work. I believe this is the nature of our God.

The Adventure of Learning Languages

Halo! Apa kabar?

I have a confession to make.

No, I haven’t committed a major sin or anything like that. This is actually the good sort of confession. In preparation for living in Indonesia, I am currently teaching myself Bahasa Indonesia. There are over 300 distinct languages spoken across the country, an archipelago of more than 17,500 islands. Bahasa Indonesia is the lingua franca and official language.

Here’s the confession: Only days after I heard of the possibility of global mission in Indonesia, before I was even sure that I would get an interview, I discovered that the Seattle Public Library had an audio language instruction for Indonesian. I promptly checked it out and began the lessons (Free language lessons? Yes, please!).

I decided after the 3rd half-hour lesson that at the very least, I could learn a few words from another language. This is most certainly a good thing. So I resolved to continue learning, and if nothing else could say to confused friends: “Saya mengerti Bahasa Indonesia sedikit. Tapi sedikit sedikit saja.” The emphasis landing greatly upon sedikit sedikit saja and repeated several times. (Meaning, “I understand Indonesian a little. But just a little.”)

Things are going well it seems, however my resources are limited and I have no one to converse with, save the faceless voices on the CD—after he says, “Tell her you don’t understand,” I dutifully respond, “Saya tidak mengerti!”

For all my efforts, I will most likely be staring blankly at people when I hear the Bahasa in the country (Saya tidak mengerti!), at least for a few months. There will indeed be misunderstandings and misadventures. It happened to me when I arrived in Germany 10 years ago. With 3 previous years of German language under my belt, it was still not quite enough to prepare me for the rapid accented everyday speech.

I just hope my first experience with Bahasa is nothing like trying Spanish in Central America. Most of the Spanish I had tried to teach myself went out the window once I arrived. Nevertheless, having a host family that spoke no English meant we had to find some way to communicate with each other. More than once the part of my brain that deals with language got confused, and spat out phrases peppered with German and Spanish.

Seriously.

(and maybe this is the real confession) Have a good laugh: “Ja, aber muy consado,” and “Una hora ist genug” were phrases I really said. Out loud. I also tried to count and it ended up like this: “uno, dos, tres, cuatro…fünf.” When asked in Spanish how long I’d been there (30 days), I promptly answered, “Treinta Tages.” Which left me wondering, ¿Which language hablo ich, eigentlich?

So it seemed my understanding of spoken Spanish made leaps and bounds in a month of immersion, but not my ability to speak the language (next time I’ll take a course taught by someone other than myself). Perhaps Bahasa Indonesia is different enough that the wires won’t cross so easily.

In this process of preparing for and imagining my life in Indonesia, the best I can do is whole-heartedly learn and absorb. I need not worry about being fully prepared, because that is not possible from my current location in the world, nor is it advisable; I can’t know everything. But I can come with some knowledge and most of all, a wide open mind and heart.
(And a sense of humor)

Tschüss, Selamat tinggal, adiós!

Wise Words From the Past

Ten years ago I was preparing to study abroad for a year in Tübingen, Germany. After a tumultuous sophomore year at Valparaiso University, I was both excited and a bit fearful of such a commitment to spend my junior year in Germany. My life was changing. I had changed majors from Meteorology to German, and a new adventure was ahead. No longer weighed down by high level calculus and advanced physics, I used the energy toward spiritual discernment, with some surprising results.

Today, while browsing through an old journal, as I am prone to do from time to time, I noticed the entry for this day, August 1st, 2001, ten years ago. Here’s a portion that the 21-year old me wrote:

My time in the US is growing smaller. Yesterday I was deep in thought about leaving. There are so many things I will not see for so long. There is joy in my heart, but I also carry around fear…I could doubt my talents all day, but there is no going back now. I just have to do it. I am going to live in Germany, speak German every day…there are so many things I will miss, but so much to discover…so many possibilities to learn, and so many ways for failure. Please Lord guide me and give me strength so I may learn, explore, create, challenge, and succeed.

They were profound thoughts, I think. I acknowledged fear and doubt, but did not let them get in the way of what I imagined could be an amazing experience; and cultivated the audacity to be challenged through learning and exploring. These thoughts were foundational to the life I would live in Germany, and an important step toward a life of ministry.

Ten years later, I am going through a similar process, as I prepare to spend 2 years teaching English in Indonesia through Global Mission of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. However, this time around the process is going to be more intense, and the life and work will be very different. Instead of a student, I will be a teacher (yet I will be learning so much). Instead of going for myself, I am being called and sent by the Church. Instead of the familiar Western Europe, I will be in SE Asia. And so on.

There will, of course, be many details forthcoming about Indonesia—what I will be doing, the thrills of getting a visa, information on the country itself, and more as the months go on.