Apologies on the delay in posting. Our Internet has been down the last couple days and I have not been able to post.
Well, my 5 weeks in Indonesia are approaching an end. I leave next Monday, though I hope to do one more update before then.
This has been a busy week. I spent the week finalizing my scripts and doing recordings. Also, I worked on my devotional booklet - the theme of my month is "Works of the Holy Spirit." So now I have material all ready in case the TODAY folks call in thirty years.
Also, we went to a local Christian Radio station "Heartline FM" on Tuesday. There I got to witness production of the "Drama Kiddy" program. Drama Kiddy is a weekly radio program geared toward children that the BTGH office in Indonesia created. They write the script and then send it to Heartline FM for recording. At Heartline, they line up the radio actors including children and produce the program. While there, we saw the taping and took a tour of the station. Heartline FM also produces a variety of other original radio programs, and I taped a segment for their "Drama Bible" program, a program that turns scripture passages into radio dramas.
So today on my last day at the office, I am writing my report to the Seminary and the BTGH office about what I have learned on this trip.
What have I learned in this trip? Lots. I could write pages on what I have learned about ministry, radio production, broadcasting, writing scripts/sermons, U.S. government passport policy, Indonesian culture, evangelism, Islam (In actuality, I am going to have to write pages on these topics at CTS - but I will save that for another day).
But the biggest thing I have learned in this internship is what it is like to be "the alien within your gates." Not that I didn't receive phenomenal hospitality from my Indonesian hosts, which I did, but I was always consciously aware that I was different than those around me.
It is a weird feeling to be suddenly an easily identified minority. Needless to say, in predominantly white, Protestant, male, rural America, I am used to blending into the majority. It was a new experience to walk down the street and literally have people stare in amazement that a white guy is walking down the street like it takes a special talent to be that pale (actually it is not a talent to be this pale, just be a sem student; suddenly your days in the sun are over). Or to have kids stop playing soccer to point you out of a crowd. Or to have people come up to you to ask to take their picture with you because you are so different. It is an odd feeling to not see anyone that looks like me for three weeks. Its kind of a lonely feeling.
I have a new appreciation for those who don't fit into the majority, in our society and our church. I have a new appreciation for the outsider who does not look, speak or act like "us." In my reading of the gospels these past few weeks, I am more acutely aware of when Jesus purposely reached out to the outsider, to the outcast, to those who did not look, speak or act like the religious establishment or the perceived moral majority.
My experience has humbled me. I need to do a better job of looking to the minority in my community. And I am not just talking about race, but about more than that. I need to reach out to people who differ in any way from the white, male, Dutch reformed, sabbatarian, rural, farming culture that I still love and adore. Because it is not crucial to Christianity whether I am white, or worship with the blue hymnal or gray hymnal, or do I read the NIV or TNIV, or whether I am CRC, RCA, or NON-DENOM, or whether I agree with women in office or not, or any one of a thousand potentially petty things that seem important, but are of a secondary importance to whether I am showing Christ to people who are not me.
"And who is my neighbor? asked the expert of the law to Jesus." My fellow brothers and sisters of Indonesia taught me that my neighbor is anyone who is not me. And for that I give them my deepest gratitude. God be praised for their witness.
Jonathan
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